Research to improve outcomes for transplant patients, identify osteoporosis risk, protect and strengthen bones and prevent the spread of the bacterial infection Strep A have received Federal funding.
The four projects received a total of almost $5.5 million from The National Health and Medical Research Council's 2025 Ideas Grants scheme.
Dr Kai Chen, from UWA's School of Biomedical Sciences, will lead a project examine how dietary sugar turns into bone fat and explore using RNA therapies to block the process.
"Bone marrow fat makes up 70 per cent of adult bone space and was once thought to be inactive – but it plays a key role in bone health," Dr Chen said.
"It consumes more sugar than other bone cells, and its growth is linked to bone loss in conditions like osteoporosis. We hope our research will lead to new treatments that protect and strengthen bones."
Professor Michaela Lucas, from UWA's Medical School, is chief investigator on a project that will investigate new targeted treatments for transplant patients.
"Organ transplantation is a lifesaving treatment for many terminal diseases, but the immune suppression required to prevent organ rejection has many adverse side effects," Professor Lucas said.
"We will comprehensively examine the proteins present at different stages of the immune response and across various types of transplanted solid organs to inform the development of new treatment strategies.
"The strategies aim to prevent early rejection following transplant surgery and to improve long-term outcomes and quality of life for transplant recipients."
Dr Janessa Pickering, from UWA's School of Biomedical Sciences and a Research Fellow at the Wesfarmers Centre of Vaccines and Infectious Diseases at The Kids Research Institute Australia, will lead a study that aims to prevent the spread of Strep A using 'friendly' bacteria in the throat.
"We have discovered healthy bacteria that can naturally kill group A Strep, a pathogen causing sore throats, skin sores and rheumatic heart disease," Dr Pickering said.
"This project will characterise these healthy bacteria and develop new products to prevent the infection.
"We will engage with communities to understand the acceptability of preventing Strep A with alternative treatments including probiotics and supplements."
Professor Scott Wilson, from UWA's School of Biomedical Sciences, is leading new research to understand how inherited genetic differences increase the risk of osteoporosis.
"Many genetic risk factors for osteoporosis have been discovered, but we still don't know how most of them actually affect bone cell function," Professor Wilson said.
"Our project will identify which genes are switched on or off by these risk variants, and how that changes the way bone cells function.
"This knowledge is essential for translating genetic discoveries into better diagnostics and future treatments for osteoporosis."
