$150,000 PhD scholarships run from January 2027
Three blood cancer PhD scholarships worth $150,000 each have been awarded through a partnership between the Leukaemia Foundation and the Haematology Society of Australia and New Zealand, with funding to run from January 2027 to December 2029.
The 2026 recipients are Ashley Whitechurch, Samuel Grigg and George Mason. The Leukaemia Foundation and HSANZ said the scholarships are jointly funded over three years.
Two recipients have Melbourne links. Whitechurch is a nurse practitioner specialising in lymphoma and chronic leukaemia at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Parkville, Melbourne, while Grigg is a final-year haematology trainee at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Parkville and Royal Melbourne Hospital in Parkville.
Parkville researchers among recipients
Whitechurch’s project, Improving patient outcomes through nurse led care in patients with lymphoma receiving bispecific therapies, will explore specialist nursing support, remote patient monitoring and home-based treatment for suitable patients. The project also seeks to assess patient experiences, treatment-related complications, hospital visits and admissions, and the impact on health services.
Grigg’s project, Programming smart RNA ‘sensors’ to selectively kill leukaemia cells, will investigate programmable RNA technology designed to identify and destroy acute myeloid leukaemia cells. His research will test the sensors in laboratory-grown leukaemia cells and samples from patients with AML, and examine whether they can distinguish cancer cells from healthy cells.
Mason, a clinical and laboratory haematologist, will lead a project titled Using liquid biopsies and advanced genetic testing to improve treatment for children with leukaemia. He was the inaugural Cameron Family Leukaemia Fellow in 2025.
His research will investigate liquid biopsies and whole-genome sequencing to detect and monitor leukaemia in children during treatment, and seeks to inform future national clinical guidelines, monitoring practices and clinical trials for childhood leukaemia.
Bill Stavreski, Head of Research at the Leukaemia Foundation, said each recipient would receive a $150,000 scholarship. He said the partnership with HSANZ began in 2018.
Stavreski said: “Every day, 55 Australians will be newly diagnosed with blood cancer and a further 17 will sadly lose their life to the disease, with blood cancer remaining one of the nation’s deadliest cancers”.
The Leukaemia Foundation says blood cancer incidence is projected to double over a ten-year period. Stavreski said the organisation has funded more than $65 million of research and more than 100 PhD scholarships to date.
Related: Breast cancer trial
