Double MDS Innovation Booster Award Winners

Exciting News! Double Award! Congratulations to Scotia Mullin and Brian Ngokwe for receiving the Innovation Booster Award!

The Melbourne Dental School (MDS) Innovation Booster Award aims to support activities of research students that foster and advance innovation in selected research projects within the dental school. The Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences (MDHS) Innovation and Enterprise Committee has provided funds to promote innovation within the Melbourne Dental School. This scheme complements other School and Faculty-led initiatives by supporting research students in undertaking activities that assist innovative projects in developing novel intellectual property.

Interested in their projects? Find out more below.

Scotia Mullin
Scotia Mullin is an anthropologist and PhD candidate at the Melbourne Dental School. He has expertise in both cultural and biological anthropology, as well as epidemiology and public health. As a Queer researcher, his current PhD research focuses on fatal and non-fatal strangulation in Australia. Away from academia, Scotia enjoys hiking with his two dogs, hoping that each bone he encounters is from a deer. He also enjoys cooking, reading, and participating in various sporting activities. Project: The Melbourne Dental School Innovation Booster Award 2024 will allow him to work with some of the world's leading forensic experts on Queer-inclusive protocols for identifying Intimate Partner Violence and strangulation in living populations. This will be among the first projects of its kind to create queer-inclusive frameworks for forensic medicine and dentistry in the context of strangulation and same-sex intimate partner violence. The project will involve collaboration between the University of Melbourne (Scotia Mullin, A/Prof Rita Hardiman, Prof Alastair Sloan, Prof Kelsey Hegarty), Johns Hopkins University (A/Prof Michelle Patch), and Arizona State University (Prof Jill T Messing).

Scotia Mullin

Scotia Mullin is an anthropologist and PhD candidate at the Melbourne Dental School. He has expertise in both cultural and biological anthropology, as well as epidemiology and public health. As a Queer researcher, his current PhD research focuses on fatal and non-fatal strangulation in Australia. Away from academia, Scotia enjoys hiking with his two dogs, hoping that each bone he encounters is from a deer. He also enjoys cooking, reading, and participating in various sporting activities.

Project: The Melbourne Dental School Innovation Booster Award 2024 will allow him to work with some of the world's leading forensic experts on Queer-inclusive protocols for identifying Intimate Partner Violence and strangulation in living populations. This will be among the first projects of its kind to create queer-inclusive frameworks for forensic medicine and dentistry in the context of strangulation and same-sex intimate partner violence. The project will involve collaboration between the University of Melbourne (Scotia Mullin, A/Prof Rita Hardiman, Prof Alastair Sloan, Prof Kelsey Hegarty), Johns Hopkins University (A/Prof Michelle Patch), and Arizona State University (Prof Jill T Messing).

Scotia Mullin

Brian Ngokwe
Brian Ngokwe is a current first-year PhD student at the Melbourne Dental School, University of Melbourne. He obtained his DMD with honours from his home country, Cameroon, and earned his MSc in Biomedical Sciences in Dentistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, finishing as Summa Cum Laude. Project: Early diagnosis of oral precancerous lesions can prevent the development of oral cancers, which have a very high mortality rate; 1 in every 2 patients with oral cancer is likely to die within the next 5 years. Additionally, these cancers lead to significant morbidity, affecting basic functions such as speaking, eating, tasting, and breathing. To better study and understand these oral precancers, Brian intends to use organoids - three-dimensional in vitro models that closely resemble the genomic constitution of oral cancers. However, these models are quite costly. This award will assist him in his initial research objective of developing the first oral precancerous organoid model, serving as a stepping stone to investigate the molecular changes implicated in carcinogenesis. Ultimately, if successful, this research aims to identify biomarkers for the early diagnosis of oral precancers.

Brian Ngokwe

Brian Ngokwe is a current first-year PhD student at the Melbourne Dental School, University of Melbourne. He obtained his DMD with honours from his home country, Cameroon, and earned his MSc in Biomedical Sciences in Dentistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, finishing as Summa Cum Laude.

Project: Early diagnosis of oral precancerous lesions can prevent the development of oral cancers, which have a very high mortality rate; 1 in every 2 patients with oral cancer is likely to die within the next 5 years. Additionally, these cancers lead to significant morbidity, affecting basic functions such as speaking, eating, tasting, and breathing. To better study and understand these oral precancers, Brian intends to use organoids - three-dimensional in vitro models that closely resemble the genomic constitution of oral cancers. However, these models are quite costly. This award will assist him in his initial research objective of developing the first oral precancerous organoid model, serving as a stepping stone to investigate the molecular changes implicated in carcinogenesis. Ultimately, if successful, this research aims to identify biomarkers for the early diagnosis of oral precancers.

Brian Ngokwe

4 Oct 2024