Developing Novel Peptide-based Therapeutics And Technologies To Mitigate Fibrosis
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$1,161,383.00
Summary
Fibrosis (tissue scarring) is an unmet medical problem that adversely affects both human health and medical devices. It causes organ (e.g. heart, kidney) failure leading to death. Fibrotic encapsulation causes medical device (e.g. surgical mesh) failure. Our team has discovered a peptide, B7-33, that mitigates fibrosis in the short-term. Our IDEAS grant aims to develop long-acting B7-33 therapies and, to employ long-acting B7-33 mimetics in anti-fibrotic compositions for surgical meshes.
Probing Changes In G Protein-coupled Receptor Signalling Networks During Breast Cancer Progression
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$892,733.00
Summary
The b2-adrenoceptor is a protein receptor that enables cells to respond to hormones. In breast cancer, this receptor causes more aggressive tumour cells to metastasise faster in response to stress. This proposal aims to understand why this response occurs in only very aggressive cells, and to identify how we can better target blocking drugs to this receptor. This could allow us to design better drugs with fewer side effects.