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Details

Role Chief Scientist
Research area Stem Cell Medicine
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.
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.

Top Publications

  • Armstrong, SR, Campbell, GR, Campbell, JH, Little, MH. Establishment of Metanephros Transplantation in Mice Highlights Contributions by Both Nephrectomy and Pregnancy to Developmental Progression. Nephron 101(4) : e155 -e164 2005
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  • Challen, GA, Martinez, G, Davis, MJ, Taylor, DF, Crowe, M, Teasdale, RD, Grimmond, SM, Little, MH. Identifying the Molecular Phenotype of Renal Progenitor Cells. Journal of the American Society of Nephrology 15(9) : 2344 -2357 2004
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  • Miyashita, T, Yeo, S-Y, Hirate, Y, Segawa, H, Wada, H, Little, MH, Yamada, T, Takahashi, N, Okamoto, H. PlexinA4 is necessary as a downstream target of Islet2 to mediate Slit signaling for promotion of sensory axon branching. Development 131(15) : 3705 -3715 2004
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  • Rae, FK, Martinez, G, Gillinder, KR, Smith, A, Shooter, G, Forrest, AR, Grimmond, SM, Little, MH. Anlaysis of complementary expression profiles following WT1 induction versus repression reveals the cholesterol/fatty acid synthetic pathways as a possible major target of WT1. Oncogene 23(17) : 3067 -3079 2004
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  • Yeo, S-Y, Miyashita, T, Fricke, C, Little, MH, Yamada, T, Kuwada, JY, Huh, T-L, Chien, C-B, Okamoto, H. Involvement of Islet-2 in the Slit signaling for axonal branching and defasciculation of the sensory neurons in embryonic zebrafish. Cells and Development 121(4) : 315 -324 2004
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