M’sian Scientist From Cambridge Wins NOBEL PRIZE For Cancer Research And We Couldn’t Be More Proud!

Another day, another Malaysian who makes us proud to call this country our home.

It’s just been announced that UK-based Malaysian scientist, Dr Serena Nik-Zainal, has been honoured with the Dr Josef Steiner Cancer Research Prize 2019 for her exemplary research in accelerating the holistic interpretation of the cancer genome!

According to Malay Mail, the award is also known as the ‘Nobel Prize for Cancer Research’ and the esteemed award will be presented to Dr Serena, along with her partners Dr Paul Calleja and Dr Ignacio Medina, at the University of Bern, Switzerland tomorrow.

Dr Serena will be presenting her life’s work titled, “Accelerating holistic cancer genome interpretation towards the clinic” during the award ceremony.

The accomplished Malaysian scientist’s outstanding work has unravelled mutations in cancer tumours that can now be analysed by new bioinformatic methods which will help develop new approaches for therapy!

While this award alone is impressive, it isn’t the scientist’s main goal in her career. She aims to inspire the future generations by educating them to make a difference.

“I want to make a difference, I want to help educate the next generation and I want progress to have happened YESTERDAY.”

Dr Serena is actually a Petronas scholar who graduated with a degree in medicine under the University of Cambridge’s Medical Research Council Care Unit in 2000.

She was then awarded a CRUK Advanced Clinician Scientist Fellowship in 2017 and furthered her research in the University of Cambridge.

The established academic is also a prime investigator at the university’s Department of Medical Genetics and has made powerful statements about the computational tools used to interpret cancer.

“It is the expertise in performing downstream analysis and making a clinically-useful interpretation, that remains the hurdle between genomic technology and the clinical context.”

Kudos to you, Serena! You make us proud to boast the title of true-blooded Malaysian. 

 

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