Research to improve outcomes for transplant patients, identify osteoporosis risk, protect and strengthen bones and prevent the spread of the bacterial infection Strep A have received Federal funding.<\/p>\n
The four projects received a total of almost $5.5 million from The National Health and Medical Research Council\u2019s 2025 Ideas Grants scheme.<\/p>\n
Dr Kai Chen, from UWA\u2019s School of Biomedical Sciences, will lead a project examine how dietary sugar turns into bone fat and explore using RNA therapies to block the process.<\/p>\n
\u201cBone marrow fat makes up 70 per cent of adult bone space and was once thought to be inactive \u2013 but it plays a key role in bone health,\u201d Dr Chen said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt consumes more sugar than other bone cells, and its growth is linked to bone loss in conditions like osteoporosis. We hope our research will lead to new treatments that protect and strengthen bones.\u201d <\/p>\n
Professor Michaela Lucas, from UWA\u2019s Medical School, is chief investigator on a project that will investigate new targeted treatments for transplant patients.<\/p>\n
\u201cOrgan transplantation is a lifesaving treatment for many terminal diseases, but the immune suppression required to prevent organ rejection has many adverse side effects,\u201d Professor Lucas said.<\/p>\n
“We will comprehensively examine the proteins present at different stages of the immune response and across various types of transplanted solid organs to inform the development of new treatment strategies. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe strategies aim to prevent early rejection following transplant surgery and to improve long-term outcomes and quality of life for transplant recipients.”<\/p>\n
Dr Janessa Pickering, from UWA’s School of Biomedical Sciences and a Research Fellow at the Wesfarmers Centre of Vaccines and Infectious Diseases at The Kids Research Institute Australia, will lead a study that aims to prevent the spread of Strep A using \u2018friendly\u2019 bacteria in the throat.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have discovered healthy bacteria that can naturally kill group A Strep, a pathogen causing sore throats, skin sores and rheumatic heart disease,\u201d Dr Pickering said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis project will characterise these healthy bacteria and develop new products to prevent the infection. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe will engage with communities to understand the acceptability of preventing Strep A with alternative treatments including probiotics and supplements.\u201d <\/p>\n
Professor Scott Wilson, from UWA\u2019s School of Biomedical Sciences, is leading new research to understand how inherited genetic differences increase the risk of osteoporosis.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany genetic risk factors for osteoporosis have been discovered, but we still don\u2019t know how most of them actually affect bone cell function,\u201d Professor Wilson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur project will identify which genes are switched on or off by these risk variants, and how that changes the way bone cells function.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis knowledge is essential for translating genetic discoveries into better diagnostics and future treatments for osteoporosis.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Research to improve outcomes for transplant patients, identify osteoporosis risk, protect and strengthen bones and prevent the spread…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411523,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,1592,27824,1618,2673,8112,104943,336,137,54217,41792,217681,20218,20220,1732,196157,39080,29778,23228],"class_list":["post-411522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bacteria","tag-bones","tag-cell","tag-diagnosis","tag-disease","tag-fat","tag-genetics","tag-health","tag-immune","tag-infection","tag-organs","tag-osteoporosis","tag-probiotics","tag-rna","tag-strep-a","tag-therapy","tag-throat","tag-transplant"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}