Scientists from The University of Queensland’s Faculty of Medicine + Biomedical Sciences (M+BS) have received nearly $30 million in the recent allocation of National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) grants.
The most significant of these grants went to the School of Medicine’s Professor Wendy Hoy, who received $2.5 million to establish Australia’s first Chronic Kidney Disease Centre of Research Excellence.
M+BS Professor Melissa Brown, Associate Dean Research, said the extent of grant funding received was testament to the excellent research and results achieved at the faculty’s schools, institutes and centres.
“These grants are supporting a broad range of health and medical research, from improving the lives of children with cerebral palsy to studies into breast cancer, melanoma, Parkinson’s disease and heart regeneration,” Professor Brown said.
“Our researchers and scientists are having a serious and significant impact on the health and medical needs of people across the globe and they have led successful funding bids for centres, fellowships and projects totalling about $29 million.
“This is more than 55 per cent of the funding awarded to UQ and five per cent of the funding awarded nationally.
“This is a spectacular result and one of which we should be rightly proud.”
Highlights include the School of Medicine’s Professor Roslyn Boyd and her team in the Queensland Cerebral Palsy and Rehabilitation Research Centre, who were awarded three project grants and a fellowship in this round, in addition to the NHMRC partnership grant they were awarded earlier this year.
Seven researchers received more than $1 million in funding:
- Associate Professor Abdullah Mamun from our School of Population Health received a project grant for a five-year study into the generational and developmental pathways of childhood and adolescent obesity.
- Associate Professor Andreas Schibler from our Mater Research Institute-UQ received a project grant for a three-year study to improve a specific therapy for children with bronchitis.
- Dr Peter Simpson from our School of Medicine received a project grant for a three-year breast cancer study.
- Professor John Upham from our School of Medicine received a project grant for a four-year study into using the flu vaccination to understand and improve anti-viral immunity in some lung diseases.
- Professor Paul Colditz from our School of Medicine and the UQ Centre for Clinical Research received a project grant for a five-year study into brain development in preterm babies.
- Professor Peter Sly from our Queensland Children’s Medical Research Institute received a a project grant for a five-year study into immune recognition of upper airway microbiota in early life as a determinant of respiratory health in children.
- Professor Ranjeny Thomas from the UQ Diamantina Institute received a project grant to continue her ground-breaking work on understanding the development of autoimmunity in rheumatoid arthritis.
Download a complete list of NHMRC grant recipients announced in October for funding commencing in 2015.
UQ media: Bernadette Condren, Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences Media Manager, +61 7 3346 53009, b.condren@uq.edu.au
