July 29, 2021Associate Professor Lisa Hui has been awarded the Melbourne Medical School’s Strategic Grants for Outstanding Women.
She is the second recipient along with Dr Leonie Griffiths from the Department of Medical Education, Melbourne Medical School and Northern Health – a double honour for Northern Health.
The Melbourne Medical School’s Strategic Grants for Outstanding Women, offered biennially, is designed to assist high-performing, early to mid-career women in academia, negotiate some of the challenges faced as they pursue career progression towards senior academic and leadership roles.
The Melbourne Medical School’s Strategic Grants for Outstanding Women, offered biennially, is designed to assist high-performing, early to mid-career women in academia, negotiate some of the challenges faced as they pursue career progression towards senior academic and leadership roles.
Associate Professor Lisa Hui is a maternal fetal medicine specialist with research interests in prenatal screening and diagnosis. She holds clinical positions at the Mercy Hospital for Women and Northern Hospital. She is also a team leader in the Reproductive Epidemiology group at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.
Her research focuses on the use of cell-free nucleic acids in the diagnosis of fetal abnormalities and prediction of obstetric complications to help improve healthy birth outcomes for mothers and babies. She holds a Medical Research Future Fund Grant to identify how to utilise genomic technologies to improve outcomes for mothers and babies.
Says Lisa, “It is fantastic to have our efforts at the Northern recognised by the central Melbourne Medical School. It shows that they recognise the great potential in Melbourne’s north, and that they view Northern Health as a valuable partner in medical research and education.”
The grant will allow Associate Professor Hui to grow her research group in the Northern Precinct and continue to improve pregnancy care.
The Northern Centre for Health Education & Research (NCHER) Reproductive Health Biobank, which Lisa heads, is a flagship research project of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
Says Lisa, “Our research group has been building capacity for translational research in the Melbourne Medical School research lab at the NCHER. To date, more than 150 women have donated placenta and blood samples to our Reproductive Health Biobank and we have been busy obtaining funding for laboratory equipment, project costs and research staff. This strategic grant will help provide us with a research assistant to support the management of our group.”
Lisa says, “It’s so important that a diverse range of people are included in medical research and I want our women at the Northern to be part of the research that will guide future care.”
Associate Professor, Wanda Stelmach, Chief Medical Officer, in congratulating both, said it is recognition well deserved and adds, “Lisa Hui and Leonie Griffiths exemplify the Northern Health strategic principles of striving toward exemplary research and education while at the same time considering our northern population and its needs.”
She added, “We look forward to the fruits of your endeavours in future publications.”
