Metcalf Prize winner wins major funding grants for both research and a public exhibition.

Dr Felicity Davis won a 2019 Metcalf Prize for her research into how stem cells and calcium affect breast function. The following year she won a DKK 25 million (A$5.9 million) grant from Novo Nordisk Foundation to move to Denmark to establish a research laboratory at Aarhus University.

Today, the Brisbane-born biologist is progressing research that earned her the Metcalf. She holds a joint appointment between UNSW and Aarhus University, where she leads a project entitled ‘Intracellular Calcium Signalling at the Nexus of Mammary Gland Function and Failure’. 

In 2023, Felicity received a further DKK 6 million (A$1.5 million) from Novo Nordisk Foundation to help lead the development of a Danish museum exhibition to improve public understanding of women’s health and female biology.

Photo Simon Fischel, AU Health

Phase 1 of the new exhibition, The overlooked body, opened in January at the Steno Museum in Aarhus and runs until the end of 2025. From placentas to crash test dummies, it explores how gender disparities in medical research affect us today.

Highlights include a crash test dummy installation; the world’s largest knitted placenta created by Australian artist Rebecca Vandyk-Hamilton; a real placenta; and an endometriosis installation.

Last year, Felicity gave birth to twins of her own.

We caught up with her for a long-distance Q&A.

What first drew you into stem cell research?

I did my PhD in breast cancer research and felt increasingly frustrated about how little we understood about the normal breast. During my second postdoc at the University of Cambridge, I had the opportunity to work in a mammary stem cell lab with a really great team of scientists on a fascinating mammary stem cell project. This is where my interest in adult stem cells began.

What’s the biggest difference you want your research to make and why?

That’s a really hard question to answer. I hope that my research helps us to understand how the breast develops and functions, as this has important implications for the health of women, mothers and babies. But equally important to me, I hope to create an environment that fosters creativity, curiosity, enjoyment with equitable opportunities for the next generation. 

Can you share any “Eureka” moments after winning the Metcalf Prize? 

I do my best to create a research environment where there are no silly questions, where bold ideas can be explored and where serendipitous discoveries can be chased. There are lots of ‘Ah-ha!’ moments in science. For us, they are mainly behind the microscope.

How has becoming a mother provided new insights into your research topic?

Being a breast researcher definitely helped with breastfeeding twins, which isn’t easy. But being a mother is also informing my research. We have a freezer box full of milk cells isolated from my milk donations (which can be used to create human organoids) and last month I even gave a voluntary 6-core biopsy of my own lactating breast tissue for research. It is incredibly rare to get this tissue and almost impossible to get it fresh, which is needed for live imaging studies. So, after the approvals were in place, I went under the knife myself.

How has your work advanced since you were awarded a Metcalf Prize in 2019? And how did the funding directly impact progress?

In 2019, we were a very small group, based at the University of Queensland. There were only three of us, but we asked a lot of questions, spent a lot of time in the lab and had a lot of fun along the way. We operated on a pretty small budget, so the funding helped our science immensely. Perhaps more important than the funding, however, was the recognition and the feeling of being part of something special.

It’s a privilege to be counted among a great group of scientists who are Metcalf Prize alumni. And the National Stem Cell Foundation of Australia sits at the heart of a really wonderful community that has been incredibly supportive of my research.

The year after receiving the Metcalf Prize we published a manuscript showing how cells in the mammary gland are connected and how they communicate to enable milk ejection during lactation. It was a really important manuscript – and a huge effort – from our small team. It provided important insights into female biology and women’s health, but it also opened many more questions, which we continue to work on in Denmark.

What about the museum exhibition?

The idea for the exhibition was one that grew over a number of years and took off when an amazing group of women’s health researchers got together at the right time and a funding call from the Novo Nordisk Foundation was announced.

Did I ever imagine my children’s placentas would form part of it? Definitely not. But I feel like it is where they belong, and I hope they feel that way too as they grow up knowing that they are part of the museum’s permanent collection. I have to admit though, it was a little strange bringing an ice box and fixative into the maternity ward!

How will you explain the importance of this to your children in simple terms?

My partner and I are very committed to raising children who aren’t limited by traditional gender roles and this will of course involve discussions with them about health inequities in research, which is a major part of my job.

But I have also learned a lot from the museum curators and staff about the process of ‘co-creation’ and how teaching and learning are joint endeavours. So, we will be curious together and have conversations together and learn together.

Read Felicity’s story on ‘How being a scientist helped me to be a good mother’.

Photo Simon Fischel, AU Health