Stem cell therapies receive MRFF funding

Associate Professor Rebecca Lim has been awarded more than $470,000 from the Australian Government’s Medical Research Future Fund to pursue research into stem cell therapies for liver disease.

A/Prof Lim leads the Regenerative Medicine and Cellular Therapies Research group at Hudson Institute. Together with Monash University, Obstetrics and Gynaecology (Material Science and Engineering) and Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, she was awarded the $472,680 Department of Health funding to work on gastroenterology, regenerative medicine and cellular biology (including stem cells and tissue engineering).

The Stem Cell Therapies Mission is funded via the MRFF and will invest $150 million over nine years to develop innovative, safe and effective treatments accessible to all Australians who need them.

Childhood cancer

Congratulations also to our collaborators, the Australian and New Zealand Children’s Haematology Oncology Group (ANZCHOG), who were awarded three MRFF grants, totalling $1,965,011 for their studies on childhood brain cancer. The three trials were funded through the MRFF Clinical Trials Activity (Rare Cancers, Rare Diseases and Unmet Need) – Childhood Brain Cancer Opportunity, which will enable ANZCHOG to continue to provide Australian children diagnosed with brain cancer access to innovative clinical trials.

CONNECT-1903 is an international study that will assess if treatment with lactrotrectinib is safe and can control the growth of tumours in children with high grade gliomas. The second international study is the MET-MED trial, examining if metformin can improve cognitive recovery in paediatric medulloblastoma patients. The final successful application, the TiNT Trial, is a phase II trial using trametinib (a promising MEK inhibitor) in patients with neurofibromatosis type 1 associated progressive optic pathway gliomas. This trial was designed and developed by Australian and New Zealand researchers, essential for capacity building and leading innovative trial research in the paediatric oncology space.