New funding for health research

Ed O'Daly

Dr Reena Ghildyal. Photo: Michelle McAulay

1 November 2011: University of Canberra research projects to reduce asthma-related deaths and develop vaccines for diseases including HIV and cancer have received a boost with more than a million dollars in funding by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).

Reena Ghildyal was awarded $562,350 towards her asthma research, while Sudha Rao was awarded $494,782 to explore the immune system’s memory.

Meanwhile, professor of midwifery Deborah Davis and her colleagues from the University of Technology, Sydney received $257,000 towards their work on whether continuity in midwifery care increases natural births after a previous caesarean section.

Dr Ghildyal will lead a project to find new ways to prevent the potentially fatal asthma attacks caused by ‘rhinovirus’ infections, which kill 16 Australians a week.

Dr Ghildyal’s work will result in development of vaccines and new drugs to target rhinoviruses, thus reducing the number of asthma complications and asthma-related deaths..

Dr Sudha Rao. Photo: Michelle McAulay

“Rhinovirus infections account for more than 70 percent of asthma attacks,” Dr Ghildyal said. “With the RV infections and asthma complications on the increase, new strategies for reducing disease severity are urgently needed. Increased understanding of the molecular basis of rhinovirus infections has implications for disease caused by other respiratory viruses.”

Dr Rao hopes her work to harness the power of the immune system’s memory will have implications for a range of diseases.

“Current global health challenges in areas such as tuberculosis and influenza demand not only more effective and safer vaccines, but also vaccines for a wider range of health issues, namely, HIV, cancers, and emerging pathogens,” she said.

“Understanding the molecular mechanisms underpinning the rapid recall responses of the memory will be a critical component in developing these drugs.”

Professor Deborah Davis

Professor Davis' research will be part of a broader study, the first of its kind internationally, which will test the efectiveness of continuity of midwifery care on vaginal birth rates of women who have had a prior caesarean section.

“It is critically important that we reverse the trend of increasing caesarean sections in our maternity services and this study may point the way toward a valuable strategy for achieving this aim: continuity of midwifery care,” Professor Davis said.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (research) Frances Shannon said it was pleasing that three researchers who had recently joined the University as part of its program of academic renewal had won prestigious NHMRC grants.

She added the University of Canberra was placing renewed emphasis on research and these grants were the latest in a series of major successes.

“We’re hiring more researchers, attracting more research students and winning more grants. These latest grants – which came in the week of our Research Festival – illustrate the progress we’re making in research at the University of Canberra,” Professor Shannon said.

In June, a $1.7 million consultancy to research nurse practitioners came a week after the University announced its largest ever national competitive grant award of $1.4 million for work to improve rural livelihoods in Pakistan.

In May, the University was awarded $6.3 million to establish a new ‘Collaborative Research Network’ (CRN) to bring together its expertise in environmental science, public policy, social and economic modelling, health and regional planning to protect the Murray Darling Basin and the communities it sustains.