Past Fellows

Dr Dane Cheasley BSc (1 st Class Hons), PhD is a Senior Research Scientist within the Women’s Cancer Program at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Victoria. After completing his PhD through Latrobe University, investigating the role in intestinal stem cells in colon cancer, Dr Cheasley continued his interest in colon cancer research and started his first post-doctoral research position at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute for Medical Research.

Dr Cheasley then decided to take his skills and apply this to women’s cancer research and undertook his second post-doctoral research position at the Peter Mac, now under the supervision of Professor Ian Campbell (head of the Cancer Genetics Lab), as Peter Mac was establishing the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre and positioning itself as a world leader in translational cancer research, patient care and clinical trials, which placed Dr Cheasley in the best place to make a vital contribution to translational women’s cancer research.

Dr Cheasley now leads his own research team within the Campbell laboratory, with a focus on using genome-wide technologies to answer clinical and biological questions in rare and understudied ovarian cancers. Dr Cheasley has had an excellent success rate in generating independent funding to support his ovarian cancer research, which included the very first Australian Gynaecological Research Foundation research fellowship awarded.

Dr Aime Powell, BExSc MExSc PhD, is an Early Career Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Institute for Health Research, The University of Notre Dame Australia. She completed her PhD at Curtin University in April 2016 and received the Rising Stars award from the University of Western Australia. She is member of the Australia and New Zealand Gynaecological Oncology Group and the Australian Society of Cervical Colposcopy and Pathology.

Aime’s research primarily focuses on improving detection, clinical management and health service delivery for women diagnosed cervical or ovarian cancer. Much of Aime’s research utilises complex analyses of state-wide linked data, and through strong collaborative partnerships, key findings can then be translated into clinical practice by building knowledge and informing policy development. Aime’s work has led to one international surgical trial and the revision of national management guidelines for cervical adenocarcinoma-in-situ.

In the past 5-years Aime has received $3.5 million in research funding from peer reviewed/Investigator-initiated grants, including the Australian Gynaecological Cancer Foundation Research Fellowship. Aime’s AGCF Fellowship utilised linked data to investigated why Indigenous women continue to experience such poor health outcomes in the prevention of cervical cancer. This work has now led to the development of a new research initiative entitled the PREVENT Project. This project will deliver an innovative model of care to improve Indigenous women’s cervical screening participation and improve the assessment of cervical abnormalities in remote communities. This project is expected to have direct translational outcomes for routine clinical practice and national health policy.