Lizebona August Ambattu

I’ve been fascinated by the brain since Year 7, when I read an article describing it as a “white organ”. Even as humans explored space, we still understood very little about our own brain. I became curious about how brain cells communicate and how these invisible conversations shape health and disease.

Growing up in India, I was expected to choose between engineering and medicine, but I chose to become a scientist. Missing out on a PhD place by a few marks was painful, but it led me to a research role investigating nanoparticles for brain cancer. During that time, I volunteered at a cancer centre and met patients with aggressive brain tumours. One young girl who loved to sing lost her clear voice during treatment. Seeing how her identity and hope changed, and how little we could offer beyond sympathy, pushed me towards brain cancer research.

I later trained in monoclonal antibody development, but realised that without understanding how cells communicate, we would always be working around the problem instead of solving it. This led me to a PhD at RMIT in Melbourne, focused on cell–cell communication. I built biological capability in an engineering-focused group from almost nothing, while raising two young children in a new country. Those years taught me persistence and how to bridge disciplines.

Now, as a postdoctoral researcher, I focus on how cells communicate in brain cancer, particularly through tiny chemical messages. I want to lead a research program that uncovers these communication networks and uses them to improve treatment.

Through the Churchill Fellowship, I hope to learn new tools to study how cancer cells share “tiny batteries” and resist therapy, and bring this knowledge back to Australia so we can make existing treatments more effective and improve the lives of people with brain cancer.