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| Professor William Sievert |
The Federal Minister for Health, The Hon Sussan Ley announced on
Saturday that Monash University had topped the funding in this year’s project
grants awarded by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).
Monash is to receive a total of $78.7 million, including $62.7 million
in project grants.
The School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health (SCS) and Hudson
Institute of Medical Research together received 15 of the Faculty’s 64 grants,
totalling $10.7 million in new funding for CIA researchers.
Monash Health nephrologist Associate Professor Kevan Polkinghorne received
more than $1 million for his project that will study the impact of fish oil
supplementation on reducing cardiovascular disease events in dialysis
patients.
“If proven beneficial, it will represent an easily accessible and
inexpensive novel therapy to improve the lifespan of dialysis patients,” said
Associate Professor Polkinghorne.
Nearly $500,000 awarded to Head of Haematology Research at the Monash
Health Translation Precinct, Associate Professor Jake Shortt brings hope to
multiple myeloma patients.
“Thalidomide-like
drugs (called IMiDs) are an essential treatment for multiple myeloma, a common
incurable blood cancer,” said Associate Professor Shortt.
“We
have discovered that IMiDs destroy proteins that myeloma cells use to ‘read’
cancer-causing genes in their own DNA.”
“We
will investigate how important the destruction of these ‘gene readers’ is in
myeloma cells, including patient samples—also setting up future studies
targeting ‘gene readers’ using IMiDs in combination with other targeted drugs
in clinical trials.”
Patients suffering liver cirrhosis are also expected to benefit from
nearly $400,000 awarded to Professor William Sievert.
“Globally, liver cirrhosis is the sixth most common cause of life-years
lost to premature mortality and deaths due to liver cirrhosis have increased by
over 45% between 1990 and 2013,” said Professor Sievert, Director of
Gastroenterology and Hepatology Unit at Monash Health.
“We propose a phase 1 clinical trial of human amnion epithelial cells
(hAEC), a placental stem cell derived from the fetus, in patients with
compensated cirrhosis.”
“Our ultimate goal is to develop hAEC as a therapy that will reduce
fibrosis in cirrhotic patients at risk of disease progression and this therapy
has the potential to decrease the global burden of disease and death due to
cirrhosis and its complications.”
Professor Paul Hertzog, Director of the Centre for Innate Immunity and
Infectious Diseases at the Hudson Institute of Medical Research received more
than $1.3 million for his research into interferons (IFNs), a family of proteins with critical
roles in infectious and inflammatory diseases and cancers.
Professor
Hertzog said that currently we do not understand why there are so many type I
IFNs, their different functions and how they are achieved.
“This
project will determine at a fine molecular level how different IFNs interact
with molecules on target cells and transmit particular signals. We will focus
on a novel IFNe that we discovered and these studies will underpin the
development of new therapies.”
Congratulations to all researchers (listed below) at the Monash Health
Translation Precinct (MHTP) who received grants or fellowships in this latest
round. Read full details of their
grants HERE.
Dr David Scott
Professor Stephen Holdsworth
Associate Professor Jake Shortt
Professor Paul Hertzog
Professor Michael Hickey
Professor William Sievert
Associate Professor Evdokia Dimitriadis
Associate Professor Ron Firestein
Dr Colin Clyne
Associate Professor Mark Hedger
Dr Peter Stanton
Professor David Walker
Professor Philip Bardin
Dr Miranda Davies-Tuck
Associate Professor Kevan Polkinghorne
Dr Michelle Tate
Dr Jacqueline Boyle
Professor David Nikolic-Paterson
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