Eight The Kids Research Institute Australia researchers are among those who have received grant funding from the Telethon-Perth Children’s Hospital Research Fund (TPCHRF).
Health Minister Roger Cook announced almost $4 million in funding, with over $2 million of the funding being awarded to the Institute to support research in the areas of autism, leukaemia, food allergies and asthma.
The Department of Health received 62 highly competitive applications for Stream 1 projects that focus on short-term research projects which aim to improve the health of children and adolescents in WA. The following seven projects were awarded grants to the combined total of over $1.5 million:
- Deborah Strickland, Head of Experimental Immunology, was awarded $249,820 to research Understanding the neuroimmune axis and its role in the development of autism to develop better prognostic tools.
- Mark Cruickshank, Group Leader of Cancer Genomics and Epigenetics, was awarded $234,170 to research Precision medicine for relapse leukaemia
- Bree Foley, Senior Research Officer, was awarded $249,870 - Improving cellular immunotherapies for the treatment of leukaemia
- Laurence Cheung - Zoledronic Acid to improve the outcome of children with high risk leukaemias $242,470
- Cristina Gamez - Defining the early life window for immune tolerance and food allergy $249, 270
- Debra Palmer - Breastfeeding and Eating Nuts and Eggs For Infant Tolerance (BENEFIT) Trial $110,290
- Andre Schultz - Developing metabolomics profiles to differentiate between healthy, preschool wheeze and asthma $243,000 (Stream 1a Special Initiative)
The Department of Health also received 12 proposals for Stream 2 projects which aim to strategically improve the capacity of the child and adolescent research sector. Dr Tom Snelling, Head of Infectious Disease Implementation at The Kids, was awarded $494,520 for his Collaboration for Research and Innovation in Platform Trials in Children (CRIPTIC) research project.
Dr Tom Snelling
The grant funding awarded this year is more than double received by the Institute last year.
The Kids Research Institute Australia Director Professor Jonathan Carapetis said the fund was a great support for innovative research in Western Australia.
“These are really exciting projects that simply wouldn’t happen without this support. The diseases and issues that they are investigating affect many children and families who are desperately hoping for new treatments and therapies.”
The fund was established by the Department of Health and the Channel 7 Telethon Trust to provide financial support to research projects that focus on the health of children and adolescents in WA.
You can view the full list of recipients here.
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