Monash receives largest share of federal medical research funding
Researchers from the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute (BDI) received more than $15 million in the latest round of National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) funding. While visiting the Monash BDI, the Federal Health Minister, the Hon. Greg Hunt MP, announced more than $400 million supporting more than 400 health and medical research projects.
Congratulations to the Monash BDI researchers who are involved in the 18 projects that received NHMRC Ideas Grants for research exploring germ line development, prostate cancer, targets for asthma treatments, T Cell activation and responses, and more.
Minister Hunt toured the Monash BDI as part of Saturday 7 December’s announcement, including a visit to the lab of the Professor Tony Tiganis, who received $1.78 million from the NHMRC to investigate next generation therapies for cancer.
Cancer immunotherapies are revolutionising cancer treatment. Cancer cellular immunotherapies have been especially effective at combating blood cancers. Professor Tony Tiganis’ team, based at the Monash BDI and the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, may now have found a way to extend this to the treatment of solid tumours, such as breast and colon cancers.
In preclinical-mouse studies, the researchers involved overcame a number of challenges that previously limited the effectiveness of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells therapy for solid tumours. By deleting a specific immune-regulatory enzyme, the CAR T cells are better able to traffic to and infiltrate the solid tumours, and overcome T cell exhaustion.
“This project has the potential to be a game-changing discovery in the field of cancer immunotherapy, leading to the next-generation of CAR T therapies that should increase their effectiveness in approved diseases and broaden their therapeutic utility to additional diseases such as solid cancers. We are extremely grateful to the NHMRC for continuing to fund this vital research,” said Professor Tiganis.
This project is an ongoing collaboration between Professor Tiganis and Professor Nicholas Huntington at the Monash BDI, along with collaborators at Peter Mac.
Professor John Carroll, Director of the Monash BDI, congratulated the successful grant recipients.
“Here at the Monash BDI, we’re at the forefront of biomedical discovery research. This fantastic result is a testament to the high-quality, important work our scientists do,” Professor Carroll said.
Monash University has been awarded more than $76 million in this latest round of NHMRC funding, more funding than any other Australian university.
The announcement also brings the total funding awarded to Monash for NHMRC grants to more than $148.2 million in 2019 - an increase of $42 million on the previous year and the largest amount ever received in a single year.
President and Vice-Chancellor Professor Margaret Gardner AO said the increase in funding for medical and health research at Monash was a remarkable result and testament to the University’s talented and dedicated researchers.
“This funding is vital in our commitment to help solve some of the world’s biggest medical challenges and improve the health of local and international communities, and recognises Monash as a global leader in medical research,” Professor Gardner said.
“I thank the NHMRC and the Minister for their continued support in recognising the importance of progressing these world-class projects, which are being pursued by our talented scientists, and for sharing in our desire to make a difference,” she said.
The full list of NHMRC Ideas Grants recipients can be found here.
Congratulations to the Monash BDI 2019 NHMRC Ideas Grant recipients, and their teams:
Professor Helen Abud: Defining the role of niche-derived Neuregulin-1 in intestinal regeneration
Professor John Bertram: Tracking the development and progression of chronic kidney disease using non-invasive imaging
Dr Jane Bourke: Free fatty acid receptors as novel bronchodilator targets in severe asthma
Associate Professor Tim Cole: Novel selective glucocorticoid receptor agonists to treat lung immaturity and dysfunction of preterm birth
Dr Stephen Daley: Delineating cortical and medullary self-tolerance mechanisms in the thymus
Associate Professor Chen Davidovich: Mechanism for LCOR-mediated regulation of the histone methyltransferase PRC2: a new hotspot in a sought-after target
Dr Maureen Hagan: From synapses to networks: understanding how brain networks guide behaviour
Professor Nicole La Gruta: Dissecting the requirements for effective T cell activation
Dr Kate McArthur: Redefining the nature of mitochondrial damage
Dr Thomas Naderer: Neisseria gonorrhoeae secreted vesicles kill immune cells by disabling mitochondria
Dr Brent Neumann: Understanding the role of Dynamin in axonal repair
Associate Professor Roger Pocock: Transcriptional control of germ cell development
Dr Jai Rautela: Breast cancer innate immune evasion
Professor Gail Risbridger: Targeting lethal prostate cancer in its infancy
Dr Tatsuo Sato: Probing the role of dendrites in cortical gain control
Professor Ian Smyth: Characterising a novel driver of polycystic kidney disease
Professor Tony Tiganis: Next Generation Cell Therapies for Cancer
Professor Stephen Turner: The T cell genome in 3D: understanding chromatin dynamics during T cell responses to virus infection
About the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute
Committed to making the discoveries that will relieve the future burden of disease, the newly established Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute at Monash University brings together more than 120 internationally-renowned research teams. Our researchers are supported by world-class technology and infrastructure, and partner with industry, clinicians and researchers internationally to enhance lives through discovery.