Auckland health research gets major boost   15 Jun 2016

Auckland health research gets major boost

University of Auckland - 14 June 2016

Auckland health research gets major boost

Health researchers at the University of Auckland have gained more than $37 million in funding for health research programmes and projects over the next three to five years.

In the latest funding round from the Health Research Council (HRC), it has awarded nearly $15 million over five years for three major projects and just over $22.5 million over three years for 19 health research programmes at the University.

The funding grants were announced today by the HRC that funded a record 52 projects nationally, worth a combined total of $60 million – a 74 per cent dollar increase from last year.

HRC Chief Executive Professor Kath McPherson says the Government’s $97 million investment boost for health research in last month’s Budget is a major reason for this year’s record number of funded projects.

“This increased investment will make a huge difference to what New Zealand’s health researchers can achieve on a national and global scale to significantly improve health care and save lives.”

“We’ve got such a wealth of talented health researchers here in New Zealand that every year we get many more exceptionally high quality applications than we’re able to fund,” she says.

“The University is naturally very pleased with this outcome reflecting the strength of our researchers and their capacity to make a difference through these research programmes and projects.”

“It’s also very encouraging to see the recognition of the national strength and importance of bio-medical research reflected in the increasing investment in the HRC which the Government has recently announced,” he says.

The three major research programmes over five years were awarded to;
• Professor Frank Bloomfield for ‘Feeding pre-term babies for life-long health’, $4,999,704
• Professor Michael Dragunow for ‘Vascular and inflammatory mediators of neurodegeneration’, $4,999,998
• Professor Rodney Jackson, ‘Vascular risk informatics using epidemiology and the web 2020 (VIEW2020)’, $4,976,577
The project, ‘Feeding pre-term babies for life-long health’, led by Professor Frank Bloomfield from the University of Auckland’s Liggins Institute investigates how best to feed preterm babies to reduce their health risks.

Pre-term babies are at risk of problems with growth, intelligence and adult diseases such as obesity and diabetes.

Professor Bloomfield and his team will study how best to feed pre-term babies to reduce their health risks and whether pre-term girls and boys need feeding differently.

“Our randomised trial will investigate the impact of three feeding approaches on growth and body composition, food tolerance and the gut microbes (the microbiome) which may influence later risk of obesity,” he says.

The project will assess whether specific nutrients can protect the pancreas in pre-term lambs, reducing later risk of diabetes.

It will include systematic reviews of human and experimental data and analysis of breast-milk composition in mothers of pre-term girls and boys, to determine whether feeding strategies should differ by infant sex.

Together, these studies of simple interventions will provide the evidence on how best to feed pre-term babies to achieve their intellectual potential whilst minimising their risk of metabolic disease.

Pharmacologist and neuroscientist, Professor Michael Dragunow from the University of Auckland’s Centre for Brain Research will lead a team investigating ‘Vascular and inflammatory mediators of neurodegeneration’.

Neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease affect millions of people world-wide, but despite decades of research there are still no effective treatments to alter their progression.

“Our programme of research will study the underlying causes of neurodegeneration, focusing on brain inflammation and alterations in the blood vessels of the brain that allow blood cells and proteins to seep into diseased brain,” says Professor Dragunow.

Researchers will focus on cells involved in brain inflammation (microglia) and also cells, called pericytes that maintain an intact blood system in the brain.

“Our research will directly study normal and patient-derived diseased adult human brain tissue and adult human brain cells to identify abnormalities causing brain disease,” he says.

The team will test compounds directly on patient-derived diseased adult human brain cells to identify novel treatments. It is hoped that results from this human brain focused approach will translate more effectively to patients in the clinic with brain disorders.

Professor Rod Jackson from Epidemiology and Statistics leads an investigation into ‘Vascular risk informatics using epidemiology and the web’.

Readily available treatments can halve the risk of premature vascular disease, but under- and over-treatment is common and there are substantial ethnicity and deprivation related inequities in vascular disease burden.

“The effectiveness of most treatments depends on patients’ risks of developing vascular disease, but estimating risk is difficult without risk prediction algorithms and few valid algorithms have been developed,” says Professor Jackson.

His team has established three large overlapping cohort studies (primary care, hospital and national) linked to the same investigation, treatment and outcome datasets.

These are intended to; develop new risk prediction algorithms to assist clinicians estimate vascular risk in multiple high-risk populations; determine in whom, where and why, under- and over-treatment and inequities in vascular risk and risk management occur; and develop and implement a multi-algorithm risk prediction engine and a ‘big-data’ vascular health information platform.

These will support initiatives to increase appropriate treatment, reduce inequities in vascular disease outcomes and improve overall vascular health, he says.

The 19 programme grants from HRC (most over three years) include;
• Professor Shanthi Ameratunga (Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences), ‘Towards streetscapes promoting inclusive mobility, health and wellbeing for all’, $1,188,467
• Associate Professor Mark Bolland (FMHS), ‘Zoledronic acid and fracture prevention in early postmenopausal women’, (four years) $ 962,994
• Professor Margaret Brimble, (Science), ‘New generation lipopeptide antimicrobial agents using patented CLipPA technology’, $1,199,021
• Professor Christopher Bullen (FMHS), ‘No smokers left behind: A trial of adaptive smoking cessation treatment’, $1,197,725
• Dr Margaret Dudley (Science), ‘A Maori approach to the assessment and management of dementia’, (four years) $1,056,270
• Professor Rod Dunbar (Science), ‘Targeting cancer vaccines to human dendritic cells via CD301’, $1,190,835
• Professor Rod Dunbar (Science), ‘Proliferating tumour-associated macrophages in human cancers’, $1,173,502
• Associate Professor Cameron Grant (FMHS), ‘Effect of early childhood ear infections on language, cognition and behaviour’, $1,191,663
• Associate Professor Michael Hay (FMHS), ‘Novel radio sensitisers for head and neck cancer’, $1,198,115
• Associate Professor Andrew Jull (FMHS), ‘Keramatrix4VLU: a trial of wool-derived keratin dressings for venous ulcers’, $1,199,977
• Dr Kimberley Mellor (Physiology/Auckland Bioengineering Institute), Fructose and the heart: targeting novel mechanisms of diabetic cardiomyopathy’, $1,172,435
• Associate Professor Greg O’Grady (ABI), ‘Translational advances in faecal incontinence and anterior resection syndrome’, $1,190,554
• Dr Rohit Ramchandra (FMHS), ‘Physiological pacing to improve cardiac output in heart failure’, $1,115,696
• Professor Peter Shepherd (FMHS), ‘Potentiation of targeted cancer therapies by statins’, $1,174,005
• Associate Professor Natalie Walker (FMHS), ‘Smoking relapse prevention in COPD patients’, $1,195,250
• Associate Professor Natalie Walker (FMHS), ‘A head-to-head trial of cytisine and varenicline for smoking cessation’, $1,599,944
• Professor John Windsor (FMHS), ‘Targeting toxic gut lymph to treat acute disease’, $1,176,441
• Professor John Windsor (FMHS), ‘Establishing drainage of thoracic duct lymph for longitudinal clinical studies’, (four years) $1,158,581
• Dr Jichao Zhao (ABI), ‘Targeting human atrial microstructure: The key to resolving atrial fibrillation’, $1,178,146

ENDS

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