Dr Ngoc Khac Linh Tran has won the StudyAdelaide award for 2017 Academic Excellence in Postgraduate Research.

The award, which was presented by the Governor of South Australia, Hieu Van Le AC, comes after Dr Tran completed his Doctor of Philosophy (Medicine) at Flinders University.

Dr Tran is a urologist who moved from Vietnam to Adelaide after winning an Australia Award scholarship, which enabled him to undertake his PhD studies in prostate cancer therapy at the Flinders Centre for Innovation in Cancer (FCIC), under the supervision of Professor Pamela Sykes.

His translational research into low-cost treatments of prostate cancer was recently published in the high-impact journal, Molecular Cancer Therapeutics.

It will now provide the basis for a phase one clinical trial headed by collaborator, medical oncologist Dr Ganessan Kichenadasse, FCIC.

“I want to make cancer therapy affordable, and I was so pleased to have the opportunity to complete my research into low-cost cancer treatment at Flinders.

“Winning this award is a great boost to my confidence, and now I plan to continue my research and help patients in developing countries,” says Dr Tran.

He was joined in Australia by his son, Bach, and wife, Dr Hoang Cuc Do, who is also studying at Flinders University.

They accepted Dr Tran’s StudyAdelaide award on his behalf.

Dr Do is a paediatrician and is completing a PhD in Haematology at Flinders under the supervision of Associate Professor Bryone Kuss.

Her work has been focused on genetic research in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, and she has recently published two papers.

Dr Do is studying at Flinders as a result of winning a scholarship from the Vietnamese government.