Congratulations Dr Winnie Tan, Winner of the TJ Martin Medal 2020

Dr Winnie Tan

Thursday 6 2020

Every year, the TJ Martin Medal is presented to the author of the best PhD thesis submitted by a St Vincent’s researcher during the past year, as judged by a panel of senior researchers.

This year, the honour went to Dr Winnie Tan, a Postdoctoral Researcher at St Vincent’s Institute, for her PhD thesis: "Molecular Investigation of the Fanconi Anaemia DNA repair pathway".

Under normal circumstances, the TJ Martin Medal is awarded at ACMD Research Week, and the recipient is presented an individually engraved medal and their name on the perpetual TJ Martin plaque.

However, due to COVID-19, this year’s presentation was online with Dr Tan showcasing her thesis to an online audience which included Professor TJ Martin.

On winning the medal Dr Tan said that she “was very pleasantly surprised”.

“I didn’t expect it at all. I’m very happy that I was able to share my findings with the world and happy that it was recognised,” said Dr Tan. “I’m glad that this research can help other people and other research.”

Dr Winnie Tan’s PhD thesis

The major focus of Dr Tan’s prized PhD thesis was on Fanconi Anaemia (FA) - a rare genetic DNA repair disorder that is caused by a mutation in one of 22 specific genes.

Symptoms of this disorder includes developmental defects, bone marrow failure and high predisposition to cancers.

Dr Tan proposed that by understanding how FA works, researchers can help improve cancer treatment for FA patients or help make chemotherapy more effective for other cancer patients.

“We are collaborating with one of the experts from University of Wollongong to do further experiments – it’s actually going very well at the moment”.

Dr Tan is currently working as a postdoctoral researcher to complete the research based on her thesis work.

The TJ Martin Medal

The medal is named in honour of Professor TJ “Jack” Martin, former University of Melbourne Professor of Medicine at St Vincent’s Hospital and immediate past director of St Vincent’s Institute.

Professor Martin is an eminent physician scientist in the field of bone cell biology.  He has published eight books and more than 500 refereed papers, reviews and book chapters. 

Professor Martin was made an Order of Australia in 1996 and holds Fellowships of the Royal Society and the Australian Academy of Science.