Professor Melissa Little, AC, BSc (Hons I), PhD, GAICD, FAAHMS, FAAS, is CEO of the Novo Nordisk Foundation Centre for Stem Cell Medicine (reNEW), Executive Director of reNEW Copenhagen, Chief Scientist at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, and leader of the Kidney Regeneration Laboratory, Melbourne, Australia where she holds an NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow. Melissa is the Immediate Past President of the International Society for Stem Cell Research and holds an honorary position as Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, University of Melbourne.
Internationally recognised for her work on kidney development and her pioneering studies into potential regenerative therapies in the kidney, Professor Little’s approach to generating kidney organoids from human pluripotent stem cells has been adopted across the globe where it is being applied to disease modelling, drug screening and renal replacement therapies. Founded on >30 years of fundamental developmental biology, her stem cell research illustrates the capacity for understanding to be applied to product development. Professor Little’s work has been recognised by many awards, including the GlaxoSmithKline Award for Research Excellence (2005), an Eisenhower Fellowship (2006), a Boorhaave Professorship (2015) and Honorary Doctorate (2019), Leiden University, the Eureka Prize (2016), the Alfred Newton Richards Award from the International Society for Nephrology (2018) for her kidney organoid research, the Julian Wells Medal (2020) for her outstanding contribution to understanding of genetic basis of kidney development, the Homer W. Smith Award (2021) for outstanding contributions that fundamentally affect the science of nephrology, and the NHMRC Marshall and Warren Ideas Grant Award (2021) for being the top ranked recipient in the Ideas Grant Scheme for 2021.
Melissa is a Companion of the Order of Australia, Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, a Fellow of the Danish Royal Academy of Science and Letters. She is currently Associate Editor for the Journal of the American Society for Nephrology and is on the editorial board of the Cell Stem Cell, Nature Reviews Nephrology, Development and Kidney International. Melissa has previously held the role of President of the Australasian Society for Stem Cell Research, Program Leader of Stem Cells Australia, and the Chief Scientific Officer of the Australian Stem Cell Centre.
Internationally recognised for her work on kidney development and her pioneering studies into potential regenerative therapies in the kidney, Professor Little’s approach to generating kidney organoids from human pluripotent stem cells has been adopted across the globe where it is being applied to disease modelling, drug screening and renal replacement therapies. Founded on >30 years of fundamental developmental biology, her stem cell research illustrates the capacity for understanding to be applied to product development. Professor Little’s work has been recognised by many awards, including the GlaxoSmithKline Award for Research Excellence (2005), an Eisenhower Fellowship (2006), a Boorhaave Professorship (2015) and Honorary Doctorate (2019), Leiden University, the Eureka Prize (2016), the Alfred Newton Richards Award from the International Society for Nephrology (2018) for her kidney organoid research, the Julian Wells Medal (2020) for her outstanding contribution to understanding of genetic basis of kidney development, the Homer W. Smith Award (2021) for outstanding contributions that fundamentally affect the science of nephrology, and the NHMRC Marshall and Warren Ideas Grant Award (2021) for being the top ranked recipient in the Ideas Grant Scheme for 2021.
Melissa is a Companion of the Order of Australia, Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, a Fellow of the Danish Royal Academy of Science and Letters. She is currently Associate Editor for the Journal of the American Society for Nephrology and is on the editorial board of the Cell Stem Cell, Nature Reviews Nephrology, Development and Kidney International. Melissa has previously held the role of President of the Australasian Society for Stem Cell Research, Program Leader of Stem Cells Australia, and the Chief Scientific Officer of the Australian Stem Cell Centre.
Professor Melissa Little, AC, BSc (Hons I), PhD, GAICD, FAAHMS, FAAS, is CEO of the Novo Nordisk Foundation Centre for Stem Cell Medicine (reNEW), Executive Director of reNEW Copenhagen, Chief Scientist at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute,...
Professor Melissa Little, AC, BSc (Hons I), PhD, GAICD, FAAHMS, FAAS, is CEO of the Novo Nordisk Foundation Centre for Stem Cell Medicine (reNEW), Executive Director of reNEW Copenhagen, Chief Scientist at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, and leader of the Kidney Regeneration Laboratory, Melbourne, Australia where she holds an NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow. Melissa is the Immediate Past President of the International Society for Stem Cell Research and holds an honorary position as Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, University of Melbourne.
Internationally recognised for her work on kidney development and her pioneering studies into potential regenerative therapies in the kidney, Professor Little’s approach to generating kidney organoids from human pluripotent stem cells has been adopted across the globe where it is being applied to disease modelling, drug screening and renal replacement therapies. Founded on >30 years of fundamental developmental biology, her stem cell research illustrates the capacity for understanding to be applied to product development. Professor Little’s work has been recognised by many awards, including the GlaxoSmithKline Award for Research Excellence (2005), an Eisenhower Fellowship (2006), a Boorhaave Professorship (2015) and Honorary Doctorate (2019), Leiden University, the Eureka Prize (2016), the Alfred Newton Richards Award from the International Society for Nephrology (2018) for her kidney organoid research, the Julian Wells Medal (2020) for her outstanding contribution to understanding of genetic basis of kidney development, the Homer W. Smith Award (2021) for outstanding contributions that fundamentally affect the science of nephrology, and the NHMRC Marshall and Warren Ideas Grant Award (2021) for being the top ranked recipient in the Ideas Grant Scheme for 2021.
Melissa is a Companion of the Order of Australia, Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, a Fellow of the Danish Royal Academy of Science and Letters. She is currently Associate Editor for the Journal of the American Society for Nephrology and is on the editorial board of the Cell Stem Cell, Nature Reviews Nephrology, Development and Kidney International. Melissa has previously held the role of President of the Australasian Society for Stem Cell Research, Program Leader of Stem Cells Australia, and the Chief Scientific Officer of the Australian Stem Cell Centre.
Internationally recognised for her work on kidney development and her pioneering studies into potential regenerative therapies in the kidney, Professor Little’s approach to generating kidney organoids from human pluripotent stem cells has been adopted across the globe where it is being applied to disease modelling, drug screening and renal replacement therapies. Founded on >30 years of fundamental developmental biology, her stem cell research illustrates the capacity for understanding to be applied to product development. Professor Little’s work has been recognised by many awards, including the GlaxoSmithKline Award for Research Excellence (2005), an Eisenhower Fellowship (2006), a Boorhaave Professorship (2015) and Honorary Doctorate (2019), Leiden University, the Eureka Prize (2016), the Alfred Newton Richards Award from the International Society for Nephrology (2018) for her kidney organoid research, the Julian Wells Medal (2020) for her outstanding contribution to understanding of genetic basis of kidney development, the Homer W. Smith Award (2021) for outstanding contributions that fundamentally affect the science of nephrology, and the NHMRC Marshall and Warren Ideas Grant Award (2021) for being the top ranked recipient in the Ideas Grant Scheme for 2021.
Melissa is a Companion of the Order of Australia, Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, a Fellow of the Danish Royal Academy of Science and Letters. She is currently Associate Editor for the Journal of the American Society for Nephrology and is on the editorial board of the Cell Stem Cell, Nature Reviews Nephrology, Development and Kidney International. Melissa has previously held the role of President of the Australasian Society for Stem Cell Research, Program Leader of Stem Cells Australia, and the Chief Scientific Officer of the Australian Stem Cell Centre.