Twenty-five early and mid-career researchers from The University of Western Australia have received State Government funding to help make innovative discoveries that improve health and medical outcomes.
The Future Health Research and Innovation Fund awarded $6.8 million through the WA Near Miss Awards: Ideas Grants and Emerging Leaders programs to 45 WA researchers, with UWA researchers allocated $3.6 million.
Eleven health and medical researchers from UWA were awarded Emerging Leaders Grants.
The funding gives recipients the opportunity to enhance areas of their National Health Medical Research Council Investigator (NHMRC) application or a Fellowship that allows recipients to do the work proposed in their NHMRC application over three years.
Fellowship recipients
- Forrest Fellow Dr Jessica Kretzman, School of Molecular Sciences, DNA origami nanostructures for iPSC generation and cell reprogramming.
- Dr Pamela Laird, Medical School and The Kids Research Institute of Australia, improved lung health for Indigenous children through Indigenous partnerships and implementation science.
Grants
- Dr Craig Cumming, School of Population and Global Health, improving understanding and prevention of mental illness and injury.
- Dr Henry Hui, School of Biomedical Sciences, next-generation single cell diagnostics of blood cancers by imaging flow cytometry.
- Dr Su Chen Lim, School of Biomedical Sciences, follow the faeces: one health approach to tackling clostridium difficile from waste to plate.
- Dr Shakeel Mowlaboccus, School of Biomedical Sciences, enterococci causing bloodstream infections: the battle against a friend turned foe.
- Dr Jing Pang, Medical School, towards Integrative and patient-centric care for familial hypercholesterolaemia.
- Dr Anna Waterreus, School of Population and Global Health, novel approaches for improving surveillance of heart disease and stroke.
- Dr Anna Waterreus, School of Population and Global Health, psychotic disorders: 15-year outcomes and predictors of recovery.
- Dr Charlie McLeod, Medical School and The Kids Research Institute of Australia, innovative clinical trials to generate evidence to strengthen Australian immunisation policy.
- Dr Jane Oliver, Medical School and The Kids Research Institute of Australia, less pain, longer protection: a novel approach for delivering long-acting antibiotics to prevent rheumatic heart disease.
Fourteen researchers from UWA received funds from the WA Near Miss Awards Ideas Grants program to accelerate national grant success.
The program provides grants for up to 12 months for recipients to improve areas of their NHMRC Investigator Grant application so recipients can resubmit an enhanced application and increase their chances of winning a future grant.
The program recipients:
- Dr Jamie Beros, School of human Sciences, myelination and neuronal activity in depression.
- Dr Kai Chen, School of Biomedical Sciences, from sugar to fat: how does glucose conversion impact bone marrow fat and bone homeostasis?
- Dr Belinda Guo, School of Biomedical Sciences, plateletSeq: a novel blood test to assess cancer status in myeloproliferative neoplasms.
- Dr Christine Jeffries-Stokes, Medical School, the heavy metal tooth fairy project.
- Dr Tasnuva Kabir, Medical School and The Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research, novel RNA-based therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma.
- Dr Jessica Mountford, Medical School, investigating the involvement of long-wavelength sensitive opsin haplotypes in the progression of high myopia and exploring mitigation strategies.
- Dr Danial Roshandel, Medical School, advancing human stem cell technology to treat corneal blindness.
- Dr Saima Safdar, School of Biomedical Sciences, advancements in glioblastoma management: from radiomics to clinical integration.
- Dr Andrew Stevenson, School of Biomedical Sciences, developing next generation cell therapies for skin regeneration after injury.
- Dr Alex Tang, School of Biomedical Sciences, developing the next generation of non-invasive brain stimulation protocols for precision medicine.
- Dr Benjamin Zwick, School of Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, computational biophysics to improve epilepsy presurgical planning: source localisation in a deforming brain.
- Dr Omar Elaskalani, Medical School and The Kids Research Institute of Australia, age-specific immunotherapy for paediatric cancers.
- Dr Thomas Iosifidis, Medical School and The Kids Research Institute of Australia, is respiratory morbidity decided before birth: the vulnerable epithelial hypothesis.
- Dr Tao Wang, Medical School and The Kids Research Institute of Australia, discovering novel tuneable immune adjuvants.
The grants are aimed at WA researchers who scored highly in their submissions to the NHMRC Ideas Grant and Investigator Grant programs but missed out due to the funding pool being exhausted.
