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Celebrating our 2026 Lea Medal Recipients on International Women’s Day

3 min read 05 March 2026

Lea Medal winners 2026 The 2026 Lea Medal recipients, from left to right: Dr Deborah Meyran, Associate Professor Safeera Hussainy, and Dr Aparna Rao

 

On International Women’s Day 2026, the Peter MacCallum Cancer Foundation celebrates the three incredible women who recently received the 2026 Lea Medal.

Funded by the Foundation, the Lea Medal has been providing support to talented female-identifying cancer researchers at Peter Mac for a decade now. Many women in health and science report barriers and a lack of support during the critical early to mid-stages of their careers. To address this gender imbalance, the Lea Medal grants $50,000 to nurture the career development of our outstanding women researchers, allowing them to progress both their careers and their important cancer research.

This year, the Lea Medal was awarded to Dr Aparna Rao, Dr Deborah Meyran and Associate Professor Safeera Hussainy on 23 February at Peter Mac’s Women in Science Symposium. 

Read more about their research below.

Dr Aparna Rao

Dr Aparna Rao’s research seeks to understand how cancer cells and immune cells use energy, and how this influences treatment outcomes, focusing on melanoma. Using tumour samples from patients, Dr Rao’s research will uncover how immune cells behave within the tumour environment to find new treatment approaches for melanoma.

Dr Deborah Meyran

Dr Deborah Meyran is exploring how the immune system interacts with children’s tumours. Unlike with adult cancers, there has been little progress in how immunotherapy can treat childhood cancers. By generating insights about immune resistance within the tumour microenvironment, Dr Meyran can then identify strategies that enhance the effectiveness of immunotherapy in children and young people with cancer. 

Associate Professor Safeera Hussainy

Associate Professor Safeera Hussainy is focused on improving sexual health care in cancer, an often-overlooked aspect of cancer treatment that can significantly impact the wellbeing of patients and their partners. Funding from the Lea Medal will allow Associate Professor Hussainy to build training programs and develop a sexual health practice at Peter Mac. Her goal is to ensure sexual health care becomes embedded into cancer treatment and survivorship.

Congratulations to Dr Rao, Dr Meyran and Associate Professor Hussainy on receiving the Lea Medal. Thank you to our wonderful donors for supporting funding initiatives that strengthen lifesaving cancer research that allow outstanding women in science to improve cancer treatment and care.

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