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News

21 Jan 2016

Half a million in RMH Home Lottery Grants awarded to Doherty Institute researchers

Researchers from the Doherty Institute have collectively been awarded over half a million dollars in RMH Home Lottery Grants, including two at the highest level of funding available as part of the program.

Professor Elizabeth Vincan, Deputy Section Head of Molecular Microbiology and Head of the Molecular Oncology Laboratory, along with Dr Toby Phesse who recently joined the Doherty Institute, received a $240,000 Project Grant for their study ‘Mini-liver organoids, an innovative tool to understand oncogenic Wnt signalling and HBV infection’. This project brings together an international team of scientists to establish tissue and tumour organoids – miniature organs grown in vitro – as tools for research and diagnostic purposes.

“Findings from this RMH Lottery Grant will feed directly into a Parkville Precinct initiative to establish a living tissue and tumour organoid bank, which includes a diagnostic service to test the response of a patient's tissue or tumour cells to current drugs,” explained Elizabeth.

“This will ensure that patients will be treated only with drugs that will work.”

Associate Professor Ben Cowie, Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Viral Hepatitis, was the recipient of $228,000 for his project titled ‘Liver cancer prevention: linking viral hepatitis diagnosis, treatment and outcomes’.

Viral hepatitis is the leading indication for liver transplant in Australia, and primary liver cancer is now the fastest increasing cause of cancer death of Australians. Ben’s project will use record linkage to determine the burden of liver cancer attributable to chronic viral hepatitis, evaluate the coverage and impact of clinical interventions, and establish the differential outcomes experienced in different population groups and geographic areas.

“By determining the burden of liver cancer in Victoria attributable to hepatitis B and C, and evaluating at a population level the impact of treatment of these viruses on liver cancer incidence, this project will contribute to the development of an evidence-based public health response to meet the needs of half a million Australians living with chronic viral hepatitis,” Ben said.

Doctors Karen Laurie and Sheena Sullivan, both from the WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza, were each awarded $25,000 Grants in Aid for studies on a model to investigate prevention of respiratory syncytial virus and influenza vaccination in health care workers respectively, while PhD student, Dustin Flanagan from Elizabeth’s laboratory, also received a $25,000 Early Career Researcher grant to study a novel therapy for gastric cancer.