Congratulations to our 2022 NHMRC Ideas grant awardees

L-R: Dr Omer Gilan, A/Prof Margaret Hibbs, Prof Vaughan Macefield

and Prof Merlin Thomas

Congratulations to Central Clinical School's (CCS) four National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) awardees Professor Vaughan Macefield, Associate Professor Margaret Hibbs, Professor Merlin Thomas and Dr Omer Gilan in this very difficult round. 

See detail below of CCS research and see all Monash Faculty winners here.

• Professor Vaughan Macefield, Department of Neuroscience (from 1 January 2023) has been funded $1,246,924 over five years for his project titled, "Microelectrode recordings from the vagus nerve in awake humans".
  
  Project description:
  
  The project will investigate the neurophysiology of the human vagus nerve in health and cardiovascular disease. This builds on Prof Macefield’s pioneering studies in which microelectrodes were inserted into the vagus nerve in the neck to record cardiac- and respiratory-related neural activity for the first time.
  
  This 5-year project will catalogue the firing properties of individual sensory and motor nerve fibres supplying the heart and great vessels and determine how sensory signalling from the heart is affected in people who are susceptible to fainting and people with atrial fibrillation. Microstimulation of nerve fibres to the heart will provide hitherto unknown data on how individual cardiac parasympathetic axons control heart rate and stroke volume in health and cardiovascular disease, and provide novel information on their behaviour in people with atrial fibrillation and other irregular cardiac rhythms.
  
  Monash is also receiving US National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding to perform microelectrode recordings from the vagus nerve in people with epilepsy to determine how VNS affects these organs. A consortium led by John Osborn at The University of Minnesota, in which Prof Terry O’Brien and Prof Vaughan Macefield are partners, was the winning team, being awarded US$21 million over 3 years to investigate this. US$1.4 m (~AU$ 2.1 m) will be coming to Monash.
  
  
• Associate Professor Margaret Hibbs (CIA), Dr Evelyn Tsantikos (CIB), Department of Immunology and Pathology have been funded $1,490,644 across 4 years for their project titled, "Dysregulated lymphatic vasculature in the pathogenesis of bronchopulmonary dysplasia".
  
  Project description:
  
  Bronchopulmonary dysplasia is a severe lung disease that is a main cause of disability and death in premature infants and there is no cure. We have found that a factor that enhances the growth of lung lymphatic vessels, essential fluid channels, protects the neonatal lung from structural and functional damage. We will use advanced research methods to define the role of these vessels in this disease to turn our discovery into new treatments that can help these tiny lungs develop and function normally.
  
  
• Professor Merlin Thomas, Department of Diabetes, has been funded $892,640 over three years for his project, "Development of splice-switching oligonucleotides for the management of kidney disease"
  
  Project description:
  
  Chronic kidney disease (CKD).affects at least one in ten adults, in whom its presence and severity is associated with poor health outcomes.
  
  "Although some treatments can slow declining kidney function," says Prof Thomas, "there remains an urgent need for disease-modifying therapies". Prof Thomas and his team have developed an RNA therapy that selectively targets the inflammation and scarring in the kidneys that leads to CKD.
  
  In this Ideas grant, they will validate its benefits across a range of models of CKD, including diabetes, hypertension and glomerulonephritis, the leading causes of CKD in Australia. This work will provide the proof-of-concept to move forward into clinical trials within the next five years.
  
  
• Dr Omer Gilan, Australian Centre for Blood Diseases, has been funded $976,000 over four years for his project titled, "Understanding and targeting self-renewal in aggressive blood cancers". He will be collaborating with A/Prof. Lev Kats and Prof. Mark Dawson's labs at PeterMac, and Samuel Myers group at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology.
  
  Project description:
  
  The epigenetic protein Menin, is critical for the ability of leukaemia cells to divide indefinitely. Therapies that target this protein are currently in clinical trials, however it is unclear how they work. By studying how resistance to these therapies emerges, we have unexpectedly discovered that they work differently to what was previously thought. This proposal will use new tools to elucidate these findings in order to develop ways to overcome resistance and improve their efficacy.