Schizophrenia is a serious and debilitating psychotic illness often characterized by delusions: fixed, false beliefs that preoccupy the patient and affect behaviour, and which are resistant to current drug treatments. This project investigates dysfunctions in belief mechanisms that allow delusions to form and be maintained. This will help clinicians design more effective programs of cognitive behavioural therapy for psychosis by allowing more focussed interventions to reduce delusions.
Neuroprotection Against Parkinson’s Disease With Remote Photobiomodulation
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$314,818.00
Summary
Treating the head of rodents with low-intensity 670nm light protects against Parkinson’s disease (PD), but the large size of the human skull and brain precludes clinical translation of this treatment. We have discovered that the brain is also protected when light is targeted at peripheral tissues (e.g. a limb), overcoming problems of delivery. This project aims to optimise this treatment and better understand how it works, to lay the scientific basis for a clinical trial.
Disorders Of Action Control And Learning-related Plasticity In The Basal Ganglia
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$434,874.00
Summary
Disorders of the basal ganglia have long been known to produce severe cognitive symptoms including a deficit in the control of voluntary action. This project will assess the learning processes through which humans and other animals acquire such actions. We will systematically investigate changes in cellular plasticity associated with the acquisition of new actions to establish the role that it plays in action control under normal and pathological conditions.
Enhancing The Treatment Of Anxiety: The Role Of Mental Imagery
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$246,491.00
Summary
This proposal will conduct the first pre-clinical study augmenting the effectiveness of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) in the treatment of anxiety disorders using mental imagery. There is an urgent need to develop means to increase the success rate of CBT. This study will utilise recent developments in cognitive neuroscience to show that mental imagery plays an important role in the mechanisms of CBT.
New Antimalarial Drug Leads Targeting Multiple Species And Life Cycle Stages
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$818,477.00
Summary
Malaria causes ~200 million clinical cases and >430,000 deaths annually. Prevention and treatment relies on drugs, however malaria parasite drug resistance is an enormous problem. To address this issue, and aim towards eliminating malaria, we need to develop new drugs. This project addresses this important health need by investigating the ability of new chemical compounds, developed at CSIRO, to kill human-infecting malaria parasites during different parts of their complicated lifecycles.
Developing Diagnostics And Therapeutics For Preeclampsia: Targeting A Novel Placental Specific SFlt-1 Variant
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$722,283.00
Summary
Preeclampsia is a dreaded disease of pregnancy, globally responsible for thousands of deaths of mothers and babies. It is caused by a protein called sFlt-1 leaking out of the placenta and attacking the mothers organs. Recently, a new sflt-1 subtype was discovered that is specific to the placenta. It may be the key disease causing toxin in preeclampsia. We will target this placental specific sFlt-1 to generate diagnostics to predict preeclampsia, and explore novel ways to block the toxic effects ....Preeclampsia is a dreaded disease of pregnancy, globally responsible for thousands of deaths of mothers and babies. It is caused by a protein called sFlt-1 leaking out of the placenta and attacking the mothers organs. Recently, a new sflt-1 subtype was discovered that is specific to the placenta. It may be the key disease causing toxin in preeclampsia. We will target this placental specific sFlt-1 to generate diagnostics to predict preeclampsia, and explore novel ways to block the toxic effects of sFlt-1 as a strategy to develop drugs.Read moreRead less
Nanomedicine Targeted Delivery Of Therapeutics To The Placenta To Treat Preeclampsia
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$513,148.00
Summary
Preeclampsia, one of the most serious complications of pregnancy, affects around 3-8% of all pregnancies. Sadly, there is no treatment. We have developed a new technique to deliver treatments only to the placenta, sparing the mother and baby from side effects. We will test whether this technique can treat the source of preeclampsia, the placenta, in human and mouse models in our laboratory. This work has potential to offer possibilities of new treatments to other pregnancy complications.
Systematic Screening Approach To Identify New Therapeutics For Preeclampsia
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$727,529.00
Summary
Preeclampsia is a pregnancy complication where factors are released from the placenta into the mum's bloodstream, causing widespread blood vessel and organ damage. Sadly, there is no treatment. Our laboratory has a set up a system to test whether drugs might be useful as a treatment for preeclampsia. We test whether the drugs decrease the release of these factors and protect blood vessels. In this grant, we propose testing three exciting drug treatments for preeclampsia.
Cell-cell fusion is critical for the development and transport capacity of the placenta during pregnancy. Impairments in this process occur in pregnancy complications such as preeclampsia (PE). We have identified a novel pathway (LY6E) regulating placental cell-cell fusion which is also dysregulated in human pregnancies complicated by PE. In the current proposal we will investigate the mechanisms by which LY6E mediates cell-cell fusion and examine its role in the development of PE.
Development Of Specific Inhibitors Of Porphyromonas Gingivalis Gingipains Based On Their Cognate Propeptides
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$612,655.00
Summary
Gum disease (periodontitis) is an inflammatory disease caused by bacterial pathogens that is the major cause of tooth loss in adults. It is also associated with systemic diseases such as cardiovascular disease. In this study we will develop novel peptide-based therapeutics to inhibit the proteases that enable these bacteria to cause disease.