Biological, Phenotypic And Public Health Costs Of Risk And Protective Pathways To Non-communicable Disease In Children And Adults: The National Longitudinal Study Of Australian Children
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$1,521,590.00
Summary
Although a late event for most Australians, chronic diseases present a crippling burden for Australia. This project explores their early roots, before overt disease emerges, in 3500 parents and their children in the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. We will measure how accumulated stress and buffering characteristics play out in the biology of cell ageing and inflammation, in developing heart, lung, kidney and bone health, and in quality of life and health costs to the population.
FluMum: A Prospective Cohort Study Of Mother-infant Pairs Assessing The Effectiveness Of Maternal Influenza Vaccination In Prevention Of Influenza In Early Infancy
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,598,377.00
Summary
Influenza is a serious illness for young babies. Currently there are no vaccines that can be given to babies under 6 months of age to protect them from infection. This study aims to determine whether influenza vaccine given in pregnancy can prevent infection in babies up to 6 months of age.
Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV) Schedules For The Northern Territory (NT): Randomised Controlled Trial Of Booster Vaccines To Broaden And Strengthen Protection From Invasive And Mucosal Infections.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,078,861.00
Summary
Very few Indigenous children in remote communities have healthy ears or lungs; almost 20% have eardrum perforations. The associated hearing loss causes educational disadvantage with life long impacts on quality of life. New pneumococcal conjugate vaccines target a broader diversity of pathogens that cause eardrum perforation and lung infections, but the best schedules and combinations have not been tested. This randomised controlled trial will compare immune response, bacterial carriage and clin ....Very few Indigenous children in remote communities have healthy ears or lungs; almost 20% have eardrum perforations. The associated hearing loss causes educational disadvantage with life long impacts on quality of life. New pneumococcal conjugate vaccines target a broader diversity of pathogens that cause eardrum perforation and lung infections, but the best schedules and combinations have not been tested. This randomised controlled trial will compare immune response, bacterial carriage and clinical outcomes of different vaccine schedules.Read moreRead less
T-follicular Helper Cell Subsets That Induce Protective Anti-Plasmodium Falciparum Antibodies
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$456,262.00
Summary
Malaria claims at least half a million lives each year, the majority of them in children under the age of 5 years. In order to development effective vaccines malaria it is critically important that we increase our understanding of the key mechanisms governing the induction of protective immune responses in naturally exposed populations. This project will examine the role of one important cell subset - T-follicular helper cells - in the development of immunity against malaria.
Brm And Brg-1 Protect From Ultraviolet Radiation-induced Skin And Ocular Damage
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$555,325.00
Summary
Ultraviolet radiation within sunlight is the most important environmental hazard to which Australians are exposed. It causes cancers of the skin and eye, in addition to other forms of skin and eye damage. However sunlight also has health benefits such as vitamin D production. To protect our health from the sun we need to understand how it causes damage and the meachanisms involved. We have discovered a new pathway that we plan to study, called Brm and Brg-1, that provides protection from UV.
Motivational drive and reward are survival processes that underpin the maintenance of homeostasis. In humans, dysregulation of these brain circuits manifests in disorders such as depression and addictions. Our projects is focused on a key subgroup of neurons in the hypothalamus that modulates reward and motivation. We aim to understand how potent reward experience (e.g. drugs) or stress modifies these circuits and to identify potential entry points for therapeutic interventions.
THE ROLE OF TUMOUR-EGRESSING T CELLS IN ANTI-TUMOUR IMMUNE RESPONSES
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$603,333.00
Summary
Immune cells can play both beneficial and detrimental roles in cancer. We have devised a novel method to ‘tag’ immune cells inside tumours and follow their fate. Using this method we discovered that immune cells called T cells can leave primary tumours and migrate to lymph nodes. The aim of this project is to investigate the role of these tumour-egressing cells in tumour immunity and to determine whether their migration and function can be manipulated to improve anti-tumour therapies.
Novel Serological Tools To Aid Malaria Elimination In The Asia-Pacific
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$1,362,749.00
Summary
In 2014 Asia-Pacific leaders pledged a malaria free Asia-Pacific by 2030. We will contribute to this goal by developing novel antibody detection tests that can identify people with current and recent past infections. We will then evaluate the utility of these tests both in mass screening and treatment programs and for the rapid delineation of areas where transmission persists from those where it has been eliminated. This will address two major roadblocks to malaria elimination in our region.
A Novel Role For Proteolysis In Promoting Inner Ear Cell Injury And Hearing Loss
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$972,818.00
Summary
Nearly 40% of hearing loss is attributable to traumatic noise exposure. This project will test a new idea that cells in the inner ear are damaged and die via noise-induced proteolysis, and investigate whether a similar mechanism operates during age-related hearing loss. It will open new avenues for therapies to preserve hearing where trauma is unavoidable, or has occurred through accident or incident.
The choice of anaesthetic agent used during cancer surgery could reduce the chances that the tumour will relapse, according to our preliminary findings. Surgery releases stress hormones and inflammatory molecules, which we have shown to increase the chance of cancer recurrence. The proposed study explores how the choice of anaesthetic agent used in cancer surgery can block the adverse effects of surgical stress, and stop cancer coming back.