Dr Hala Raghib
Dr Hala Raghib, recipient of MAWA’s inaugural doctoral research scholarship, was awarded the 2007 Eureka Science Prize People’s Choice Award for research into the safety of cardiovascular drugs without using animals to test them. This project was funded by The MAWA Trust. "Hala’s work developing a new drug screening methodology, and her commitment to making the world a better place through scientific research, is exactly the kind of science that the Australian Museum Eureka Prizes aim to encourage and celebrate," said Australian Museum Director Frank Howarth. "Hala and her fellow finalists in the People’s Choice Award have drawn attention to some amazing scientific research, innovation, leadership and ability in this country."
An honours student at the RMIT University, Hala was the first Australian to be awarded the MAWA Doctoral Research Scholarship of $75,000 over three years and completed the entire project without resorting to the use of animals or animal products. Professor Harry Majewski, Hala’s supervisor and Head of the School of Medical Sciences at RMIT University, stated that initially there were some problems in replacing animals in her research but that the result is a good one and she now has a human cell line which has been genetically engineered with the human HERG gene without any animal methodology.
Hala was able to compare her new system with the standard system to prove its accuracy against the animal-based models currently used. Hala says: "The results of the project proved that the results were superior to animal models and it shows that there is better predictability of the effects of these drugs on humans compared to animals. This study provides significant potential to reduce the use of animals in frequent testing in the pharmaceutical industry."