Search

Highlights from the VTG Laboratory in 2024

RSV Protect Study

Research

Respiratory viruses significantly impact global morbidity and mortality, causing more disease in humans than any other infectious agent. Beyond pathogens, various viruses and bacteria colonize the respiratory tract without causing disease, potentially influencing respiratory diseases’ pathogenesis.

News & Events

Research reveals that friendly bacteria may help reduce flu symptoms, offering new insights into potential treatments and enhancing our understanding of immune health.

Research

Shannon Elizabeth Simpson Smith BMedSci (hons), PhD PhD, MSc, BSc Head, Strong Beginnings Research, Co-head Foundations of Lung Disease Program

Research

Neonatal sepsis remains one of the key challenges of neonatal medicine, and together with preterm birth, causes almost 50% of all deaths globally for children younger than 5 years. Compared with advances achieved for other serious neonatal and early childhood conditions globally, progress in reducing neonatal sepsis has been much slower, especially in low-resource settings that have the highest burden of neonatal sepsis morbidity and mortality.

Research

Tonsillectomy is one of the most common surgical procedures in childhood. While generally safe, it often is associated with a difficult early recovery phase with poor oral intake, dehydration, difficult or painful swallowing, postoperative bleeding, infection and/or otalgia.

News & Events

The Kids Research Institute welcomes WA's $11M RSV immunisation program, offering free Nirsevimab to infants, aiming to reduce winter hospitalisations.

News & Events

A The Kids Research Institute Australia study designed to gauge community awareness of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) has found parents and parents-to-be are highly aware of the virus and are open to immunisation to tackle it.

News & Events

A The Kids Research Institute Australia and Curtin University-led study has found the maternal whooping cough vaccine given to pregnant mothers in the second or third trimester significantly reduced babies’ risk of infection, protecting them at their most vulnerable age.

News & Events

Researchers from the Wesfarmers Centre of Vaccines and Infectious Diseases at The Kids Research Institute Australia have shared their expertise with the community in Cockburn, covering topics ranging from respiratory disease in babies to recurring ear infections in kids.

News & Events

Congratulations to Dr Paula Tesine who is the successful recipient of the Deborah Lehmann Research Award. As the third recipient of the Deborah Lehmann Research Award, Dr Tesine received $30,000 towards her research.

Registration Testimonials Registration for IIC Perth includes: 2-day lecture program with global experts in infectious diseases Course materials

Research

Chronic pain assessment tools exist for children, but may not be valid, reliable, and feasible for populations with functional, cognitive or communication limitations, for example, cerebral palsy (CP). This study aimed to (i) identify chronic pain assessment tools used with children and young people and rate their measurement properties; (ii) develop a CP specific feasibility rating tool to assess the feasibility of tools in CP; and (iii) categorise tools according to reporting method.

Scientific Committee Chair and Vice Chair Scientific Committee Members Contact us If you'd like to get in touch, please contact Marie Nadal-Sims by

Research

Promoting wellbeing for youth is a global health priority and young people with chronic conditions demonstrate disproportionately low wellbeing compared to their peers. However, wellbeing is variably defined, and little is understood as to what wellbeing means for this population. The aim of this study was to develop a conceptualisation of wellbeing that is rooted in the perspectives of young people with chronic conditions. 

Research

In this review, we provide an overview of food allergy genetics and epigenetics aimed at clinicians and researchers. This includes a brief review of the current understanding of genetic and epigenetic mechanisms, inheritance of food allergy, as well as a discussion of advantages and limitations of the different types of studies in genetic research. 

Research

Measuring exercise intensity for safety and to inform prescription in acute burn survivors, is challenging. This study aimed to assess the validity of adult patient end-of-workout rating of session perceived exertion (sRPE); and calculated training load (TL) (sRPE × session duration) as measures of exercise intensity. Secondly, the study aimed to compare clinician and patient perception of exercise effort during physiotherapist-led sessions.

Research

Although most people born this century will be educated in African schools, these schools often lack basic infrastructure, such as electricity and/or lighting. In the face of a rapidly growing school-age population in Africa, the electrification of educational facilities is not just an infrastructural challenge but also a pivotal investment in the continent’s future workforce.

Research

Estimate the global prevalence of neurodevelopmental impairment in children with Robin sequence (RS) at one year or more of age.

News & Events

With mental health issues an escalating problem among young people, looking after the mental health of future generations has never been more

News & Events

Growing up poor is about more than just the size of your bank account. Read the new CoLab Impact of Poverty Evidence Report.

News & Events

Researchers have found kids who experience repeat ear infections in infancy have a much higher risk of ongoing problems with ear infections in later childhood

News & Events

The Kids researcher Dr Shelley Gorman has received a Healthway grant to develop an online tool to promote safe sun behaviours to teenagers.

News & Events

Three The Kids researchers are collaborating on a cancer research project that has been awarded a $1.75mill grant by the Australian Cancer Research Fund.

News & Events

The Kids researchers are collaborating on two major projects that today received $1.2million in funding from MTPConnect.

News & Events

Researchers conducted a series of group interviews with young people to find out how much they knew about energy drinks and the consequences of drinking them.