Award for Cancer Research (Andy Badrock

Old Collegian receives Hastie Career Advancement Fund support for research

Andy Badrock (2000) has been named as the recipient of the 2021 Hastie Career Advancement Fund for his work in genetics and cancer research.

The Hastie Career Advancement Fund supports talented early-career scientists at the Institute of Genetics and Cancer (University of Edinburgh), to progress in their careers. Dr Badrock said he will use the Hastie Career Advancement Fund to generate a fluorescent reporter of U8 promoter activity for use in an automated, high-throughput small molecule screen in collaboration with Prof. Neil Carragher. “As an early career researcher with aspirations to run my own research programme, the mentoring provided by Professor Nick Hastie, as part of this award, represents an absolute privilege, invaluable for my development towards independence,” Dr Badrock said. After graduating from the College, Badrock completed a Bachelor of Science at the University of Melbourne, and a PhD at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. Prior to moving to The University of Edinburgh, he was based at the University of Manchester in the UK. Badrock says a highlight of his research is publishing his findings. “A lot of hard work goes into scientific research that doesn’t tend to be formally acknowledged until publication. Passing the peer-review process is always satisfying.” “De La Salle gave me a good standard of academic education, but importantly it taught me to be independent and accept responsibility. The private school system can sometimes be seen to ‘spoon-feed’ its students, without necessarily giving them skills to succeed at University and beyond.”

Andy Badrock, photo courtesy of The Institute of Genetics and Cancer, Edinburgh Univeristy