DR BOWDEN IS RECOGNISED INTERNATIONALLY FOR HER WORK to improve diagnosis and treatment for cancer patients.

She investigates DNA repair in children with inherited cancer syndromes and the previously unstudied area of the same DNA repair in melanomas from adults.

She has collaborated with the Children’s Hospital at Westmead, Sydney, and global leaders from the University of California, San Francisco, the US National Cancer Institute and the US National Institutes of Health.

Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council recognised her efforts in 2009 with a highly competitive training Fellowship, and soon after she was invited to be a Visiting Fellow at the National Cancer Institute and National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, US.

During her six-month visit in 2010 she established collaborations and learnt cutting-edge whole-genome sequencing techniques.

Dr Bowden’s work now stretches beyond melanoma to investigate the role a particular protein plays in identifying chemotherapy resistance in ovarian cancer.