Endowment — Dr Susan Lim

The Dr Susan Lim Endowment for Education and Research

(Dr Susan Lim EER)

Launched in 2016, the Dr Susan Lim EER brings together the various scholarships and grants provided at Trinity College, the University of Melbourne, the University of Newcastle, the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) and others under one common umbrella. Recipients are known as SLIM scholars.
The scholarships are a reflection of dr Susan Lim’s educational experience, her surgical contributions in a crisis situation, and her deep interest in stem cell research, among others.

The Dr Susan Lim Medical Scholarship - Trinity College, the University of Melbourne

Here, the aim was to give back to her alma mater, and to Trinity College in particular, where Susan had spent her clinical years in residency between 1977 and 1979. Susan describes her time at Trinity as a “breath of fresh air”, where she participated in College Rowing on the Yarra, and benefited from the Trinity medical tutorials, though enrolled as a student at the Monash University. Dr Lim graduated with a medical degree from Monash University at the end of 1979 (MBBS Hons 1) and was made a Fellow of Trinity College in 2005, in recognition of her pioneering achievements in the field of Surgery.
In 2010, Dr Lim and her family started a medical scholarship at Trinity College, the University of Melbourne, to support talented students with insufficient means to achieve an education in the medical sciences.

The Dr Susan Lim Medical Scholarship, University of Newcastle, Australia

In 2007, Dr Susan Lim provided urgent trauma care and surgical treatment to the victims of the second Bali bomb blast, who were evacuated to Singapore. Two victims who Dr Lim helped were Australians from Newcastle, and her surgical care was acknowledged by the Australian government. Dr Lim’s relationship with Newcastle further developed in 2007 when she was given an honorary degree by the University of Newcastle. Nearly a decade later in 2016, the relationship continues with the establishment of a scholarship program in Dr Lim’s name .

The ISSCR Dr Susan Lim Outstanding Young Investigator Award

Following her surgical qualifications, Dr Susan Lim pursued a doctorate in Transplantation Immunology at the University of Cambridge between 1985-1989. As an academic surgeon, in addition to her full time surgical career, she was deeply interested in the sciences, and presented her research at several International meetings including:

1. The Third International Congress on Pancreatic and Islet Cell Transplantation, June 1991, Lyon, France. Papers presented: (1) Lim SML, Heng KK, Wee A, et al. An in vitro assessment of human fetal pancreatic islets of Langerhans in culture. (2) Lim SML, Heng KK, Wee A, et al. The development of foetal porcine islet cells as xenografts.

2. First International Congress on Xenotransplantation, Minneapolis, USA, August 1991. Paper presented: Lim SML, Heng KK, Wee A. A study of the xenogeneic response in an isolated liver perfusion circuit.
3. First International Congress of the Cell Transplant Society, Pittsburgh, USA, 31 May – 2 June 1992. Paper accepted - “The procurement of human fetal pancreases for islet cell research - SML Lim".

4. XCIII Annual Congress of the Japan Surgical Society, Sendai, Japan, April 1993. Title of presentation "The rectum as a novel site for islet cell transplantation - preliminary report".

5. 3rd International Congress on the Immune Consequences of Trauma, Shock and Sepsis, Munich, W. Germany, March 1994. Paper presented "A predictive role for complement in end stage liver cirrhosis".

6. IFATs 2005 – “The Role of Adipose Tissue in Regenerative Medicine – The Opportunities for Clinical Therapy”, Charlottesville, Virginia, September 2005.

7. 5th International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) Annual Meeting , Cairns, Queensland, Australia, June 2007, Poster Presentation – Depot-Specificity of Human Adipose-Tissue Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells.

8. The American Society of Breast Surgeons 9th Annual Meeting, April 2008, New York, USA. Poster Presentation: Characterisation of Adipose-Derived Stem Cells in the Stroma of Breast Tissue from Normal and Cancer Patients.

9. International Society for Cellular Therapy 2008 Conference, Miami, May 2008. Poster Presentation: The Application of Adipose-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Cellular Mammoplasty – Initial Study.

10. 6th International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, June 2008. Poster Presentation: Characterisation of Adipose-Derived Stem Cells in The Stroma of Breast Tissue from Normal and Cancer Patients.

11. Moderator of the session on “Stem Cells in Clinic Applications”, BioBridge Conference “Generation Regeneration” Regenerative Medicine Conference, 22 September 2008, United Nations, Geneva.

12. American Society of Breast Surgeons 10th Annual Meeting, April 2009, San Diego, USA. Poster presentation: “An Analysis of the Immunophenotype and Gene Expression Profile of MSCs Derived from The Stroma of Benign and Malignant Breast Tissue”.

13. 7th International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) Annual Meeting, Barcelona, Spain, July 2009. Poster Presentation: “Characterisation of Mesenchymal Cells from the Stroma of Benign and Malignant Breast Tissue”.

14. The American Society of Breast Surgeons 11th Annual Meeting, April 2010, Las Vegas, USA. Poster presentation: “Spontaneous malignant transformation in vitro of adipose-derived mesenchymal stromal cells from patients with benign and malignant breast lesions”.

15. The INK Conference – In Association with TED, December 2010, Lavasa, India. Invited Speaker – “From Organs to Cells”.

16. International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) 9th Annual Meeting, June 2011, Toronto, Canada. Poster Presentation: “Banking human iPS cells generated from adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells”.

17. American College of Surgeons 97th Annual Clinical Congress, October 2011, San Francisco, California, USA. Oral presentation in the session “Timely Reports: Outside the Common Boundaries” – “Re-establishing Pluripotency in Adult Cells Derived from Surgically Discarded Adipose Tissue”.

Dr Lim also participated in the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) 12th Annual Meeting, Vancouver, Canada, June 2014, the 10th Annual World Stem Cells Regenerative Congress, May 2015, London UK, the International Society for Stem Cell Research, 13th Annual Meeting, Stockholm June 2015 and the International Society for Stem Cell Research, 14th Annual Meeting, San Francisco June 2016.
At this last meeting, Dr Lim’s family launched the inaugural ISSCR Dr Susan Lim Outstanding Young Investigator award at the Plenary session of the conference, which was awarded to Dr Fernando Camargo of Harvard.

Dr Susan Lim and her husband Deepak Sharma are the current co-chairpersons of the ISSCR Global Advisory Council.