Australian scientists have won a multimillion-dollar US grant for research into kidney disease that will be used to spearhead new therapies and treatments for kidney failure in the longer term, by capturing the latest developments in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine today.
The AUD$4.2million grant (US$750,000 a year for three years) is a prestigious award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the USA, recognising the significance and premier research conducted by the Renal Regeneration Consortium (RRC) and the enormous global impact of their investigations.
For many of the world’s 1.5 million people affected by renal failure, dialysis is the only option at an annual cost of US$15,000 each. And one in four adults is expected to have the condition by the year 2020 as a consequence of type II diabetes.
RRC`s Principal Investigator Associate Professor Melissa Little, from the Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB) at the University of Queensland, will co-lead the Australian group of our best researchers on stem cells and renal development, together with Professor John Bertram from Monash University.
Associate Professor Little said the NIH grant was unlike traditional NIH grants and was testimony to the collaborative skills and research excellence of the group.
"In this collaborative project, the RRC will be coupling the latest technology in gene expression profiling with tissue engineering and regenerative medicine to ultimately deliver key outcomes to benefit patients with renal failure or disease," she said.
"With the awarding of this grant, the RRC will now form part of an international consortium involving numerous groups working on different and related organ systems. The first meeting of these groups, which will meet regularly to collaborate throughout the term of the grant, will take place in December.
“This NIH grant is the first of a series of projects that the RRC hopes to receive funding for to take our research through to therapy for the global community."
Professor Bertram said the RRC was the only all-Australian group successful in this NIH request for application (RFA).
"RRC’s submission was a perfect match with the NIH`s RFA, bringing together leading researchers to capture the latest technological developments in the field of kidney development and repair," Professor Bertram said.
“The RRC`s expertise aims to deliver key outcomes that contribute to global knowledge and understanding of renal disease and also benefit patients with renal failure or disease."
RRC members include: Associate Professor Little, Dr Rohan Teasdale, Dr Sean Grimmond, Professor David Hume (Institute for Molecular Bioscience, UQ); Professor John Bertram, Professor Warwick Anderson, Dr Andrew Perkins, Dr Georgina Caruana, Associate Professor Martin Pera (Monash University); Professor Julie Campbell and Professor Gordon Campbell (University of Queensland); Professor Daine Alcorn (RMIT); and Dr Michael Falk (Canberra Hospital).
The NIH institute administering this grant is the NIDDK (National Institute for Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases). NIH, founded in 1887, is a world leader in medical research. NIH`s 27 separate institutes and centres aim to uncover new knowledge likely to help prevent, detect, diagnose and treat disease and disability — from rare genetic disorders to the common cold.
For more information:
Institute for Molecular Bioscience (Helen Weatherley, telephone 07 3365 1264 or 0421 056 980)
Monash University (Penny Fannin, telephone 03 9905 5828 or 0417 125 700)
