A life-changing gift

With philanthropic sentiment reigning strong in their DNA, two anonymous donors have generously gifted UOW $300,000 to establish a new Fellowship – The Horizons Fellow of Molecular Pathology – to be based at the new Molecular Horizons facility at UOW’s Wollongong campus.

Committed to finding cures for disease as we try to better understand the behaviour of cells at a molecular level using state of- the-art microscopes, this Fellowship will accelerate UOW’s ability to make advances in molecular pathology, increasing our capacity to develop diagnostics and pathology approaches which will allow early detection of disease.

The impact of our donor’s gift will be realised on many fronts. Not only will it be a significant boost to UOW’s capacity to conduct cutting-edge research, this globally prestigious Fellowship will also attract talented international scholars, bringing new ideas and knowledge to the institution.

Distinguished Professor Antoine van Oijen, Director of Molecular Horizons, welcomed the gift identifying the profound impact generous donations such as these can have, enabling potentially life-changing research.

“It is a great example of how philanthropy can be aligned with strategic research directions. This gift will prove to be catalytic for our efforts to develop cutting-edge technology to visualise disease processes in human tissue. By applying fundamental science to clinical problems, our research will have real-world impact.

“Molecular Horizons is all about developing molecular visualisation technology to drive the life sciences and develop new medical approaches. Together with the donors, we looked carefully at how the gift can have the biggest impact on the goals that are shared by both the donors and the University.”

This gift will be used to support the development of tissue imaging techniques by chemical fingerprinting. Heading up this research area will be Dr Shane Ellis, who will join Molecular Horizons in January 2020. The recipient of the Fellowship will have the opportunity to work under the mentorship of Dr Ellis, commencing next year.

“I would like to thank our donors for the generous contribution they have made, enabling us to make this Fellowship possible,” says Distinguished Professor van Oijen.