Dr Susannah Hallal is a postdoctoral scientist and Brain Cancer Research Fellow at Chris O’Brien Lifehouse. She focuses on improving survival and quality of life for people with brain cancer. Her research develops non-invasive, cost-effective tools for diagnosing and monitoring brain tumours. She aims to bring lab discoveries into everyday clinical practice.

Dr Hallal earned her PhD in 2019, supervised by Dr Kimberley Alexander, Director of Brain Cancer Research at Chris O’Brien Lifehouse. She was awarded an Australian Postgraduate Award and an Australian Rotary Health Scholarship. In her PhD, Dr Hallal found that glioblastoma tumours affect healthy brain cells to help them grow. The tumours release nanoparticles called extracellular vesicles. Dr Hallal studied these vesicles and developed a method to detect glioblastoma changes in blood using just a few drops.

She is now refining this method for earlier and more accurate tumour detection. Her work has received national and international recognition. It has been presented at major conferences.

In 2024, Dr Hallal received the five-year Guardian Trust Early Career Fellowship from the Cure Brain Cancer Foundation. This fellowship will support her research on blood-based biomarkers and methods for tracking brain cancer.

Dr Hallal also teaches undergraduate studies and supervises research students at the University of Sydney, including the BMedSc Honours University Medallist (2022).

https://scholar.google.com.au/citations?user=EExxibAAAAAJ&hl=en