Rate My Professor Juliana Hamzah

Associate Professor Juliana Hamzah is a Principal Research Fellow at the UWA Medical School and UWA Centre for Medical Research, affiliated with the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research. She serves as the Cancer Council WA Research Fellow and Head of the Laboratory for Targeted Drug Delivery, Imaging and Therapy. Her research centres on developing targeted delivery platforms for diagnostic imaging and therapeutic interventions in cancer and atherosclerosis. Following her PhD from the University of Western Australia in 2005, she completed postdoctoral training at the WA Institute of Medical Research from 2006 to 2009, focusing on therapies against cancer angiogenesis under Professor Ruth Ganss. She then undertook further postdoctoral work at the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute in California from 2009 to 2012 under an American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellowship in the laboratory of Professor Erkki Ruoslahti, where she developed expertise in engineering theranostic agents.

Juliana returned to Perth in 2013 as an NHMRC/National Heart Foundation R.D. Wright Biomedical Fellow and established her independent research team at the Harry Perkins Institute. Her laboratory characterises tissue-homing peptides that bind specifically to components of the tumour and atherosclerotic plaque microenvironment, including inflammatory vasculature, macrophages and extracellular matrix. These peptides are used to create nanoparticle-based systems for improved contrast agent delivery and targeted therapies in preclinical models. She has contributed to key publications on plaque-penetrating peptides and stromal modulation of tumour immunity. In 2025, she received a $750,000 grant to advance a first-in-class agent for improving blood circulation. Her work supports advancements in early detection and treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases through nanotechnology and in vivo imaging approaches.