NHMRC Project Grant success

Antimicrobial resistance is emerging at an alarming level, rendering some bacterial infections untreatable and increasing dependence on last line antibiotics. This project seeks to characterise antimicrobial resistance within the naturally occurring gut bacteria to inform clinical antibiotic selection and minimise the emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance within the hospital and community setting.

Cerebral palsy is a devastating life-long condition. A large proportion of cases are associated with exposure to inflammation at the time of preterm birth. There is no effective treatment. The study will examine how inflammation impairs brain development and function in preterm infants and test whether blocking a key inflammatory protein in the blood, called tumour necrosis factor, improves brain development.

Pelvic organ prolapse (POP) is a hidden disease burden affecting 25 per cent of all women. POP is the herniation of pelvic organs into the vagina, resulting from injury during childbirth causing sexual, bladder and bowel dysfunction years later as the condition progresses. POP has limited treatment options. This project will evaluate a novel cell-based therapy combined with degradable nanobiomaterials for treating and preventing POP using mesenchymal stem cells from the lining of the womb.

Some patients who are susceptible to specific infections have a deficiency in components of the interferon signaling pathway. Interferons are long known to protect from infections, but each component was thought to contribute broad protection, not to specific pathogens. In this project, we will characterise new specific functions of interferon components and pathways to generate new biomarkers of disease, patient response and new therapies.

Many women suffer from either failed fertilisation or their embryos arrest during early development. This often results because their eggs have too few copies of mitochondrial DNA otherwise known as mitochondrial DNA deficiency. Using a pig model of mitochondrial deficiency, the project will show how supplementation with autologous populations of mitochondrial DNA induces changes in the genes that an embryo expresses to promote the transition from a metabolically poor fate to a metabolically healthier fate.

Fetal growth restriction (FGR) is a common pregnancy complication in which the fetus fails to thrive. FGR is associated with complex brain injury comprising altered basic cell morphology and whole brain connectivity. This project will examine the neuroprotective benefits of two treatments in a preclinical model of FGR and assess microstructural development. This will be correlated with connectivity measures from advanced diffusion MRI and functional assessments, which could be readily applied to the human brain.

Embryo implantation is a key step in establishing pregnancy and a bottleneck in IVF treatment to overcome infertility. For implantation to succeed, the uterus must prepare appropriately so that an embryo can attach and implant. This project will investigate a novel mechanism that regulates the uterus for implantation and its implications in improving IVF.

A staggering one in five babies born in Australia require help breathing at birth. This project examines ways of improving the way in which babies are delivered by investigating the utility of giving respiratory support before the umbilical cord is cut. By introducing this simple intervention, the aim is to improve the outcomes of all babies born in Australia.

In this project 1500 bacterial will be isolated from the microbiomes of metropolitan, rural and indigenous Australians. These bacteria will be genome sequenced, classified, characterised and permanently archived to provide a detailed understanding of previously undiscovered bacteria. This project should significantly enhance our knowledge of bacterial diversity and evolution and provide insights into how bacteria may move between people.