Melissa Little

Melissa Little was born in Brisbane, Australia on 5 December 1963, the middle daughter of three girls. Her father, Ian Little, was a soils chemist with the CSIRO Cunningham laboratories. She graduated from Kenmore State High School in 1980. She completed her BSc at the University of Queensland with 1st Class Honours in Physiology in 1984. Her PhD studies were performed in the laboratory of Professor Peter Smith at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research enrolled through Biochemistry at the University of Queensland (conferred 1990). An alumna of the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, Melissa worked for more than 20 years at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience, where her research focused on the molecular basis of kidney development, renal disease and repair. In 2004 she graduated from the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Little started her research career studying Wilm's Tumour, a childhood kidney cancer. She was awarded a Royal Society Endeavour Fellowship to move to the Medical Research Council Human Genetics Unit in Edinburgh to undertake postdoctoral training with Nicholas Hastie. Here she worked on the gene WT1, the gene that is mutated in a subset of Wilm's tumour patients.

She returned to Australia to continue to work on WT1, but concentrating on its essential role in the normal development of the urogenital system.[7] Her work focuses on the molecular aspects of kidney development, with applications to stem cell biology and regenerative medicine.

Little and her team have developed an approach to recapitulate nephrogenesis, the formation of nephrons, in a dish. By knowing where the different kidney cells come from and how they develop she has developed a system to regenerate them from pluripotent stem cells. Using embryonic stem cells, or induced pluripotent stem cells from a patient, her group has described a cocktail of growth factors that can drive development into kidney cells.

The group were able to develop self organising organoids 7mm long over 18 days.[8][9] These small balls of cells have differentiated most of the cells that form the kidneys, including collecting ducts, podocytes, vasculature cells, nephrons and loops of Henle, and are closely related transcriptionallly to first and second trimester developing kidneys. Further research into the organoids by Prof Little's Laboratory has demonstrated robust transcriptional reproducibility of the model[10] and utilised induced pluripotent stem cells generated from patients to study their kidney disease.[11][12]

In the late 1990s, Little was a member of the Strategic Review of Health and Medical Research, chaired by Peter Wills.[13] This review[14] proposed a Virtuous Cycle between research, government and the commercial sector . As a result of these recommendations, the budget of the National Health and Medical Research Council was doubled over the next 10 years. She went on to serve on the Implementation Committee of that review and served under Robin Batterham, Chief Scientist, to identify strategic priorities across Australian science. A member of the NHMRC Research Committee for 6 years, she was also a member of the most recent review of health and medical research, chaired by Simon McKeon, which led to the establishment of the Medical Research Future Fund[15] and the Biomedical Translation Fund.[16]

Little is the 2021-2022 President of the International Society for Stem Cell Research [17] and Program Leader of Stem Cells Australia,[18] an organisation that aims to "Bring together Australia's premier life scientists to tackle the big questions in stem cell science". She is also a guest editor with the scientific journal Development.[19] She is the serving theme director of Cell Biology[20] at the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute and directs the MCRI Stem Cell Medicine Strategic Priority area. She is also the President of the Australasian Society for Stem Cell Research and a Board Member of the International Society for Stem Cell Research.

• 2023, Companion of the Order of Australia[22]
• 2021, Homer W. Smith Award, American Society of Nephrology[23]
• 2020, Julian Wells Medal, Lorne GENOME Conference[24]
• 2019, Alfred Newton Richards Award, World Congress of Nephrology[5]
• 2019, Honorary doctorate, University of Leiden, The Netherlands[4]
• 2017, Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science
• 2016, Eureka Prize for Scientific Research[25]
• 2015, Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences[26]
• 2015, Boerhaave Professorship, University of Leiden, The Netherlands
• 2013, Women in Technology Biotechnology and Outstanding Biotechnology Award Finalist
• 2013, NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellowship
• 2006, Eisenhower Fellowship
• 2005, GlaxoSmithKline Award for Research Excellence
• 2004, NHMRC Principal Research Fellowship
• 2004, Named in The Bulletin Smart 100
• 2004, Australian Academy of Science Gottschalk Medal in Medical Sciences
• 2002, NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship
• 1997, Sylvia and Charles Viertel Senior Research Fellowship