Neuroblastoma (NB) is a common cancer in children, and one of the hardest to cure. Some mature into a benign tumour without needing any treatment, others are aggressive and require intensive treatment, and some regrow despite all treatment. It is often difficult to predict accurately how NBs will behave. We will study the two ways NBs can undergo unlimited growth, to determine whether this predicts tumour behavior, and therefore what treatment is needed.
Novel Therapeutic Strategies For Pancreatic Cancer Using Next Generation Sequencing
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$354,892.00
Summary
Dr David Chang is a surgeon scientist who specialises in the treatment of pancreatic cancer. His research focus is on the development and implementation of novel therapeutic strategies for pancreatic cancer. He aims to achieve this by utilising novel biomarkers that have the ability to forecast prognosis and response to treatments. Ultimately, this will lead to the “individualised” treatment for each patient.
Determining The Clinical Relevance Of Intratumour Heterogeneity In Breast Cancer And Its Relationship To Metastases Formation
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$314,644.00
Summary
Breast cancer metastasis is generally an incurable disease, yet it is not well-understood. This project aims to understand how cancer metastasises by using a novel and unique approach of analysing multiple regions from matched primary and metastatic tumours from breast cancer patients. Expected outcomes include identifying predictors of treatment resistance and resultant personalised management and therapeutic strategies to improve survival outcomes of breast cancer patients.
Combining Laboratory And Computational Approaches To Develop Reliable Low Cost HIV Prognostics
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$314,644.00
Summary
Certain anti-HIV drugs called "CCR5 antagonists" block HIV entry into immune cells. However, HIV drug-resistance can occur. Globally, patient access to CCR5 antagonists has been limited because the pre-treatment laboratory test required to determine HIV drug-resistant is expensive and time-consuming. My research will lead to development of computer programs that reliably, rapidly and cheaply determine HIV drug-resistance and thus greatly improve patient access to CCR5 antagonists worldwide.
Language Deficits And Cognitive Dysfunction In Motor Neuron Disease
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$263,513.00
Summary
Motor neuron disease (MND) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) are fatal degenerative brain diseases that overlap clinically and pathologically. Patients with either disease can develop a combination of motor and cognitive deficits (known as FTD-MND). Recent studies suggest that FTD-MND is more common in familial MND. This project will investigate language disturbance – a prominent feature of FTD – in MND patients to establish whether such impairment predicts the development of FTD-MND.
Recent scientific advances provide a window into the developing brain. This research will investigate the profound and challenging ethical questions raised by these new technologies. It will look at scientific and ethical questions relating to the use of new brain scans for fetuses and premature newborn infants. It will develop a resource for parents facing potentially heart-breaking decisions about their seriously ill infants.