University of Queensland researchers will accelerate life-changing health research after securing $29 million from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).
The funding will support researchers at all career stages to establish innovative programs tackling major health challenges, including cancer, chronic disease, chronic pain, schizophrenia and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD).
The NHMRC Investigator Grants scheme allows recipients to fast-track emerging research priorities, build collaborations, and reduce the administrative burden of grant applications and peer review.
Investigator Grant UQ recipients:
Dr Sabrina Sofia Burgener – improve understanding of a crucial liver enzyme, Caspase-1, in chronic inflammatory liver disease to ensure a healthy balance.
Dr Rosemary Cater – create a new method to treat aggressive brain cancers by developing a drug which blocks the nutrients cancer cells need to grow, helping to slow or stop tumour growth.
Dr M. Zeeshan Chaudhry – understand how the immune system maintains long-term protection after infection and develop therapies that help people fight chronic viral infections and cancer for longer.
Dr Anna Francis – identify the factors that affect the health, wellbeing and life outcomes of children and young people with kidney failure, helping to improve survival, mental health and educational outcomes.
Dr Changkui Fu – make cancer immunotherapy safer and more effective by reducing immune reactions and improving delivery to the spleen, a key organ for activating immune cells.
Professor Robert Parton – understand how breast cancer cells survive under stress in hostile environments and identify new drug targets that could lead to better treatments.
Dr Natasha Reid – improve the identification and support of people with FASD by developing a national system that enables more timely, accurate and culturally safe care across Australia.
Professor Kate Schroder – develop new treatments that target the underlying causes of inflammatory diseases, improving outcomes for people with conditions such as chronic liver disease and genetic auto-inflammatory disorders.
Dr Fekade Sime – improve treatment for serious infections by helping more patients receive antibiotic therapy safely outside hospital and transition more easily to oral medicines.
Dr Dan Siskind – lead Australia’s first National Clinical Trial Consortium for treatment-resistant schizophrenia, to test new therapies, shape global guidelines and deliver better health outcomes.
Professor Michele Sterling – prevent chronic pain after injury, particularly following road crashes, by testing early treatments and improving care, helping people recover better and reducing long-term disability.
Dr Joshua Tobin – develop personalised immune therapies for follicular lymphoma, a type of blood cancer that often returns after treatment, by targeting unique markers on each patient’s cancer, helping to prolong remission and reduce repeated treatment.
Dr Nicole Warrington – understand how genes influence the speed at which diseases progress, helping to identify people at higher risk and develop new ways to slow disease progression through targeted treatments and lifestyle changes.
Dr Run Zhang – develop a new ultrasound-based cancer treatment that uses safe nano-sized particles to help kill tumours deep within the body more effectively, with a focus on liver cancer and other hard-to-treat cancers.
Professor Xiwang Zhang – investigate new technologies that can rapidly and cost-effectively extract life-saving proteins from human plasma, helping improve the supply of treatments for people with serious and chronic diseases, including immune deficiencies, bleeding disorders, and neurological diseases.
