National Non-human Primate Breeding And Research Facility
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,640,742.00
Summary
Some biomedical research is best undertaken on primates, in order to allow the greatest relevance to understanding health and disease in humans. Examples of such research include studies into diseases like HIV-AIDS and much of the research into understanding the human brain and nervous system. The National Health and Medical Research Committee (NHMRC), through its Animal Welfare Committee, has taken an international leadership position in ensuring that any non-human primates used for biomedical ....Some biomedical research is best undertaken on primates, in order to allow the greatest relevance to understanding health and disease in humans. Examples of such research include studies into diseases like HIV-AIDS and much of the research into understanding the human brain and nervous system. The National Health and Medical Research Committee (NHMRC), through its Animal Welfare Committee, has taken an international leadership position in ensuring that any non-human primates used for biomedical research are bred and housed in the best possible facilities and looked after with the highest level of care available. To ensure this quality of care, it is NHMRC policy to only use animals that have been bred and reared specifically for research purposes. The National Non-Human Primate Breeding and Research Facility, hosted by Monash University, ensures that Australian community has access to macaque monkeys and marmosets to carry out research under the highest quality conditions. Additionally the colonies will provide a key resource in any national response to pandemics and bioterrorism for vaccine and response development.Read moreRead less
Tolerogenic Dendritic Cells In Kidney Transplantation: Studies In Common Marmoset Monkeys
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$124,014.00
Summary
Kidney transplantation is the preferred treatment for end-stage kidney disease, but requires immunosuppressive drugs to prevent transplant rejection. However, long-term immunosuppression can have toxic side effects and increase the risks of infection and cancer. This research examines the therapeutic potential of dendritic cells (a specialised immune cell-type) to promote tolerance of the transplant kidney, while enabling maintenance of normal immune function and avoidance of immunosuppression.
Correction And Measurement Of The Basic Defects In Cystic Fibrosis
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$929,335.00
Summary
Airway disease caused by the genetic disease cystic fibrosis (CF) cannot currently be prevented or cured. Current treatments (other than lung transplant) can only slow the inevitable decline in lung health. Early death from lung failure occurs for many with CF. We have developed a gene transfer technique to introduce the corrective gene (CFTR) into CF-diseased airway cells. We have used airways in mice to test and develop this method, to determine if long-lasting genetic correction of the airway ....Airway disease caused by the genetic disease cystic fibrosis (CF) cannot currently be prevented or cured. Current treatments (other than lung transplant) can only slow the inevitable decline in lung health. Early death from lung failure occurs for many with CF. We have developed a gene transfer technique to introduce the corrective gene (CFTR) into CF-diseased airway cells. We have used airways in mice to test and develop this method, to determine if long-lasting genetic correction of the airway cells can be achieved. The gene is introduced into the airway as a single small dose of special delivery-particles (vector) that have been built using highly-modified components of the HIV-1 virus. If ultimately successful in humans with CF, the disease should be halted, or even cured. Our recent work indicates that we have been able to insert the gene into airway progenitor cells, confirming our hypothesis that long-lasting gene expression can be achieved this way. To know if the method would be safe and effective in humans, we must now test the technique in sheep (as a human-size lung) and in marmosets (as a human-like lung) before clinical trials could be considered. We will monitor animals for up to 3 years to be sure the effect of the gene is truly long-lasting, and we will document how the gene-transfer vector disappears from the body. We have also discovered a new way to examine the detail of the very thin fluid layer on the airway surface. This fluid is too shallow in CF airway (allowing bacteria to stick and start disease) and so a successful gene therapy should return the fluid to it's proper depth. This method uses X-ray light from a synchrotron, and we expect it will work without the need to sacrifice animals to measure the airway surface. If successful it also has potential to be used much like a normal X-ray in humans with CF, to test if a gene therapy has worked.Read moreRead less
Development And Plasticity Of The Visual Cortex: An Anatomical And Functional Study
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$420,872.00
Summary
Much of the human brain is devoted to vision, which requires the integrated activity of many interconnected areas of the cerebral cortex. Damage to these areas is a relatively common complication of preterm delivery and- or perinatal conditions including trauma and infection. The aim of this project is to investigate the way in which the multiple visual areas of the brain develop and become 'wired' together, and determine how the brain can successfully compensate for damage to these areas.
Anatomical Substrates For Primate Executive Cortical Function
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$362,820.00
Summary
When studying the brain, many have been tempted to look for similarities in organization of cells and circuitry in different regions involved in various processes. While, at a first approximation, this may be a reasonable approach to understand how the brain works, it also ignores what makes the brain so complex: the diversity in its structure. In the late 19th, and early 20th, centuries, pioneering anatomists seized on the diversity in structure of the human brain. The study of cortical circuit ....When studying the brain, many have been tempted to look for similarities in organization of cells and circuitry in different regions involved in various processes. While, at a first approximation, this may be a reasonable approach to understand how the brain works, it also ignores what makes the brain so complex: the diversity in its structure. In the late 19th, and early 20th, centuries, pioneering anatomists seized on the diversity in structure of the human brain. The study of cortical circuitry that underlies the diversity in cortical processing reached a zenith and there was a renaissance in understanding of brain function. These researchers were, however, limited by techniques available to them at the time. With the advent of new methodologies which allowed scientists to explore individual connections between cells (synapses), to probe structure and transmission across synapses, and to record from live neurones, new and exciting discoveries were made. However, these methodologies are highly time consuming and studies became necessarily more focussed. As a result, there was a tendency in the later half of the 20th century to extrapolate findings from one cortical area to cortex in general. Even more precarious, anatomical and functional findings in highly specialized sensory cortex of one species were projected to other distantly related species. Such thinking lead to a dark age in neuroscience. It became widely accepted that there exists a canonical circuit. Consequently, differences in function between different cortical areas were attributed solely to the source of their projections. The central thesis of this project is to study aspects of cell structure and cortical circuitry in the prefrontal lobe. We hope that the project will provide another step in the pathway that leads to understanding the mind.Read moreRead less