National Science Week runs from the 14 – 22 August in Australia and is an annual celebration of science and technology in this country.

This week we are going to meet some of the amazing Mater Research team to hear about what they do and why they chose to pursue a career in science.

Dr Martina Proctor studies the cell cycle with special reference to cancer to understand and investigate possible new treatments for cancer, specialising in melanoma.

“I find the cell cycle fascinating and am intrigued by how scientists have managed to investigate how it works. Additionally, I have a family history of melanoma so have a vested interest in this form of cancer,” Dr Proctor said.

She has been with Mater Research since 2011 where she previously worked at QIMR in the areas of vaccine research and immunotherapy of cancer in organ transplant patients.

“I am involved mainly in pre-clinical studies. I am researching new drug treatments for melanoma, cervical cancer and ovarian cancer,” Dr Proctor said.

“The goal of my research is to find new drug treatments for cancer which I believe is an incredibly important piece of work.

“Being a researcher can be challenging at times, trying to raise children and build a career is very challenging in science. I stepped away from my career for eight years to have a family and found it challenging to re-enter the workforce at the same level where I left.”

Dr Proctor said she wished for the general public to understand it takes a long time to research and develop a drug or treatment due to the care required and this is very expensive process as specialised equipment are used.

“As a post-doctoral scientist, being involved in treating organ transplant patients that developed cancer as a consequence of their treatment and being able to provide those patients with a much-improved quality of life and cure their cancer is extremely rewarding,” Dr Proctor said.

“Funding is important to our work as we use very pure and specialized reagents as well as advanced technology on specialised equipment and funding is essential to support this.”