Vervoort Lab awarded prestigious $8M Snow Fellowship for finding new cancer treatments

Dr Stephin Vervoort is one of three Australian Researchers to receive an $8m fellowship from the Snow Medical Research Foundation in Australia.

Dr Vervoort has spent more than a decade studying the cell’s messenger factory, called RNA Polymerase II, to investigate how it controls cellular messaging, and how the disruption of this process contributes to cancer. While RNAPII’s control of these messages is necessary for everyday function, diseases such as cancer can occur when this control is lost. Dr Vervoort’s ultimate goal is to create drugs that target these important cellular processes in cancer to rebalance cellular messaging. This could lead to new drug treatments for hard-to-treat cancers including acute myeloid leukaemia (AML).

This fellowship will enable Dr Vervoort to fast-track transformative discoveries and create a lab that attracts talented scientists from around the world to Australia, bringing him closer to pursuing his dreams of creating enhanced treatment options for cancer patients.

Since the initiative began three years ago, the Snow Medical Research Foundation’s Snow Fellowships have contributed $70 million in funding to support early-to-mid-career scientists with their research endeavours. The initiative is the biggest philanthropic investment in Australia fostering upcoming and talented biomedical researchers.