Is Franca Ronchese the NEXT Woman of the Year 2012?

*** UPDATE:  We couldn't be prouder of Franca.  Although she didn't win at the 2012 NEXT Woman of the Year Awards, women like her, overall winner Julie Bartlett and winner of this year's Health & Science category Deborah Bush - are incredible examples of what can be achieved with a lot of hard work and passion.  We are fortunate to have such inspiring role models.  ***

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Our very own Prof Franca Ronchese has been shortlisted as a finalist for the 2012 NEXT Woman of the Year awards.

We believe Franca’s tireless dedication to the development of a more effective immune-based therapy for cancer, makes her a very worthy candidate for the Health & Science category of this award.

Driven by her passion for immunology and her unwavering belief that the immune system holds the key to treating disease, Franca established New Zealand’s first cancer immunotherapy programme at the Malaghan Institute in Wellington in the early 1990s. Since then Franca has successfully secured the investment of millions of dollars of funding to progress her basic research and test the vaccine therapy in cancer patients in clinical trials.  Franca is also applying her extensive knowledge of immunology to the development of more effective immune-based therapies for asthma and allergy.

The NEXT Woman of the Year award ceremony will take place on Thursday, 11 October 2012, and we will update you on the outcome.

Congratulations Franca, you will always be star to all of us fortunate enough to know, and work alongside you.  Your sense of intelligence, humour, determination and warm spirit are an inspiration to us all.

Link to the full list of the NEXT Woman of the Year 2012 finalists.