Major achievements in the area of health and medical research
Health research
Professor William Tarnow-Mordi (Head of Neonatology at Westmead Hospital) has been awarded a major $2.2 million NHMRC grant for a five-year collaborative project to research the administration of oxygen to premature babies.
Professor Maria Fiatarone Singh and her team from the School of Exercise and Sports Science began work on HIPFIT, a post-fracture package to aid the recovery of elderly patients.
Dr Stuart Graham and Dr Alexander Klistorner, two ophthalmologists at Syndey University's Save Sight Institute who are developing a pioneering test for glaucoma, have won a major National Health and Medical Research Council grant. They were awarded $119,500 to develop virtual-reality goggles which test the wearer's field of visions.
The Faculty of Dentistry won a three-year NHMRC grant worth more than $330,000 to investigate the effects of jaw-muscle pain on jaw-muscle activity and jaw movement in humans.
Medical research
Associate Professor Iain McGregor (School of Psychology) has been awarded a NHMRC grant to conduct an assessment into the adverse effects of combining ecstasy and methamphetamines.
Associate Professor Graeme Stewart (College of Health Sciences) has been awarded a NHMRC grant ($564,250) to research genes associated with multiple sclerosis.
Associate Professor Chris Semsarian (College of Health Sciences) has been awarded a NHMRC grant ($567,750) to investigate the genetic basis of sudden cardiac death in young people.
Professor Peter Gunning (Children’s Hospital at Westmead) has secured an NHMRC grant of more than $1 million over five years to research the molecular genetics of cell and tissue structure.
The Westmead Millennium Institute's Storr Liver Unit in collaboration with the Royal Prince Alfred's AW Morrow Department of Gastroenterology and Liver Centre, received $2 million to establish a research program focused on improving outcomes for people with chronic liver disease.
The Westmead Millennium Institute will receive $6.9million over the next 3 years under the NSW Research and Development Infrastructure Grant Program. This represents a significant increase of approximately $1million per annum and clearly ranks the Westmead Millennium Institute as the second most productive institute in the State.
Interactions between herbal medicines and the anticoagulant warfarin will be explored by Pharmacy Senior Lecturer Dr Andrew McLauchlan with a NHMRC grant of $420,000 over three years.
Associate Professor Bruce Neal, from the Central Clinical School and the Institute for International Health received two NHMRC grants: $765,000 over five years to conduct a randomised trial into the effects of cholesterol-lowering therapy among patients with kidney disease (in collaboration with the Australian and New Zealand Society of Nephrology and the University of Oxford); and $157,000 to conduct an overview of trials that explore the effects of different types of blood-pressure-lowering drugs.
Virology Professor Anthony Cunningham, based at the Western Clinical School and Director of Westmead Millennium Institute and Research Centres, has also won two NHMRC grants, each of $450,000 over three years to research the behaviour of the herpes simplex virus within neurons and the immune defences against the virus, with the aim of improving the partially effective human vaccine.
Neurosciences
Professor John Pollard (Faculty of Medicine) and Professor Richard Banati (Faculty of Health Sciences) have been awarded a $1M grant from the New South Wales Spinal Cord and Other Neurological Conditions Research Programme. The project funded is entitled: "Glial and neuroinflammatory mechanisms of neuronal degeneration and regeneration: The functional states of microglia in the central nervous system and macrophages in the peripheral nervous system".
Dr James Middleton (Faculty of Medicine) and Associate Professor Glen Davis (Faculty of Health Sciences) have also been awarded a $1M grant from the New South Wales Spinal Cord and Other Neurological Conditions Research Programme.
Professor Izuru Matsumoto from Fukushima Medical University in Japan accepted an appointment funded by the NSW Government's BioFirst biotechnology strategy to establish a brain bank and donor program for research into schizophrenia and alcohol-related brain damage in the University’s School of Biomedical Sciences.
A cross-disciplinary team from the Brain and Mind Research Institute, led by Professor Max Bennett, received a $1 million grant from the Clive and Vera Ramaciotti Foundations.
Public health
Professor Basil Donovan (School of Public Health) has been awarded a NHMRC grant ($405,450) to research the health impact of prostitution laws.
The National Centre for Classification in Health has successfully negotiated a funding grant from the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing that includes a research component valued at $2.68 million over the years 2004 - 8. The research that will be carried out under this grant includes:
- development of clinical terminologies for ambulatory care including community health, emergency services and general practice
- research on definitions and measurement of outpatient services
- health data quality measures
- IT research and development to establish computer systems to support clinical terminologies and health classification systems and electronic health records
- background research into classification development
- development of an international classification of health interventions
Dr Booth was awarded a large multi-centre grant for research into childhood obesity. This is a joint project between Sydney University, the NSW Department of Health, and the NSW Department of Education and Training and will survey different aspects of fitness, physical activity and eating habits of pupils in more than 90 schools across the State.
A Faculty of Health Sciences project headed by Professor Paul Mitchell received $564,000 from the NHMRC over three years. The project is a study of myopia and other eye conditions among Sydney school children.
In 2003, the Faculty of Nursing integrated a "research roundtable" into first-year units of study. This will provide students with an early introduction to research ideas and methodology.
