Melissa H. Little Assumes New Role as President of the ISSCR
The ISSCR is pleased to announce Melissa H. Little, PhD, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute and University of Melbourne, Australia, as president of the ISSCR Board of Directors.
Professor Melissa Little is an NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow and heads the Kidney Regeneration Laboratory at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne and is a Professor in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne. Dr. Little is also Program Leader of Stem Cells Australia where she focusses on bringing national awareness to the potential of stem cell medicine.
“I am so delighted to embrace my new role in the society at such an important time for the field where we are seeing exciting translation of stem cell research and new potential to improve the health and lives or patients and families,” Dr. Little said. “We are coming off of an extraordinary year where our society has strategically adapted to the shifting times during the pandemic to provide incredible scientific programs, support, and new ways to remain connected with each other and emerging stem cell science,” she said.
Internationally recognized for her work on the molecular and cellular basis of normal mammalian kidney development, Professor Little is best known for her pioneering studies into potential regenerative therapies in the kidney, including her recent work generating human kidney organoids from human pluripotent stem cells. Her laboratory now focusses on fully characterizing the component cell types generated within these complex multicellular models of the human kidney as well as the potential for applications in disease modelling, drug screening and new renal replacement therapies. In 2019, she received the Alfred Newton Richards award from the World Congress of Nephrology.
Dr. Little will serve as ISSCR president for one year, succeeding Christine Mummery, Leiden University Medical Center, the Netherlands.
Haifan Lin,Yale University School of Medicine, USA, is president-elect and will serve as president in 2022. Amander T. Clark, University of California, Los Angeles, USA assumes a new role as vice president, and Fiona Doetsch, Biozentrum at the University of Basel, Switzerland, is named Clerk.
Malin Parmar, Lund University, Sweden; Melissa Carpenter, ElevateBio, USA; and Mitinori Saitou, Kyoto University, Japan were elected as new members to the board for three-year terms. Board members re-appointed for a second term include Jane S. Lebkowski, Patch Technologies, USA; Martin Pera, The Jackson Laboratory, USA; and Takanori Takebe, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, USA/Tokyo Medical and Dental University and Yokohama City University, Japan.