Rebecca Pelekanos 6th Annual Meeting for Australasian Society for Stem Cell Research 2013

Rebecca Pelekanos

Bio for Dr Rebecca Pelekanos Current Appointment: NHMRC Postdoctoral Training Fellow, Biomedical Australian, Fetal-Maternal Stem Cell Biology Group The University of Queensland, UQ Centre for Clinical Research, 2009 – ongoing (until Nov 2015). Previous Postdoctoral Appointment Research Officer, Adult Stem Cell Team, Mater Medical Research Institute (2007-2009) Personal Statement: Dr Pelekanos’ research is diverse and she is starting to create her own niche: molecular endocrinology in the fields of paediatrics, pregnancy and stem cell. Dr Pelekanos’ focus has recently shifted to combining these areas of expertise to find novel treatments and determine causes of Cerebral Palsy. Dr Pelekanos has an excellent track record for an early career researcher (~5yrs post PhD including career disruptions). Dr Pelekanos was awarded her first large research grant as CIA ($145,000) in 2014, to investigate stem cell therapies in a rodent model of cerebral palsy. In previous appointments, Dr Pelekanos has been involved in the clinical production of placenta-derived MSC for clinical trial and the comparison of MSC from different murine and human organs. In 2010, Dr Pelekanos was awarded a prestigious Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Postdoctoral Training Fellowship that is allowing her to independently develop her research interests and has successfully attained more than $500,000 funding in the form of grants, fellowships and travel awards. Dr Pelekanos was awards a Dean’s commendation for her PhD thesis on growth hormone receptor activation mechanisms (top 10% of PhD graduates at UQ) and has presented her research at numerous local, national and international conferences and is an author on 13 peer-reviewed publications in journals including Science and Nature Structural and Molecular Biology. Publication Summary Data: Peer reviewed publications: 13 (including 2 published May 16, 2014, metricies calculated on 11 publications prior to this); H Index: 7; Articles with citation data: 9; Sum of the times cited: 551; Av. citations per article: 61.22, Av. Citations per year: 61.22. 1 Patent on stem cells National phase in Australia, USA and Europe.