高清福利片

The 2022 National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Investigator Grants have been announced.

NHMRC Investigator Grants support research across the four pillars of health and medical research: biomedical, clinical, public health and health services, and researchers at all career stages. The scheme听aims to allow flexibility for researchers to pursue important new research directions, to form collaborations, and foster innovative and creative research.

31 University of Sydney researchers were successful, made up of 21 women and 10 men, across a range of levels of experience. These include 16 Doctors and early career researchers, three Associate Professors, and 12 Professors. In total, they have secured over $50 million in funding over the next five years.

Research being funded includes work on heart disease, COVID-19, mental health, and dementia. See below for highlights and a full list of the successful researchers.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research)听Professor听Emma Johnston said:

"We are very proud of our researchers' success in the Investigator scheme. I am particularly delighted by the exceptionally strong performance of our female and early and mid-career colleagues this round."

"高清福利片ers' projects explore a diverse range of fields across all four pillars of health and medical research, from digital, mental and public health to clinical trial design and precision medicine, to kidney and heart disease and cancer. The discoveries they make will help improve the lives of people everywhere. We are so pleased to be able to support this work at Sydney."听

Pulmonary Fibrosis is made up of a group of devastating conditions affecting the lung tissue. 听There are enormous challenges in both diagnosis and treatment of these conditions.

Associate Professor听Tamera Corte听intends to pioneer innovative approaches to individualised care in this field. With the funding from the Investigator Grant, A/Prof. Corte will build upon the Centre of Research Excellence for Pulmonary Fibrosis - a nationwide听collaboration with the听vision to transform and extend the lives of people living with pulmonary fibrosis across Australia.听 She will 听focus on improving early diagnosis, prevention of disease progression, and optimising access and delivery of care.听听

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For people living with dementia, there are currently few options for treating their cognitive symptoms.

Dr听Claire O鈥機allaghan听is developing a program to establish new ways to treat cognitive decline in dementia, through symptomatic drug treatments. This includes providing new biomarkers to measure the effects of drugs, and enable accurate prediction of who will respond best to which treatments.

This program will help to create targeted, personalised medicine in dementia care.

Associate Professor Fabienne Brilot has pioneered work on neuroimmunological disorders, with a particular focus on those with unknown causes.

With the help of this grant, she intends to build on her team's existing work, as well as expand into uncharted territory in immunotherapy, to further grow Australian research capacity. She will do this through directly improving treatment decision-making, and harnessing new therapeutic options.

Their work will greatly assist to reduce the burden of neuro-immunological disorders on the Australian healthcare system.听

The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the impact of zoonotic viruses on human populations.听

Professor听Eddie听Holmes鈥� project will provide the technological foundation for a global 鈥榩andemic radar鈥� for emerging human viruses. The programme will help transform our understanding of the threat posed by emerging viruses and will be crucial in the fight against infectious diseases. This will help protect Australia and the world from future pandemics.

Professor听Meg Jardine's program will use innovative clinical trial designs to address the challenges in determining chronic disease with a focus on chronic kidney disease. Challenges include听the number of听rare medical conditions, the complexity of kidney replacement interventions听and the听lack of established standards of care听to treat many conditions.听

The program will build on relationships with the clinical community, consumer groups, digital health experts and national and international networks to add randomised evidence generation in clinical practice. The goal is to reduce complications and the progression of disease for people with complex听chronic听health conditions.

Professor听Gemma Figtree鈥檚听work has highlighted that approximately one-quarter of first-time heart attack patients do not have any of the typical risk factors, and develop 鈥榮ilent鈥� coronary artery disease with no symptoms at all.

She and her team will use this archetypal group to unravel key new mechanisms and markers of coronary artery disease relevant to all patients at risk of a heart attack.听

Professor Figtree's听program will drive the discovery of new biomarkers for the early detection and treatment of coronary artery disease.

This will lead to improved knowledge and health outcomes for Australians, leading to better detection and treatment of coronary artery disease.

鈥淚 am enormously grateful to the NHMRC for this support. It will facilitate my team to take exciting leads towards clinical translation, allowing a new way to detect CAD and prevent heart attack, 鈥� Professor Figtree said.

There is a听global burden of mental disorders, and given the additional impacts of COVID-19, effective mental health services innovations need to be implemented.

