Premier’s Award for Kathryn Connelly
Dr Kathryn Connelly
Our very own Dr Kathryn Connelly won the 2023 Victorian Premier’s Award. In association with the Australian Society for Medical Research, the Premier’s Award celebrates exceptional research and Kathryn’s PhD work has earned her Clinical Researcher of the Year.
Kathryn’s PhD research aims to develop a new instrument that measures treatment response in clinical trials that will support approval of new therapies for people with SLE. This involves an international taskforce of lupus clinical experts, patient representatives, and experts from pharmaceutical companies developing new SLE drugs. As part of her PhD, Kathryn has sought to understand why current trial endpoints are failing, conducted studies that fill knowledge gaps relevant to measuring treatment response in SLE, and developed a detailed step-by-step plan, currently being implemented, that will lead to a new instrument and endpoint that can be incorporated in future SLE clinical trials.
We can’t show you a photo of Kathryn at the awards because she is conferencing in Singapore and Milan but she said “I am honoured to receive this award and am extremely fortunate to be working with a group of talented and supportive research colleagues and supervisors, who have made the work recognised by this award possible. As a team, we are excited to continue our work on outcome measurement in lupus, and the prospect of contributing to better treatment options, and improving the lives of those affected by this debilitating disease.”
And just in case you think Kathryn is a one trick pony, she is a classically-trained pianist and has run at least one marathon. Congratulations Kathryn, we are all very proud of you.
About Monash University
Monash University is Australia’s largest university with more than 80,000 students. In the 60 years since its foundation, it has developed a reputation for world-leading high-impact research, quality teaching, and inspiring innovation.
With four campuses in Australia and a presence in Malaysia, China, India, Indonesia and Italy, it is one of the most internationalised Australian universities.
As a leading international medical research university with the largest medical faculty in Australia and integration with leading Australian teaching hospitals, we consistently rank in the top 50 universities worldwide for clinical, pre-clinical and health sciences.
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