La Trobe University researchers have secured more than $7 million through the highly competitive National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Investigator Grant scheme, for research into issues including childhood dementia and women's knee injuries.
Professor Kay Crossley, from the La Trobe Sport and Exercise Medicine Research Centre (LASEM), secured more than $3 million to further her research into preventing and treating women's knee injuries.
Each year, 20,000 young Australians experience a serious knee injury, with women and girls facing significantly higher risk. These injuries can limit lifelong participation in physical activity and have long-term health consequences.
Professor Crossley's project will create sustainable, policy-ready implementation strategies to address the escalating knee injury rates in women and girls and support safer long-term engagement in sport and exercise.
She previously secured $4.9 million from the Medical Research Future Fund to lead a trial in 28 community women and girls' football leagues to reduce concussion and knee injuries.
Professor Yuning Hong, from the La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science (LIMS), secured $2.6 million to research childhood dementia.
More than 2000 Australian children live with forms of childhood dementia, caused by rare genetic disorders that lead to progressive loss of cognitive and motor function. Half of all affected children die by age 10 and more than 70 per cent do not survive past 18.
Professor Hong's program will use novel chemical probes to identify surrogate biomarkers, aiming to dramatically improve diagnosis and therapeutic development for the group of disorders.
Dr John Pierce, from the Centre of Research Excellence in Aphasia Recovery and Rehabilitation, has won $697,615 to apply AI and advanced data analytics to personalise aphasia rehabilitation.
Every hour, one Australian experiences a stroke that leads to aphasia, a language disorder commonly caused by stroke or brain injury that impairs speaking, writing and comprehension, while often leaving cognitive abilities intact.
Dr Pierce's project will include the co-design of next-generation therapy solutions and the development of multilingual digital tools to deliver accessible, high-quality therapy across diverse communities.
Dr Andrea Bruder, from LASEM, secured $697,615 for research that also targets knee injuries in women, with a focus on anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries and the prevention of post-traumatic osteoarthritis.
Australian girls have up to six times higher ACL injury risk than boys. Dr Bruder's project will include co-creating and testing an age, gender and sport-specific knee injury prevention program, and leading clinical trials evaluating new treatments for women after ACL reconstruction to guide best-practice treatment and future policy.
The Federal Government's NHMRC Investigator Grants scheme provides the highest-performing researchers at all career stages with funding for their salary, if required, and a research support package for five years.
La Trobe's Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Innovation Professor Chris Pakes congratulated the recipients.
"These projects tackle several major health challenges, from knee injuries in women and girls, to childhood dementia and stroke-related communication disability," Professor Pakes said.
"This funding recognises the excellence of our researchers and the real-world impact of their work that has the ability to change lives."