Professor听Ian Hickie鈥檚 research will look into how effective mental health service innovations, which include new planning, technology and clinical tools, can deliver not only better individual outcomes, but be incorporated at scale into youth health services. The research will also investigate regional implementation plans for local communities.

鈥淭he research has a specific emphasis on regional implementation processes that can be led by local communities. This is to meet the needs of those who are more disadvantaged economically, socially, geographically or culturally,鈥� said Professor Ian Hickie.听

Professor听Edward Holmes听- A Metagenomics Platform to prevent future pandemics ($3.9M)

Professor Richard Scolyer听- Melanoma: Getting the Diagnosis and Treatment Right for Better Patient Outcomes ($3.9M)

Professor Meg Jardine听- Addressing unmet needs in chronic disease through innovations in trial design and delivery ($3.2M)

Professor听Anthony Keech听- Innovative clinical trials: improving care and health outcomes ($2.9M)

Professor Kirsten McCaffery听- Transforming health literacy in Australia: a partnership approach ($2.8M)

Professor Jean Yang听- Statistical bioinformatics at single cell resolution ($2.6M)

Professor Ian Hickie听- Right care, first time: delivering technology-enabled mental health care to young people at scale ($2.4M)

Professor William Tarnow-Mordi- Advancing perinatal health in Australia through international randomised studies to reduce death and disability ($2.4M)

Associate Professor Fabienne Brilot- Understanding the autoimmune response against the brain to improve diagnosis and therapy of neuroimmunological disorders ($2.3M)

Professor听Sandra Cooper - Innovating pathways to embed novel RNA technologies into clinical practice ($2.2M)

Professor听Christopher Semsarian - Translating Genomics into Improved Care of Inherited Heart Disease and Sudden Death Families ($2.1M)

Professor听Gemma Figtree - Innovative solutions towards reducing heart attacks- beyond classical risk factors ($2M)

Professor听Carol Pollock - Discovery and validation of antifibrotic therapies for kidney disease ($2M)

Associate Professor Tamera Corte- Transforming Outcomes for Pulmonary Fibrosis ($1.9M)

Professor Andrew Gardner - Repetitive Neurotrauma and the Risk for Dementia in Former Athletes ($1.5M)

Dr听Claire O'Callaghan - A pathway to new symptomatic drug therapies in dementia ($1.5M)

Dr听Anna Singleton - Scalable Survivorship Support after Cancer (CanSupport): Evaluation of a co-designed and automated eHealth intervention to support cancer survivors in primary care ($0.6M)

Dr听Giselle Yeo - Functional amplification of stem cells for tissue repair ($0.6M)

Dr听Julie Ayre - Evaluation and implementation of a digital health literacy tool to improve written health information ($0.6M)

Dr Kirstie Bertram - Linking microbiome, inflammation, HIV target cells听($0.6M)听

Dr听Kristie Weir- One size does not fit all: achieving patient-centred deprescribing through evidence-based, individualised interventions听($0.6M)

Dr听Pierre Qian - Development of novel ablation technologies for the treatment of ventricular tachycardia听($0.6M)

Dr听Rachel Menzies - Targeting death anxiety with an online intervention to improve outcomes in anxiety-related disorders听($0.6M)

Dr听Rebecca Rockett听- Pathogen Genomics Dual Utility to Deliver Personalised Medicine and Precision Public Health听($0.6M)

Dr听Liliana Laranjo -听Digital health to support behaviour change and chronic disease prevention in the community: What works, for whom, and in what context?听($0.6M)

Dr听Jessica Orchard -听Screening of athletes for cardiovascular disease and prevention of sudden death听($0.6M)

Dr David Waddington听-听 Advancing dynamic MRI to enable adaptive lung radiotherapy听($0.6M)

Dr听Louise Birrell -听Stemming the rising tide of youth mental health problems: prevention through social connection听($0.6M)

Dr Frank Iorfino听-听Harnessing digital technologies to improve the quality of youth mental health services听($0.6M)

Dr听Hiba Jebeile -听Optimising metabolic and mental health in the management of adolescent obesity听($0.6M)

Dr Kavitha Kothur -听Biomarker discovery informs precision medicine in childhood epilepsy听($0.6M)