World Antimicrobial Awareness Week: Superbug AI project in the spotlight

Professor Anton Peleg, Head of Department of Infectious Diseases,
The Alfred Hospital and Central Clinical School, Monash University)
is lead investigator on the MRFF funded Superbug Ai Flagship project.

18 to 24 November is World Antimicrobial Awareness Week. 

The Honourable Mark Butler MP, Minister for Health said, "I would like to take this opportunity to highlight the work of Professor Anton Peleg.

"Professor Peleg researches ways to tackle antimicrobial resistance (AMR), which occurs when germs change over time and no longer respond to medicines like antibiotics.

Reducing the high rate of chronic kidney disease in First Nations communities

Why are First Nations people more vulnerable to developing CKD?
An MRFF funded study is finding out. Image: Shutterstock

Indigenous-led research is using advanced multi-omics technology to reduce the high rate of chronic kidney disease in First Nations communities.

In 2020 a team of Monash, Baker and SAHMRI researchers received MRFF funding of $2M to investigate chronic kidney disease (CKD) in Indigenous populations for their project entitled "Reducing the burden of chronic kidney disease in the Indigenous population - the PROPHECY CKD study" to investigate why First Nations Peoples have one of the highest rates of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in the world. 

Two years on, they know more as they follow up on close to 1500 First Nations donors of blood samples.

See faculty story.

Congratulations to MRFF grant awardees Michele Callisaya and Patrick Kwan

Congratulations to Central Clinical School's Associate Professor Michele Callisaya and Professor Patrick Kwan on their MRFF grants! See the missions and our projects below.

COVID-19 Health Impacts and Vaccination Schedules MRFF grants announced

Congratulations to Central Clinical School's Professor Menno van Zelm and Professor Merlin Thomas (seen left to right opposite) on their MRFF grants in the COVID-19 Health Impacts and Vaccination Schedules mission! See detail below or faculty story here.

See all 14 recipients of the MRFF COVID-19 mission in today's media release from the office of the Honourable Mark Butler, Minister for Health and Aged Care.

Rare disease funds to boost pancreatic and blood cancer studies: Rare Disease Day feature

Adj A/Prof Charles Pilgrim and Prof Andrew Spencer describe

their newly funded MRFF research and how it will help patients.

Early this month Central Clinical School researchers were awarded funding under the MRFF’s 2021 Rare Cancers, Rare Diseases and Unmet Need (RCRDUN) program. 

As part of Rare Disease Day today, we asked two CCS researchers - Charles Pilgrim from the Department of Surgery, and Andrew Spencer from the Australian Centre for Blood Diseases - working with rare diseases about the research being funded.

MRFF funding for psychedelic psychotherapy in treatment-resistant depression

Psilocybin is a naturally derived psychedelic that can

potentially assist people with treatment-resistant depression.
Image: ACS

The Medical Research Future Fund Clinical Trials Activity Initiative has awarded $2.7M for Innovative Therapies for Mental Illness to a Monash University-led team, to evaluate the efficacy of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy in treatment-resistant depression.   

$19.3 million for rare cancer and rare disease research

L-R: Prof Andrew Spencer (ACBD), A/Prof Trisha Peel (Infectious

Diseases) and Adj.A/Prof Charles Pilgrim (Surgery) in CCS

have won MRFF grants.

Researchers in the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences will receive $19,324,213 under the 2021 Rare Cancers, Rare Diseases and Unmet Need (RCRDUN) grant opportunity.

Congratulations to the three researchers from Central Clinical School who received MRFF funding. See detail below.

Taking 'trial and error' out of epilepsy treatment

Neural architecture of an organoid. Neuronal cell bodies are red,
dendrites are green, axons are white, blue labels the nucleus of
astrocytes and senescent cells.
Image: Ben Rollo, PERSIST Associate Investigator

Enabling innovative research that cuts across multiple scientific and clinical disciplines in order to address urgent unmet health care needs is what the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) scheme was designed to do, and is doing exactly that with its recently announced funding for a project to help patients with epilepsy.

