The Role Of Endometrial Stem Cells In Women’s Reproductive Health And Disease, And Their Use In Cell Based Therapies
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$727,765.00
Summary
The endometrial lining of the uterus rapidly grows and sheds each month in reproductive age women. My discovery of 2 types of endometrial stem cells has changed our understanding of how endometrium grows and how abnormalities in this process lead to gynaecological disease. This project will characterise the role of endometrial stem cells in endometriosis and examine how endometrial mesenchymal stem cells can be used as a cell-based therapy for pelvic organ prolapse.
We aim to grow body tissues for surgery, including heart muscle, liver and pancreatic islets (for diabetes) and will investigate using stem cells to repair the brain after stroke. We will attempt to boost the expansion of blood vessels in growing tissues using molecular tools we have found crucial for cell signaling. In growing heart tissues and in stroke we will improve drugs that might boost the potential of stem cells to regenerate damaged tissues
Regulation Of The Haemostatic Activity Of Plasma Von Willebrand Factor
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$851,980.00
Summary
Our genes encode proteins that perform the tasks of life. Most proteins are chemically modified after they are made to control how, when, and where they function. Prof Hogg discovered a new chemical modification of proteins that is important in health and disease. He will apply this discovery to develop new diagnostics and therapies for heart attacks and stroke. Prof Hogg is one of the few Australians to take new diagnostics and therapies developed in the lab to evaluation in patients.
Dr Gilchrist is a reproductive biologist studying factors that regulate the intrinsic quality of unfertilised eggs. He has developed a new form of hormone-free infertility treatment which he will test in a clinical trial over the next 5 years.
My major goal for the past 20 years has been to understand how hormones such as gastrin stimulate the development of gastrointestinal cancer. One approach has been to define the intracellular signalling pathways by which gastrins enhance cell growth. Our discovery that iron is essential for the biological activity of gastrins may allow the development of novel therapies for colon cancer and iron overload.
Molecular Approaches To Cardiac Development, Disease And Regeneration
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$863,910.00
Summary
Prof Harvey’s work explores the molecular and cellular networks that underpin heart development in the embryo and heart regeneration in the adult, and how these networks unravel in heart disease. Based on this knowledge, his work seeks to develop novel approaches for alleviating suffering in babies with congenital heart defects and adults enduring the devastating consequences of heart attack or heart failure.
Molecular Targeting Of Innate Immune Signalling Pathways In Cancer And Auto-Inflammatory Diseases
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$753,300.00
Summary
To achieve an accurate molecular understanding of innate immune system receptor signalling, both intracellularly and in whole organisms, in health and disease. This knowledge will then be used to generate better treatments for the extensive range of human diseases that are caused or exacerbated by dysfunctional innate immune signalling, including Crohn's disease, psoriasis and cancer.
This application describes a research proposal that will achieve an accurate molecular understanding of innate immune system receptor signalling in health and disease. This knowledge will then be used to generate better treatments for the extensive range of human diseases that are caused or exacerbated by dysfunctional innate immune signalling, including Crohn's disease, psoriasis and cancer.
Breast cancers have diverse characteristics such as their response to treatment and their propensity to relapse. We know that the individual suit of oncogenic lesions probably influences diversity but the characteristics of the cell type from which the cancer arose probably also plays a part. This Application addresses this question and investigates a major new discovery made by the applicant that the ets transcription factor Elf5 plays a key role in specifying the diversity in breast cancer.
Clinical Innovation Through Multidisciplinary Metabolic And Vascular Physiology: Impact Across The Obesity, Diabetes And Cardiovascular Disease Continuum
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$863,413.00
Summary
This innovative research program will address important clinical questions across the obesity, diabetes & cardiovascular disease continuum. Outcomes are directed to novel preventive, diagnostic & therapeutic strategies using a multidisciplinary approach. Potential major outcomes: 1. Novel therapies for diabetes by elevating good cholesterol 2. New anti-obesity strategies by stimulating brown fat 3. Drugs to manage peripheral artery diseases 4. A diagnostic test for sudden heart attacks