Mentonian Foundation Award 2024 Winners

Congratulations to Alex Harris (Class of 2017) and Elyssa Osianlis (Class of 2019) for being selected as the recipients of the Mentonian Foundation Award 2024.

They each received a $15,000 grant towards their PhD studies, presented at Mentone Grammar’s Awards Celebration Evening on Thursday 5 December 2024.

Here is a snapshot of our outstanding awardees and their individual PhD projects:

Alex Harris (Class of 2017)

Determinants of suboptimal immunity induced by current malaria vaccines

Alex is pursuing a Doctor of Medicine, Dentistry & Health Science and his research focuses on identifying the determinants of suboptimal immunity induced by current malaria vaccines.

Malaria remains a major global health burden, with particularly devastating effects in Africa and among young children, who account for approximately 75% of deaths. The first-ever vaccine shown to protect at-risk children from malaria, known as RTS,S, was approved for use in Africa in 2021. While promising, the RTS,S vaccine only provides modest protection and for a limited duration of time.

Alex’s research aims to better understand the immune response to RTS,S and identify any host or environmental factors that may be limiting the efficacy of this vaccine. To achieve this, he will evaluate antibody responses using plasma samples collected from young African children as part of a recently completed RTS,S clinical trial. This new knowledge will help guide any strategic modifications of RTS,S or the design of next-generation vaccines, thereby maximising the potential of vaccines to contribute to malaria elimination.

Alex says that he is grateful and honoured to receive this Foundation PhD Scholarship​ to support his research.

Elyssa Osianlis (Class of 2019)

Investigating ADHD in women and people assigned female at birth across the lifespan

After finishing school at Mentone Grammar, Elyssa went on to complete a Bachelor of Biomedical Science at Monash University and progressed into the Honours course. Her honours project investigated ADHD in women and people assigned female at birth across hormonal life phases.

Following this project, Elyssa’s continued interest in her research topic led to her beginning a PhD with supervisors A/Prof Caroline Gurvich, Dr Elizabeth Thomas, and Dr Lisanne Jenkins at the Department of Psychiatry within the School of Translational Medicine of Monash University, and part of the Alfred Research Alliance. Elyssa also works as a research assistant at the Multidisciplinary Alfred Psychiatry research centre across various clinical trials.

Elyssa aims to explore relationships between ADHD symptoms and sex hormones in females, throughout life phases like menopause, and across the menstrual cycle. She will be investigating cognition and emotional regulation symptoms using neuropsychological assessments, as well as measuring attentional responses through eye-tracking. Elyssa also plans to utilise neuroimaging to examine associations between functional brain networks and hormones in females with ADHD.

Through her research, Elyssa hopes to improve understandings of ADHD in females, which will be further supported by this Foundation PhD Scholarship​.