19 October 2012
The University of South Australia has won more than $8.6 million in support for health research from the National Medical Health Research Council for 17 new fellowships and projects.
The grants are double those received from the national funding body in 2011.
Outstanding projects include research led by Professor Lorimer Moseley into new theories on chronic pain. Prof Moseley is this year’s winner of the NHMRC’s Marshall Warren Award, which recognises the best, highly innovative and potentially transformative grant-funded project in Australia.
And almost $2 million was awarded to Prof Michael Roberts for two projects - one to better understand the properties of nanosystems that will enable improved drug targeting via the skin, and another exploring the use of imaging technologies to develop appropriate drugs and doses for aged people and patients with liver diseases.
Population health researcher Prof Mark Daniel secured more than $1 million for a project which will assess the infrastructure and contextual factors that may affect the rate of cardio metabolic disease in Indigenous communities and develop suggested policy options.
UniSA Acting Vice Chancellor, Professor Joanne Wright says the funding reflects the University’s success in growing its research in areas that makes a difference to people’s lives.
"This year the University has received more funding than it ever has from the NHMRC in a grant announcement, so I am delighted with the results," Prof Wright says.
“Winning research funding is an increasingly competitive process and one in which only world class research with the highest potential to have a positive impact on community health and medical science will be successful,” Prof Wright says.
“This year’s results for UniSA reflect the depth of expertise among our researchers, from early career researchers who have been awarded fellowships to further their investigation of important areas such as the treatment of infectious diseases, right through to our most senior professors whose passion to know and understand more about pain, cancer, heart disease, personalised medicine or mental health is inspiring new generations of researchers.”
UniSA was awarded one research fellowship, one career development fellowship, one equipment grant one partnership grant and nine project grants. The grant recipients and their projects are listed below.
Research Fellowship
Prof Corey Xian - Bone growth and regeneration
Career Development Fellowship
Dr Paul Anderson – Action of Vitamin D in bone
Early Career Fellowships
Dr Tom Wycherley – Nutrition intervention in Indigenous communities
Dr Natasha Stanton- Osteoarthritis and brain training for pain management
Georgina Crichton – Cross national comparisons of diet and cardiovascular risk
Dr Stephanie Reuter-Lange - Improving the treatment of infectious diseases
Partnership grant
Prof Leonie Segal – Community mental health care
Project grant winners
Dr Hannah Keage – dementia
Prof Corey Xian - bone tissue
Assoc Prof Benjamin Thierry – nanomedicines
Prof Lorimer Moseley – chronic pain
Prof Michael Roberts – improved drug delivery (two projects)
Dr Karen Murphy – the Mediterranean diet and brain function
Prof Shudong Wang – less toxic cancer treatments
Prof Mark Daniel - Environmental and cardiometabolic disease in Indigenous communities
Media contact: Michèle Nardelli office: 08 8302 0966 mobile: 0418 823 673 email: michele.nardelli@unisa.edu.au
