Postgraduate Research Scholarship
The Trish Foundation is pleased to announce the
successful applicant for the Postgraduate Research Scholarship is Natalie
Payne, the Scientific Title of her Project being, “Stimulation of the
innate immune system and its role in generation of CNS autoimmune
inflammation”. Natalie Payne’s Project will be administered by Professor
Claude Bernard, Head, Neuroimmunology Laboratory, Monash Immunology & Stem
Cell Laboratories.
Identifying genes for subtype and susceptibility in MS
The Trish Foundation has committed $200,000 to the Gene
Platform, a National MS Gene Bank, which has now been initiated at the
Menzies Institute in Tasmania, University of Melbourne, Sydney University
(Westmead), University of Newcastle and Griffith University, Gold Coast.
The MS researchers have all agreed to pool their bio-samples and records,
via a common database and common protocols. When fully developed this
‘bank’ will be made available to Australian (and overseas) researchers to
fully investigate the genetic links to MS.
The project is the subject of an Australian Research
Council linkage grant application.
The research includes comparisons between
relapsing-remitting, secondary progressive and primary progressive MS and
this program will put Australia at the forefront of world-wide MS genetic
research.
The National MS-specific Brain and Tissue Bank
MS Research Australia has requested the Trish Foundation
underwrite funding for the National MS-specific Brain and Tissue Bank,
which is a platform Program that is a priority of MS Research Australia’s
Research Management Council and is central to MS Research Australia’s
strategy in Australia. This Program will be the subject of an enabling
grant to the NH&MRC.
The Trish Foundation is pleased to announce the Board
and our honorary Scientific Research Committee has approved funds to
underwrite the National MS-specific Brain and Tissue Bank.
Betty Cuthbert Fellowship
The National Health & Medical Research Council Betty
Cuthbert Awards were launched in November 2005 by the Minister for Health
and Ageing, Hon. Tony Abbott. The Trish Foundation is partly funding
the inaugural Betty Cuthbert Fellowship.
Mr Abbott awarded Dr Helmut Butzkueven with the
inaugural Betty Cuthbert Fellowship and Dr Mark Slee with the first Betty
Cuthbert Scholarship at a ceremony in Canberra. The two new grants from
the NH&MRC total $355,000 and are jointly funded by MS Research Australia
and NH&MRC, with the Fellowship partly funded by the Trish Foundation.
The Betty Cuthbert Fellowship was awarded to Dr Helmut
Butzkueven, of the MS Group at the Howard Florey Institute in Melbourne,
to continue his research into optic neuritis, the most common presenting
symptom of multiple sclerosis.
Post-Doctoral Fellowship
The Trish Foundation is partly funding a Postdoctoral
Fellowship for Dr. D. Linares Bandin (Canberra Hospital, ANU) Supervised
by Dr. A. Katsifis and Dr. DO. Willenborg: Novel radiolabelled peripheral
benzodiazepine receptor (PBR) ligands for imaging and treating
neuroinflammation.
Reports on Research Projects
Interim reports on the Trish MS Research
Foundation funded projects has been provided by our sponsored projects.
Please click on this link to read recent
Progress Reports.
Funding Grants Announced
The Trish Foundation has announced its second round
of funding for research grants, having committed a further $250,000
for research into the pursuit of a cure or preventative strategy for
multiple sclerosis.
The Trish Foundation and Multiple Sclerosis Australia
called for applications for research which were jointly branded and were
overwhelmed by the number of worthy applications for research, sadly all of
which could not be funded.
Applications were assessed internationally and were ranked
by the Medical and Research Advisory Board of MS Australia, following which
the Trish Foundation’s honorary Scientific Research Committee recommended
the projects which meet the firm funding guidelines of the Trish Foundation
to the Foundation’s Board for approval.
The four projects which the Foundation will fund are all
Queensland-based and address fundamental aspects of causation or prevention.
Foundation Scientific Research Committee member Professor Peter Russell
said, “Momentum is gathering in the quest to eradicate this disease. The
part our Foundation plays should not be underestimated, as it underpins the
fragile research funding in Australia into multiple sclerosis and its causes.”
The four grants were made to the following
researchers:
|
Dr. Judith Greer and Professor M.
Pender |
Royal Brisbane Hospital, Queensland |
|
Dr. Heinrich Korner |
James Cook University, Queensland |
|
Dr. P. Cabot, Dr. S.
Roberts-Thomson, Dr. G. Monteith & Ms. M. Peitis |
University of Queensland, Queensland |
|
Mr. Attila Szvetko |
Griffith University, Queensland |
Inaugural 2002 Round of Funding
The inaugural (2002) funding round
of the Trish Multiple Sclerosis Research Foundation resulted in five grants
(detailed below). The projects were all from
major Australian Universities or Research Institutes, and spread over four
Australian states. They addressed genetic, environmental and other likely causes
of multiple sclerosis as well as the mechanisms of demyelination and one of the
cardinal early symptoms of multiple sclerosis - fatigue.
| Professor
Claude Bernard |
Neuroimmunology
Laboratory, La Trobe University, Victoria |
| Professor
Terence Dwyer |
Menzies Centre
for Population Health Research, Hobart, Tasmania |
| Dr. Steven
Petratos |
Department of Anatomy
and Cell Biology, Monash University, Victoria |
| Dr. Paul Sacco |
Centre for
Neuromuscular and Neurological Disorders, University of Western
Australia |
| Dr. Graeme Stewart |
Institute for
Immunology and Allergy Research, Westmead Millenium Institute,
Westmead, New South Wales |
