University of Queensland (UQ) researchers will share in more than $23 million in funding as part of the latest round of National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) program grants scheme.
They are among 20 grants announced nationally today by the Minister for Health and Ageing, Tony Abbott.
The grants include:
— $4.7 million to develop therapies using the human immune system to treat disease (led by Professor Ian Frazer of UQ’s Centre for Immunology and Cancer Research);
— $7.1 million to use marine snail toxins to improve understanding of chronic pain (led by Dr Richard Lewis of UQ’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience);
— $4.3 million to study the molecular genetics of sex determination and gonad development (project involving the IMB’s Professor Peter Koopman); and
— $7.07 million to bring together a multi-skilled team of researchers to better understand diabetes, heart and kidney disease in Indigenous Australians (project involving Professor Wendy Hoy and Dr Zhiqiang Wang from UQ's School of Medicine).
• Professor Frazer said the funding would greatly advance the work on immunotherapy he is conducting in a world-class project with Professor Ranjeny Thomas of UQ’s Centre for Immunology and Cancer Research and Dr Geoffrey Hill of the QIMR.
The program members are leading scientists with a history of successful investigation into the mechanisms and treatment of diseases in which the immune system plays a role in their development. These include cancers of the cervix and blood system, and autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and type 1 diabetes.
Working together, the team members have made discoveries that have led to testing and clinical development of new treatments for these diseases.
Professor Frazer said in the new program, the team aimed to discover mechanisms regulating the immune response, and to exploit this knowledge to define new ways of switching on or off, specific immune responses.
“We particularly hope to develop novel vaccines for chronic infections and autoimmune diseases, and to improve the safety of bone marrow transplantation,” he said.
• Drugs derived from the venom of one of Australia’s most poisonous creatures will lead to safer and more effective treatment of pain, as a result of a $7.1 million National Health and Medical Research Council Program Grant to a collaborative team from UQ’s IMB and the Pain Management Research Institute at the University of Sydney.
IMB’s Associate Professor Richard Lewis said chronic pain remains poorly managed due to the lack of suitable drugs that produce pain relief without side-effects.
“Using the venom from cone snails, found on Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef, we hope to isolate, purify and synthesise novel `active ingredients` and use these to selectively fight pain," he said.
“The active ingredient, called a conopeptide, will be optimised in our labs to a point where they can be considered for pre-clinical development in conjunction with commercial partners.”
“Our work on cone snail venoms has already reaped rewards with IMB spin-out company Xenome Ltd developing a class of drugs based on conopeptides, that stimulate the natural analgesic pathways of the body. The compound (Xen2174) is about to enter Phase I clinical trials," he said.
• Patients with disorders of sexual development and stand to benefit from collaborative research conducted at UQ’s IMB, the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and Prince Henry’s Institute of Medical Research both in Victoria.
IMB’s Professor Peter Koopman said the incidence of intersex disorders was surprisingly common among the population.
“It is estimated that about four percent of live births are affected by these disorders, which can result in infertility, genital abnormalities, gender mis-assignment and long-term psychological trauma,” he said.
“These are most often caused by disruptions to the network of gene regulation responsible for proper development of testes and ovaries in the embryo.
“By pooling our expertise, we expect to make spectacular advances in our current knowledge eventually resulting in improved clinical care to patients,” he said.
• By bringing together experts in the fields of diabetes, heart and kidney disease research a team led by the Menzies School of Health Research, including UQ School of Medicine researchers Professor Wendy Hoy and Dr Zhiqiang Wang, will fill the gap in knowledge to treat and prevent these diseases in Indigenous populations.
These diseases occur in epidemic proportions in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and of particular concern is the early onset of these conditions as compared to the broader Australian community.
The $7.07 million project aims to better understand the development of these chronic conditions and to guide diet, lifestyle and clinical interventions.
Media: Further information contact Jan King telephone 3365 1120 or Russell Griggs at 3346 2134.
