A young woman stands in a greenhouse, surrounded by green plants. The person is wearing a dark blazer and the background features plant beds and a translucent ceiling structure.

12 September, 2024 | Julia Solonenka, QUT Centre for Agriculture and Bioeconomy

Meet our 3MT Finalist and 2024 Runner-Up, Julia Solonenka, from the Centre for Agriculture and the Bioeconomy's Genetics and Molecular Biology Program. Julia entered the 2024 3MT Grand Final with her presentation: Plant-based medicines: Once they're pure, they're the cure.

Julia’s PhD research focuses on finding more economical ways to isolate protein-based medicines from plants, aiming for this platform to become industry standard for fast, large-scale pharmaceutical production.

“Since the COVID-19 pandemic, everyone has witnessed the importance of being able to quickly develop and distribute vaccines globally. Using plants to make vaccines and other lifesaving medicines is an appealing way of addressing these needs, as they can be grown in large quantities without the need for specialized laboratory spaces. However, purifying medicinal proteins from plants is notoriously difficult and expensive, especially at larger scales”.

Julia is conducting her research in collaboration with industry partner International Animal Health Products. The aim is to produce a plant-based biologic to help manage parasites in livestock.

“I hope that I will be able to successfully employ some of my methods in the downstream processing of this product and also for other medicines to come”.

On what she finds challenging during her candidature, Julia talks about overcoming failure. As the majority of her research is undertaken at the laboratory bench, she is more often faced with failed experiments than successful ones.

“Something I’ve worked on to overcome the feeling of disappointment is shifting my mindset; for example, troubleshooting failures teaches you more about the process and helps you grow as a scientist. Also, recognising and celebrating the small wins is key."

A key piece of advice for current and future HDRs?

“A thesis isn’t just made up of one big eureka moment- it’s a collection of small but meaningful steps toward your end goal”.

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