More than $9m in NHMRC Ideas Grant funding for WIMR researchers

Congratulations to six of WIMR’s researchers who have received Ideas Grants from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).

This vital funding is essential for the support of WIMR research on a range of conditions, investigating new treatments, and understanding the underlying mechanisms for some of the world’s greatest health issues.

NHMRC grants are highly competitive, with only a select number of innovative projects funded in each round. WIMR’s success this year is testament to our research excellence and the regard held for WIMR’s researchers and their work.

WIMR Executive Director, Professor Philip O’Connell congratulated WIMR’s recipients and said that it is an acknowledgment of outstanding, world-leading research being undertaken at WIMR and across the Westmead Health Precinct.

“This is a wonderful achievement. It demonstrates not only the quality, but also the breadth of work being conducted at WIMR and is a confirmation of our focus on precision medicine and research translation.

“Diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease, hepatitis and blood cancers – all are conditions that have a significant impact on our local and global communities. I’m proud to say that our research in these areas is supported by the NHMRC of Australia,” said Professor O’Connell.

The NHRMC Ideas Grants support researchers at all career stages undertaking innovative and creative research projects in any area of health and medical research from discovery to implementation.

Congratulations to the following WIMR researchers who received NHMRC Ideas Grants:

Associate Professor Eddy Kizana

Project: Creation of Next Generation Vectors for Cardiac Gene Therapy: Toward Human Application

Professor Kizana is a cardiologist at Westmead Hospital who has developed a research program at The Westmead Institute for Medical Research using gene therapy technology for the treatment of cardiac disease in humans.

The research program consists of vector technology development and the application of these in pre-clinical models of human disease. The research is translational and highly collaborative.

Professor Wayne Hawthorne

Project: Xenotransplantation a Next Generation Cure for Diabetes using Transgenic Porcine Islets

Professor Wayne Hawthorne leads the clinical and experimental Islet and Organ Transplant Research Group developing Preclinical Studies and Translating them to Transplantation Therapies.

He was appointed laboratory director in 2001 to Australia’s First Clinical Islet Transplant program; his team at Westmead were the first in Australia to perform both allo and auto islet cell isolation and transplantation and to perform islet after kidney and combined islet/kidney transplants in patients. Professor Hawthorne was one of the founding researchers of the Centre for Transplant and Renal Research where he remains responsible for experimental surgical research projects.

Associate Professor Thomas Tu

Project: Overcoming viral persistence to cure Hepatitis B

Associate Professor Thomas Tu’s research focuses on persistent forms of the Hepatitis B virus, developing ways to measure and eliminate them. He is particularly passionate about developing an HBV cure and mitigating the associated liver cancer, as he himself lives with chronic Hepatitis B. This provides him with unique perspectives on the disease as a researcher, patient, and advocate. He has won multiple awards for his research and outreach, including the 2022 Young Tall Poppy Science Award and the Paul and Valeria Ainsworth Precision Medicine Fellowship.

Dr Sohel Julovi

Project:  Heartfelt disharmony: Investigating a Novel Pathway Driving Cardiorenal Syndrome

Dr Julovi is a Senior Research Scientist in WIMR’s Kidney Injury Research Group, investigating mechanisms of cellular injury driven by the protein thrombospondin-1 and its receptor CD47.

The laboratory focuses specifically on acute and chronic kidney disease, the sequelae of diseased organ crosstalk, and the translational potential of its research.

In addition, WIMR’s Associate Professor Emily Blyth is a lead investigator on a successful collaborative project with University of Sydney’s Dr Kavitha Gowrishanka, titled ‘Transgenic receptor combinations – novel cellular therapeutics for acute myeloid leukaemia’.   WIMR’s Dr Alicia Fajardo Lubian is also a senior investigator on a successful project titled ‘Molecular and multi-omics assessment of Klebsiella pneumoniae response to bacteriophages’, a collaboration with University of Sydney’s Dr Carola Venturini.

The full list of NHMRC grant recipients can be found here.


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