NHMRC Investigator Grant announcements

Congratulations to our researchers who‘ve been awarded National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Investigator Grants in the 2023 round, announced in late December. . 

Investigator Grants support high-performing researchers at all career stages with salary and research support, to form collaborations and pursue important research directions as they arise. 

CCS researchers received nine grants worth $16.3 million, with funding commencing in 2024: 

Professor Benjamin Marsland (Immunology and Pathology) - Harnessing Microbes and Metabolites to Combat Respiratory Diseases ($2.9m).

Professor Patrick Kwan (Neuroscience) – Transforming Epilepsy Outcomes Through Innovative Technologies ($2.7m)

Professor Joseph Doyle (Infectious Diseases) – Accelerating Progress Toward Hepatitis C Elimination as a Public Health Threat ($1.6m)

Dr Omer Gilan (Clinical Haematology) – Epigenetic Regulation of Self Renewal in Normal and Malignant Hematopoiesis ($1.2m)

Adjunct Professor Marcus Chen (Melbourne Sexual Health Centre) – A New Model for Improved Syphilis Management and Control ($2.9m)

Dr Ian Harding (Neuroscience) – The Cerebellum-Striatum Axis in Progressive Movement Disorders ($1.6m)

Associate Professor Vilija Jokubaitis (Neuroscience) – Multiple Sclerosis in Childbearing Women: Clinical Management, Consequences and Biological Management ($2.8m)

Dr Shobi Sivathamboo (Neuroscience) – Preventing sudden unexpected death in epilepsy: Identifying Predictive Biomakers and Advancing Automated Seizure Detection for Real-Time Interventions’ ($662,040). 

And finally, Dr Prasanti Kotagiri (Immunology), who joins us in the new year from The University of Melbourne, received a grant for Improving long-term outcomes post kidney transplant through study of the immune receptor repertoire ($497,224)

Pictured from top L-R: Omer Gilan, Vilija Jokubaitis, Shobi Sivathamboo, Marcus Chen, Joseph Doyle, Benjamin Marsland, Patrick Kwan, Ian Harding, Prasanti Kotagiri

See here for a full list list of Investigator grants winners.

Congratulations to all of our recently promoted researchers!

Congratulations to our fifteen academic staff - researchers and lecturers - who have recently received a promotion. 

Professor Terry O'Brien, Head of School said, "Warmest congratulations to everyone who has been promoted. 

"This is a wonderful outcome, not only for our individual researchers and teachers, but how it represents the extraordinary talent and energy of the entire school."

See detail and links below.

Scientists expose the lethal link between irregular heartbeats and epilepsy

How it works: an implanted cardiac monitor records continuous ECG data, which is transmitted during follow-up visits at the cardiology clinic. The data are reviewed together with patient-reported seizures, giving a detailed clinical picture for tailoring preventive treatment. Schematic image: Dr Shobi Sivathamboo

The challenge of understanding Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy: Dr Shobi Sivathamboo steps up

Dr Shobi Sivathamboo

Post-doctoral fellow Dr Shobi Sivathamboo participated in the Epilepsy Foundation of America's Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP) Challenge Initiative (SUDEP Challenge Initiative | Epilepsy Foundation) on Wednesday 14 July, 2021. She was one of four finalists selected who are competing for a share of US$1M prize money on offer.

Her presentation entry was titled 'Short-term heart rate variability (HRV) predicts SUDEP' which she presented with her team members and collaborators Professor Terence O'Brien, Head of CCS, Leader of Epilepsy and Neuropharmacology Research Group, Department of Neuroscience (Monash University), and Professors Orrin Devinsky and Daniel Friedman from New York University Langone Health (see screenshot). 

The team found that short-term heart-rate variability, which is a non-invasive and readily obtained marker of autonomic function, predicted SUDEP. Heart rate variability is a validated biomarker for sudden cardiac death in cardiovascular disease populations. Shobi commented that 'our team's entry went really well but we don't know how much we will receive just yet.'

Zoom screenshot of finalists competing in the 2021 SUDEP Challenge.  

All finalists will now await to hear which of them were successful and how much of the US$1M prize money they will be awarded. The Epilepsy Foundation SUDEP Institute challenge aims to predict sudden death in epilepsy or seizures that compromise cardiac or respiratory function in people with epilepsy. These predictors will drive human SUDEP interventions. Since the severity and frequency of seizures is currently the leading risk factor for SUDEP, a biomarker that can predict seizures, especially convulsive seizures that compromise cardiac or respiratory function, will be included in the challenge.

Dr Sivathamboo was also successful in one of the challenge's earlier milestones in which her team received US$10,000.