The Influence Of Gender And Steroid Hormones On Cerebrovascular NADPH Oxidase During Health And Disease
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$390,974.00
Summary
My research addresses several major questions regarding the regulation of brain blood flow and mechanisms that may contribute to stroke. There is confusion as to whether giving menopausal women hormone replacement worsens the effect of having a stroke. I propose that female hormones may lower blood flow to the brain after menopause and therefore cause more damage to the brain after stroke.
Improving The Mental Health Outcomes Of Australian Young People
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$437,034.00
Summary
A majority of mental health problems begin in adolescence and young adulthood, but we lack effective prevention and early intervention strategies for poor mental health in young people. My aim is to improve the prevention of mental disorders in young people, and improve treatments and service provision for young people, with a focus on Aboriginal and transgender individuals. The findings will have important implications for prevention strategies and clinical care.
Understanding Natural Killer Cell Development And Target Recognition
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$408,388.00
Summary
Immune detection and eradication or control of cancer and cancer immunotherapies are based in part on the idea that tumour-specific white blood cells can protect the body from tumour development, growth and metastases. While strong evidence supports this, the means by which these white cells first recognize the cancerous tissue is largely unknown. We will study a new family of white blood cell receptors that may be important in this recognition, either naturally or following therapy.
VACCINE SAFETY RESEARCH In Understudied And At Risk Groups: Critical Knowledge To Inform Practice And Policy.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$290,041.00
Summary
Vaccines are typically given to healthy individuals and therefore safety issues loom high on the list of public concerns. Vaccine hesitancy due to safety concerns is an issue of increasing global interest and threatens to lower vaccine uptake. My research aims to understand why some people experience adverse reactions to vaccines, do genetic markers exist?, what are the long term outcomes of a vaccine reaction and how best to communicate vaccine risk/safety to the Australian community.
The Relationship Between Immune Dysregulation, Infection And Cancer Incidence
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$380,558.00
Summary
The research aims to better understand the relationship between immune dysfunction, infection and the development of cancer. Established scientific methods will be used to examine the incidence and risk factors for cancer in people with impaired immunity, such as organ transplant recipients, and people with autoimmune disease. This knowledge is important in advancing our understanding of the causes of cancer, and in developing appropriate preventive strategies and health care for these people.
Using Mathematical Models Of Infection To Inform The Design And Analysis Of Epidemiologic Studies.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$387,489.00
Summary
Childhood immunisation has been enormously successful at preventing death and disease. Not all vaccines provide life-long protection, however, and booster doses may be required for older children or even adults. Deciding when and how often doses are required depends on how a particular infection is spread within families and the community both before and after vaccine use. We want to understand more about this process and its implications for the ongoing effectiveness of vaccine programs.
Understanding The Etiology Of Psychiatric Disorders Through Whole Genome Analyses
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$470,144.00
Summary
Psychiatric disorders exert a huge social and economic burden on society. In recent years, large genetic studies have led to important new insights into these disorders. Major new human genomics resources will soon become available. My research will take advantage of these datasets to investigate the genetic basis of key epidemiological features of psychiatric disorders, including risk due to parental age and sex-biased prevalence, and to identify novel risk genes for schizophrenia and autism.
Improving Community Approaches For Common Childhood Conditions.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$478,602.00
Summary
Melissa’s end goal is community-based strategies that effectively prevent or manage common childhood conditions, which she addresses via four distinct yet unified programs of research (language-literacy, hearing loss, obesity, and early mental health-behaviour). All four programs are guided by long-term strategic plans that include advocacy and translation as central tenets. A further focus is research capacity-building in these areas via her substantial doctoral-postdoctoral programs.
Discovery, Preclinical And Translational Research In Endometrial Cancer
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$451,716.00
Summary
My research program is focused on “bench to bedside” translational research in uterine cancer. Specifically, identifying the genetic aberrations underlying the development of uterine cancer, understanding the function of these genes in normal and cancer cells, providing proof of principle data that drugs targeting these defective proteins induce cancer cell death in vitro and in vivo and identifying factors associated with whether a patient will respond to one particular treatment over another.