QIMR Berghofer scientist takes out Rising Star Award

QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute scientist Dr Michelle Tianqing Liu has taken out the Rising Star award at the 2015 Women in Technology awards.

Dr Liu’s current work focusses on cutting-edge nanomedicines, which target specific organs for drug delivery.

Dr Liu said she was honoured to be recognised at the 18th annual Women in Technology (WiT) Awards.

“I’m passionate about young scientists carrying out high quality research and I believe it’s important to recognise women who are making a difference in science,” Dr Liu said.

“I’m very proud to be recognised among them.”

Dr Liu decided to research nanomedicines while studying her undergraduate degree in pharmacy.

“During this time I realised nanomedicine is an emerging field that can overcome many limitations of conventional drugs and has great potential in drug delivery and biomedical imaging,” she said.

At QIMR Berghofer, she works in the laboratory of Professor Greg Anderson with the focus of delivering metals such as iron as therapeutics to target organs.

QIMR Berghofer Director and CEO Professor Frank Gannon congratulated Dr Liu and all the finalists and winners of the WiT Awards.

“Here at QIMR Berghofer, we believe gender balance only benefits our cutting-edge medical research,” Professor Gannon said.

“We maintain this balance by offering flexible working hours, job-share and part-time employment options. We’re proud to say that women make up more than 60 per cent of our total workforce and that we have superior statistics for appointing women to the key leadership positions.”

Dr Liu is a steering committee member of the Queensland group of the Australia Chinese Association for Biomedical Science (ACABS) and a committee member of the Queensland branch of the Australian Society for Medical Research (ASMR).

Dr Liu won the Rising Star Award, for women with less than seven years industry experience in ICT or Life Sciences, alongside Dr Melina Georgousakis from the Franklin Women/National Centre for Immunisation Research.