By combining their expertise in  human stem cell biology, clinical epilepsy and artificial intelligence scientists from the University of Queensland and Monash University will identify effective treatments for people with epilepsy more efficiently.

Monash, BiVACOR-led consortium to develop and commercialise world-first durable total artificial heart

The BiVACOR Total Artificial Heart shown in the chest cavity (left) and

 transparent image demonstrating the capacity to support the whole heart (right).

A national consortium of universities, hospitals and industry, led by Monash University and BiVACOR, have received $1 million from the MRFF,  to develop and commercialise a world-first durable Total Artificial Heart.

  
Heart failure is an epidemic that impacts more than 300,000 Australians. There is a clear gap in the market for patient-friendly devices to provide a solution to this chronic health challenge.  

The research team seeks to take this new artificial heart technology to market within the six-year duration of MRFF Frontiers program. See full story

MRFF grant for new national collaboration for mental health clinical trial development

A new national collaboration to transform the way mental health treatment is developed and tested will be led by Deakin University and key partners including Swinburne and Monash Universities, with $12 million support from the Federal Government’s Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF).

The Mental Health Australia General Clinical Trial Network (MAGNET) will start as a five-year project that will be funded through the MRFF’s Million Minds Mission, as recently announced in the Federal Budget.

Congratulations to MRFF grant winners David Kaye, Andrew Wei, Heather Cleland, Orla Morrissey, Joe Doyle

L-R: MRFF awardees David Kaye, Andrew Wei, Heather Cleland, Orla Morrissey and Joe Doyle

Five researchers in the Central Clinical School had their Medical Research Future Funds (MRFF) grants announced in 2021's federal government budget. Congratulations to Associate Professor Heather Cleland (Surgery), Professor Orla Morrissey, Associate Professor Joseph Doyle (Infectious Diseases), Associate Professor Andrew Wei (Australian Centre for Blood Diseases) and Professor David Kaye (Medicine/Baker). See below for detail of projects.

Record investment in epilepsy research made from the Medical Research Future Fund

L-R: A/Prof Zanfina Ademi and Prof Patrick Kwan

are stream leaders in the new epilepsy consortium

Fewer seizures, fewer deaths and better quality of life for people living with epilepsy are planned to become a reality through the Australian Epilepsy Project (AEP) which has received $30 million from the Australian Government’s Medical Research Future Fund, announced Friday 26 Feb.

The AEP will provide a national network of community epilepsy hubs which will provide access to world-leading testing to guide the diagnosis and treatment of epilepsy. The project has received the largest single government investment made to epilepsy research in Australia.

Genomics, digital health and AI to prevent and treat superbugs

Culture and sensitivity testing of S. aureus
Image: Wikimedia

A Monash University project will harness the power of technology to help diagnose, treat and prevent one of the most pressing worldwide health issues - antimicrobial resistance.

A team of researchers from the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences (MNHS) Department of Infectious Diseases, the Faculty of Information Technology (IT) and The Alfred’s Department of Infectious Diseases have been awarded $3.4M from the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) for the SuperbugAi Flagship project.

$3.4M MRFF funding for preventing superbugs using Genomics, Digital Health and AI

The SuperbugAi Flagship schema: From now to the future [click on the image to enlarge it]

Congratulations to Professor Anton Peleg and his team from the Department of Infectious Diseases, The Alfred Hospital and Central Clinical School, Monash University, who have been awarded $3.4M from the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) Genomics Health Futures Mission for a project called "Genomics, Digital Health and Machine Learning: the SuperbugAi Flagship". The funding was announced as part of the federal government budget broadcast on Tuesday 6 October.

In the media: Progressive supranuclear palsy clinical trial

Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) has no known effective treatment or cure. PSP affects brain cells that control walking, balance, mobility, vision, speech, swallowing, thinking and behaviour. It is a devastating neurodegenerative condition, often misdiagnosed as Parkinson's Disease, that affects people over the age of 40 years old, for which there is currently no disease-modifying treatment.

