2025 Rising Star Award Winners
Past Award Winners
The Rising Star Award aims to recognise distinguished contributions of two ASSCR members who have demonstrated excellence in research and leadership in the early stages of their careers.
Sponsored by the National Stem Cell Foundation of Australia (NSCFA).
Dr Ana Nunez-Nescolarde
Dr Ana Nunez-Nescolarde is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Western Australia and the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research. She graduated with her PhD from Monash University in 2024. Her research focuses on epigenomics, single-cell technologies, and developmental biology, with a particular emphasis on understanding gene regulatory mechanisms across human tissues. Through characterising epigenetic and transcriptional landscapes, her work aims to improve the physiological relevance of stem cell-derived models for studying human development and disease.
Her training integrates stem cell biology, kidney organoid systems, and advanced genomic and epigenomic technologies. During her PhD, she developed a suite of human stem cell organoid models for acute kidney injury and chronic kidney disease. She developed kidney organoids from induced pluripotent stem cells, foetal kidney, urine samples, and adult nephrectomy samples. Notably, she established the first protocol to generate organoids from human foetal kidneys, establishing a unique and previously unavailable platform for studying kidney development and congenital disorders.
Dr Nunez-Nescolarde has been recognised as an emerging leader in stem cell biology and nephrology through multiple awards, invited presentations, and leadership roles. She received the Young Investigator Award from the Australia and New Zealand Society of Nephrology in 2024 and served as Australia’s ambassador representing early career researchers at the 62nd European Renal Association Congress in 2025. In 2023, she received the Regenerative Medicine and Bioartificial Kidneys Award from the American Society of Nephrology. Her work has been published in high-impact journals including the Journal of Clinical Investigation, The American Journal of Pathology, Free Radical Biology and Medicine, and Kidney360. She has secured competitive funding from the Medical Advances Without Animals Trust and the Therapeutic Innovation Australia Pipeline Accelerator Grant, and is also a recipient of a 10x Genomics Fellowship.
Dr Kevin Law
Dr Kevin Law is neuroscientist and stem cell biologist in the Neurotherapeutics Laboratory at the University of Sydney. Having received his PhD in 2023, his research is focused on neurodevelopment and neural disorders, including Parkinson’s disease, stroke and opioid overdose.
His passion for stem cells sparked during an exchange program to New York, where he learnt to use stem cells for repairing the damaged brain. He then moved to The Florey Institute for his PhD where he studied human stem cell neural transplantation therapy for stroke. Returning to Sydney for his postdoctoral research, he now uses stem cells to study Parkinson’s disease and is branching out to establish a new stem cell field to study brain-related breathing disorders using his hindbrain organoids.
His research has been published in high-impact journals including Nature Communications, Advanced Functional Materials, and Experimental Neurology. His research program has been supported by multiple competitive grants and awards that have enabled his national and international collaborations, including the Charles Perkins Centre EMCR Grant (2024), Sydney Researcher Accelerator Grant (2025), and the Brain and Mind Centre Engagement Collaborative Grant (2026)
2024 Rising Star Award Winners
Dr Holly Voges
Dr Holly Voges is a Heart Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow and Senior Research Officer in the Heart Regeneration Group at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. She obtained her PhD from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Queensland in 2019, where she used pluripotent stem cell models of the heart to investigate innate regenerative potential and the role of cell-cell interactions in heart maturation.
During her postdoctoral training, she acquired experience in high throughput drug screening and in vitro disease modelling using human pluripotent stem cell-derived organoids. Her research now focuses on bioengineering heart valve tissue for treating and modelling valve disease.
Her work has been recognised by multiple awards and distinctions, including the Shirley E Freeman Award for innovation from the Heart Foundation (2022), publication prizes from the International Society of Heart Research (2023), Stem Cells Australia (2017) and the Zhongmei Chen Young Award for Scientific Excellence from the International Society of Stem Cell Research (2021 and 2024).
Dr Simon Maksour
Dr Simon Maksour is dedicated to understanding early cellular and molecular changes in disease and developing novel therapies for neurodegenerative conditions. He completed his PhD in March 2023 in Professor Mirella Dottori’s lab, modelling Alzheimer’s using neurons, glia, and human stem cell organoids. Currently, he is an Associate Research Fellow in the Neurodevelopment and Neurodegeneration lab under Professor Lezanne Ooi at the University of Wollongong, where he conducts high-throughput drug screening to discover new neuroprotective agents in patient neurons.
Despite being early in his career, Dr Maksour has authored 18 neuroscience publications, 8 as first or co-first author.
His research involves applying stem cells to various neurodegenerative diseases, including Motor Neurone Disease, Alzheimer’s disease, Friedreich’s ataxia, Vanishing White Matter disease, and Huntington’s disease.
He has also successfully led competitive research grants, including the Bruce Warren Molecular Horizons ECR fellowship, enabling him to manage his own project. Simon aims to leverage his skill set and collaborative approach to advance the understanding and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.
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