NeuroGame: Can Neuromodulation Of Brain Rhythms Relieve Chronic Pain?
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$1,568,407.00
Summary
The growing number of overdoses and deaths caused by opioids in the therapy of chronic pain shows the urgent need to develop and test novel chronic pain treatments. We will address this need by developing and testing a novel and safe intervention that can provide pain relief via the primary source of pain: the brain. We will use cutting-edge imaging technology to unravel brain mechanism responsible for the recovery of chronic pain, including efforts to prevent rather than relive chronic pain.
Pharmacological Strategies To Enhance Endogenous Opioid Actions In Pain Circuits.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$1,318,226.00
Summary
Boosting endogenous opioid actions in our brain may allow us to utilize this system to reduce pain and the related disability without the addiction and overdose threat associated with opioid drugs. We have shown that we can enhance endogenous opioid actions using two pharmacological strategies. We will now determine how we can use these strategies to enhance endogenous opioid regulation of the neural function and behaviours important in pain and related anxiety disorders.
Preventing The Transition From Acute To Chronic Pain. The Role Of Neural And Non-neural Factors.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,998,900.00
Summary
Pain following injury usually dissipates as the injury heals, however in some individuals it persists and lasts for years. Chronic pain is extremely difficult to treat, particularly that which originates from a damaged nerve. One of the roadblocks in developing effective treatments is our limited understanding of the pathophysiology. The overall aim of this proposal is to address this gap and determine the processes that occur in the brain that results in acute pain transitioning to chronic.
Targeting Pathogenic TAR DNA-binding Protein 43 To Treat Frontotemporal Dementia And Motor Neuron Disease
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$687,444.00
Summary
Frontotemporal dementia and motor neuron Disease are rapidly progressive and fatal neurodegenerative diseases that affect people in their prime. Poor understanding of the processes that lead to these diseases have slowed drug development. Through innovative experimental design, we aim to decipher a novel disease mechanism that involves specific molecular interactions and translate these findings into new therapies for the diseases.
Repeat Expansions In Neurological Disease: Discovery, Interpretation And Enhanced Diagnostics
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$889,937.00
Summary
Identifying the mutation or genetic cause of disease in an individual is the first step in the provision of appropriate clinical care and treatment. This diagnostic process is being revolutionised through the ability to sequence the entire human genome in a time and cost effective manner. This project will enable identification of novel and known repeat expansion using whole genome sequencing, providing rapid diagnoses and better clinical care for individuals with neurogenetic disorders.
New Therapeutic Approaches For Genetic Skeletal Disorders
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$961,150.00
Summary
Genetic skeletal disorders are a significant disease burden with limited therapeutic options. We will use mouse models of cartilage and bone disorders and human induced pluripotent stem cell derived bone and cartilage 'disease in a dish' models to test repurposed FDA-approved drugs and new drug candidates as novel therapeutic strategies.
Exploiting Messenger RNA Export As A Novel Therapeutic Strategy To Treat Cancer
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$948,098.00
Summary
Novel therapies for cancers represent an area of unmet clinical need. We have identified a new biological pathway implicated in cancer, namely selective mRNA export. Compounds inhibiting other steps of the gene expression pathway are promising therapeutic candidates for cancer, yet mRNA export inhibitors do not exist. We propose to develop first-in-class inhibitors of mRNA export that selectively target transcriptionally addicted cancers with dysregulated RNA processing.
Pathways That Regulate Nuclear Export Of Circular RNA
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$933,327.00
Summary
An emerging and unusual class of RNA molecules, circular RNAs (circRNAs), is widespread and plays important roles in cancer initiation and progression. However, the pathways responsible for nuclear export of circRNAs are unknown. We propose here to systematically determine how circRNAs are exported from the nucleus and characterise the effect of modulating circRNA export pathways in cancer. This will enable us to determine whether circRNAs can function as a biomarker of patient response.