Renal repair
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| Regenerative therapies ... Professor Little |
An attempt to stem a rising tide of renal disease among Australians has earned a UQ researcher a $1 million State Government grant.
Professor Melissa Little, from the Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB) at UQ, will use a $1 million Queensland State Government Innovation Project Funds grant to develop cellbased regenerative therapies for chronic kidney disease, a condition that costs Australia $1.8 billion per year.
The project will investigate ways in which damaged kidneys could repair and regenerate themselves, and the triggers needed to begin this process. While treatments for chronic kidney disease do exist, namely dialysis and transplantation, both have drawbacks. Dialysis limits the quality of life for patients, is very expensive, and has limited effect.
While transplantation is far more effective, only one in four patients will receive a donated kidney. With the incidence of renal disease increasing by eight percent a year in Australia, these current treatments will not cope with the rate of increase in patient numbers. It is predicted that 600,000 Australians are at risk of chronic kidney disease as a result of smoking, obesity, hypertension, age, or Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander heritage.
Professor Little is an active advocate for the development of novel therapies, founding the Renal Regeneration Consortium, a partnership between researchers in Queensland and Victoria. She also established Nephrogenix Pty Ltd, a company that commercialises the research renal repair outcomes of the Renal Regeneration Consortium.
No existing group, nationally or internationally, has developed such a comprehensive program in the development of regenerative medicine strategies for renal disease. It is an accomplishment that has not gone unacknowledged. In the past two years alone, Professor Little has won the highly prestigious GlaxoSmithKline Award For Research Excellence, a Smart Women – Smart State Award, and an Eisenhower Fellowship.
In June, she was appointed Chief Scientific Officer at the Australian Stem Cell Centre. She is a classic UQ success story. Born and raised in Brisbane, she received her BSc (Hons; Physiology), PhD (Biochemistry) and University Medal from UQ before moving to Scotland on an Endeavour Fellowship sponsored by the British Royal Society. Despite other offers, she returned to UQ because she felt it was the “better place to be”.
- FUNDING: National Health and Medical Research Council; National Institutes of Health (USA); Australian Stem Cell Centre; Dr Rosamond Siemon through the Dr Rosamond Siemon Postgraduate Renal Research Scholarship; and Queensland State Government
- RESEARCHER: Professor Melissa Little
- EMAIL: m.little@imb.uq.edu.au
- WEB: www.imb.uq.edu.au/renal-disease
