Health research grants boost to support children

Researchers from The University of Western Australia have been awarded 14 of the 16 grants from the latest WA Child Research Fund (formerly known as the Telethon-Perth Children’s Hospital Research Fund) round of funding. The research will improve the safety of young patients whose agitation is so severe that it can be managed only by sedation.

Health Minister Roger Cook announced a total of $3.9 million in funding for WA research projects of direct significance to the health of children and adolescents.

The Department of Health awarded the following project grants to UWA researchers:

• Dr Gail Alvares – Preventative mental health care for young children with autism (UWA, Telethon Kids Institute)
• Dr Tim Barnett – Could an intracellular bacterial reservoir in the tonsils account for recurrent episodes of Strep throat and rheumatic fever? (UWA, Telethon Kids Institute)
• Professor Meredith Borland - PEAChY (Pharmacological Emergency management of Agitation in Children and Young people) trial and How Can We Accurately Predict Cervical Spine Injuries in Children? Study Of Neck Injury Imaging in Children (SONIIC). (UWA, Perth Children’s Hospital)
• Dr Asha Bowen – From Bush & Bench to Policy & Practice: Evidence to inform the primary prevention of Rheumatic Heart Disease in WA Aboriginal children (UWA, Telethon Kids Institute)
• Dr Vanessa Fear – Rapid and reliable rare disease diagnosis: developing a new diagnostic pipeline for children with rare diseases (UWA, Telethon Kids Institute)
• Professor Terry Johns – Development of a new therapy against Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (UWA, Telethon Kids Institute)
• Dr Lea-Ann Kirkham – A bacterial therapy to prevent otitis media – preparing for first-in-human studies (UWA, Telethon Kids Institute)
• Dr Ingrid Laing – Unlocking mechanisms of age-relationships in rhinovirus-induced wheezing attacks; the key to identifying biomarkers of recurrent exacerbations in early life (UWA, Telethon Kids Institute)
• Dr David Martino – DNA Methylation Biomarkers of Prenatal Alcohol Exposure: Informing FASD (UWA, Telethon Kids Institute)
• Dr Michael O’Sullivan, Early peanut immunotherapy in children (EPIC) (UWA, Child and Adolescent Health Services)
• Professor Jane Pillow – Cognitive Improvement through early Restoration of cirCADian rhythms in very preterm Infants via Environmental Modification: The CIRCA DIEM Study (UWA, Telethon Kids Institute)
• Clinical A/Professor Mary Sharp – Developing new approaches to predicting in-flight hypoxia in infants born preterm (UWA, Telethon Kids Institute)
• Dr Jason Waithman – Developing next generation 'armoured' NK cells to treat leukaemia (UWA, Telethon Kids Institute)