Four world-renowned medical researchers, three from the USA and one interstate, are bringing their ground-breaking work to NSW after relocating here thanks to $3.5 million in Minns Labor Government funding aimed at attracting world class research innovation to the state.
Dr Nicholas Lam and Dr James McNamara have both been awarded $1 million in grants to advance their ground-breaking research into treatments for people living with heart failure and cardiovascular disease as part of the NSW Government’s Cardiovascular Research Capacity Program.
Professor Miranda Lim, a physician-scientist specialising in clinical neuroscience, and Dr Philipp Rommel, a leading researcher in synthetic immunology and next‑generation cellular therapies, each received a $750,000 Elite Researcher Grant to advance their research in NSW. Separate to the Cardiovascular Research Capacity Program, these grants focus on a range of priority areas.
Dr Lam has relocated from Arizona, USA, to join the Heart Research Institute, building on his pioneering work that helps to repair damaged and failing hearts by stimulating existing heart muscle cells to divide and restore lost tissue.
Dr McNamara has relocated from Victoria to join the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute to continue research work to investigate the causes of cardiomyopathy. His work uses patient stem cells to grow heart muscle cells, helping to understand how the disease develops and enabling personalised treatment before heart failure occurs.
Dr Rommel has relocated from Pennsylvania, USA, to join the Garvan Institute of Medical Research to establish a cutting‑edge cellular immunotherapy program. His research focuses on overcoming treatment resistance in ovarian and breast cancers by engineering advanced immune cells that integrate multiple anti‑cancer functions.
Professor Lim, from Oregon, USA, will join the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research from early next year. Her work looks at how sleep helps cleanse the brain of toxins, with the goal of developing new diagnostics, monitoring tools, and therapies to maintain brain health into older age.
Dr Rommel’s work will help position NSW as an international hub for CAR T-cell (Chimeric Antigen Receptor-T cell) research. CAR T-cell therapy is a type of cell therapy where T-cells are modified in a laboratory and introduced into a person’s blood to try to destroy cancer cells. It is an approved therapy for some specific blood and lymphoma cancers.
The NSW Government has invested $150 million from 2018 to 2028 in cardiovascular research, including research into all diseases of the heart and blood vessels and key risk factors such as obesity and diabetes.
Further information on the Cardiovascular Research Capacity Program and the Elite Researcher Grants is available on the NSW Health website:
https://medicalresearch.nsw.gov.au/grants
Minister for Medical Research David Harris said:
“The Minns Labor Government is bringing some of the world’s brightest minds to NSW to strengthen our position as a global leader in medical research.
“Both grant programs are realising our Government’s long‑term vision to create a globally connected, world-leading research workforce here in NSW.
“I welcome Dr Lam, Dr McNamara and Dr Rommel to our great state and look forward to Professor Lim settling in early next year. The ground-breaking work these four will conduct here will continue to cement NSW on the map as a world-leading centre for medical research.
“The NSW Government and the NSW host organisations contribute funding to support the researchers’ projects. This combined investment helps translate discoveries from bench to bedside for the benefit of everyone.”
Heart Research Institute, Cardiac Biology and Regeneration Group Laboratory Head, Dr Nicholas Lam said:
“Heart failure causes many hospitalisations and deaths because the adult heart cannot repair itself after damage. My team’s research aims to regenerate heart muscle using advanced RNA-based gene delivery, potentially restoring heart function and improving patient outcomes.
“The Cardiovascular Elite Postdoctoral Researcher Grant is critical in enabling me to establish my laboratory at the Heart Research Institute and advance innovative research.
“This funding supports key steps towards translating our research into new therapies that could repair damaged heart tissue and address the underlying cause of heart failure rather than only managing symptoms.”
Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute,Faculty and Laboratory Head,Dr James McNamara said:
“I investigate the genetic causes of heart muscle disease to develop personalised treatments that help prevent heart failure for at-risk patients.
“The Cardiovascular Elite Postdoctoral Researcher Grant has allowed me to establish my research program within the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute and collaborate directly with world-leading cardiologists and scientists to accelerate the development of new therapies.
“This grant will accelerate the discovery and validation phase of drug development to the critical next steps toward clinical testing.”
Garvan Institute of Medical Research Rommel Lab, Precision Immunology Program Laboratory Head Dr Philipp Rommel said:
“Many ovarian and breast cancers eventually stop responding to treatment, allowing the cancer to return or continue to spread. Our research focuses on developing engineered immune cells that can attack cancer in several different ways at once, with the aim of overcoming treatment resistance to develop more effective, longer-lasting therapies.
“This grant will allow us to develop and rigorously test these next-generation CAR T-cells, helping us identify the most promising treatment candidate and bringing it closer to testing in patients.
“Funding from the Elite Researcher Grant will support the essential preclinical studies needed to show that our next-generation CAR T-cell therapy is safe and effective, providing the evidence needed to advance towards future clinical trials for patients with ovarian and breast cancer.”
Professor Miranda Lim said:
“Dementia will become more common as our population ages, yet no effective treatments exist. We propose to harness the natural cleansing power of sleep to remove harmful proteins that build up in the brain, with the ultimate goal of preventing dementia.
“Results from this project will generate promising new tools to improve sleep and scalable methods to track how effectively the brain removes waste products, using brain imaging and blood-based biomarkers.
“Funding will allow our team to track how well the brain removes dementia-causing proteins in patients with sleep apnoea and test the power of two new sleep interventions to potentially enhance this process and lower rates of dementia in older Australians.”
Breast cancer survivor and BrestScreen NSW Advocate Narelle Nalbantof said:
“My breast cancer was diagnosed through early detection.
“I went with a close friend who is required to have annual mammograms due to her family history but it was me who was called back and had to undergo the removal of my left breast.
“This disease affects the old, the young and both men and women.
“Twelve years on I live every day grateful to be a survivor and have found new ways to not let it define me.
“It is wonderful that we have so many renowned researchers working together in our state discovering new ways to treat diseases and save lives with their amazing, ground-breaking work.”
