ALLG Member awarded prestigious Metcalf Prize, for Stem Cell Research

ALLG Member, Dr Ashley Ng (pictured), a WEHI Clinical Translational Research Fellow, has been awarded the prestigious Metcalf Prize for Stem Cell Research, for “Controlling rogue blood stem cells”. He received the Prize in recognition of his leadership in stem cell research, and was formally awarded at the Australasian Society of Stem Cell Research Annual Scientific Meeting in Melbourne on Wednesday 16 November. The $55,000 prize will support research with stem cells to find treatments for blood cancers.

Metcalf Prizes are named in honour of Professor Donald Metcalf AC, regarded as the ‘father of modern haematology’.

I am incredibly honoured and humbled to have received this prize,” Dr Ng said. “Don [Metcalf] was a close friend and colleague and I hope I can extend the legacy he created with my research that seeks to unveil molecular regulators of blood stem cells, and their importance in normal blood development and disease.”

Dr Ng’s research focuses on the use of genetic approaches to decipher mechanisms which regulate blood cells in normal development and disease. Dr Ng is revealing how blood stem cells are controlled, and how they can go rogue, leading to blood cancers. His research has been funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council, Cancer Council Victoria, Leukaemia Foundation, Cure Cancer Research Australia, AMGEN/Haematology Society Australasia and New Zealand, and others.

We congratulate Dr Ashley Ng on his Metcalf Prize! Read more about Dr Ng’s work at www.stemcellfoundation.net.au/ashley_ng.