Hospital researcher honoured

The Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital’s Wagstaff Fellow in Otolaryngology, Dr Bryony Coleman, has been awarded a prestigious Victoria Fellowship.

The Victoria Fellowships were established by the Victorian Government to recognise young researchers with leadership potential and to enhance their future careers, while developing new ideas which could offer commercial benefit to Victoria.

Dr Coleman, who is conducting world-first research into the use of stem cells to enhance the hearing outcomes of patients with cochlear implants, was one of 6 Fellowship winners.

“This Fellowship is a great boost to my research, which has the capacity to help 120,000 people world-wide using cochlear implants,” Dr Coleman said.

Dr Coleman will use the $18,000 Fellowship to travel to the United States where she will work in laboratories, including those at Harvard University, to learn a specialised imaging technique. Using this imaging technique Dr Coleman will be able to investigate further the potential of stem cells to generate new hearing nerve cells for cochlear implant patients.

Dr Coleman received the award from the Governor of Victoria, Professor David de Kretser AC, at a gala function at Government House.

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