Alison Todd and Elisa Mokany awarded in PM’s Science Prizes

Two women scientists who are leaders in the revolution in personalised medicine are awarded in this year’s Prime Minister’s Science Prizes.

Industry and Science Minister Ed Husic applauds Alison Todd, centre, and Dr Elisa Mokany, winners of the Prime Minister’s Prize for Innovation. Picture: Martin Ollman

Two scientists who are leaders in the revolution in personalised medicine – tailoring drugs exactly to treat a patient’s illness – have won a prestigious award in this year’s Prime Minister’s Science Prizes.

Not only did Alison Todd and Elisa Mokany discover new ways of reading and interpreting genetic information to diagnose disease but they founded a company, SpeeDx, to develop and sell the technology which is now a successful Australian-based biotech business.

They are joint winners of the Prime Minister’s Prize for Innovation that recognises both their groundbreaking molecular diagnostic technology and their company’s successful effort to establish local high-technology manufacturing.

Professor Todd, who is chief scientific officer at SpeeDx as well as a UNSW adjunct professor, said the company’s flagship products identified bacteria behind sexually transmitted infections and also showed whether there was resistance or sensitivity to antibiotics so that doctors could choose the most effective drug.

“The patients are cured far more quickly, they’re spreading less of the drug resistant disease and it has real economic benefits,” Professor Todd said.

Dr Mokany, who is chief technology officer at SpeeDx, said that when the test was first released clinicians were passing on their appreciation. “Before, you basically had a 50-50 shot if the patient would actually respond to treatment or not,” she said.

Professor Todd and Dr Mokany were also recognised for their trailblazing role for women in science and technology. At SpeeDx, 70 per cent of the 100-plus workforce, and 50 per cent of management, are women.

The top award, the Prime Minister’s Prize for Science, went to UNSW oceanographer Trevor McDougall for the major advances he has made in understanding how oceans regulate climate, discoveries which have been applied to the global models that predict the impact of climate change.

Two Australian National University scientists won another two key awards. The Frank Fenner Prize for Life Scientist of the Year went to Si Ming Man for his work discovering new therapies for inflammatory diseases and cancer.

And the Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year was won by Adele Morrison for her modelling of the Southern Ocean, which has helped reduce the uncertainty in predictions for sea level rise due to climate change.

The other Prime Minister’s Prize for Innovation was won by three scientists at Chrysos – a tech company listed this year on the ASX – whose technology has offered the gold industry a way to instantly assay the gold content of ore without creating environmental hazards.

Nick Cutmore, James Tickner and Dirk Treasure used work by Dr Tickner, then at the CSIRO, to develop PhotonAssay, a technology which uses high energy X-rays to excite the nuclei of gold atoms or other minerals, causing them to emit gamma rays of a characteristic energy that can be measured. In the gold industry it replaces the traditional fire assay method, a lengthy process which requires the ore to be heated to 1200 degrees and also uses environmentally risky chemicals.

Mr Treasure, who is Chrysos CEO, said the gold industry had now adopted the technology “and we’re trying to get as many units out there as quickly as we can”.