About ECU

Associate Professor Elin Gray

Associate Professor Gray is a Cancer Research Trust Postdoctoral Fellow and Senior Researcher at the Melanoma Research Group, in the School of Medical and Health Sciences at Edith Cowan university (ECU). Her current research aims to identify blood biomarkers for the diagnosis of melanoma and to guide treatment decisions.

Elin joined ECU in 2011, from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in South Africa and has previously worked at the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), USA and the Duke Human Vaccine Institute, Duke University, USA.

Elin now leads ECU's Melanoma Research Group, which explores blood biomarkers of cancer and how they can be used to better understand disease progression, drug resistance, treatment outcomes and tumour characteristics. Her team utilise and develop novel genetic analysis methodologies to interrogate the blood of cancer patients for markers known as circulating tumour cells, circulating tumour DNA and exosomes, to provide information on the tumour evolution and cancer development.

In 2014 Elin was the first recipient of a Cancer Research Trust Fellowship, to undertake a project on the development of more effective targeted treatment for cancer patients by understanding how circulating tumour cells disseminate the cancer all over the body. She was awarded the Cancer Council WA Research Fellowship in 2019 for ‘Developing blood tests to guide treatment of melanoma’, aiming to use novel methodologies to deliver new blood tests that can effectively and accurately provide the oncologists with information about the cancer, for them to make better-informed treatment decisions.

She went on to receive the 2020 Georgina Sweet Award for Women in Quantitative Biomedical Science for her research vision and her mentorship of the next generation of scientists. The Georgina Sweet Awards promote and support female scientists who demonstrate excellence in the area of Quantitative Biomedical Science, with recipients receiving $25,000.

Hear more on her career journey and researcher in the area of cancer and oncology, within the biomedical science discipline:

As a woman in research, what or who inspired you to pursue your career in the area of cancer research and specifically melanoma research?

Curiosity for a start. Cancer has fascinated me since my undergraduate studies. Cancer is the epitome of all that can go wrong with the beautifully controlled systems that govern cell biology and organism homeostasis. During my working life, I realised how the knowledge acquired through my curiosity could help people affected by this terrible disease. Moving to Australia, I had the opportunity to apply for a job in melanoma research which I thought very fitting given the relevance of this cancer in this country.

What challenges you about being a researcher in the School of Medical and Health Science and within the biomedical science discipline?

Biomedical research and especially laboratory-based research is very costly. Thus, a major challenge is to attract sufficient funding to cover consumable expenses, new equipment and retention of talented researchers. There are so many exciting projects that students and early career researchers come out with, but one has to be strategic on which ones are worth pursuing.

In 2020, you received the Georgina Sweet Award for Women in Quantitative Biomedical Science, what does this mean for your career and how will this support your research?

To be a recipient of the Georgina Sweet Award was a great honour given the myriad of talented female researchers in Australia. It is an excellent recognition of my contribution to Biomedical Research and Training at a national stage. I am very excited to use the award prize to support early career researchers to learn and apply bioinformatics tools.

You work closely with a range of oncologists and pathologists to have your research translated into a real-world application. How do you manage these relationships either formally or informally?

Working with clinicians has been critical for the development of my research. Their input on what are the critical needs that they and their patients are confronted with informs the rationale of my research. In addition, the commitment of clinicians to enrol patients into our studies is essential as my work relies on the analysis of blood samples from a large cohort of patients.

My strategy on managing this relationship is to find areas in which they are interested and therefore motivated to recruit patients or carry out sample analysis. I do acknowledge that they are busy people for whom their focus is to deliver the best care possible to their patients. I keep them informed on the progress of the research, seek their input and involve them in the writing of the publications. We are all one team, each one contributing their expertise.

Being open to late meetings after 5.00pm, also helps 😊

You have become a role model for women researchers and women in STEMM, do you have any advice for how women can succeed and thrive within their own research careers?

Being a woman is becoming less and less of an impediment, thanks to the amazing role models and pioneers before us making sure we are recognised by our contribution and not biased due to our gender. However, for women pursuing a career in research and specifically in STEMM, I would say that developing the assertiveness to stand up in a crowd, even if it is full of opinionated men, is one aspect to work on.

The second advice is finding the best way you can balance your family life and work. It is not easy and a challenge not only for women but also for some men. Finally, seek out mentors and sponsors, people that genuinely connect with you and that are willing to support you along the way through sincere advice and opening possibilities.