While driven by a passion for research, life for a PhD student can often mean living on a shoestring budget which can be tough. That is why PhD student Alexander Martyn was ecstatic to hear in 2014 that he was the successful recipient of an Arrow Hawkesbury Canoe Classic PhD scholarship.

Looking back on it now Alexander says: “I don’t think I would be where I am today without it. Essentially, the scholarship was enough to let me live comfortably during my PhD studies. I didn’t have to take up extra weekend work to pay rent. I was able to go to the lab and knuckle out this research”.

And that is just what Alexander did. In 2020 Alexander published a paper with the results of his research into Minimal Residual Disease (MRD). MRD is the left-over cancer cells that can exist in a patient after treatment and that can often lead to cancer recurrence. To counter MRD, Alexander designed and synthesised two hybrid molecules that can be used as a pharmacological probe to investigate the drug resistance mechanisms that lead to MRD.

Since then Alexander has relocated to Brisbane joining the Queensland University of Technology in a super group called the Cancer and Ageing Research Program (CARP). The CARP program aims to discover mechanisms to treat all age-related illnesses and cancers – extending upon Alexander’s previous works.

In 2019 Alexander was awarded a Queensland government fellowship grant and now supervises a number of students of his own, providing him with the extra responsibility of spreading his knowledge to his students which is something he loves to do. We will continue to keenly follow the work of Alexander and his team and wish them all the best in making new discoveries into the treatment of cancer.