In Vitro And In Vivo Assessment Of The Funhaler -an Innovative Therapeutic Device For Children
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$472,750.00
Summary
Aerosol therapy is the most effective form of treatment for children with respiratory diseases such as asthma. While optimising aerosol delivery systems has an important role in increasing the efficacy of asthma therapy, ensuring patient compliance is often the most difficult part of the clinician's role, particularly in the paediatric age group. An innovative small volume spacer device (Funhaler) developed by a West Australian company (InfaMed, Ltd) may help overcome this problem. The Funhaler ....Aerosol therapy is the most effective form of treatment for children with respiratory diseases such as asthma. While optimising aerosol delivery systems has an important role in increasing the efficacy of asthma therapy, ensuring patient compliance is often the most difficult part of the clinician's role, particularly in the paediatric age group. An innovative small volume spacer device (Funhaler) developed by a West Australian company (InfaMed, Ltd) may help overcome this problem. The Funhaler incorporates a spinning toy attached to the outside of the spacer. The toy is activated when the patient breathes through the spacer. The device has been designed to encourage children to co-operate when their asthma therapy is being delivered. The Funhaler is currently in the late development stage. We propose, firstly, to carry out in vitro assessments of drug delivery from the Funhaler compared to the two most widely available small volume spacers: the Aerochamber Plus (Trudell, Canada) and the Breath-A-Tech (Scott-Dibben, Australia). These assessments will be carried out to meet the standards of regulatory bodies worldwide (including the FDA). Secondly, we propose to perform extensive in vivo studie: filter studies to assess drug delivery to the patient; deposition studies to measure drug deposition in the lungs; and a pilot clinical trial to assess the efficacy of the device during medium to long-term use in children aged 2-8 years.Read moreRead less
The Respire_ System: Portable Pulmonary Delivery Platform For Rapid, Flexible And Highly Efficient Treatment Of Elderly, Paediatric And Physically-Compromised Patients With Chronic Respiratory Diseases
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$599,142.00
Summary
The development of a low-cost miniature drug delivery platform for the treatment of chronic respiratory diseases is proposed. The portable device has already been shown to be significantly more efficient than currently available asthma inhalers. In addition, the device offers the possibility of dose adjustment to account for patient variability, such as age and disease severity, as well as a reduction in patient intervention, thus making it more appropriate for patients unable to self-medicate.
Development Of Anti-CXCR7 MAbs For The Treatment Of Fibrosis
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$399,998.00
Summary
Fibrosis is a serious biological process that occurs in many disease conditions, including cancer, inflammation and infections. We have produced antibodies to CXCR7, and these antibodies completely inhibit fibrosis in a mouse model. We plan to develop these antibodies in to a suitable drug for human clinical trials.
Development Of An In Vitro Immunodiagnostic Test For Serum IgE Specific To The Major Pollen Allergen, Pas N 1, Of The Subtropical Bahia Grass
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$349,435.00
Summary
Treatment of grass pollen allergy by immunotherapy reduces the risk of asthma but most reagents for diagnosis and treatment are based on cool climate grasses. We will develop a more specific diagnostic blood test for people with hay fever and allergic asthma triggered by subtropical Bahia grass pollen. This test based on the major allergen of Bahia grass pollen, Pas n 1, will help people who need improved accuracy of diagnosis and more effective treatment outcomes for hay fever and allergic asth ....Treatment of grass pollen allergy by immunotherapy reduces the risk of asthma but most reagents for diagnosis and treatment are based on cool climate grasses. We will develop a more specific diagnostic blood test for people with hay fever and allergic asthma triggered by subtropical Bahia grass pollen. This test based on the major allergen of Bahia grass pollen, Pas n 1, will help people who need improved accuracy of diagnosis and more effective treatment outcomes for hay fever and allergic asthma.Read moreRead less
Development Fo A Novel Treatment For Asthma: The Identification Of Lead Small Molecule Antagonists Of The IL-13/IL-13 Re
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$99,750.00
Summary
In developed countries Asthma ranks among the most common chronic illnesses. Over two million Australians now have this condition and the cost to our community is estimated to be in excess of $720 million per annum. In 1996 researchers at The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute discovered a new member of the cytokine receptor family, IL-13Ra1, which further research has strongly implicated in the pathology of this disease. The main goal of the proposed research is to discover small molecule antagoni ....In developed countries Asthma ranks among the most common chronic illnesses. Over two million Australians now have this condition and the cost to our community is estimated to be in excess of $720 million per annum. In 1996 researchers at The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute discovered a new member of the cytokine receptor family, IL-13Ra1, which further research has strongly implicated in the pathology of this disease. The main goal of the proposed research is to discover small molecule antagonists of IL-13Ra1 and to identify those suitable for development as novel asthma therapeutics.Read moreRead less
