Translational researchers secure MRFF Fellowships

27 August 2018

Two researchers investigating lung cancer and critical care practices for infants have received over $800,000 in funding from the Medical Research Future Fund.

University of Queensland’s Associate Professor Andreas Schilbler and Professor Kwun Fong were awarded Next Generation Clinical Researchers Program Practitioner Fellowships to commence in 2019. 

The Fellowships provide financial assistance to support health and medical research and innovation, with the objective of improving the health and wellbeing of Australians.

Dr Andreas Schibler, head of the Paediatric Critical Care Research Group (PCCRG) at the Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital, will focus on improving paediatric critical care outcomes.

Dr Schibler said his research into respiratory and cardiovascular disease and sepsis would be greatly enhanced by the funding.

“This Fellowship will allow me to undertake more research, and to collaborate with other researchers and form new, relevant research questions,” Dr Schibler said. 

“Our work is very patient-centred research, so we’re not researching questions that are years away from clinical use.

“The questions we will ask are clinically-orientated, and we are working towards easily implemented outcomes.” 

Thoracic physician Professor Kwun Fong will focus on improving early diagnosis of lung cancer at the UQ Thoracic Research Centre within the Prince Charles Hospital. 

“We want to identify better ways to diagnose and more effectively treat lung cancer to reduce the burden of the disease, and improve survival and outcomes for patients,” Professor Fong said.

Professor H. Peter Soyer was also awarded a Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) Practitioner Fellowship of $577,188, commencing this year, to develop a personalised screening program for people with a high-risk of developing melanoma.

The full list of Fellowship recipients is available online.

Media: Faculty of Medicine Media, med.media@uq.edu.au, +61 7 3365 5118. 

 

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