Microbial Restoriation In Crohn's Disease: A Randomised Trial Of Faecal Microbial Transplanatation In Crohn's Disease
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$487,123.00
Summary
Crohn's disease causes inflammation and damage to the digestive tract. Compelling evidence suggests that the bacteria in the gut play an important role in the onset of disease. Changing the gut bacteria through the administration of healthy stool to a patient, faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), is safe and may be effective. This placebo controlled trial will determine whether FMT (delivered via capsule) can control inflammation in Crohn's. Results will change current treatment paradigms.
Developing New Treatment Approaches For Severe And Treatment Resistant Depression
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,060,520.00
Summary
Depression is a common, disabling problem. One third of depressed patients do not respond to treatment with standard medications and psychological therapy. This research program will focus on developing new treatment approaches for these people: optimising electroconvulsive therapy, a highly effective treatment, developing new non invasive brain stimulation treatments, generating new knowledge on how best to use ketamine treatment.
Improving The Delivery Efficiency Of Nanomedicines To Tumour Tissue
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$645,205.00
Summary
This research program seeks to develop improved nanomedicines for treating cancer. This will be achieved by targeting the poor delivery efficiency that currently hinders the translation of existing nanomedicines from laboratory to clinic. Successful completion will result in new nanomedicines that effectively target the tumour tissue and display superior therapeutic efficacy, and that will ultimately be developed into new treatments that improve patient outcomes.
Improving Outcomes For Children With Cancer: Targeted Treatments And Prevention
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$900,000.00
Summary
Child cancer is the commonest disease causing death in children. Relapse is due to small, treatment-resistant populations of cancer cells in the initial tumour. Improvements in cure rates have slowed due to poor investment by the pharmaceutical industry in targeting specific child cancer driver genes. My program of research will use novel technologies to identify: new vulnerabilities for combination drug therapies, drugs directed against child cancer gene targets and strategies for prevention.
Novel Nanotechnology Strategies For Drug Co-delivery And Combined Therapies In The Brain
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$1,512,250.00
Summary
Key challenges for treating brain diseases include effective delivery of drugs into the brain and targeted delivery to pathogenic areas. I have developed two world-first drug delivery systems that address these challenges. This project will expand their loading and brain delivery capability to deliver a broad range of novel multiple therapeutics to target sites in the brain. Human brain disease models will be used for systematic preclinical evaluation of novel delivery systems and therapeutics.
A Long-Lasting Oral Drug Delivery System Using Spiky Silica Nanoparticles
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$645,205.00
Summary
This project aims to develop a novel silica nanoparticle-based delivery system for long-lasting oral drug delivery. The particles will be engineered with a spiky morphology that will increase adhesion to the gastrointestinal tract enabling sustained drug release for days or even weeks. Longer lasting oral drug formulations would make it much easier for patients to adhere to the treatment schedules required in chronic diseases like HIV and increase the effectiveness of therapy.
Optimising Treatment And Prevention Strategies To Accelerate Malaria Elimination
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,163,220.00
Summary
Elimination of malaria requires the assessment of interventions that not only treat individual infections successfully but also prevent disease at a population level. My proposal brings together data science approaches and mathematical modelling to develop new methods to assess antimalarial treatments and radical population interventions, and identify markers of drug resistance, accelerating malaria elimination efforts and building capacity in this emerging cross-disciplinary field.
Quantifying And Reducing The Burden Of New And Emerging Psychoactive Substances In Australia
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$645,205.00
Summary
The public health threat posed by emerging drugs of concern (e.g., new psychoactive substances (NPS) and crystalline methamphetamine) requires timely and effective public health interventions. This research program will strengthen estimates of the global NPS health burden, enhance the surveillance of unwitting drug consumption, and develop and evaluate novel harm reduction responses. Findings will inform policy and health service delivery, both globally and within Australia.
Natural killer (NK) cell posses the ability to detect and kill transformed or stressed cells such as tumour cells. My recent data show that NK cells are required for efficient immunotherapy responses by enhancing the global immune response to cancer and preventing tumour cells from metastasising to vital organs. I propose to identify novel pathways and develop new therapeutic approaches to exploit NK cell anti-tumor function and improve cancer immunotherapy response rates in patients.
Systems-based Study, Intervention, Diagnosis And Control Of Gastrointestinal Parasites
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,538,220.00
Summary
Gastrointestinal parasites cause billions of infections and hundreds of thousand of deaths globally each year. Even in developed countries, these parasites remain an important public health risk, through the cost of their control, the acute impacts of infection and their contribution to post-infectious irritable bowel syndrome and chronic fatigue. My team employs cutting-edge methods to improve their diagnosis, surveillance, treatment and control.