2003 ASBMB Fellowship: Naomi Court

court In the summer of 1998 I was awarded a summer vacation scholarship, which allowed me to work on a project in the laboratory of Dr Marie Bogoyevitch in the Department of Biochemistry. This was my first exposure to lab work in the field of cell signalling, and I obviously liked it, since I commenced my Honours year in the same lab in 1999. Honours was a challenging year, but I learnt a great deal. I also felt it was worth all the late nights when I graduated, sharing the highest Honours mark with a fellow student and receiving the Lugg Medal and Swan Brewery Prize.

Although I had bumped into quite a few research hurdles during my Honours year, I decided that research was for me and decided to pursue a PhD in Biochemistry. After completing my Honours degree, I was delighted to hear that my application for a National Heart Foundation Postgraduate Research Scholarship was successful. I was also fortunate enough to be employed by my supervisor for several months as a research assistant. This allowed me to save some money for a backpacking trip around Europe and the United States - my opportunity to see some of the world before I became confined to the lab once again!

I commenced my PhD in mid-2000 in Marie's lab, to work on a signalling protein in the heart known as Stress-Activated Protein Kinase-3 (SAPK3). Little is known about the function of this protein kinase, with the literature collection being relatively small in the world of kinases. In 2002 I was fortunate enough to be able to publish some of my work in The Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology.

Of course, a PhD isn't all about being confined to the lab, and one of the perks of science is the travel! In the second half of last year, I was awarded a Boehringer Ingelheim Travel Award, and a UWA Travel Award, which allowed me to conduct some research in the laboratory of Professor Nadia Rosenthal in the European Molecular Biology Laboratories, Rome. This provided a fantastic opportunity to learn new techniques as well as having the experience of working in a high profile international lab. I am very grateful to have been awarded an ASBMB Fellowship to attend the Special FEBS Meeting on Signal Transduction which is being held in Brussels later this year. I am looking forward to hearing the latest developments in cell signalling, and I am also excited about having the opportunity to visit Europe again.

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This page last modified: October 10, 2008.