A UQ Science researcher has received a prestigious honorary fellowship for her long-time work into understanding the underlying mechanisms of pain.
Professor Maree Smith has been awarded the Honorary Fellowship by the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists’ Faculty of Pain Medicine.
The Faculty of Pain Medicine admits distinguished persons who have made a notable contribution to the advancement of the science and practice of pain medicine, but are not practising pain medicine in Australia or New Zealand.
Executive Director of UQ’s Centre for Integrated Preclinical Drug Development and its commercial arm, TetraQ, Professor Smith said she was very surprised to be honoured.
“When I got the letter and opened it, I just thought ‘wow’, I didn’t even know they did this,” she said.
“I feel really flattered and honoured, my research team and I have been working away in the field for about two decades now because that’s what you need to do in order to make a difference, I never expected to get recognized for it.”
Pain medicine is a multidisciplinary field of specialist medical practice that has matured relatively recently.
The field recognises the management of severe pain problems requires the skills of more than one medical discipline.
Professor Smith has specialist expertise in pre-clinical drug development as well as the mechanistic basis of pain and its pharmacological management.
As TetraQ CEO, a leading Australian preclinical drug development contract research organisation based at UQ, Professor Smith is in a unique position to further pain medicine.
“At TetraQ we sit in the translational research space,” she said.
“We assist universities and small biotech and pharmaceutical companies in getting potential drugs from the laboratory bench to the pharmacy.
“We perform the preclinical drug trials, showing these drugs are efficacious – they do what the company says they do – and that they are safe to go on to human trials.”
This isn’t the first award Professor Smith has received for her contributions to science, in 2008 she received the Women in Technology Biotech Outstanding Achievement Award.
And in 2003, Prof Smith was awarded a “Trailblazer Challenge” award by UniQuest, for developing new treatments for the pain caused by sciatica and other forms of nerve damage.
The FPM is the body responsible for training, education and standards for Pain Medicine in Australia and New Zealand.
Media: Professor Maree Smith (07 33652554 or m.smith@tetraq.com.au) or Travis Taylor (07 33658598 or t.taylor1@uq.edu.au).
