Melissa Little

Melissa Little

Professor Melissa Little is a scientist known for work on the development of the kidneys, and mechanisms of disease and repair. Most recently she developed an organoid 'Kidney in a Dish[1]' system - a term used by the media to explain organoids, a simplified set of self-organising cells similar to those found in an organ.

Early life and education

Melissa Little was born in Brisbane, Australia on 5 December 1963, the middle daughter of three girls. Her father, Ian Little, was a soils chemist with the CSIRO Cunningham laboratories. She graduated from Kenmore State High School in 1980. She completed her BSc at the University of Queensland with 1st Class Honours in Physiology in 1984. Her PhD studies were performed in the laboratory of Professor Peter Smith at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research enrolled through Biochemistry at the University of Queensland (conferred 1990). In 2004 she graduated from the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Research on kidney development, disease and regeneration

Little started her research career studying Wilm's Tumour, a childhood kidney cancer. She was awarded a Royal Society Endeavour Fellowship to move to the Medical Research Council Human Genetics Unit in Edinburgh to undertake postdoctoral training with Nicholas Hastie. Here she worked on the gene WT1, the gene that is mutated in a subset of Wilm's tumour patients.

She returned to Australia to continue to work on WT1, but concentrating on its essential role in the normal development of the urogenital system.[2] Her work focusses on the molecular aspects of kidney development, with applications to stem cell biology and regenerative medicine.

Little and her team have developed an approach to recapitulate nephrogenesis, the formation of nephrons, in a dish. By knowing where the different kidney cells come from and how they develop she has developed a system to regenerate them from pluripotent stem cells. Using embryonic stem cells, or induced pluripotent stem cells from a patient, her group has described a cocktail of growth factors that can drive development into kidney cells.

With more optimisation the group were able to develop self organising organoids 7mm long over 18 days.[3][4] These small balls of cells have differentiated most of the cells that form the kidneys, including collecting ducts, podocytes, vasculature cells, nephrons and loops of Henle, and are closely related transcriptionallly to first and second trimester developing kidneys.

Contributions to Australian Science policy

In the late 1990s, Little was a member of the Strategic Review of Health and Medical Research, chaired by Peter Wills..[5] This review[6] proposed a Virtuous Cycle between research, government and the commercial sector . As a result of these recommendations, the budget of the National Health and Medical Research Council was doubled over the next 10 years. She went on to serve on the Implementation Committee of that review and served under Robin Batterham, Chief Scientist, to identify strategic priorities across Australian science. A member of the NHMRC Research Committee for 6 years, she was also a member of the most recent review of health and medical research, chaired by Simon McKeon, which led to the establishment of the Medical Research Future Fund[7] and the Biomedical Translation Fund.[8]

Professional Associations

Little is the current Program Leader of Stem Cells Australia,[9] an organisation that aims to "Bring together Australia's premier life scientists to tackle the big questions in stem cell science". She is also a guest editor with the scientific journal Development.[10] She is the serving theme director of Cell Biology[11] at the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute and directs the MCRI Stem Cell Medicine Strategic Priority area. She is also the President of the Australasian Society for Stem Cell Research and a Board Member of the International Society for Stem Cell Research.

Awards and honours[12]

References

  1. ↑ Salleh, Anna (2015-10-08). "Skin cells used to grow mini kidneys in a dish". ABC News. Retrieved 2017-08-29.
  2. ↑ Vicente, Catarina (2016-03-15). "An interview with Little". Development. 143 (6): 907–909. doi:10.1242/dev.135897. ISSN 0950-1991. PMID 26980790.
  3. ↑ Takasato, Minoru; Little, Melissa H. (2016-12-15). "A strategy for generating kidney organoids: Recapitulating the development in human pluripotent stem cells". Developmental Biology. The Development of Stem Cell-derived Organoids. 420 (2): 210–220. doi:10.1016/j.ydbio.2016.08.024.
  4. ↑ Takasato, Minoru; Er, Pei X.; Chiu, Han S.; Maier, Barbara; Baillie, Gregory J.; Ferguson, Charles; Parton, Robert G.; Wolvetang, Ernst J.; Roost, Matthias S. (2015-10-22). "Kidney organoids from human iPS cells contain multiple lineages and model human nephrogenesis". Nature. 526 (7574): 564–568. doi:10.1038/nature15695. ISSN 0028-0836.
  5. ↑ "Peter Wills AC - RESEARCH AUSTRALIA". RESEARCH AUSTRALIA. Retrieved 2017-09-28.
  6. ↑ Health and Medical Research Strategic Review (Australia). Implementation Committee; Wills, Peter (2000). "Enabling the virtuous cycle" : Implementation Committee report / Health and Medical Research Strategic Review. [Canberra: Department of Health and Aged Care].
  7. ↑ "Further information on the Medical Research Future Fund". www.health.gov.au. Retrieved 2017-09-28.
  8. ↑ Commission, Australian Trade. "A$250 million Biomedical Translation Fund to bridg". www.austrade.gov.au. Retrieved 2017-09-28.
  9. ↑ "Welcome to Stem Cells Australia". www.stemcellsaustralia.edu.au. Retrieved 2017-08-29.
  10. ↑ Vicente, Catarina (2016-03-15). "An interview with Melissa Little". Development. 143 (6): 907–909. doi:10.1242/dev.135897. ISSN 0950-1991. PMID 26980790.
  11. ↑ "Cell Biology | Murdoch Childrens Research Institute". www.mcri.edu.au. Retrieved 2017-08-29.
  12. ↑ "Professor Melissa Little | Murdoch Childrens Research Institute". www.mcri.edu.au. Retrieved 2017-08-25.
  13. ↑ Dean, Tim. "The 2016 Eureka Prizes showcase the best in Australian science". The Conversation. Retrieved 2017-08-25.
  14. ↑ "Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Health & Medical Sciences - October 2015" (PDF). Australian Academy of Health & Medical Sciences. Retrieved 12 October 2018.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.