Innovative health projects at The University of Western Australia investigating immune cells, air pollutants, cancer detection and treatment, respiratory viruses, healthcare delivery, neurological disorders and cardiovascular disease have been boosted by grants from the State Government.

Twelve researchers from UWA secured funding support through WA Government’s Future Health Research and Innovation Fund’s Near Miss Awards and one received an Emerging Leaders Fellowship, which provide second-chance grants to early- and mid-career researchers.

Dr Qi Fang, from UWA’s School of Engineering and Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research, received a Fellowship to develop a novel imaging technique for breast cancer detection.

Dr Fang will develop a technique that uses optical meta-surfaces to manipulate light through engineered nanostructures for accurate intraoperative breast cancer detection.

Dr Luke Garratt, from UWA’s Medical School and The Kids Research Institute Australia’s Wal-yan Respiratory Research Centre, will investigate how neutrophils – immune cells key to good health – decide their responses and apply different core functions.

Dr Garratt and his team will build a comprehensive neutrophil biology program to better understand the consequences of sex-related differences in neutrophils for people with chronic inflammatory diseases.

Dr Katherine Landwehr, from UWA’s Medical School and The Kids’ Wal-yan Respiratory Research Centre, received funds to assess the physical and chemical profile, and resulting exposure health effects, for different types of inhaled pollutants, such as renewable fuel exhaust, bushfire smoke, cigarette smoke and vapes.

Her team will use the data to link health effects with the physical and chemical makeup of different air pollutants to create a mathematical model to predict potential health effects.

Dr Annabel Short, from UWA’s Medical School and The Kids’ WA Kids Cancer Centre, will lead a project to develop safer, more effective therapies by studying how brain tumours grow and interact with the immune system, using advanced models that closely mimic childhood brain cancer.

By tracking both tumour response and healthy brain development, Dr Short hopes to pave the way for future clinical trials that prioritise not just survival, but long-term wellbeing.

Dr Belaynew Taye, from UWA’s Medical School and the Wesfarmers Centre of Vaccines and Infectious Diseases at The Kids, is working to developing clinical risk prediction models that are translatable across different infectious diseases.

The development and validation of risk prediction models will use viral hepatitis in Australia and group A streptococcal diseases. It will apply machine learning methods to identify people at highest risk and evaluate the cost-effectiveness of introducing  targeted screening approaches.

Dr Mohinder Sarna, from UWA’s Medical School,  Wesfarmers Centre of Vaccines and Infectious Diseases at The Kids and Curtin University, received a grant to calculate the healthcare costs associated with common respiratory viruses, including respiratory syncytial virus and identify the most cost-effective prevention strategies.

The research will help doctors, families and health decision-makers better understand who is at higher risk, how much these illnesses cost the health system and how to prevent them in the most effective and affordable way.

Dr Lakshini Herat, from UWA’s School of Biomedical Sciences, will use funds to investigate how medications that mimic metabolic hormones can specifically target the body’s “fight or flight” response in Cardiovascular-Kidney-Metabolic Syndrome.

The findings will inform new strategies to protect the heart, kidneys and other organs from damage, caused by obesity and type 2 diabetes.

Dr Zoe Hyde, from UWA’s Medical School, received funds to explore the impact of infectious disease on healthy aging.

The findings will help to understand how people can age in a healthy way and have a long health-span as well as a long lifespan.

Dr Kenneth Lee, from UWA’s School of Health and Clinical Sciences, received a grant to leverage big data to improve primary healthcare and service delivery.

The outcomes will improve quality of service delivery by pharmacists in primary care settings and improve uptake of services by consumers.

Dr Louis Parker, from UWA’s School of Engineering, received funds for novel computational approaches to circulatory challenges.

The project will use various modes of cardiovascular imaging to create computational simulations of blood flow, offering a high-resolution look into the mechanics of cardiac disease.

Dr Danial Roshandel, from UWA’s Medical School and Lions Eye Institute, was awarded a grant to advance personalised eye surface regeneration.

The research aims to create corneal cells from adult stem cells that can revolutionise the treatment of end-stage ocular surface diseases.

Dr Ingrid Stacey, from UWA’s School of Population and Global Health, received funds to close the data gaps in cardiovascular health among First Nations people.

The project will generate the data needed to drive discoveries in the prevention and treatment of heart disease in First Nations communities and care for those living with it.

Dr Wai Yan Yau, from UWA Medical School and Perron Institute, was awarded a grant to examine the genetic causes of a neurological movement disorder dystonia, which causes muscle spasms that can lead to abnormal posture, involuntary movements, pain and significant physical disability.

The project aims to understand genetics cause of dystonia to develop better diagnosis and novel therapeutic treatments.