QIMR Berghofer clinician-scientist Dr Siok Tey has been awarded the prestigious Metcalf Prize for Stem Cell Research for her work to improve cancer outcomes and make bone marrow transplantation safer.

The National Stem Cell Foundation of Australia each year awards two $55,000 Metcalf Prizes to researchers who have shown leadership and excellence in stem cell research.

Dr Tey leads QIMR Berghofer’s Translational Cancer Immunotherapy Laboratory and also works as a bone marrow transplant physician at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital. At QIMR Berghofer, she uses her expertise in immunology, cell therapy and clinical medicine to develop novel therapeutics for the treatment of cancer and immune complications arising from bone marrow transplantation.

She said the prize money would support further research to better understand how bone marrow transplantation – also known as stem cell transplantation – can be fine-tuned to increase a patient’s immunity against leukaemia cells without harming healthy tissues.