The development of a second-generation COVID-19 vaccine that will provide long-lasting immunity and withstand new and emerging variants and new therapies to treat anaemia of chronic disease are two of the Griffith University projects awarded National Health and Medical Research Funding.
Announced by the Federal Minister for Health Greg Hunt, the Ideas Grants projects will contribute to vital health and medical research.
Acting Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research) Professor Sheena Reilly said the funding highlights the exemplary work conducted by the University's researchers in addressing major societal health challenges.
"These projects have the potential to make a significant difference to people's health and wellbeing. I congratulate all staff who have contributed to these efforts."
Professor Des Richardson (Griffith Institute for Drug Discovery, Sciences) awarded $638,288 for the project 'Novel Hormone Analogues as an Innovative Endocrinological Intervention for the Anaemia of Chronic Disease'.
"The second most-common anaemia, Anaemia of Chronic Disease affects more than 80% of hospitalised patients suffering infections, malignancy and inflammation and causes significant morbidity,'' Professor Richardson said.
"ACD is predominantly caused by an excessive production of hormone hepcidin which regulates iron metabolism. We recently designed a treatment that will allow gut iron absorption that corrects the deadly anaemia of ACD."
Dr Manisha Pandey (Institute for Glycomics) awarded $1,211,034 for the project 'COMBAT – A Combination B-and T-Cell Epitope Vaccine to Futureproof COVID-19 Vaccine'.
"Despite the success of COVID-9 vaccination programs, the emergence of virus mutants threatens to undermine their effectiveness,'' Dr Pandey said.
"Our aim is to design a vaccine with protective B and T-cell epitopes from the SARS-CoV2 spike protein that will broaden the immune response, reduce adverse events and allow for "vaccine updates" to accommodate emerging variants of concern.
"The vaccine will provide proof-of-concept for future-proofing COVID-19 vaccines."
Professor Chamindie Punyadeera, recruited from QUT as a joint appointment within Griffith Institute for Drug Discovery, Menzies Health Institute Queensland, was also successful, securing $763,417 for the project 'Multi-analyte liquid biopsy-based biomarkers for oropharyngeal cancer'.
"Throat cancer affects people at a relatively young age, who often go on to suffer from long-term treatment related morbidities,'' Professor Punyadeera said.
"In addition, 20% of throat cancers reoccur but current methods for detecting recurrence at an early and potentially salvageable stage are invasive and poor. There is a desire to reduce the intensity of treatment to lessen severe side effects as well as to monitor treatment response.
"We propose to use non-invasive, novel liquid biomarkers to address these unmet clinical
needs, thereby improving quality of life for cancer patients and significantly cutting healthcare costs."
Griffith researchers are also engaged in a further two NHMRC Ideas projects:
Associate Professor Horst Schirra (School of Environment & Science/GRIDD) is an investigator on a University of Queensland-led project 'Metabolic and molecular protection against mtDNA mutations'.
Professor Sally-Ann Poulsen (School of Environment and Science/GRIDD) is an investigator on a University of Adelaide-led project 'Establishing a new bone pathologic pathway and solving problems of diagnosis in chronic orthopaedic infection'.
