HARNESSING T CELL QUALITY FOR PANDEMIC PREPAREDNESS
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$503,146.00
Summary
Developing highly effective vaccines is critical to rapidly combat global pandemics. To generate a protective antibody response against novel viruses, a vaccine must elicit a targeted B cell response supported by effective CD4 T cell help. We propose that existing CD4 T cell memory can be harnessed to rapidly and effectively support B cell responses to novel vaccine candidates. This work will contribute to pandemic preparedness strategies and improve the development pathway for new vaccines.
Leaving No-one Behind: Informing Indigenous Aged Care Policy With Big Data.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$1,668,851.00
Summary
Very little is known about older Indigenous people in aged care. Led by Indigenous people, this project will use a unique national dataset to answer questions on the experiences of Indigenous people in aged care, focusing on access and barriers to services and care, quality and safety of care and whether the care they receive meets their health needs. This research will inform service improvements and ensure older Indigenous people are not forgotten in much-needed aged care reforms.
Facial paralysis results in loss of the ability to blink, which is the primary means of protecting and lubricating the eye. The eye becomes dry and ulcerated and eventually vision loss ensues. No therapy exists that can reliably restore blink and hence treatment is mostly palliative today. BLINC is an implantable device that artificially restores eye closure. It is wirelessly powered and readily implantable. BLINC has achieved eye closure similar to natural blinking in human cadaveric models.
Improving Cardiac Valve Implant Outcomes With Advanced Computer Simulation
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$593,367.00
Summary
This project focuses on improving heart valve procedures, specifically focusing on new transcatheter techniques of heart valve implantation. The research uses advanced imaging and computer simulation techniques to predict the outcome and improve minimally invasive heart procedures.
Predictive Models To Design And Develop New Antibiotics Derived From The Community For Open Antimicrobial Drug Discovery
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$977,427.00
Summary
With the rise of infections from multidrug-resistant bacteria, and limited antibiotics in the development pipeline, new strategies are required to generate novel antibiotics. This project will apply artificial intelligence methods to study a unique dataset generated over five years with the help of over 300 academic groups around the world. It will produce predictive models that will then be applied to design new antibiotics, which will be synthesized and tested for antimicrobial activity.
Biosensor Based Clinical-decision Support For Patients With Heart Failure
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$691,933.00
Summary
Heart Failure (HF) is a progressive disease and a major global public health concern. HF accounts for a substantial number of hospitalisations, major healthcare resource utilisation and costs. We aim to engineer biosensor platform to stratify the risk in HF patients will revolutionise current management of HF by providing the cardiologist information to risk stratify patients based on protein signature. This will lead to a substantial paradigm shift in clinical practice.
Improving Clinical Outcomes Of Antimicrobial Resistant Infections With A Drug-free Intervention
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$999,581.00
Summary
Superbugs, or antimicrobial-resistant pathogens, cause recurring infections and non-healing wounds after surgery as existing therapies fail to effectively kill them. We will develop a medical device to fight superbugs with UV light that is effective against bacteria and fungi without causing harm to human cells. This could eradicate superbugs at infection sites, aid wound healing and actively improve health outcomes after surgery.
Osteoarthritis Compass: Predicting Personalized Disease Onset And Progression With Future Capacity For Clinical Use.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$860,231.00
Summary
Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is common, painful, and costly. General guidelines for knee OA management exist but cannot be personalized to the patient. New computer modelling methods enable prediction of knee OA onset and progression on a patient by patient basis but need further testing. Our aims are to 1) apply these new computer modelling methods to legacy datasets acquired from patient groups at risk of, and with, knee OA, and 2) make these models simple and fast enough to be clinically useful.
A Suture-less Cannula For Rapid, Off-bypass Implantation Of Left Ventricular Assist Devices
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$816,491.00
Summary
Heart transplantation is the ideal treatment for 300,000 Australians living with chronic heart failure. The lack of donor hearts necessitates the use of implantable mechanical hearts; however, bleeding and blood clots are common due to outdated surgical tools, poor body-device integration and unnatural device blood flow. This project will address these limitations through the development of a rapid and safe implantation tool that integrates with the body and produces natural blood flow dynamics.
A Wireless Electric Nerve-guide For Peripheral Nerve Repair
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$805,064.00
Summary
We aim to deliver a radical new precision intervention for peripheral nerve repair to improve the lives of people with peripheral nerve damage. Drawing from our recently awarded work on 'electric neural tissue engineering', we will pre-clinically test our invention of a unique clinically-amenable electric nerve-guide (e-nerve-guide), designed to act as a protective nerve conduit and wirelessly electrically-stimulate damaged nerves for their regeneration and restoration of function.