Serial Imaging Of Molecular And Microstructural Changes In Atherosclerosis: Tracking Plaques Towards Destabilisation
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$992,112.00
Summary
Most heart attacks are caused by high-risk plaques in coronary arteries. A significant unmet need in cardiology is to reliably detect high-risk plaques before they are life-threatening. This project will generate unique insights into plaque pathogenesis over time to see how plaques become high-risk and cause heart attacks. This project will also develop a clinically applicable tool to detect high-risk plaques, leading to significantly reduced complications and cost in heart disease.
Mitochondrial donation in fertilised eggs is a possible therapy for avoiding mitochondrial DNA disease, but there are major safety concerns, such as mutant mitochondrial carryover. To address these concerns, we will develop two new methods to eliminate carryover risk, then translate our findings to human eggs. Also, we will determine if the mitochondrial donation procedure affects offspring health. Our findings will serve as a guide for adopting the technology.
UNDERSTANDING THE BENEFITS AND LIMITATIONS OF METAPHASE II SPINDLE TRANSFER
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$1,629,373.00
Summary
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) diseases are transmitted from a mother's eggs to her children. However, the levels of affected mtDNA differ amongst her eggs. Consequently, a carrier would not know if the newborn child were to suffer from these diseases. Mitochondrial Donation offers couples the potential to have an unaffected child. We will undertake the most comprehensive study of mitochondrial donation using one of its associated approaches to determine if it produces healthy embryos and offspring.
Biosensor Based Clinical-decision Support For Patients With Heart Failure
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$691,933.00
Summary
Heart Failure (HF) is a progressive disease and a major global public health concern. HF accounts for a substantial number of hospitalisations, major healthcare resource utilisation and costs. We aim to engineer biosensor platform to stratify the risk in HF patients will revolutionise current management of HF by providing the cardiologist information to risk stratify patients based on protein signature. This will lead to a substantial paradigm shift in clinical practice.
Improving Clinical Outcomes Of Antimicrobial Resistant Infections With A Drug-free Intervention
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$999,581.00
Summary
Superbugs, or antimicrobial-resistant pathogens, cause recurring infections and non-healing wounds after surgery as existing therapies fail to effectively kill them. We will develop a medical device to fight superbugs with UV light that is effective against bacteria and fungi without causing harm to human cells. This could eradicate superbugs at infection sites, aid wound healing and actively improve health outcomes after surgery.
Osteoarthritis Compass: Predicting Personalized Disease Onset And Progression With Future Capacity For Clinical Use.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$860,231.00
Summary
Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is common, painful, and costly. General guidelines for knee OA management exist but cannot be personalized to the patient. New computer modelling methods enable prediction of knee OA onset and progression on a patient by patient basis but need further testing. Our aims are to 1) apply these new computer modelling methods to legacy datasets acquired from patient groups at risk of, and with, knee OA, and 2) make these models simple and fast enough to be clinically useful.
A Suture-less Cannula For Rapid, Off-bypass Implantation Of Left Ventricular Assist Devices
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$816,491.00
Summary
Heart transplantation is the ideal treatment for 300,000 Australians living with chronic heart failure. The lack of donor hearts necessitates the use of implantable mechanical hearts; however, bleeding and blood clots are common due to outdated surgical tools, poor body-device integration and unnatural device blood flow. This project will address these limitations through the development of a rapid and safe implantation tool that integrates with the body and produces natural blood flow dynamics.
A Wireless Electric Nerve-guide For Peripheral Nerve Repair
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$805,064.00
Summary
We aim to deliver a radical new precision intervention for peripheral nerve repair to improve the lives of people with peripheral nerve damage. Drawing from our recently awarded work on 'electric neural tissue engineering', we will pre-clinically test our invention of a unique clinically-amenable electric nerve-guide (e-nerve-guide), designed to act as a protective nerve conduit and wirelessly electrically-stimulate damaged nerves for their regeneration and restoration of function.
DEEP LEARNING AND PHYSIOLOGY BASED APPROACH TO DERIVE AND LINK OBSTRUCTIVE SLEEP APNOEA PHENOTYPES AND SYMPTOMATOLOGY
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$402,978.00
Summary
Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is a highly prevalent nocturnal breathing disorder strongly related to daytime sleepiness, accident risk and reduced quality of life. However, the current severity index, the apnoea-hypopnoea index, poorly predicts daytime sleepiness and vigilance. In this project we elegantly combine physiological insight and artificial intelligence to develop and evaluate novel clinically applicable computational tools for detailed quantification of OSA severity and its symptoms.