$15 million for innovative health and medical research

University of Sydney researchers from the Faculty of Medicine and Health and the Faculty of Science have been awarded more than $15 million from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) for 18 Ideas Grant projects.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), Professor Duncan Ivison welcomed the announcement and congratulated the researchers who were awarded funding.
“It is wonderful to see so many colleagues awarded funding by the NHMRC for research in basic science that will contribute to improving the quality of life for many Australians,” said Professor Ivison.

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.

Grant highlights awarded to Sydney researchers in this round include:

Professor Greg Neely from the Charles Perkins Centre, Faculty of Science and his team, who have been awarded $832,000 for a project which will use new genomic knowledge and techniques to gain basic insight into pain biology and develop new gene-editing therapies to treat extreme untreatable chronic pain.
Dr Petra Karlsson from the Faculty of Medicine and Health and her team, who have been awarded $1.1 million to support the development of a world-first data-driven MY Voice Library, a foundation for research and development of innovative engineering of real-time communication solutions for children with cerebral palsy.
Professor Vanessa Hayes from the Faculty of Medicine and Health and the Garvan Institute of Medical Research and her team have been awarded $1.3 million to harness whole genome interrogation and an intercontinental and interethnic study design, to distinguish the genetic and non-genetic factors contributing to prostate cancer disparities.
Emeritus Professor Warwick Britton from the Faculty of Medicine and Health and Centenary Institute and his team have been awarded $897,000 for a project which will define how chronic lung disease increases the severity of COVID-19, how SARS-CoV-2 infection exacerbates tuberculosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and identify effective drugs that suppress inflammatory damage to the lung.
Dr James Burchfield from the Charles Perkins Centre and Faculty of Science and his team have been awarded $1.7 million to better understand the underlying cause of Coenzyme Q10 (a molecule essential for energy production) depletion and how it causes cardiometabolic disease. The aim is to use newly acquired understanding of the disease process to develop new treatments.