Talented women can keep pursuing their research

[Images move through of Professor Sudha Rao walking in a park and talking on an iPhone and then the image changes to show Sudha talking to the camera and text appears: Dr Sudha Rao, University of Canberra]

Professor Sudha Rao: What I really like about the NHMRC system is it’s a fantastic scheme for women in science.

[Images move through liquid being syringed up and then squirted into test tubes in a tray, the liquid being stirred in a small test tube and then being moved around on a machine]

The focus of my lab is to look at the epigenetic regulatory mechanisms in the T cells as well as deregulation in cancer biology focussing on, really on metastatic breast cancers.

[Images move through of Sudha talking, a female squirting liquid into a test tube, the female’s face, the test tubes in the tray, Sudha talking and a machine squirting liquid into eight test tubes at once]

Within our laboratories there’s some incredibly talented women and unfortunately in the past once they’ve had a career disruptment it has meant that their track records haven’t been competitive to apply for funding.

[Images move through of a female looking through a microscope, Sudha talking to the camera, Sudha working on a laptop, the laptop screen display, Sudha talking and then a test tube in a tray]

And what the NHMRC has done incredibly is that it has allowed women to apply with the view that they have taken career disruption into consideration which has meant that a lot more women like myself have been able to keep pursuing our research because without a system like that I don’t think I would be here still developing these novel therapeutics.
 
[Music plays and the camera zooms out to show many test tubes in a tray and then the image morphs into the NHMRC logo and the test tubes can be seen behind the logo and text appears: Building a Healthier Australia]

End of transcript.