Novel Vaccine Formulation For Immunotherapy Of Adenocarcinomas
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$178,400.00
Summary
We have designed a vaccine based on a unique delivery system. Mice immunised with vaccine were protected from a tumour challenge. We will now design a vacine with a cancer associated protein so that people once immunised can make killer cells. Since humans have different genetic makeup we will produce a vacine which is more effective and will benefit everyone. This vaccine will be more effective than a current vacine in that has yielded promising results in humans.
In Vitro And In Vivo Assessment Of The Funhaler -an Innovative Therapeutic Device For Children
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$472,750.00
Summary
Aerosol therapy is the most effective form of treatment for children with respiratory diseases such as asthma. While optimising aerosol delivery systems has an important role in increasing the efficacy of asthma therapy, ensuring patient compliance is often the most difficult part of the clinician's role, particularly in the paediatric age group. An innovative small volume spacer device (Funhaler) developed by a West Australian company (InfaMed, Ltd) may help overcome this problem. The Funhaler ....Aerosol therapy is the most effective form of treatment for children with respiratory diseases such as asthma. While optimising aerosol delivery systems has an important role in increasing the efficacy of asthma therapy, ensuring patient compliance is often the most difficult part of the clinician's role, particularly in the paediatric age group. An innovative small volume spacer device (Funhaler) developed by a West Australian company (InfaMed, Ltd) may help overcome this problem. The Funhaler incorporates a spinning toy attached to the outside of the spacer. The toy is activated when the patient breathes through the spacer. The device has been designed to encourage children to co-operate when their asthma therapy is being delivered. The Funhaler is currently in the late development stage. We propose, firstly, to carry out in vitro assessments of drug delivery from the Funhaler compared to the two most widely available small volume spacers: the Aerochamber Plus (Trudell, Canada) and the Breath-A-Tech (Scott-Dibben, Australia). These assessments will be carried out to meet the standards of regulatory bodies worldwide (including the FDA). Secondly, we propose to perform extensive in vivo studie: filter studies to assess drug delivery to the patient; deposition studies to measure drug deposition in the lungs; and a pilot clinical trial to assess the efficacy of the device during medium to long-term use in children aged 2-8 years.Read moreRead less
Targeted Alpha Therapy For Metastatic Breast Cancer Using Alpha-Herceptin
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$332,420.00
Summary
The specific aim of this proposal is to demonstrate, in non-human primates, proof–of-concept of a patented new platform vaccine technology (scrambled antigen vaccine or SAVINE) designed to encode all the protein sequences of an infectious agent, in this case HIV-1. These are arranged as equal-sized, overlapping fragments such that all potential T cell epitopes that are needed to induce broad T-cell-mediated immunity are maintained. The synthetically designed vaccine uses consensus sequences of H ....The specific aim of this proposal is to demonstrate, in non-human primates, proof–of-concept of a patented new platform vaccine technology (scrambled antigen vaccine or SAVINE) designed to encode all the protein sequences of an infectious agent, in this case HIV-1. These are arranged as equal-sized, overlapping fragments such that all potential T cell epitopes that are needed to induce broad T-cell-mediated immunity are maintained. The synthetically designed vaccine uses consensus sequences of HIV-1 to provide universal coverage of the major HIV-1 strains for a global population. The synthetic systematically designed HIV-1 vaccine will be delivered using our newly developed prime-boost immunisation regime that induces particularly high levels of cell-mediated immunity.Read moreRead less
External Therapeutic Device To Support Rehabilitation Of The Hand Following Trauma Or Surgery
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$175,000.00
Summary
The loss of hand function will affect every aspect of an individual’s life. This includes the ability to feed and care for themselves and the ability to work and participate in family life. For people recovering from problems such as trauma, burns or surgery affecting the hand, careful management of hand rehabilitation can influence the outcome for the patient significantly. In order to reduce the possibility of mobility difficulties occurring, including loss of joint range of motion, muscle and ....The loss of hand function will affect every aspect of an individual’s life. This includes the ability to feed and care for themselves and the ability to work and participate in family life. For people recovering from problems such as trauma, burns or surgery affecting the hand, careful management of hand rehabilitation can influence the outcome for the patient significantly. In order to reduce the possibility of mobility difficulties occurring, including loss of joint range of motion, muscle and tendon sheath adhesions or non-functional scar tissue formation, continuous passive motion (CPM) is often indicated. Additionally, for people with reduced mobility of the hand due to upper limb paralysis, such as those with cervical spinal cord injury, stroke, cerebral palsy or peripheral nerve injury, disregard for management of the maintenance of the joint range of motion of the effected hand will result in contracture and limited joint range of motion. Such syndromes will reduce hand function, which is already limited by paralysis, and will negatively affect potential outcomes for aggressive rehabilitation techniques, such as tendon transfer surgery and functional neuromuscular stimulation. Therefore, in such cases, CPM is also indicated. Current devices applying CPM have shown to be effective in minimising the syndromes indicated above and these results are summarised in the Background and Research Plan attached to this proposal. Unfortunately, the use of such devices is not always prescribed by clinicians. This is due, mainly, to the limitations of these devices that are in the marketplace. These limitations include lack of secure finger placement, lack of portability, the inability to provide specialised therapy to specific joints and inflexible programming. This proposal introduces an improved device to be developed and these improvements form the proposal aims below. Given such an improved device, which can overcome many of the problems with current CPM machines, it is likely that that the clinical application of CPM will achieve the greater degree of prescription and application in hand rehabilitation. These improvements should overcome the clinical reticence to use these devices and restore a balance by increasing their use to the level that the scientific literature indicates they should have. The overall aim of the proposal is to take the device to a stage where it is ready for clinical trial.Read moreRead less
The Respire_ System: Portable Pulmonary Delivery Platform For Rapid, Flexible And Highly Efficient Treatment Of Elderly, Paediatric And Physically-Compromised Patients With Chronic Respiratory Diseases
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$599,142.00
Summary
The development of a low-cost miniature drug delivery platform for the treatment of chronic respiratory diseases is proposed. The portable device has already been shown to be significantly more efficient than currently available asthma inhalers. In addition, the device offers the possibility of dose adjustment to account for patient variability, such as age and disease severity, as well as a reduction in patient intervention, thus making it more appropriate for patients unable to self-medicate.
