The prize was awarded to Erika for the best student presentation at the Australian Society for Medical research Symposium earlier in the month.

“For me, receiving the Burnet Institute Prize became a sobering reflection on the high prevalence of infectious diseases in our world,” Erika said.

“Studying for my PhD in a high income country like Australia, where so much attention seems focused towards understanding chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease, we can sometimes forget the other side of things.

“Like in my field of respiratory immunology, how lower respiratory infections are the leading causes of death in lower income countries, even as lung cancer continues to be the third leading cause of death in higher-income nations.”

Erika will put the money towards attending the 2011 World Lung Cancer conference in Amsterdam where she will be presenting a poster on the role of the local inflammation response in lung cancer pathogenesis.

“Receiving this prize is not only great encouragement for me to continue ahead with the PhD path, but also a reminder of how open-minded my travel down that path should be.”