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Congratulations to Natalie Hannan, who has been awarded a Dora Lush Biomedical Postgraduate Research Scholarship for 2006. Current fellowship recipients include Drs Colin Clyne and Carolyn Allan, each with five-year Research Fellowships. Colin received an NHMRC R.D. Wright Fellowship and Carolyn received a Novartis Fellowship. Dr Jayne Sierens received a Serono Fellowship in 2004 and Dr Anne Corbould has been awarded a Diabetes Australia Research Trust Grant. Congratulations to you all!

Natalie Hannan is a PhD student in the Uterine Biology group at Prince Henry's Institute, where she studying human fertility and infertility. Natalie has been awarded a Dora Lush Biomedical Postgraduate Research Scholarship. The award is given by the NHMRC to encourage science, health and health related honours graduates of outstanding ability to gain full-time medical research experience in Australia. This award will assist Natalie's research into embryo implantation/early pregnancy. Her research is soon to be published in Biology of Reproduction.


Dr Colin Clyne works with Prince Henry’s Breast Cancer Group. His recent research has shown a link between the hormones LRH-1 and estrogen in breast tumor growth, with the potential to develop a new drug therapy.
His Fellowship will enable him to widen his research to examine the role of LRH-1 in three areas: breast cancer, obesity and male infertility. “We've shown that LRH-1 controls estrogen production in breast tissue and therefore contributes to cancer progression by supplying the tumor with estrogen that it needs to grow. Our current work in this area suggests that tumors that express LRH-1 proliferate more than those that don't, and so we're trying to develop drugs that inhibit LRH-1 as breast cancer therapy. LRH-1 is also present in fat tissue and we have evidence to suggest that it may play a role in fat metabolism and obesity. Finally, male reproduction requires estrogen too, and LRH-1 controls estrogen production in the testis as well as in breast, so we're looking at whether LRH-1 has any role in male fertility.”

Dr Carolyn Allan is a clinical research fellow at PHIMR Clinical Research Unit. Under the supervision of Prof Rob McLachlan she is completing a thesis studying the effects of ageing on testosterone levels in men and the role of testosterone therapy in modifying body composition and risk factors for cardiovascular disease.

Carolyn has been awarded a Novartis Endocrinology Fellowship to further the Unit’s work on the relationships between testosterone, body composition (specifically fat mass) and cardiovascular risk in ageing men. “Understanding the relationships between adipose tissue and testosterone and their effect on influencing cardiovascular risk will help us to better define the role of testosterone replacement therapy in ageing men and it’s potential to influence markers of cardiovascular disease.”

Dr Anne Corbould is studying inflammation in adipose tissue and its association with insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. She has been awarded a Diabetes Australia Research Trust Grant for a collaboration with Prof Paul O'Brien, Dr John Dixon and Prof Prithi Bhathal of the Australian Centre for Obesity Research and Education, Monash University. “We are looking at whether inflammation in intra-abdominal fat influences the risk of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in obese premenopausal women, and also if hormone levels in women, particularly androgen levels, affects this risk. NAFLD is a common liver condition associated with obesity and type 2 diabetes.”

Dr Jayne Sierens was awarded a Serono Fellowship in June 2004 to work on the role of LRH-1 in male infertility with Prince Henry’s Breast Cancer group.

Jayne obtained her PhD at the MRC Human Reproductive Sciences Unit, Edinburgh. At Prince Henry’s Institute her current research is aiming to determine the role of LRH-1 in testicular estrogen synthesis and male germ cell development.






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