Over $16m funding for new health and medical research
The Federal Minister for Health, the Hon Greg Hunt MP, announced two Centres of Research Excellence in Clinical Research based at the University of Sydney were awarded almost $5 million in funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).
The Centre of Research Excellence (CRE) to Optimise Sleep in Brain Ageing and Neurodegeneration is led by Professor Sharon Naismith from the University’s Brain and Mind Centre and Charles Perkins Centre, and the Centre of Research Excellence in Tuberculosis Control will be led by Professor Warwick Britton from the School of Medicine and Centenary Institute.
We’re thrilled to host two new centres of academic excellence that will investigate the relationship between sleep disturbances and brain degeneration and work to eliminate tuberculosis transmission in Australia and strengthen control of the disease in our region.
Professor Sharon Naismith said, “This funding recognises a unique collaboration between the universities’ multidisciplinary initiatives and the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research and enables us to take our research to new heights.
Professor Sharon Naismith
“Focusing on a range of neurodegenerative diseases and sleep disorders, the CogSleep CRE will investigate how sleep-wake disturbance contributes to neurodegeneration, conduct new clinical trials, and test innovations in technology aimed at improved detection and treatment of sleep disturbance within the community.
“These three core clusters of research will be inter-woven with a suite of clinical training, policy and research translation activities, making this CRE transformative in how clinicians approach the problem of brain-ageing disorders”.
Eleven University of Sydney researchers were awarded Early Career Fellowships in this round of NHMRC funding, representing the most of any institution in New South Wales.
“This result reflects the outstanding up-and-coming talent at the University, with exciting research on how complicated pregnancies influence the health of children later in life and the evolution of motor neuron disease from its earliest stages,” Professor Ivison said.
“We’re putting in motion a series of training and development programs to support our early career researchers in continuing to excel in their fields.”
NHMRC grants: Chief Investigators
- Dr Marina de Barros Pinheiro
- Dr William Jorgensen
- Dr Stephanie Partridge
- Dr Rebecca Kozor
- Dr Stephanie Mathieson
- Dr Megan Gow
- Dr Sarah Glastras
- Dr Thanuja Dharmadasa
- Mr Adam Bulley
- Dr Brendan Whelan
- Dr Christopher Harrison
- Dr Fiona Kumfor
- Dr Natasha Rogers
- Associate Professor Megan Passey
- Dr Trudy Rebbeck
- Dr Jesse Jansen
- Associate Professor Lenka Munoz
- Professor Hala Zreiqat
- Associate Professor Martin Ng
- Professor Michael Kassiou
- Professor Des Richardson
- Professor Chris Semsarian
- Professor Matthew Kiernan
- Associate Professor Stefanie Schurer - Indigenous Social and Emotional Wellbeing