Eight The Kids Research Institute Australia-led projects will benefit from a Western Australian Government boost to health research for the State’s children and young people.
Announced by Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson and Medical Research Minister Stephen Dawson during this year’s Telethon weekend, the eight projects are among 11 to share in WA Child Research Fund (WACRF) grants worth a total of $6.14 million.
The research areas supported in this round, each by a grant ranging in value from $330,000 to $600,000, include childhood cancer, ear health, rheumatic heart disease, allergy, Strep A and rheumatic heart fever, respiratory viruses, paediatric burns, and the impact of climate change on the health and well-being of children in WA.
The Kids Research Institute Australia-led projects – each of which will be administered by The University of Western Australia and undertaken by a team of researchers led by a chief investigator – include:
- Kids are not small adults; identifying age-dependent drug targets in paediatric oncology – led by Dr Raelene Endersby, who is Co-Head of Brain Tumour Research at the The Kids Cancer Centre. This project will see a team of The Kids cancer and computational biology researchers work to identify new, effective and safe treatments for childhood cancers, to take into WA-led clinical trials.
- A novel otitis media vaccine; optimising manufacture and dosing strategies for human trials – led by Associate Professor Lea-Ann Kirkham, who co-leads the Bacterial Respiratory Infectious Disease Group (BRIDG) team at the Wesfarmers Centre of Vaccines and Infectious Diseases, based at The Kids Research Institute Australia. Fellow investigators include Professor Peter Richmond, from The Kids Research Institute Australia, Perth Children’s Hospital (PCH), and The University of Western Australia (UWA).
- "Good paths for healthy hearts": bringing choice and flexibility to long-acting penicillins for rheumatic heart disease – led by Associate Professor Laurens Manning, who is Head of Strep A and ARF Therapeutics as part of the Wesfarmers Centre at The Kids Research Institute Australia. The research team includes investigators from The Kids, UWA and the WA Country Health Service.
- SYMBA Study child 5-year-old follow-up – led by Dr Debbie Palmer, Head of Childhood Allergy and Immunology Research at The Kids Research Institute Australia. The SYMBA Study, nested within The ORIGINS Project, is investigating whether maternal prebiotic dietary supplementation can help prevent allergic disease in children, and includes researchers from Perth Children’s Hospital, UWA, and Joondalup Health Campus.
- Harnessing natural protection to improve Group A Streptococcus vaccine design and primary prevention of Acute Rheumatic Fever – led by Dr Janessa Pickering, a Strep A researcher with the Wesfarmers Centre. The team includes investigators from the University of Melbourne and the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
- Close encounters of the nasal mucosa: identifying mechanisms that determine host responses to infection in children following "first contact" with respiratory viral pathogens – led by Professor Stephen Stick, head of the Wal-yan Respiratory Research Centre (a powerhouse partnership between The Kids Research Institute Australia, Perth Children’s Hospital and Perth Children’s Hospital Foundation).
- Advancing a Western Australian-led clinical trial to test the safety and tolerability of an anti-biofilm therapy in children with recurrent otitis media – led by Dr Ruth Thornton, Co-Lead of the BRIDG team and Immunology Lead within the Wesfarmers Centre. This project, which will test new therapies for children with middle ear infection, includes investigators from UWA, PCH and Curtin University.
- Understanding the lifelong impact of paediatric burns on health – led by burns specialist Professor Fiona Wood, who is Co-Program Head, Perioperative Care at The Kids Research Institute Australia, Director of the Burns Service WA, Director of Research at the Fiona Wood Foundation, and a clinical surgeon at PCH and Fiona Stanley Hospital. The team, which will aim to understand why some children cannot respond to vaccines after a burn injury, includes investigators from the Fiona Wood Foundation, UWA, Fiona Stanley Hospital and Murdoch University.
The Kids Research Institute Australia Director Professor Jonathan Carapetis – who is also part of the research team on the Laurens Manning-led project – thanked the WA Government for its ongoing investment in child health research, in partnership with Telethon.
“The projects – and the dozens of researchers attached to them – that will be generously supported thanks to this round of WACRF grants represent a broad range of child health research, all of which will benefit the health of kids in WA and beyond,” Professor Carapetis said.
“As an Institute we are so grateful for the support of both the WA Government and the community through Telethon. This level of dedicated support for home-grown, innovative and impactful research is absolutely vital to ensure we’re making the most of the extensive talent we have available to us here in WA.
In return, we’re proud to be able to give back to the community by not only producing world-class research, but ensuring our research outcomes are translated into changes in policy and clinical care that make a genuine difference in the lives of kids and their families.
The WA Child Research Fund – formerly known as the Telethon-Perth Children’s Hospital Research Fund – was established by the Department of Health and the Channel 7 Telethon Trust in 2012 to provide financial support to research projects that focus on the health of children and adolescents in WA.