Melanoma Research Claims French Science Prize

Main Category: Cancer / Oncology
Also Included In: Dermatology
Article Date: 14 Nov 2008 - 2:00 PST

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She's travelled between Brisbane and Paris to better understand skin cancer, and now UQ PhD student Marina Kvaskoff has been awarded a top French prize for her research.

Ms Kvaskoff, from St Lucia, is one of only 10 academics to win a 2008 L'Oreal France-UNESCO For Women in Science Award, with the prizes presented in Paris next week.

The awards are worth 10,000 Euros each and are given to French women completing PhDs in the life sciences to enable greater recognition for their work and to build a career in their chosen fields.

"Women are statistically underrepresented in the sciences, especially in research and more specifically at the upper professional levels," Ms Kvaskoff said.

"Young women may see research as an unreachable world; this is indeed the vision I had of it myself as a young girl. However, women have specific resources of their own and I believe they have a lot to bring to research."

Ms Kvaskoff's PhD focuses on cutaneous melanoma, and whether its occurrence can be linked to hormonal, nutritional and genetic causes.

Central to her research is a large French database, the E3N cohort, which lists approximately 100,000 women born between 1925 and 1950 and includes their responses to bi-yearly health surveys.

The questionnaires carry information about the group's exposure to certain factors (including hormonal treatments, diet, tobacco and alcohol consumption) and could help explain why certain conditions, including melanoma, develop over time.

"During my studies, I have always had an interest in studying cancer, and have generally directed my internships towards cancer research," Ms Kvaskoff said.

"I started to study the epidemiology of cutaneous melanoma in 2005 during an internship at the Cancer Council Queensland, where I worked on sunburn and solarium use in Queenslanders."

She then completed her masters in France, before deciding to undertake her doctoral studies as part of a "Cotutelle" program which allows her to pursue research jointly at the Queensland Institute for Medical Research and a French research laboratory (Inserm at the Institut Gustave Roussy in Paris).

Ms Kvaskoff said her studies stemmed from a desire to promote disease education and prevention, and named Nobel laureate Marie Curie as a research idol.

"She was an admirable person who imposed herself as a woman in a mainly-male scientific world, and whose discoveries left their mark in history," Ms Kvaskoff said.

The L'Oreal France-UNESCO For Women in Science Award ceremony will take place on November 17 at the Palais de la Découverte in Paris.

University of Queensland