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.