Real-World Health Solutions Poised to Benefit Millions of People

Flinders University has been awarded more than $9 million for boundary-pushing projects investigating better treatments for mental health and wellbeing, vision loss and sleep disorders.

The funding under the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Investigator Grants awarded to the Flinders researchers recognise the potential of their projects to improve millions of lives.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Colin Stirling congratulated Professors Tracey Wade, Justine Smith, Jamie Craig and Dr Bastien Lechat and their teams for their transformative work.

“At Flinders we are very proud of our outstanding researchers and their fearless pursuit of new knowledge that will help to provide more effective treatments and better outcomes for patients,” Professor Stirling said.

“Each of these researchers is making an outstanding contribution in their field that is being recognised by the NHMRC Investigator spotlight now shining on them.

“The high impact solutions they are developing to real-world health challenges will make a positive difference to people’s wellbeing and will help deliver stronger, healthier communities into the future.

“High impact research delivers outcomes that can change lives for the better. Congratulations to all of our grant winners.”

The NHMRC Investigator Grants have been awarded to:

• Revolutionising early intervention outcomes for youth with emerging eating disorders ($2,953,040) led by Professor Tracey Wade, Flinders Institute for Mental Health and Wellbeing Director and Matthew Flinders Distinguished Professor, College of Education, Psychology and Social Work
• Addressing the Greatest Unmet Needs in Uveitis ($2,953,040), led by Professor Justine Smith, Strategic Professor in Eye & Vision Health, Matthew Flinders Distinguished Professor, College of Medicine and Public Health
• Expanding the indications for polygenic risk testing in glaucoma ($2,476,520), led by Professor Jamie Craig, Matthew Flinders Distinguished Professor, College of Medicine and Public Health
• Redefining sleep disordered breathing diagnostics and management: A novel data-driven digital health approach ($662,040) led by Dr Bastien Lechat, Research Fellow, College of Medicine and Public Health

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Robert Saint says these large grants recognise the quality, creativity and impact of the projects put forward by the researchers and their teams.

“We are proud of the success of our researchers in achieving these grant awards in an extremely competitive field,” says Professor Saint. “This funding will enable them to pursue important new research directions at the cutting edge of their disciplines.

“They will deliver new insights and improved outcomes for people on a global scale.  With these grants, our researchers will have means to help people with eating disorders, chronic respiratory sleeping disorders, and eye diseases that can lead to blindness.”

The Investigator Grant scheme is NHMRC’s largest funding program and is a major investment in Australia’s health and medical research workforce. The grants support projects conducted by high-performing researchers for five-year periods.

INVESTIGATOR GRANT RECIPIENTS

 Professor Tracey Wade, Flinders Institute for Mental Health and Wellbeing Director, Matthew Flinders Distinguished Professor, College of Education, Psychology and Social Work

NHMRC Investigator Grant: $2,953,040.00

Project: Revolutionising early intervention outcomes for youth with emerging eating disorders

Overview: “Barriers exist in recognising eating disorders are a common mental illness. This has created a gap between timely treatment and the provision of effective treatments for eating disorders. This project will identify, with a variety of stakeholders, the critical issues that cause eating disorders to develop. We will then develop and test a range of brief interventions that have the most promising health outcomes for young people aged up to 25 years with emerging eating disorders. It will reduce the need for more intensive and expensive interventions later. This work meets a critical need in the community where the prevalence of eating disorders in young people has increased 15% since COVID, resulting in a three-fold increase in demand for eating disorder treatment.”

Professor Justine Smith, Strategic Professor in Eye and Vision Health, Matthew Flinders Distinguished Professor, College of Medicine and Public Health.

NHMRC Investigator Grant: $2,953,040.00

Project: Addressing the Greatest Unmet Needs in Uveitis

Overview: “Uveitis is an inflammatory disease involving tissues inside the eye. Uveitis affects working-age adults, can cause rapid vision loss in 70% of patients and it is the cause of up to 25% of blindness around the world today. This project will develop, implement and evaluate new therapeutic approaches including drug targets and AI, to reverse or prevent uveitis-related vision loss.  The research is expected to deliver superior management options for clinicians, new training opportunities for the next generation of clinician-scientists, and higher quality of life outcomes for patients.”

Professor Jamie Craig, Matthew Flinders Distinguished Professor, College of Medicine and Public Health

NHMRC Investigator Grant: $2,476,520.00

Project: Expanding the indications for polygenic risk testing in glaucoma

Overview: “Glaucoma is one of the most heritable diseases – affecting 3% of people over 50 years worldwide today. Asymptomatic in its early stages, it is the leading cause of irreversible blindness if left untreated, with approximately half of those with it being undiagnosed. Our research will use a risk prediction model in depth genetic understanding to help advance new screening, leading to earlier intervention and improved treatment options available to clinicians, and a better outlook for patients. The research outcomes extend to widening critical knowledge in glaucoma genetics so all high-risk individuals are diagnosed early in the disease and that means preventing the loss of vision.”

Dr Bastien Lechat, College of Medicine and Public Health Research Fellow

NHMRC Investigator Grant: $662,040.00

Project: Redefining sleep disordered breathing diagnostics and management: A novel data-driven digital health approach

Overview: “Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is a chronic respiratory disorder where breathing is repeatedly reduced or stops completely during sleep. It is estimated to affect over 1 billion people globally with considerable negative impacts if left untreated. My aim is to create a new model of care for sleep disordered breathing that will provide accurate, inexpensive, and scalable diagnostic and treatment options for sleep disordered breathing. This includes use of simplified, at-home and cost-effective technologies to build the bedroom of the future – a multi-modal, multi-night approach to sleep disordered breathing diagnosis and ongoing monitoring. This will help accurately diagnose millions of people that would have otherwise been missed or over diagnosed, reduce costs and be accessible to those in rural and lower socio-economic areas with reduced access to sleep clinics.”