This year's Sandra David Oration on October 31 saw 20 Research Grants totalling an incredible $835,000 awarded to researchers and practitioners from across the St Vincent's Darlinghurst Campus.
We congratulate all our worthy recipients including Professor Richard Day who received the SVPHS Ladies' Committee Sister Mary Bernice Research Grant of $120,000. His study aims to examine whether empaglifozin, an SGLT2 inhibitor, improves cardiovascular health in patients with Type 2 Diabetes and severe kidney disease. We heard of unchartered research studies including A/Prof Kumud Dhital's $40,000 Annual Research Grant that will investigate improving donor heart preservation using a funnel web spider venom peptide. We look forward to seeing what medical mysteries this year's group of remarkable recipients may unravel.
For the full list of 2019 (and previous) Research Grant Recipients, click here.
About Sandra David (1937-1994):
In 1994, the David family made a donation to St Vincent's Clinic Foundation to honour Sandra David who died on 13 September 2004. Family life and Christian values were very strong within the David Family and Sandra, who was educated by the Sisters of Charity at St Vincent's College, Potts Point, entered The Sisters of Charity Congregation. Sandra spent some years teaching in Australia and then joined her brother, Max, in missionary work as a teacher in the Highlands of New Guinea.Following the death of her father, Joe, Sandra felt committed to care for her mother and joined the family company working with two of her brothers, John and Peter. Her endurance, her devotion to duty and her commitment were always demonstrated through the values she held dearly. Those characteristics were particularly noted during her long illness. Sandra is honoured and the David family's generous support of the Foundation is acknowledged through the Sandra David Oration.
Our Speakers:
As a specialist in water, sanitation, hygiene and public health, our special guest speaker Dr Paul Byleveld PSM spoke about his recent assignment as a public health officer in Bangladesh supporting the Red Cross and Red Crescent response to more than 900,000 refugees from Myanmar and Somalia. Previous Grant recipient Professor Diane Fatkin gave an update on her study of gene function in zebrafish heart models about the size of a grain of rice to find a cure for cardiovascular disease.
We thank all who attended this special event and all our friends of the St Vincent's Clinic Foundation for your continued support.