Monash projects backed by Australia’s national biotech incubator

L-R: A/Prof Ross Dickins and Prof Merlin Thomas have each been
awarded $500,000 by CUREator to develop biotech projects.

Biotech projects being led by Monash University have received $2.5M in funding to advance novel therapeutics and preclinical medical research that address schizophrenia, cancer, inflammatory diseases, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and muscular dystrophy.

The five successful grant recipients include two from Central Clinical School, Professor Merlin Thomas and Associate Professor Ross Dickins. The funding from Australia’s national biotechnology incubator CUREator, has resulted in the formation of four new Monash-led biotech companies, with the fifth grant going to an existing Monash spin-out, RAGE Biotech.

See Monash story at www.monash.edu/news/articles/monash-projects-backed-by-australias-national-biotech-incubator

RAGE Biotech awarded $500,000 research grant from mRNA Victoria

RAGE Biotech, a pharmaceutical start-up company partnering with Monash University, specialises in novel medicines for chronic inflammatory disease. The company has been awarded a $500,000 grant to accelerate its development of an inhaled RNA therapeutic for chronic lung inflammation. 

RAGE Biotech Founder, Chief Scientific Officer and Monash University Professor MerlinThomas said, “We are delighted with this support from mRNA Victoria, which recognises the potential of RNA technology to change the lives of people struggling with inflammatory lung disease. At RAGE Biotech, we have applied this disuptive technology to an important therapeutic target that has so far been impossible to hit.”