Dr Melissa Benson
Clinical Trials With Medicinal Cannabis: Why is it so hard?

Dr Melissa Benson graduated with a Bachelor of  Biotechnology (Honours in Drug, Design and Development) at the University of Queensland. Following this, she completed her PhD in Neuropharmacology also at the University of Queensland with a focus on the development of novel antiepileptic drug pathways and the role played by neuroinflammation in epilepsy disease development. She completed further postgraduate studies in Business related to drug development and intellectual property commercialisation.
Melissa then moved to NYC and undertook a postdoctoral fellowship at New York Medical College, focusing on disease mechanisms underlying West Syndrome, a catastrophic infantile epilepsy. Following her return to Australia, she worked in clinical trials management at a large private practice in eastern Sydney, focusing on day-to-day management and setup of clinical studies, primarily in the fields of HIV, hepatitis and cervical cancer.

Melissa joined the Lambert Initiative in July 2018, where she continues to contribute to ongoing preclinical epilepsy research. However, her key focus is project management of cannabinoid-based clinical trials and related projects being undertaken by the Lambert Initiative, in collaboration with specialist clinicians and researchers locally and abroad.