Breast cancer surgery pain relief trial awarded $4.3 million MRFF grant

Prof Paul Myles CIB

Prof Tomas Corcoran CIA

The Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA) Clinical Trials Network (CTN) has secured funding from the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) to perform a clinical trial in 4400 patients undergoing breast cancer surgery.

The project received $4.3 million, the highest amount awarded in the recent MRFF neurological disorders grant initiative announced by the Australian Federal Minister for Health Greg Hunt on 25 June.

It is estimated that nearly half of breast cancer patients experience some chronic pain after surgery. The five year LOLIPOP (Long-term Outcomes of Lidocaine Infusions for persistent Postoperative Pain) study will administer lidocaine intravenously to patients during and up to 24 hours after breast cancer surgery.

CCS wins $9M of MRFF Neurological Disorders grants

L-R: Prof Terry O'Brien, Dr Mastura Monif,
Prof Tomas Corcoran (UWA/SPHPM) and Professor Paul Myles

Congratulations to Central Clinical School researchers, Professor Terry O'Brien, Dr Mastura Monif and Professor Paul Myles, who jointly with School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine researcher Professor Tomas Corcoran have won approximately $9M of grants under the 2019 MRFF RCRDUN Neurological Disorders Mission 2020. The initiative had a total of $21.8M on offer nationwide as announced by Minister for Health Greg Hunt on 25 June 2020. See detail below.

Trial to help people with Motor Neurone Disease breathe easier at night receives MRFF funding

Professor Natasha Lannin

A $35.9M boost for rare cancers, rare diseases and unmet medical needs (RCRDUN) was announced 24 June by the Minister for Health, Greg Hunt for the Medical Research Future Fund RCRDUN initiative.

Professor Natasha Lannin, who leads the Brain Recovery and Rehabilitation Research Group in the Department of Neuroscience, is an investigator on a project funded by the RCRDUN Initiative. This $3.48M five year project is led by Professor David Berlowitz who is Chair of Physiotherapy (Austin Health) for the University of Melbourne.

Together the investigator team will conduct a trial measuring the effectiveness of non-invasive ventilation during sleep in people who suffer from Motor neurone disease (MND) then develop a comprehensive implementation package to move findings into clinical care.

MRFF funding success for discovering new drugs for epilepsy using personalised medicine

CIA Professor Patrick Kwan (left)  and  CIB Dr Ben Rollo (right),
both in the Central Clinical School’s Department of Neuroscience. 
The team includes CIC Dr Chris Langmead (Drug Discovery Biology, MIPS), 
CID Dr Katie Ayers (MCRI) and CIE Dr Alexander Harris (UniMelb)

Congratulations to Professor Patrick Kwan and colleagues, who have been awarded a MRFF Stem Cell Therapies Mission grant for $556,460. This grant was part of a suite to support research on treatments for incurable disease announced by the Commonwealth Minister for Health Greg Hunt on 20 June.

Epilepsy is a severe neurological disease which affects over 70 million people globally. Despite a concerted effort to identify new anti-seizure medications (ASMs) over the last 25 years, epilepsy remains uncontrolled in 30% of individuals, a condition known as drug-resistant epilepsy. Therefore, there exists an urgent unmet clinical need to identify new effective drugs to treat epilepsy.

$2M MRFF grant win for reducing chronic kidney disease in Australia's Indigenous population

The MRFF Indigenous Health CKD team members L-R: CIA Prof Mark Cooper (Monash University), CIB Ms Kim Morey (SAHMRI), CIC Prof Paul Zimmet (MU), CID Mr Ricky Mentha (Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute), CIE Prof Karin Jandeleit-Dahm (MU), CIF Prof Assam El-Osta (MU), CIG Prof Stephen McDonald (SAHMRI)

Congratulations to Professor Mark Cooper, Department of Diabetes, on the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) funding award in the area of Indigenous Health research. The Monash University Diabetes researchers are collaborating with researchers at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI) in South Australia on a project entitled "Reducing the burden of chronic kidney disease in the Indigenous population - the PROPHECY CKD study" (APP1200005) which has been awarded $1,995,895 across five years.