The 2022 Passe & Williams Foundation Awardees

Approximately $4.2 million is being invested in innovative research projects across the ear, nose and throat sector, through the Foundation’s 2022 Awards to leading scientists and clinicians.

Almost all awards from the Award Suite were on offer for the 2022 Award Round – including for the first time since 2016 the Mid-Career Fellowship – and the Foundation received its third highest number of applications on record.

Twelve projects in total were successful, and are soon to begin across the ear, nose and throat (ENT) sub-specialties. Projects range from researching immune cells found in head and neck cancers, and exploring the delicate nature of biofilms, to shining laser lights on hearing loss, and using acoustic waves to treatment of chronic rhinosinusitis.

Find out more about each project via the links shown, or visit our Awardees and Projects pages. There’s also the News Room with updates on Foundation activities and ENT news, and regular posts on LinkedIn.

Thank you to all our 2022 applicants, and congratulations to the following:

Research Scholarship

New clinical applications of the vestibulo-ocular reflex | Alyssa Dyball

Junior Fellowship

Breaking antibiotic resistance in otopathogens | Dr. Stephanie Neville

Defining the therapeutic potential of eosinophils in head and neck cancer | Dr. Carly Whyte

Mid-Career Fellowship

Detection and treatment of biofilms in chronic rhinosinusitis | Dr. Kristi Biswas

Developing improved therapeutics for treating otitis media and preventing need for repeat surgery | Dr. Ruth Thornton

Clinical Research Grant

Intratympanic corticosteroid therapy for idiopathic sensorineural hearing loss | Dr. Benjamin Wei

Conjoint Grant

Whole cochlear imaging – tackling key questions for safe inner ear surgery | Professor Stephen O’Leary and Dr. Christofer Bester 

Acoustic drug delivery for CRS treatment | Professor Peter-John Wormald and Dr. Oveis Pourmehran

A novel assay for early detection of minimal residual disease in head and neck cancer patients | Professor Chamindie Punyadeera and Dr. Liz Kenny

Academic Surgeon-Scientist Research Scholarship

Drug repurposing for treatment of head and neck cancer: enhancing metformin anti-cancer activity | Dr. Lucy Huang

To advance human precision diagnostics of hearing loss | Dr. William Shute

Special Project

Beyond Science | Associate Professor Payal Mukherjee and Professor Gordon Wallace