Four cutting-edge research projects have been supported in this year’s Wal-yan Respiratory Research Centre Inspiration Awards.
The Inspiration Awards, which are designed to support new and exciting projects that do not fit the traditional grant schemes, attracted 19 strong applications from Wal-yan Centre researchers.
“It was excellent to see the breadth of topics from across the Centre, as well as applications led by a range of researchers at different career stages,” Clare Berry said.
“We encouraged anyone from across the Centre to apply, and it was great to see the diversity of applicants and their impressive proposals.
“The four successful research projects are working in areas of electronic tobacco devices, unravelling the link between allergy and airway diseases, improving preterm lung health and developing ways to treat difficult lung inflammation in kids using neutrophils.”
The purpose of the awards is to fund ideas in the Wal-yan Centre that align to the Centre’s aims, are new and exciting, and do not fit traditional grant schemes. Proposals needed to have a multidisciplinary approach and include researchers from more than one team in the Centre.
The submissions were assessed by an independent panel of reviewers from across The Kids, including researchers from the Wesfarmers Centre for Vaccines and Infectious Diseases, the Cancer Centre and Population Health. The proposals were also reviewed by Ashley Schoof and Renee Hallam, of the Institute’s Innovation and Commercialisation team; Kate McGee who is a valued consumer representative in the Wal-yan Centre, and Wal-yan Centre Program Manager Clare Berry. Katherine Coltrona, of the Institute’s Research Governance team and CONNECT Community Involvement Coordinator Belinda Frank were also part of the consensus panel. The panel was chaired by Professor Geoff Stewart, of the Institute for Respiratory Health.
This is the second year the Wal-yan Centre has held the Inspiration Awards, with six projects supported last year.
The scientific investment for these grants is thanks to a powerhouse partnership between The Kids Institute, Perth Children’s Hospital Foundation and Perth Children’s Hospital.
Congratulations to the following award recipients:
|
Project Title |
Chief Investigator |
|
Establishing the Wal-yan Neutrophil Biology pipeline to inform treatment for difficult paediatric lung inflammation |
Dr Luke Garratt (CI), Dr Emma de Jong, Daniel Laucirica, Craig Schofield, Dr David Hancock, Dr Anthony Bosco and A/Prof Anthony Kicic |
|
A pilot study into assessing the danger of heated-tobacco-products |
A/Prof Alexander Larcombe (CI), A/Prof Anthony Kicic and Dr Katherine Landwehr |
|
Using single-cell technologies to unravel the link between allergy and airways disease |
Dr Emma de Jong (Co-CI), Dr Anya Jones (Co-CI), Dr Thomas Iosifidis, Dr David Hancock, Dr Anthony Bosco, Prof Patrick Holt, A/Prof Deborah Strickland and Dr Dominic Mallon |
|
Old drug, new tricks. Screening azithromycin as a therapeutic to improve lung health after preterm birth |
Denby Evans (CI), A/Prof Anthony Kicic, A/Prof Shannon Simpson, Dr Andrew Wilson |