Cancers 2022 Young Investigator Award—Winners Announced

We are delighted to announce the winners of the Cancers 2022 Young Investigator Award. Additionally, we want to thank the award committee for their excellent work in the hard task of selecting a winner from such excellent candidates, as well as everyone who participated in this award and helped ensure it was a huge success!

A special congratulations to the winners—Dr. Ashleigh Poh and Dr. Miranda Fidler-Benaoudia.

Dr. Ashleigh Poh is an early career post-doctoral research fellow at the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute, Australia. She received her Ph.D. in 2017. Her work focuses on therapeutic approaches to re-invigorate anti-tumor immunity by reprogramming immunosuppressive myeloid cells towards an immune-stimulatory endotype. Dr. Ashleigh Poh’s research was the first to identify a tumor cell-extrinsic role for the myeloid-specific kinase HCK in solid cancers by enhancing the polarization of immunosuppressive ‘alternatively activated’ macrophages. These discoveries have leveraged major industry partnerships to develop small molecule HCK inhibitors for clinical use. Dr. Ashleigh Poh independently secured more than 1.5 million dollars in competitive funding as a principal investigator. Her ability to generate high-quality research is also evidenced by her winning 20 awards and delivering 30 invited presentations. Dr. Ashleigh Poh’s expertise in tumor immunology has resulted in 23 publications (13 as first/senior author) in prestigious journals including Cell, Cancer Cell and Science Advances.

Dr. Miranda Fidler-Benaoudia is a cancer epidemiologist/research scientist at Alberta Health Services, Canada, and is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Calgary, Canada. Her research focuses on understanding the magnitude of the late effects among survivors of childhood, adolescent and young adult cancer and developing tertiary prevention interventions to mitigate cancer- and treatment-related sequalae. She is interested in sub-populations, such as indigenous peoples, and she comprehensively undertakes research to describe cancer indicators nationally, regionally and globally. Prior to her current positions, she received her Ph.D. at the University of Birmingham, UK, in 2015, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the International Agency for Research on Cancer, France, from 2015 to 2018. She has significantly contributed to the field of oncology as a young investigator, with 44 peer-reviewed publications, 4 invited oral presentations and 34 oral/poster presentations, as well as numerous memberships on editorial boards and national committees. Finally, she has received over 2.1 million dollars in funding as the nominated principal applicant since commencing her independent research four years ago.

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Ashleigh Poh and Dr. Miranda Fidler-Benaoudia for their outstanding achievements.

As the awardees, they will receive an honorarium of CHF 2000, an electronic certificate, an offer to publish a paper free of charge before the end of 2023 in Cancers (ISSN: 2072-6694) after peer review and an engraved plaque.

We thank all those who nominated a candidate from various fields of study for their participation and all the Award Committee members for their evaluation of the many excellent nominees.