Cranio-Cervical Dynamometry In The Rehabilitation Of Neck Pain
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$110,632.00
Summary
Research has demonstrated that exercising particular neck muscles in a specific manner is effective in reducing painful neck symptoms. A device has been developed to quantify the performance of specific neck muscles, permitting more precise rehabilitative exercise, tailored to an individual’s abilities and needs. The effectiveness of this device in the rehabilitation of chronic neck pain will be tested in a clinical trial against other commonly used forms of neck exercise.
Kunjin Replicons For Gene Therapy And Protein Manufacture
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$310,000.00
Summary
This grant seeks to provide proof of concept (PoC) for the use of the Kunjin replicon technology for gene therapy and protein production. (A) Protein production. Two Kunjin replicon constructs expressing green fluorescent protein (GFP) and secreted alkaline phosphatase (SEAP) are to be constructed and protein production monitored using FACS and SEAP bioactivity reporter kit (Roche), respectively. Protein production and biological activity of the proteins will be monitored in transient transfecti ....This grant seeks to provide proof of concept (PoC) for the use of the Kunjin replicon technology for gene therapy and protein production. (A) Protein production. Two Kunjin replicon constructs expressing green fluorescent protein (GFP) and secreted alkaline phosphatase (SEAP) are to be constructed and protein production monitored using FACS and SEAP bioactivity reporter kit (Roche), respectively. Protein production and biological activity of the proteins will be monitored in transient transfections and over an extended time period. Several cell lines, culture conditions and Kunjin replicon vector modifications will be tested. Arrangements have also been made to send the constructs to Roche, GSK, Eli Lilly, and Exelixis for side by side comparisons of this system with existing proprietary protein production echnologies. (B) Gene therapy. Two PoC gene therapy systems are proposed to be used for evaluation of Kunjin replicon vectors. (i) Tumours expressing granulocyte macrophage colony stimulating factor (GMCSF) by transfection cause the generation of anti-tumour CD8 T cells and subsequent tumour rejection. Current approaches include adoptive transfer of adeno-GM-CSF transfected tumour cells, a costly and laborious process resulting in only transient expression (Can. Imm. Immunother 2001 50:373). We intend to inject Kunjin replicon virus like particles into growing s.c. B16 melanomas and expect to see a high infection rate, a sustained high-level expression of GMCSF, and rejection of the tumour. In contrast to Kunjin, nearly all humans have antibody responses to adenovirus, and very high titres of adenovirus are required to obtain high infection and GM-CSF expression. Both factors limit adenovirus use in vivo. (ii) Transplant rejection can be inhibited by expression in the graft of CTLA4-Fc a reagent that blocks T cell co-stimulation enhancing allo-graft acceptance (Transplantation 2000 69:1806). High-level expression for over 100 days is expected to correlate with optimal graft acceptance. Our ability to use Kunjin to express beta galactosidase for several months in vivo without inflammation illustrates the potential for this approach (CIB ref 15). Initially we intend to use P815 cells injected i.p. into C57BL-6, where they are usually rejected within a few days. In contrast, P815 cells with Kunjin replicon-mediated CTLA4-Fc expression should survive for an extended period. Graft survival is easily monitored using FACS and anti-H-2d antibodies.Read moreRead less
Development Of A Slit Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscope As A Screening Tool In Glaucoma Diagnostics
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$195,830.00
Summary
Glaucoma is typified by progressive optic disc cupping and loss of fibres with consequent characteristic field defects. Direct imaging of the retina and quantitative assessment of such images greatly increases early diagnosis of this blinding disease. The proposed device, a laser line scanning ophthalmoscope, could support non-invasive imaging to obtain 3-D information in a simple and cost effective way. This could provide objective clinical parameters to support the decision making process.