Community partnerships: Zephyr Consulting empowering emerging scientific talent

Inspired by our ground-breaking cancer research and its potential to enhance the health and wellbeing of our community, Zephyr are passionate about supporting emerging scientific talent. As a result, they have generously committed to fund Malaghan PhD student Paul Owaci’s tuition for three years.

Paul is working within the CAR T team investigating ‘exhaustion’ of CAR T-cells – a phenomena that could be why some people’s lymphomas do not respond to, or relapse after, CAR T-cell therapy. He is exploring alternative CAR T-cell manufacturing processes that could help reduce exhaustion, and to re-engineer CAR T-cells to knock down genes linked to this exhaustion.

At the Malaghan, we recruit top PhD students from New Zealand and abroad, whose passion, skill and international connections fuel scientific discovery.

As a charity, the support of these individuals comes largely through university scholarships – often needing additional funds from the community to cover things like living expenses. Through support like Zephyr’s, these future scientific world-leaders have the right support and tools needed to make the most out of their doctoral studies, setting them on the best path for a long and fruitful scientific career.

We are immensely grateful to Zephyr for their valued partnership and their commitment to empowering the next generation of scientific leaders. If you would like to learn more about how you can drive impact by supporting life-changing medical research with the Malaghan, please email us at [email protected] to discuss ways to partner with us.