Monash awarded more than $53M through MRFF for medical and health research

Monash University

The Australian Government has awarded more than $53M through the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) to 21 Monash researchers for research into cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, dementia, cancer, primary health care, nutrition and more.

The MRFF supports researchers with conducting ground-breaking medical research discoveries to help improve diagnosis, treatment and care for people with various health conditions.

Researchers from the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences include Professor Carol Hodgson whose research considers how the safety and efficacy of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) can be improved in patients with severe cardiac and respiratory failure; and Professor John Carroll who received $15M to lead MitoHOPE, a pilot program into mitochondrial donation to support families with certain forms of mitochondrial disease.

Professor Colin Pouton from the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences also received $5M into the establishment of a pipeline of mRNA products for clinical development.

The 21 funded projects are among a total of 193 projects announced by Federal Minister for Health and Aged Care Mark Butler MP.

Research projects include:

Project lead

Faculty

Project title

Awarded

Associate Professor Natasha Smallwood

MNHS

Primary Breathe AUS: A primary care technology-enabled intervention to improve symptom self-management for people with chronic respiratory illness

$1,977,834.10

Professor Terence O’Brien

MNHS

A Phase 2, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of sodium selenate as a disease modifying treatment for chronic drug resistant temporal lobe epilepsy (SELECT Trial)

$2,961,326.74

Associate Professor Rishi Kotecha

Interfant-21: A new international clinical trial for infants diagnosed with KMT2A-rearranged acute lymphoblastic leukaemia

$718,933.55

Dr Jun Yang

MNHS

The CONSEP trial: Implementing screening for a hidden cause of hypertension

$2,299,203.19

Professor Diana Egerton-Warburton

MNHS

Just Say No to the Just in Case Cannula: An Implementation Science Trial with Roadmap for National Roll Out

$2,890,283.87

Professor Carol Hodgson

MNHS

Generating new evidence to reduce complications and improve the safety and efficacy of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) in patients with severe cardiac and respiratory failure: THE RECOMMEND Platform Trial

$2,985,992.73

Dr Susan Cartledge

MNHS

HeartPath+: Targeting self-efficacy and health literacy through patient education to prevent recurrent heart events in Australians with heart disease

$598,381.24

Professor Helena Teede

MNHS

Consumer and Community Involvement; Implementation Research for Impact (CCIRI)

$999,128.90

Professor Andrew Udy

MNHS

A national critical care research platform to ensure high-quality sepsis care in Australian ICU’s

$4,899,778.81

Dr Courtney McDonald

MNHS

Expanded umbilical cord blood cells for neuroprotection in extremely preterm infants

$590,143.71

Professor Amy Brodtmann

MNHS

Better biomarkers for dementia diagnosis: NfL and Voice Acoustic analysis In Dementia Diagnosis (NAVAIDD)

$1,589,171.41

Dr Prerna Varma

MNHS

Zest A personalised, digital intervention for sleep and wellbeing in Australian shift workers

$805,255.87

Professor Colin Pouton

Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences

Establishment of a pipeline of mRNA products for clinical development

$5,000,000.00

Dr Marie Yap

MNHS

Co-designing and evaluating the effectiveness of a digital parenting intervention with peer-coaching for parents of adolescents with emerging mental health problems

$1,599,056.00

Professor Terence O’Brien

MNHS

Intracerebral delivery of Neuropeptide Y through human induced pluripotent stem cell (NPY-hiPSC-NPs) for treatment of epilepsy

$679,315.42

Professor Rebecca Ritchie

Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences

Advancing preclinical development of novel GPCR-targeted therapeutics for heart failure

$1,496,862.61

Dr Emma Ridley

MNHS

A national platform for improving quality of nutrition care for critically ill adults and children

$1,494,950.90

Dr Yen Ying Lim

MNHS

An Integrated Method for the Assessment and Monitoring of Dementia and Cognitive Impairment: The Cognition – Optimised, Digitised, And Harmonised (C-ODH) platform

$1,997,763.20

Professor John Carroll

MNHS

Mitochondrial Donation: Healthy Outcomes Pilot and Evaluation (MitoHOPE)

$15,000,000.00

Dr Dan Croagh

MNHS

Supplemental Jejunal feeding to Improve Quality of Life (SuperQoL)

$1,668,079.00

Adjunct Associate Professor Simon Bell

MNHS

Maximising Embedded pharmacists in aGed cAre Medication Advisory Committees

$1,499,612.00

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