In 2019 Michael Papadimitrious was awarded his PhD from the University of Sydney for his research into the use of dendritic cells to elicit an anti cancer immune response against certain blood cancers.

This research was made possible thanks to the Arrow Hawkesbury Canoe Classic scholarship which supported Michael during his PhD studies between 2014 and 2016.

Today Michael lives in Germany where he is working for a pharmaceutical company that specialises in cell and gene therapies for oncology patients. In his role as the Global Medical Affairs Manager for Miltenyi Biomedicine, Michael is currently working on a Chimeric Antigen Recepto, otherwise known as CAR-T cell therapy, as an investigational cancer therapy to treat haematological malignancies.

This is an exciting area of research which has created a lot of interest in the medical community and is an exciting opportunity for patients.

CAR-T cell therapy is an immune therapy that uses the ability of the T cells to attack cells with a specific receptor designed to find cancer cells. There are multiple CAR-T cell therapies approved around the world.

For Michael and his team their work is up to clinical trial stage and they have currently enrolled patients into their pivotal clinical trials in nine European countries and across the United States of America.

Michael credits his PhD scholarship for getting him where he is today saying:

“My PhD research, combined with my desire to improve the lives of cancer patients, has made me the professional that I am today. My PhD would not have been possible without the support from my Arrow Hawkesbury Canoe Classic PhD scholarship and for that I am very grateful. Thank you.”