Clinical And Public Health Interventions For Preventing Cardiovascular Disease
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$137,595.00
Summary
Professor Neal’s research has two main components – the first will identify new drug therapies for the management of diabetes and the second will provide new evidence about ways to improve the healthiness of the food supply in Australia.
Understanding And Preventing Adverse Developmental Effects Of Perinatal Infection/inflammation
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$621,458.00
Summary
Exposure of babies to infection or inflammation within the womb is common and is associated with preterm delivery and illness in newborns. The biggest problem for these babies is lung disease due to inflammation of the lungs before birth and/or in response to lung injury after birth. We are investigating how inflammation alters lung development, and working on developing a novel cell therapy to prevent life-threatening newborn lung disease.
Delineating Immune Circuits For Innate And Adaptive Immune Protection
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$876,005.00
Summary
The immune system provides the essential frame-work to protect us against infection, disease and to heal tissues after trauma. This is achieved by a complex but elegant network of different types of white blood cells. Understanding the molecular wiring of these cells will provides fundamental insights to how the body fights pathogen infections and cancer and lays the foundation to therapeutic approaches to vaccination and disease treatments.
The Role Of Oxidative Processes In Atherosclerosis And Related Diseases
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$966,135.00
Summary
Atherosclerosis and related cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the single major cause of death and burden to health in Australia. Currently available drugs reduce the known risk factors for CVD (e.g., blood pressure, cholesterol). However, there is a need to develop novel drugs that protect in ways other than decreasing risk factors. This Fellowship will enable us to extend our basic studies on atherogenesis, with a focus on the role of oxidative processes, and to translate our key findings in ....Atherosclerosis and related cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the single major cause of death and burden to health in Australia. Currently available drugs reduce the known risk factors for CVD (e.g., blood pressure, cholesterol). However, there is a need to develop novel drugs that protect in ways other than decreasing risk factors. This Fellowship will enable us to extend our basic studies on atherogenesis, with a focus on the role of oxidative processes, and to translate our key findings into novel therapeutics and diagnostics.Read moreRead less
The human immune system comprises many different types of cells that can detect foreign molecules. My research will lead the way to understanding some of the most abundant, yet least well understood, cells within this system, collectively known as 'unconventional T cells'. This knowledge is essential to optimally and efficiently manipulate the immune system in health and disease.
The research focuses on how gene function is networked and the ways that cells talk to each other to coordinate their activity in the formation of organs and body parts. Knowledge gleaned from these investigations will enhance our understanding of the genetic control underpinning normal development and the errors that lead to birth defects. The elucidation of the process that turns naive cells into the right cell type is essential for the use of stem cells for cell therapy and tissue repair.
I am a developmental biologist studying how transcription factors regulate developmental processes. I have a particular interest in the MYST family of co-activators, their role in regulating self-renewal and lineage determination in stem cells, their role in oncogenesis and targeting these proteins to develop new cancer therapeutics.
Haematopoietic Stem Cells From Human Pluripotent Stem Cells: The Future Of Bone Marrow Transplantation
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$763,845.00
Summary
Blood stem cell transplantation is a vital therapy for patients with leukaemia following chemotherapy or for patients with bone marrow failure. Because many patients lack a donor, there is a need for an alternate source of stem cells. My laboratory will make blood stem cells from human pluripotent stem cells that will treat patients needing a transplant and will be a useful research tool to help us to understand what goes wrong in the blood system in a range of illnesses.
I seek the knowledge required to improve prevention, diagnosis and therapy for men with testicular pathologies by studying what controls early sperm development. My research will delineate how cellular signalling molecules lay the foundation for adult fertility, using animal studies, cell culture and clinical samples. Testis samples from testicular cancer patients will be used to test interventions that may kill tumour cells or offer a therapeutic option to men with impaired spermatogenesis.
My research is aiming to study how the immune system controls viral infections in transplant patients and use this information to bolster their immunity in a test tube, providing protection against a virus the patient is unable to fight after their transplant. We are also trying to develop new strategies to use patient's own blood cells which will be grown in the laboratory and returned to the patient, resulting in a full recovery.