Trish Funding Goes a Long Way
One of the greatest challenges for funding agencies like the Trish
Foundation is to find and fund research that will make the greatest impact.
Working in partnership with MSRA, the Trish Foundation has backed high quality
research that has grown into larger projects now funded by the Federal
Government’s National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).
A/Prof Helmut Butzkueven was the recipient of the inaugural Trish MS
Research Foundation & NHMRC co-sponsored Betty Cuthbert Fellowship from
2006 to 2009. As a result of the scientific projects that A/Prof Butzkueven was
able to complete in those 4 years, he has been awarded a highly competitive
Career Development Award from the NHMRC, ensuring his focus on MS research
until 2013.
In 2008, A/Prof Butzkueven and his colleagues received $78,000 of MSRA
funding for the project “Role of EPHA4 in EAE” which was granted a further
$517,000 by the NHMRC in 2009. To test a series of biomarkers of
neurodegenerationin People with MS, A/Prof Butzkueven and his colleagues were
awarded $26,000 by MSRA which was the evidence to support a new project now
awarded with $498,000 in NHMRC Project grant funding.
Another great success of MSRA funding was the discovery of two new genetic
loci associated with MS by the Australian and New Zealand ANZGENE consortium.
The original, visionary seed funding of $200,000 from the Trish Foundation led
to the $500,000 commitment with MSRA. This was translated into an ARC
Linkage Grant with a total budget of over $1 million and has now led to a very
significant breakthrough for understanding the cause of MS, and, also, two new
NHMRC Project Grants with a combined value of over $1.1 million (from 2010) to
continue this work.
The Trish Foundation continues to support A/Prof Butzkueven’s research in
2010, with $90,000 to understand the mechanisms of brain and spinal damage in
MS that will extend his previous work into understanding the molecule called Dab2
that mediates axonal injury in MS.
The Trish Foundation has made a significant
impact by backing a talented clinical researcher back in 2006 to maintain his
dedication specifically to MS research with amazing results.
The Trish Foundation and MSRA have contributed $760,000 which has now
attracted $2.715 million in additional funding from other sources.