Targeted Alpha Therapy For Metastatic Breast Cancer Using Alpha-Herceptin
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$332,420.00
Summary
The specific aim of this proposal is to demonstrate, in non-human primates, proof–of-concept of a patented new platform vaccine technology (scrambled antigen vaccine or SAVINE) designed to encode all the protein sequences of an infectious agent, in this case HIV-1. These are arranged as equal-sized, overlapping fragments such that all potential T cell epitopes that are needed to induce broad T-cell-mediated immunity are maintained. The synthetically designed vaccine uses consensus sequences of H ....The specific aim of this proposal is to demonstrate, in non-human primates, proof–of-concept of a patented new platform vaccine technology (scrambled antigen vaccine or SAVINE) designed to encode all the protein sequences of an infectious agent, in this case HIV-1. These are arranged as equal-sized, overlapping fragments such that all potential T cell epitopes that are needed to induce broad T-cell-mediated immunity are maintained. The synthetically designed vaccine uses consensus sequences of HIV-1 to provide universal coverage of the major HIV-1 strains for a global population. The synthetic systematically designed HIV-1 vaccine will be delivered using our newly developed prime-boost immunisation regime that induces particularly high levels of cell-mediated immunity.Read moreRead less
External Therapeutic Device To Support Rehabilitation Of The Hand Following Trauma Or Surgery
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$175,000.00
Summary
The loss of hand function will affect every aspect of an individual’s life. This includes the ability to feed and care for themselves and the ability to work and participate in family life. For people recovering from problems such as trauma, burns or surgery affecting the hand, careful management of hand rehabilitation can influence the outcome for the patient significantly. In order to reduce the possibility of mobility difficulties occurring, including loss of joint range of motion, muscle and ....The loss of hand function will affect every aspect of an individual’s life. This includes the ability to feed and care for themselves and the ability to work and participate in family life. For people recovering from problems such as trauma, burns or surgery affecting the hand, careful management of hand rehabilitation can influence the outcome for the patient significantly. In order to reduce the possibility of mobility difficulties occurring, including loss of joint range of motion, muscle and tendon sheath adhesions or non-functional scar tissue formation, continuous passive motion (CPM) is often indicated. Additionally, for people with reduced mobility of the hand due to upper limb paralysis, such as those with cervical spinal cord injury, stroke, cerebral palsy or peripheral nerve injury, disregard for management of the maintenance of the joint range of motion of the effected hand will result in contracture and limited joint range of motion. Such syndromes will reduce hand function, which is already limited by paralysis, and will negatively affect potential outcomes for aggressive rehabilitation techniques, such as tendon transfer surgery and functional neuromuscular stimulation. Therefore, in such cases, CPM is also indicated. Current devices applying CPM have shown to be effective in minimising the syndromes indicated above and these results are summarised in the Background and Research Plan attached to this proposal. Unfortunately, the use of such devices is not always prescribed by clinicians. This is due, mainly, to the limitations of these devices that are in the marketplace. These limitations include lack of secure finger placement, lack of portability, the inability to provide specialised therapy to specific joints and inflexible programming. This proposal introduces an improved device to be developed and these improvements form the proposal aims below. Given such an improved device, which can overcome many of the problems with current CPM machines, it is likely that that the clinical application of CPM will achieve the greater degree of prescription and application in hand rehabilitation. These improvements should overcome the clinical reticence to use these devices and restore a balance by increasing their use to the level that the scientific literature indicates they should have. The overall aim of the proposal is to take the device to a stage where it is ready for clinical trial.Read moreRead less
Cranio-Cervical Dynamometry In The Rehabilitation Of Neck Pain
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$110,632.00
Summary
Research has demonstrated that exercising particular neck muscles in a specific manner is effective in reducing painful neck symptoms. A device has been developed to quantify the performance of specific neck muscles, permitting more precise rehabilitative exercise, tailored to an individual’s abilities and needs. The effectiveness of this device in the rehabilitation of chronic neck pain will be tested in a clinical trial against other commonly used forms of neck exercise.