New collaboration boosts Queensland's medical research

QUT’s Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation (IHBI) and QIMR Berghofer Medical Research have entered into a partnership that will promote greater collaboration between the two major medical research institutes.

Under the agreement, QUT will have access to specialist health and medical research laboratories and facilities in the QIMR Berghofer complex.

QUT Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Coaldrake said successful translational research in the medical and health space increasingly required a collaborative effort between biomedical scientists and clinical researchers with access to technologies that underpin transformational discoveries.

QIMR Berghofer Director and CEO Professor Frank Gannon said while both organisations would remain independent under the agreement, partnerships such as this were vital for medical research to make it from the laboratory to patients.

“QUT’s research strengths in health sciences, automation, big data, mathematics and technology will complement the biomedical science expertise of QIMR Berghofer,” Professor Coaldrake said.

“The collaboration will enable translational research to occur at the intersection of these fields, with specific focus on infectious diseases, neuroscience and neuroimaging, and will create unique capabilities in Queensland.

“IHBI researchers are deeply engaged in projects in other Brisbane research institutes, with 130 in the Translational Research Institute (TRI) and another 80 moving from July this year to the Centre for Children’s Health Research Facility at the Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital.

“QIMR Berghofer will eventually house up to 80 QUT researchers under this agreement.”

“Our location next to the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital and our state-of-the art facilities provide the ideal location for successful translational research,” Professor Gannon said.

“Most importantly, this should result in more clinically relevant research and better treatments for patients.”

IHBI brings together more than 1200 researchers from within QUT across the Faculty of Health and the Science and Engineering Faculty, and has close links with external partners, including major teaching hospitals, Queensland Health, primary healthcare providers, and other universities and research institutes.

Research undertaken by IHBI members is clustered around three research themes that emphasise and facilitate multidisciplinary collaboration that include chronic disease and ageing, health determinants and health systems, and injury prevention and trauma management.

Established in 1945, QIMR Berghofer is one of Australia’s leading translational research institutes focused on cancer, infectious diseases, mental health and a range of complex diseases. QIMR Berghofer is home to more than 600 scientists, students and support staff in three buildings at the Herston Medical campus.