Successful Non ARC/NHMRC Grants 2010
Cancer Australia
Investigator: Dr Rick Franich - School of Applied Sciences
Project title:Real-time treatment verification system for high dose rate brachytherapy treatment of prostate cancer
Project description: This project aims to develop a real-time treatment verification system for high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy of prostate and other cancers. The major outcome of the work will be a validated method for verifying the dose delivered to individual patients at the time of treatment, and allow for corrective action when discrepancies occur.
Heart Foundation
Investigator: Prof. John Hawley - School of Medical Sciences
Project title:Preventing diabetes induced vascular disease
Project description: The prevalence of overweight and obesity in Australia is approaching 60% and has doubled in the past 20 years. Lipid deposition and obesity are primarily controlled by the balance between energy expenditure (i.e., level of physical activity) and energy intake. In this regard, inactivity is now recognised an independent risk factor for obesity and several associated conditions (i.e., insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes).
This highlights the importance of understanding the genetic basis of physical inactivity itself as a true phenotype. The Overall Aim of this proposal is to determine the role of β-AR signalling in skeletal, cardiac and vascular smooth muscle on the aetiology of obesity, insulin resistance and the associated cardiovascular complications that underpin the ‘metabolic syndrome'.
Heart Foundation
Investigator: Prof. Denise Jackson - School of Medical Sciences
Project title:Contact-dependent control of thrombus growth
Project description: Platelet are central in normal haemostasis to arrest bleeding following trauma and under pathological conditions of atherosclerotic plaques and arterial thrombosis. Platelet thrombosis can lead to clinical sequelae of cardiovascular (CVD) or cerebrovascular disease that is associated with 36% of all deaths in our country.
CVD affects more than 3.5 million Australians, and is also the most common cause of death in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island population. 90% of the adult population have at least one risk factor for CVD. This group of diseases costs the Australian health system $7.6 billion each year deeming it to be one of Australia’s largest health problem.
Excessive platelet activation and clumping in diseased blood vessels can lead to blockages and cause thrombotic diseases such as heart attack and cerebral ischaemic stroke, two of the biggest killers of humans in the western world. In this proposal, we seek to understand the interplay, organisation and signalling events of Ig-ITIM superfamily members, and their roles in thrombosis.
These experiments will determine the functional role of ceacam1 in contact-dependent events in platelets derived from wild-type and ceacam1-/- mice, investigate the contribution of contact-dependent platelet adhesion under in vitro flow conditions and define the contribution of cellular source and vascular context of ceacam1 and combinatorial synergy with PECAM-1 in regulating platelet thrombus formation in vivo.
This information will be fundamental not only in terms of understanding key receptor system relationships at the interface of thrombosis and inflammation, but also in developing novel anti-thrombotics and anti-inflammatory therapeutics.
Heart Foundation
Investigator: Dr Kelvin Wong - School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering
Project title: Travel Grant to attend the 4th International Symposium on Bioanalysis, Biomedical Engineering and Nanotechnology in Hunan, China
Helen Macpherson Smith Trust
Investigator: Prof. Emilio Badoer - School of Medical Sciences
Project title:Inflammation in the brain during the development of heart failure induced by myocardial infarction
Project description: The aim of this work is to investigate in detail inflammation in brain regions important for the regulation of sympathetic nerve activity during the development of heart failure. Thus the study may provide fundamental insights into the potential causes and novel therapeutic targets to treat the overactivity of the sympathetic nerve activity observed in chronic heart failure.
Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International
Investigator: Dr Martin Stebbing - School of Medical Sciences
Project title:Role of microglia in diabetic complications and autonomic neuropathy
Project description: The aim of this study is to determine whether inflammation in the brain and activation of inflammatory cells called microglia can disrupt the body's internal maintenance system in type 1 diabetes, causing damage to organs such as the heart, kidney and blood vessels.
Rebecca L Cooper Medical Research Foundation
Investigator: Prof. Denise Jackson - School of Medical Sciences
Project title:Stabilisation of Blood Clots-Implications for cerebral ischaemic stroke
Project description: Purchase of equipment to help establish a research laboratory that will advance the University's cardiovascular research programme.
VicHealth Promotion Foundation
Investigator: Dr Mike Read - School of Economics, Finance and Marketing
Project title: Drinking-related lifestyles: Development and implementation of lifestyle segmentation model for binge drinking intervention through improved media and message targeting
Project description: The project seeks to develop innovative and actionable insights into drinking-related lifestyles of Victorians and to use this information to identify likely interventions to reduce the incidence of harmful drinking.
William Angliss Charitable Trust
Investigator: Prof. Denise Jackson - School of Medical Sciences
Project title: Equipment for new research laboratory
Project description: The equipment acquired will be used to advance the University's cardiovascular research programme.