In honour of International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we’re shining a light on Professor Ruta Gupta and her incredible journey in medicine and science.

Pro­fes­sor Gup­ta, a Senior Staff Spe­cial­ist in NSW Health Pathol­o­gy, is the Clin­i­cal Direc­tor of the Depart­ment of Tis­sue Pathol­o­gy and Diag­nos­tic Oncol­o­gy at Roy­al Prince Alfred Hos­pi­tal in Syd­ney. Her exper­tise lies in the com­plex realm of head and neck can­cers, where her work extends far beyond diagnosis.

Anatom­i­cal Pathol­o­gists like Pro­fes­sor Gup­ta are med­ical doc­tors who exam­ine tis­sues to diag­nose dis­ease, pre­dict how dis­eases will progress and guide treat­ment plans cru­cial for patient man­age­ment. As a part of her work in head and neck can­cer, she is advo­cat­ing for HPV vac­cines for both boys and girls to pre­vent ton­sil can­cer. She is influ­enc­ing inter­na­tion­al med­ical prac­tices through her work devel­op­ing guide­lines used glob­al­ly for diag­nos­ing and report­ing head and neck cancer.

But her impact does not stop there. Last year NHMRC announced fund­ing for 14 new cen­tres of research excel­lence focus­ing on health issues of pro­found sig­nif­i­cance for patients and com­mu­ni­ties with a total invest­ment of $35 mil­lion. Pro­fes­sor Gup­ta is one of the chief inves­ti­ga­tors on the Cen­tre of Research Excel­lence to reduce mor­bid­i­ty of oral can­cer along with head and neck sur­geons, med­ical oncol­o­gists, cell biol­o­gists, bio­med­ical engi­neers and math­e­mati­cians. We wish this mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary team tak­ing on this ground­break­ing chal­lenge every suc­cess in their efforts.

Through her ded­i­ca­tion and inno­v­a­tive spir­it, Pro­fes­sor Ruta Gup­ta serves as an inspi­ra­tion for aspir­ing doc­tors and sci­en­tists – espe­cial­ly women and girls – to pur­sue their pas­sion for sci­en­tif­ic explo­ration and con­tribute to shap­ing a health­i­er, brighter future for all.

Topics