DHHS funding to help develop treatment for chronic lung disease in premature babies

A/Prof Rebecca Lim

Congratulations to Associate Professor Rebecca Lim and her team on receiving the Victorian Medical Research Acceleration Fund from the Department of Health and Human Serivices (DHHS) for her research on bronchopulmonary dysplasia, a chronic lung disease that affects extremely premature babies.

Head of Amnion Cell Biology group, A/Prof Lim has been awarded $300,000 from the DHHS and a matched funding from an anonymous donor.

This research will form the basis of a first-in-human trial, using amniotic epithelial cell derivatives for bronchopulmonary dysplasia.

"The generosity from our State Government and anonymous donor will provide our research, the much needed security for the next critical steps in the development of our technology. We have been working on a more cost-effective cell-free approach to regenerative medicine for extremely premature babies affected by a chronic lung disease called bronchopulmonary dysplasia", said A/Prof Lim.

The Co-investigators of the research include, Professor Euan Wallace AM, Dr Atul Malhotra, Mr Robert Merriel (Hudson Institute), Dr Dandan Zhu (Hudson Institute),  Dr Janet Macpherson (Cytiva) and Dr Sandra Kuligowski (Thermo Fisher).

Dr Atul Malhotra said, "I feel very privileged to be part of this team trying to find a cell-free regenerative therapy based cure for bronchopulmonary dysplasia".