Two outstanding researchers from the Wal-yan Respiratory Research Centre have been awarded a 2022 Innovation Fellowship supported by the WA Government's Future Health Research and Innovation (FHRI) Fund.
This program provided five fellowships to talented Western Australians to enable them to develop innovative early-stage processes, products and/or services that address a problem that arises from an unmet health or medical need or opportunity in Western Australia.
Associate Professor Anthony Kicic (pictured right) was awarded $145,036 for ‘Enabling the establishment of a phage bioreactor facility for human therapeutic application.’
About Associate Professor Kicic’s research:
The World Health Organisation has named antimicrobial resistance as one of their top global health priorities, which they predict will cause over 10 million deaths every year within the next 30 years if nothing is done.
As humans become more affected by antibiotic resistant bacterial infections, phages can act as “superheroes”.
Phages are specialised viruses that kill bacteria and present an ideal option when antimicrobials, such as antibiotics, are no longer effective. They can be found everywhere in the environment, including in waterways and soil.
Associate Professor Kicic’s team of researchers have developed a large phage library, with over 2,000 phages, and have partnered with clinicians and researchers in WA to pave a path towards implementation of phage therapy for bacterial infections that are resistant to antibiotics.
Patients affected by antimicrobial resistant bacteria can be treated quickly and effectively with phage therapy.
While a small-scale production facility of phages exists in Sydney it cannot meet the needs of patients in WA within a practical timeframe.
This project proposes a 'WA-Phage Bioreactor Facility' where bacteriophages will be manufactured at scale locally.
Dr Tom Iosifidis (pictured left) was awarded $110,726 to investigate an innovative treatment to enhance airway repair, which is anticipated to reduce asthma exacerbations and hospitalisation.
About Dr Iosifidis’ research:
Damage caused by early-life respiratory conditions negatively impacts normal lung development, leading to life-long respiratory conditions and diseases such as asthma.
In WA, asthma is one of the most common chronic conditions - affecting more than 280,000 people, with a disproportionate burden on the young, where one in six patients are 14 years or younger.
Current asthma treatments, such as anti-inflammatory steroids, fail to alter the long-term path of the disease. There is therefore the need to develop interventions that halt disease progression into later life.
Research led by Dr Iosifidis has shown that when airways don’t repair after a respiratory condition, there is a link to the recurrence of asthma symptoms. Importantly, his team has discovered a new class of drugs that enhance airway repair as a novel therapeutic strategy for asthma. This innovative treatment not only enhances airway repair, but is also anticipated to reduce asthma exacerbations and hospitalisation.
Unlike current treatments, early intervention with these therapeutics in young children is expected to reduce the chronic burden of asthma by limiting, or even halting, persistence of asthma into adulthood.
The Innovation Fellowship will allow Dr Iosifidis and his team to transform new therapeutics into inhaled asthma medications and enable their rapid progression to preclinical evaluation and translation into the clinic.
Ultimately, this innovation will deliver asthma treatment options that stop lung disease deterioration in all patients, improving health outcomes throughout the life-course.
The Wal-yan Respiratory Research Centre is a powerhouse partnership between The Kids Research Institute Australia, Perth Children’s Hospital Foundation and Perth Children’s Hospital.
Congratulations Associate Professor Kicic and Dr Iosifidis’ for being awarded these highly competitive fellowships, which will progress the Wal-yan Centre’s goal to ensure that all children have healthy lungs for life.