A Life Course Approach To Improving The Health And Well-being Of Young People With Chronic Kidney Disease
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$193,360.00
Summary
Children with kidney disease suffers from profound ill-health and adopt a restrictive lifestyle, including dietary restriction, absences from school and other co-curricular activities. New knowledge and interventions are needed to address the pressing needs including of these children and their caregivers. This program of work will adopt a life-course approach to determine the protective and risk factors that affect the overall health and well-being of children with chronic kidney disease.
The proposal builds on innovative technologies patented and published by my group. The project has two specific objectives: 1) to deliver the new generation of intelligent biomedical devices that have the capacity to control infections, inflammation and foreign body response; and 2) to develop a novel, non-invasive and affordable point of care diagnostic technology for early detection of chronic kidney diseases, and kidney and bladder cancers that is much needed in this space of healthcare.
Identifying Patient-centred Outcomes For People With Chronic Kidney Disease And Translating Them Into Policy And Practice
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$463,652.00
Summary
This 4 year fellowship project engages with patients, caregivers, clinicians, researchers and policy makers, to establish core outcomes and outcome measures in dialysis and transplantation. This will ensure that patient-centred outcomes are consistently measured and reported in dialysis and transplantation trials and other forms of research.
If stem cell transplantation is to be useful to repair brain injury, advancement must be made to improve the delivery, survival and differentiation of transplanted cells so that they can sufficiently integrate into the host brain. Here, self-assembling peptides will be developed to provide physical and biochemical support for stem cells and neurones in cell culture (which may be useful for drug discovery) and following transplantation into the injured brain.
Overcoming Immunosenescence For Effective Stem Cell Therapies
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$419,180.00
Summary
An established treatment for blood cancers involves a stem cell transplant to replace the blood stem cells that are damaged by radiation and chemotherapy. However, treatment success is limited with advancing age due to multiple defects in the immune system. We will use new technologies to investigate how the ageing immune system copes with stem cell transplantation and explore new methods for improving recovery and immunity after HSCT.
Bridging The Fields Of Cartilage, Bone Marrow And Cancer Research
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$470,144.00
Summary
This Fellowship will bring together technologies and expertise in cartilage tissue engineering, in vitro haematopoietic stem cell (HSC) self-renewal, HSC transplantation, and in platform development for the study of prostate cancer bone metastasis. By exploiting the intersection of multiple diseases and tissue platforms, we hope to be able to contribute significantly to improved cartilage repair, bone marrow/cord blood stem cell transplants, and the treatment of metastatic prostate cancer.
Cell Therapy For Functional Reconstruction Of Damaged Brain Circuitry
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$401,361.00
Summary
Unlike many organs in the body, the brain has an extremely limited capacity to repair itself when damaged. A promising approach for repairing the damaged brain, as may occur through neurodegenerative disease or traumatic brain injury, is to replace the cells lost to the injury by transplanting new ones directly into the brain of the patient. This research proposal involves the use of stem cells to repair damage to the brain caused by Parkinson's disease, stroke or traumatic brain injury.