OGA President’s Report September 2020

Welcome to the September edition of the OGA Newsletter.

Just like that, we’re getting to the tail end of this crazy year. To our members in Melbourne, and other parts of the world doing it tough, our thoughts are with you all. I hope you are all safe and doing as well as you can be in these circumstances. It’s so hard being separated from the people you love and care about. We are lucky in this technological world that there are other ways to keep in touch, but it’s still no substitute for being together.

On a more positive note, it has been so lovely to read about a number of our members making incredible contributions to society, particularly our younger ones! For those who missed it, Lucy Stronach (2013) has been announced as the 2021 Australian Youth Representative to the United Nations. Meanwhile, 2011 graduate Dr Ciara Duffy has been busy working on groundbreaking research into breast cancer cells. Her research has been published in the Nature Precision Oncology journal. It found that venom from honeybees has the potential to rapidly kill aggressive and hard-to-treat breast cancer. This is an incredible discovery and could lead to the development of a treatment for triple-negative breast cancer. We should all be so proud of both of these wonderful women, and to all of our fellow alumni making a difference to the world.

Until next time,

Gemma Varone (2009) 

President