The Woolcock Institute of Medical Research

The new year has brought good news for researchers at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research.

Members of our Sleep and Circadian Research group have been awarded an NHMRC Ideas Grant ($1,998,351.20) entitled: Impact and mechanisms of night-to-night variability in sleep apnoea severity on health and treatment outcomes.

The Chief Investigator A for the study is Andrew Vakulin at Flinders University and the Woolcock team members (CIs/AIs) include Brendon Yee, Yizhong Zheng, Craig Phillips, Ron Grunstein, Angela D’Rozario and Camilla Hoyos.

Professor Guy Marks and Dr Christine Cowie from the Woolcock’s Respiratory and Environmental Epidemiology group also received a grant of approximately $1million in the NHMRC’s Targeted Call for Research into climate-related health impacts and effective interventions to improve health outcomes.

The two are Chief Investigators for a study entitled Community resilience centres for improving climate adaptation to bushfire smoke and heatwaves in changing urban environments which will research whether proposed clean air shelters can harmful exposures to protect those most vulnerable to the effects of extreme heat and smoke. The Lead CI is Professor Sotiris Vardoulakis, University of Canberra.

The Woolcock's Sleep Group were also successful in last year’s Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) grant funding round for Optimising, Screening, Diagnosis and Management of Obstructive Sleep Apnoea.

Studies awarded funding under the scheme were:

• Randomised controlled trial of screening patients with Schizophrenia and suspected obstructive sleep apnoea using in-laboratory polysomnography or three-nights of home oximetry. Woolcock researchers: Ron Grunstein Ron, Nat Marshall Brendon Yee and Craig Phillips. Funding: $1,026,061.33 over five years.
• Adherence in the air- CPAP adherence support programs dispensed in pharmacies providing sleep apnea services. Woolcock researchers: Bandana Saini, Delwyn Bartlett, Keith Wong, Andrew Stone, Chris Gordon, Nat Marshall, Rajan Sharma, Jonas Fooken, Ron Grunstein and Carissa Alderton. Funding: $1,499,812.55
• Novel home monitoring and integrated support program of obstructive sleep apnoea management. Woolcock researchers: Ron Grunstein, Brendon Yee. Funding: $1,496,447.76 over four years.

Last year, Professor Helen Reddel from Macquarie Medical School and the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research has been awarded a Leadership Level 3 grant totalling $2,785,304 for a project entitled, “Paradigm-changing strategies to reduce global asthma mortality and morbidity”. Her program of work is funded for five years, and aims to reduce the global burden of death and disability due to asthma. It will provide evidence for a simple new way of diagnosing and treating asthma, that both relieves patients’ symptoms and reduces the risk of severe attacks. It aims to improve how clinicians assess asthma and respond to patients’ treatment needs, with innovations that are easy to implement around the world.

Professor Greg King of the Woolcock’s Airway Physiology and Imaging research group and his team were also awarded a Perpetual IMPACT grant in the last round of funding. The team will conduct research in patients attending the Emergency Department (ED) to optimise asthma management incorporating the use of home monitoring.

Professor Daniela Traini, research leader in our Respiratory Technology group, was awarded a collaborative grant of $300,000 for research led by Professor Anthony Kelleher from UNSW for Self-amplifying mRNA Antiviral RNA Therapeutics (SMART) platform. Their work will investigate novel antiviral therapeutic platform technology which is urgently needed for pathogens of pandemic potential. They have developed antiviral short-interfering (si)RNA therapeutics targeting the COVID-causing virus to shut-down infection against all SARS-CoV-2 variants, however their effect is transient and propose to develop the highly innovative SMART (Self-amplifying mRNA Antiviral RNA Therapeutics) platform targeting the SARS-coronavirus family to increase the duration of antiviral siRNA effectiveness. The SMART platform will provide broad-spectrum antiviral therapeutics for SARS-coronaviruses and provide preparedness for pathogens of pandemic potential.

Congratulations to all investigators on these great achievements. We look forward to following their important work.

Find out more

• Our Research Groups
• Volunteer for a research study