Living with lupus drives PhD student to pursue biomedical career
Amanda Ton, a Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute (BDI) first year PhD student, has been awarded the Yvonne Aitken Scholarship by Graduate Women Victoria.
The award recognises and assists female students who have been or are overcoming significant disadvantage in pursuing their studies.
For Ms Ton, this has meant persevering with her education and work in medical research despite time lost in hospital stays and undergoing tests, and in ongoing appointments with a range of specialists treating the systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) she developed during secondary school. Lupus, an autoimmune disease, has symptoms that include joint pain, fatigue and rashes, and can affect many organs in the body.
Ms Ton says she hasn’t let the condition and the struggle that goes with it ‘define’ her and has continued with her studies regardless. The times spent in hospital, in fact, left her with an abiding interest in biomedical research and an urge to contribute to finding solutions to medical problems.
She is currently working in Associate Professor Helen Abud’s lab on a project investigating the potential role of a family of proteins in the regulation of stem cells that maintain and replenish the intestinal lining.
“We work on stem cells and also cancer, which are both fields I’m interested in, and we’re quite involved in teaching. I’m interested in education and passing knowledge to the next generation, and encouraging them to pursue their interests,” Ms Ton said.
The urge to be both a researcher and an educator echoes the work of Dr Yvonne Aitken AM. Dr Aitken was one of the first female students in the Faculty of Agricultural Studies at the University of Melbourne and went on to become a world authority on predicting geographic and climatic limits for plant varieties. She spent her working life at the university as a research assistant, demonstrator, lecturer and reader. She was a member of Graduate Women Victoria (previously Victorian Graduate Women) from 1937 until her death in 2004.
Graduate Women Victoria, which has as its aims ‘serving and empowering women through education and advocacy’ – goals shared by the Monash BDI – oversees a number of scholarships and bursaries for women.
Amanda Ton says she was surprised and excited to be awarded the scholarship, which carries an $8000 prize.
“Mainly I was glad to receive the award more for the honour than the prize money but this will allow me to spend more time on research and teaching rather than having to find other work to support myself during my PhD,” Ms Ton said.
Associate Professor Helen Abud, Amanda’s supervisor, commented, “a scholarship program such as this is incredibly important for the careers of women in STEM as it recognises achievements despite the challenges faced by some women and provides some financial support”.
“Amanda has tremendous determination and conducts research of the highest standard so I look forward to continuing mentoring her along her scientific journey,” she said.
Dr Thierry Jarde is Amanda’s associate supervisor for her PhD.