Dr Hannah Wardill
James McWha Rising Star Award recipient 2024
Bachelor of Health Science (Anatomical Sciences & Pathology & Reproduction) 2011, Bachelor of Health Science (Hons) 2012, Doctor of Philosophy in Medicine 2016
Dr Hannah Wardill is a Research Fellow and leads the Supportive Oncology Research Group, a multidisciplinary group dedicated to improving the health and wellbeing of people affected by cancer.
Since her childhood, Hannah has had a curious mind and an interest in the human body. Her curiosity, and a motivation to charter new territory, led her to study a Bachelor of Health Science (2011) and continue to Honours (2012) and then a PhD (2016). After receiving a grant to work in the Netherlands, Hannah eventually returned to the University to establish her own research group in 2020, at just 30 years old – her proudest achievement in an already impressive career.
Hannah’s group is focused on ensuring that the often-severe side effects of cancer treatment are minimised, by translating research done in a lab to create supportive therapies that can genuinely improve lives.
“For a very long time, the side effects of cancer therapy have been seen as something that's a necessary evil… I really love challenging that assumption,” says Hannah.
“For a very long time, the side effects of cancer therapy have been seen as something that's a necessary evil... I really love challenging that assumption.”
She envisions a world where people, and especially children, will not need to suffer ongoing and debilitating effects as a consequence of beating cancer. “I've had an opportunity to engage with people who have a lived experience of cancer and have understood the impact that their treatment can have on their daily quality of life,” she says.
An upcoming trial by the Supportive Oncology Research Group hopes to support the resilience of the gut microbiome in those undergoing intensive therapies, and ultimately to improve their outcomes.
An outstanding young leader as well as a researcher, Hannah has grown the research group from 3 to 15 team members in the last four years. She now enjoys offering students the same opportunities that her own mentors afforded her.
“I was really lucky in my PhD to have some fabulous mentors and supervisors… I could see that they would relinquish opportunities for themselves in order for me to benefit. I've really tried to adopt that into my own mentoring approach, now that I have students of my own.”