{"id":105637,"date":"2020-08-18T15:15:36","date_gmt":"2020-08-18T22:15:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=105637"},"modified":"2020-08-18T15:15:36","modified_gmt":"2020-08-18T22:15:36","slug":"sri-lankan-born-cancer-scientist-at-the-university-of-queensland-awarded-the-prestigious-american-society-of-haematology-global-research-fellowship-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/08\/18\/sri-lankan-born-cancer-scientist-at-the-university-of-queensland-awarded-the-prestigious-american-society-of-haematology-global-research-fellowship-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lankan-born cancer scientist at the University of Queensland awarded the prestigious American Society of Haematology Global Research Fellowship Award"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Home News<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>Dr.\nJay Gunawardana, a Sri lankan-born blood cancer researcher at the University of\nQueensland (Translational Research Institute in Brisbane, Australia) has\nreceived the prestigious American Society of Haematology Global Research Award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"402\" height=\"602\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Jay-GunawardanaR.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-105638\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Jay-GunawardanaR.jpg 402w, https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Jay-GunawardanaR-200x300.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 402px) 100vw, 402px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>This\nhighly sought-after award is the result of a global search for competitive\nresearch proposals. It will enable Dr. Gunawardana to investigate the tumour\nmicroenvironment of the rare and largely neglected Nodular Lymphocyte\nPredominant Hodgkin Lymphoma subtype. His aim is to harness the power of\npatients\u2019 own immune systems using combinatorial inhibitory drugs to remove \u2018brakes\u2019\nthat cause patient T-cells to become non-reactive towards cancers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is critical to match the biology of a patient\u2019s tumour to a treatment that is both effective and will cause fewer side effects. This major step forward in our knowledge will be translated into new tools for matching a patient&#8217;s lymphoma to the correct treatment and improving patient outcomes. This research project is part of a broader effort to develop cell-based immunotherapy in conjunction with immune checkpoint blockade, a highly innovative endeavour previously not attempted in treating lymphoma\u201d Dr. Gunawardana said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"464\" height=\"503\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Letterof-confirmation.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-105639\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Letterof-confirmation.jpg 464w, https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Letterof-confirmation-277x300.jpg 277w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 464px) 100vw, 464px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr.\nGunawardana will be working alongside Prof. Maher Gandhi, Director of Mater Research\nand Prof. Catherine Bollard, Director of the Program for Cell Enhancement and\nTechnologies for Immunotherapy, The George Washington University School of\nMedicine. The team will also have access to the largest clinically curated\nlymphoma repository in Australia via The Australasian Leukaemia &amp; Lymphoma\nGroup and the largest collection of umbilical cord blood in Australia via the\nMater Queensland Cord Blood Bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr.\nGunawardana is an alumnus of Royal College (Sri Lanka), Temple University\n(USA), The University of Rhode Island (USA) and The University of British\nColumbia (Canada).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Home News Dr. Jay Gunawardana, a Sri lankan-born blood cancer researcher at the University of Queensland (Translational Research Institute in Brisbane, Australia) has received the prestigious American Society of Haematology Global Research Award. This highly sought-after award is the result of a global search for competitive research proposals. It will enable Dr. Gunawardana to investigate [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[132],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105637\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}