Maria Kavallaris is an

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Au ...

scientist, based at the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive ...

' Children's Cancer Institute, where she is best known for her contributions to the field of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

research. On 25 January 2019, Kavallaris was appointed a member of the

Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gove ...

Early life and education

Kavallaris was born in Australia, and is of

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

and Cypriot descent. She returned to

Morphou Morphou ( el, Μόρφου; tr, Omorfo or ) is a town in the northwestern part of Cyprus, under the ''de facto'' control of Northern Cyprus. It is the administrative center of the Güzelyurt District of Northern Cyprus. Having been a predominantl ...

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...

, with her family while still in primary school. Soon after, Cyprus was invaded by

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

, forcing her family to flee for safety to Kavallaris' maternal great grandparents' house in the mountains. Four weeks later, Kavallaris' family headed to a British base, were airlifted to the UK, and then returned to Australia again (1974). In grade 10, Kavallaris left high school to complete a

pathology Pathology is the study of the causes and effects of disease or injury. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in ...

technician course. She then pursued a

Bachelor of Applied Science The Bachelor of Applied Science, often abbreviated as B.AS., BAS, BSAS, BASc, B.A.Sc., or BAppSc, is an undergraduate degree. There are also ''Bachelor of Arts and Science'' and ''Bachelor of Administration Science'' undergraduate degrees, also a ...

at the

University of Technology Sydney The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) is a public research university located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Although its origins are said to trace back to the 1830s, the university was founded in its current form in 1988. As of 2021 ...

, where she was also working in the laboratory of Alan Pettigrew. In 1983, when she was 21, Kavallaris was diagnosed with a rare form of

ovarian cancer Ovarian cancer is a cancerous tumor of an ovary. It may originate from the ovary itself or more commonly from communicating nearby structures such as fallopian tubes or the inner lining of the abdomen. The ovary is made up of three different c ...

. While undergoing

chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated to chemo and sometimes CTX or CTx) is a type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) as part of a standardized chemotherapy regimen. Chemotherap ...

, she decided to complete her undergraduate degree and pursue a PhD in cancer research. During the first year of her PhD at the

, Kavallaris's 30-year-old brother was diagnosed with

pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of t ...

and died within six weeks.

Research career

Following her PhD, Kavallaris worked at the

Albert Einstein College of Medicine Albert Einstein College of Medicine is a research-intensive medical school located in the Morris Park neighborhood of the Bronx in New York City. Founded in 1953, Einstein operates as an independent degree-granting institution as part of t ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

U.S.A. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, as an IARC Cancer Research Fellow where she made significant contributions towards understanding the role of

cytoskeleton The cytoskeleton is a complex, dynamic network of interlinking protein filaments present in the cytoplasm of all cells, including those of bacteria and archaea. In eukaryotes, it extends from the cell nucleus to the cell membrane and is compos ...

proteins in tumour growth and cancer cell survival. She then returned to Australia to work at the newly opened

' Children's Cancer Institute in 1984, where her research focuses on childhood cancer. This has involved using

nanotechnology Nanotechnology, also shortened to nanotech, is the use of matter on an atomic, molecular, and supramolecular scale for industrial purposes. The earliest, widespread description of nanotechnology referred to the particular technological goal o ...

to develop cancer therapies, and to determine mechanisms which lead to anti-cancer drug resistance. Kavallaris is a founding Director of the Australian Centre for Nanomedicine that she established in 2011. She is also the head of the Translational Cancer Nanomedicine Theme at the

' Children's Cancer Institute. She is co-Chair of the Australian Institute for Policy and Science, and past President and Life Member of the Australian Society for Medical Research. Kavallaris has received over $40 million in research funding, and has trained over 50 students. She has an

h-index The ''h''-index is an author-level metric that measures both the productivity and citation impact of the publications, initially used for an individual scientist or scholar. The ''h''-index correlates with obvious success indicators such as winn ...

and

i10-index Author-level metrics are citation metrics that measure the bibliometrics, bibliometric impact of individual authors, researchers, academics, and scholars. Many metrics have been developed that take into account varying numbers of factors (from only ...

of 59 and 132 respectively, and has been cited over 12,400 times. On 25 January 2019, Kavallaris was appointed a member of the

. She is a Fellow of the

Royal Society of New South Wales The Royal Society of New South Wales is a learned society based in Sydney, Australia. The Governor of New South Wales is the vice-regal patron of the Society. The Society was established as the Philosophical Society of Australasia on 27 June ...

(FRSN) and Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences. She was also recognized as one of the 100 Influential Women in Oncology by OncoDaily.

Awards

*Young Tall Poppy Award (2004) *Australian Museum Eureka Prize (2007) * Knowledge Nation 100 Award (2015) *The Australian Financial Review and Westpac 100 Women of Influence Award (2015) *Fellow of the

Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences The Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences is an academy to promote health and medical sciences in Australia. It was established in June 2014. It cites "The Academy will serve the three purposes identified as of high priority in the 20 ...

(2016) *Fellow of the

(2019) *NSW Premier's Science and Engineering Prize for Leadership in Innovation (2017) *UTS Chancellor's Alumni Excellence Award (2019) and UTS Alumni Excellence Award – Science (2019) *Lemberg Medal ASBMB (2019) *Member of the

(2019) *NSW Premier's Woman of the Year Award (2020) *Eureka Prize for Innovative Use of Technology, with Justin Gooding, Julio Ribeiro, Aidan O'Mahony, Robert Utama and Lakmali Atapattu (2021)

Selected bibliography

*Maria Kavallaris, Dennis Y-S Kuo, Catherine A Burkhart, Donna Lee Regl, Murray D Norris, Michelle Haber and Susan Band Horwitz. ''Taxol-resistant epithelial ovarian tumors are associated with altered expression of specific beta-tubulin isotypes.''

The Journal of Clinical Investigation The ''Journal of Clinical Investigation'' is a twice-monthly peer-reviewed medical journal covering biomedical research. It was established in 1924 and is published by the American Society for Clinical Investigation. Articles focus on the mechanism ...

. 1997. *KM Murphy, V Ranganathan, ML Farnsworth, M Kavallaris and Richard B Lock. ''Bcl-2 inhibits Bax translocation from cytosol to mitochondria during drug-induced apoptosis of human tumor cells.'' Cell Death and Differentiation. 2000. *Pei Pei Gan, Eddy Pasquier and Maria Kavallaris. ''Class III β-tubulin mediates sensitivity to chemotherapeutic drugs in non–small cell lung cancer.''

Cancer Research Cancer research is research into cancer to identify causes and develop strategies for prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and cure. Cancer research ranges from epidemiology, molecular bioscience to the performance of clinical trials to evaluate and ...

. 2007. *Eddy Pasquier, Maria Kavallaris and Nicolas André. ''Metronomic chemotherapy: new rationale for new directions.'' Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology. 2010. *Maria Kavallaris. ''Microtubules and resistance to tubulin-binding agents.''

Nature Reviews Cancer ''Nature Reviews Cancer'' is a monthly review journal covering the field of oncology. It was established in 2001. The editor-in-chief is Anna Dart. Abstracting and indexing The journal is abstracted and indexed in: *PubMed * Science Citation In ...

. 2010.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kavallaris, Maria Cancer researchers Australian women scientists 21st-century Australian scientists University of New South Wales alumni University of Sydney alumni Members of the Order of Australia Australian people of Greek Cypriot descent Fellows of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Fellows of the Royal Society of New South Wales