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Improving Pain And Movement Outcomes In Symptomatic Knee Osteoarthritis
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$431,000.00
Summary
People fear getting painful knee osteoarthritis (OA) more than any other disease – it is seen as progressive and incurable. It often stops people from moving and staying healthy, resulting in an enormous burden on sufferers and the health care system. This program of research aims to understand what brain & nervous system processes might underlie these pain and movement problems and whether new brain-targeting treatment helps. This will allow us to better match treatment to what patients need.
There’s recent evidence that children get leaner and fitter during the school term, but become fatter and less fit over the summer holidays. This may be because of differences in activity and diet: on holidays, children may eat more, be less active and have more screen time. We propose to track the time use, diet, fitness and fatness of 9-11 year old children across three school years. If the pattern is confirmed, we should focus more on the home environment, or perhaps encourage summer camps.
Using Online Social Technologies To Improve Health Behaviour
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$425,048.00
Summary
Physical inactivity and poor eating habits are leading causes of death and disease in Australia. Our health behaviours are influenced by our social networks. What’s more, Australians love social technologies, such as Facebook and smartphones. My research aims to harness these two factors to create socially-influential health programs. I will work with video game developers to develop fun and engaging interventions, and a viral marketer and leading organisations to spread the interventions.
The Role Of Adipokines In Modulation Of Gastric Vagal Afferent Satiety Signals
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$624,535.00
Summary
When we feel full after a meal it is the result of a variety of different nerve signals from the gut in response to distension of the stomach and specific nutrients. These signals are disordered in obesity and may be influenced by factors released from fat stores in the body. The aim of this project is to determine how these factors interact with gastric nerve satiety signals and thus identify targets for the pharmacological treatment of obesity.
Active Team – Examining An Online Social Networking Intervention To Increase Physical Activity In Controlled (RCT) And Ecological (ET) Settings
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$814,041.00
Summary
Lifestyle diseases, such as heart disease and diabetes, are key health problems facing Australia. Effective, low-cost, mass-reach physical activity interventions are urgently needed. This project uses online social networks to deliver an innovative physical activity intervention. This project will determine how effective the software is in changing people’s lifestyle over 12 months, and whether viral marketing techniques can be used to disseminate the program on a mass scale.
How Does Inflammation Of The Gut Change Its Sensory Innervation?
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$613,767.00
Summary
A large number of patients that are referred to gastroenterologists for pain and discomfort from the bowel are offered no effective treatment. This has a large impact on quality of life and often involves invasive tests to rule out inflammatory or cancerous causes. These patients are classified as suffering from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Patients who have diagnosable inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) where colonoscopy is positive may suffer similar symptoms but also have no treatment for th ....A large number of patients that are referred to gastroenterologists for pain and discomfort from the bowel are offered no effective treatment. This has a large impact on quality of life and often involves invasive tests to rule out inflammatory or cancerous causes. These patients are classified as suffering from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Patients who have diagnosable inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) where colonoscopy is positive may suffer similar symptoms but also have no treatment for this type of symptom. It is becoming apparent that a large subgroup of IBS patients have undergone prior infection or inflammation, and that there are in fact changes in the types of cells in biopsies from their gut. Thus there are common features to IBS and inflammation. These may provide a means for us to find new treatments for IBS and IBD symptoms. Mice develop similar microscopic changes in the colon after experimental inflammation to those seen in humans, so we can discover more from this model. We have recently established that there are several types of sensory nerve fibres from the mouse colon and rectum that convey information about contractions, distension and chemical mediators released from tissue to the central nervous system. These are almost certainly responsible for generating symptoms in patients. We aim in this project to discover how these sensory nerves change in their responsiveness to mechanical and chemical stimuli in experimental inflammation. Importantly we shall investigate the mediators that are present in the tissue which may activate sensory nerves and-or the receptors on sensory nerves that may be increased. These experiments we hope will provide a target at which to aim novel drug treatments for symptoms of IBS and IBD.Read moreRead less
What Cost-effective Built Environment Interventions Would Create Healthy, Liveable And Equitable Communities In Australia, And What Would Facilitate These Being Translated Into Policy And Practice?
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,658,832.00
Summary
This CRE involves collaboration between a multi-disciplinary research team across Australia working with policy-makers covering planning, urban design, transport planning and health. It will identify the most cost-effective built environment interventions required to create healthy, liveable, and equitable communities. Factors that influence research findings being translated into urban planning policy and practice will be examined and tools to assist changes to policy and practice developed.