Enhancing Control Of Enteric Bacteria Through Pathogen Genomics
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$645,205.00
Summary
Bacteria part of the Enterobacteriaceae family are responsible for causing significant enteric disease in Australia and internationally. Compounding the public health threat posed by these enteric bacteria is the rise in antimicrobial resistance, which limits treatment options. This project has three complementary research objectives; 1) to investigate new control strategies; 2) to better understand outbreak dynamics and; 3) to explore how bacteria are causing new disease in humans.
Defining The Plasma Methylome To Guide Melanoma Treatment.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$645,205.00
Summary
This project aims to characterise circulating methylation patterns (chemical modifications to DNA) from the blood of melanoma patients. Through this ground-breaking research, I will establish a minimally-invasive and simple blood test that will predict response and resistance from treatment, provide a greater understanding of the disease, reshape the treatment management of melanoma patients and lead to improved patient outcomes.
Translation Of Genomic Findings To Improve Outcomes In Patients With Myeloid Blood Cancers
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$1,913,403.00
Summary
Changes within the DNA of blood cancer cells are responsible for causing cancer, but also control the progression through various stages of blood cancers and regulate the response of patients to treatment. It is fundamentally important to not only understand these genetic changes at the molecular level, but also to use these findings to rationally design clinical treatments that target these genetic changes to improve outcomes for patients with blood cancers.
Precision Epigenetics: Targeting The Epigenome To Treat Disease
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$1,940,576.00
Summary
Epigenetic marks are changes made to the DNA that allow genes to be switched off in some cells and switched on in others. These marks are critical to normal development and often go wrong in disease. We aim to find genes that add epigenetic marks to the DNA and understand how they co-operate at the molecular level to switch genes off. Our focus is on one such gene, SMCHD1. We are developing new drugs against SMCHD1 to treat incurable neurodevelopmental disorder PWS and muscular dystrophy FSHD.
Overcoming The Barriers To Treatment Of Multi-drug Resistant Gram-negative Bloodstream Infections In Australian Children
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$447,603.00
Summary
There is a critical need to develop new treatments for children with antibiotic resistant infections. The most important bacteria causing resistant infections are known as Gram-negative bacteria. Doctors treating children with resistant Gram-negative infections are faced with few antibiotic options. This project will discover the most important resistant infections in Australian children, and trial a new antibiotic to help doctors to use it in the right children and at the right dose.
Optimizing Immunotherapy Treatment For Breast Cancer Patients
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$1,938,014.00
Summary
The first steps in introducing immunotherapy for breast cancer patients have been taken in 2019. However, there is much work to do optimize immunotherapy for all breast cancer patients. My research, involving both lab and clinical trials, will develop new treatment strategies and identify new biomarkers to distinguish responders and non-responders. This will allow individualised selection of patients for evaluation of different immunotherapy approaches, with the aim of improving their survival.
Genomics For Combating Antimicrobial Resistant Bacterial Pathogens
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,027,364.00
Summary
Applying genomics to bacterial pathogens is revolutionising the way we understand infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance (AMR). There is a major opportunity to now bring the technology into routine clinical and public health practice. This research program will investigate and deliver the technology of pathogen genomics directly into public health disease surveillance, outbreak detection and the diagnosis and response to infectious diseases and AMR in hospitalised patients.
Understanding The Development And Spread Of Pan Resistance In Acinetobacter Baumannii
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,339,215.00
Summary
Resistance to all antibiotics available for treatment of bacterial infections is a cause for global concern (Word Health Organization, US Centres for Disease Control) as it also compromises therapies relying on antibiotics such as transplantation and cancer chemotherapy. Extensively antibiotic resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, mainly causes hospital-acquired infections. This project will seek to track different types of these bacteria as they repeatedly spread around the world.
Elucidating The Pathological Role And Predictive Value Of Mental Health Disorder Risk Genes
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$1,562,250.00
Summary
Mental health disorders such as schizophrenia and depression are common and often debilitating conditions. The genes in our DNA play a large role in who develops these disorders and many risk genes have been identified. We will investigate when and how these risk genes are “switched on” to work out how they cause disease and to accurately predict who is at high risk of developing a mental health disorder. These advances will help us to understand disease causation and to improve treatments.
Embedding Economics For Cost-effective Melanoma Prevention, Diagnosis And Treatment
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$1,074,900.00
Summary
Melanoma is the most deadly form of skin cancer, and it is on the rise in Australia. However, the rapidly increasing costs of treatment are not sustainable for the health system or patients who pay out of pocket. Using health economic evaluation, this program of work will focus on improving: the (1) prevention, (2) diagnosis, and (3) treatment of melanoma, to ensure better, more sustainable healthcare.