Translation Of Genetic Findings Into Improved Health Outcomes For Common Eye Diseases In Our Society
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$675,736.00
Summary
Associate Professor Paul Baird of the Centre for Eye Research Australia, University of Melbourne specialises in identifying and understanding how genetic changes are involved in causing the commonest causes of vision loss and blindness in our society including age related macular degeneration, short-sightedness and glaucoma. His Fellowship will be used to better understand how genes and environment cause these diseases, allowing translation of findings intto new and improved treatments for patie ....Associate Professor Paul Baird of the Centre for Eye Research Australia, University of Melbourne specialises in identifying and understanding how genetic changes are involved in causing the commonest causes of vision loss and blindness in our society including age related macular degeneration, short-sightedness and glaucoma. His Fellowship will be used to better understand how genes and environment cause these diseases, allowing translation of findings intto new and improved treatments for patients.Read moreRead less
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.
We will apply genome-wide approaches to identify the gene networks that regulate the self-renewal and the differentiation of muscle stem cells and their fusion to muscle fibres. These studies will deliver the first characterisation of the molecules and pathways implicated in these processes, which are essential steps of muscle growth.
Disorders of sex development (DSDs) are surprisingly common, and often result in infertility, genital abnormalities, gender mis-assignment and long-term psychological trauma. This research combines expertise in human molecular genetics, mouse developmental biology and protein chemistry to identify genes important for sex determination and development of the gonads, and discover how they contribute to DSD, in order to improve clinical care to patients with DSD.
Developmental Programming: Mechanisms And Interventions
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$705,501.00
Summary
Disturbances during pregnancy can impact on developmental processes and result in increased risk of disease in later life. This project will examine the impact of perturbations such as maternal stress or alcohol consumption on the development of the placenta and fetal kidney. By gaining an understanding of how these organs are affected by prenatal insults, we are likely to be able to develop more effective intervention strategies to ensure all babies receive a healthy start to life.
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.
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.
Disorders Of Gonadal Development: Molecular Approaches To Improved Patient Care
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$863,413.00
Summary
We will use new genomic technologies to identify the genetic causes of disorders of sex development (DSD), a common and often distressing class of birth defect. Knowing the molecular lesion will take the guesswork out of diagnosis and treatment of DSD children. We will also exploit a new discovery to develop new means of rapid, cost-effective, non-invasive diagnosis and therapy for testicular cancer, the commonest form of cancer in men under 30.
Understanding The Impact Of Preterm Birth On Development: Improving Outcomes For Preterm Infants.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$823,008.00
Summary
Approximately 10% of babies are born prematurely and many suffer long-term health problems. Our aim is to understand how premature birth affects the development of the cardiovascular, respiratory and central nervous systems. This understanding will help to improve the long-term health outcomes for premature infants. By working with medical practitioners treating premature babies we are well placed to translate our findings on preventing and treating developmental injury into clinical practice.
Birth is one of the greatest physiological challenges that we will ever experience and so it is not surprising that it is a period of high risk of death. Despite the risk, our understanding of how infants transition from fetal to newborn life is limited. My research is focused on improving our understanding of how infants make the transition at birth so that we can reduce the risks for these most vulnerable of humans. In particular, I want to improve outcomes for infants born very premature.