11 NHMRC grants for international research collaborations

The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) has announced 11 grants, worth over $5.7 million, to support international collaborative research on health issues such as heart attacks, dementia, stroke and leukaemia.

Nine of the grants were awarded under the NHMRC – European Union Collaborative Research Grant scheme, which supports Australian researchers who are contributing to projects that were selected for funding through the European Union’s highly competitive Horizon 2020 program.

A further two were awarded under the NHMRC – Californian Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) Collaborative Research Grant scheme, a jointly funded scheme that focuses primarily on finding novel ways to develop and apply stem cells for the treatment of disease.

“In participating in international collaborations like these, Australian researchers share their knowledge and skills,” said NHMRC CEO Professor Anne Kelso. “In turn, they gain access to technology that is potentially not available in Australia, and they get to work with some of the brightest scientific minds overseas. When they bring that experience back to our shores, it benefits Australian research immeasurably.

“It’s also worth noting the sheer number of Australian research teams that met the high bar to qualify for this funding. This reflects the talent that these researchers bring to the table when they work with their international counterparts.”

Selected grants highlights can be found below:

Professor Karlheinz Peter, Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute ($450,721, NHMRC – EU)

Professor Peter and his team will work with their European collaborators to uncover the proteins, genes and biological pathways behind the rupture of atherosclerotic deposits in blood vessels. The knowledge they uncover will be directed towards developing new therapies to prevent heart attacks.

Professor Georgia Chenevix-Trench, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute ($472,984, NHMRC – EU)

The aim of this project is to use genetic, lifestyle/environmental, mammographic breast density, pathologic and clinical data from a very large number of studies from all over the world to develop ways of predicting which women are at risk of particular types of breast cancer and, if breast cancer develops, what the likely outcome will be.

Professor Colin Pouton, Monash University ($902,949, NHMRC – CIRM)

Professor Pouton, his team and collaborators will develop new tools and approaches to create microglia from human stem cells. These microglia can then be studied in the laboratory to better understand their role in the development and progression of common neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and stroke.

Professor Andrew Elefanty, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute ($881,221, NHMRC – CIRM)

Professor Elefanty and his team will create a tool that will allow them to observe the development of pluripotent stem cells into hematopoietic stem cells, the latter of which are used in the treatment of leukaemia and other diseases of the blood. By observing this development process, the team will be able to more precisely engineer hematopoietic stem cells for clinical use.

“The importance of these kinds of collaborative partnerships … is that they allow the research to be done on two fronts and speed up the work to develop new treatments and cures for patients with unmet medical needs,” said CIRM Board Chair Dr Jonathan Thomas.

“These projects, studying cells connected to leukaemia and other blood cancers and diseases of the brain such as Parkinson’s, have the potential to be game changers and transform the lives of millions of people around the world.”