Five outstanding The Kids Research Institute Australia researchers are amongst the eight recipients of the WA Department of Health New Independent Researcher Infrastructure Support (NIRIS) awards.
Dr Chris Brennan-Jones, Dr Ashleigh Lin, Dr David Martino, Dr Debbie Palmer and Dr Shannon Simpson will each receive $15,000 to support their research.
The Kids Director Professor Jonathan Carapetis said the NIRIS awards were important because they supported high-performing, new researchers to develop independent research careers.
“These awards provide a safety net for researchers that allows them to cover infrastructure costs associated with their research activities, like laboratory equipment, support staff and computers,” said Professor Carapetis. “It allows them to get on with their research without having to worry about these things.”
The Kids Research Institute Australia recipients for NIRIS awards in 2018 are:
- Dr Chris Brennan-Jones from the Wesfarmers Centre of Vaccines & Infectious Diseases, whose research is focused on preventing and treating otitis media (OM or middle ear infection) and hearing loss in children, with a focus on Aboriginal ear health. Dr Brennan-Jones and his team is conducting the first study examining how many Aboriginal children in the greater Perth metropolitan area suffer OM, risk factors effective interventions to improve outcomes for these children. He is also leading the implementation of an innovative telehealth solution that will improve access to care and also facilitate the collection of long-term data for Aboriginal children suffering from OM.
- Dr Ashleigh Lin is leading research to improve the mental health of young people in Australia through early identification, novel interventions and better access to mental health services. Her research has a particular focus on the mental health of vulnerable groups of young people, such as trans and gender diverse, LGBTIQ and Aboriginal youth. Dr Lin and her team work across psychiatric diagnosis and investigate a range of interventions including trialling fish oil to improve depression in young people 12-25 years, investigating if online social networking and education can relieve stress in carers of young people with a first episode of psychosis, and testing online ‘serious games’ to prevent depression in trans and gender diverse youth.
- Dr David Martino whose research is aimed at understanding how epigenetic modifications act as ‘biological sensors’ of the environment by translating stimuli such as metabolic signals, stress and inflammation into heritable and stable changes in gene expression, in the absence of a change in gene sequence. The overarching goal of his research program is to define the epigenetic mechanisms underpinning faulty development and the risk for chronic childhood diseases, and to identify modifiable pathways for early prevention/intervention.
- Dr Debbie Palmer’s research into food allergy has two major focus areas of nutritional strategies for allergy prevention - regular exposure to food allergens (for example peanut, cashew nut and egg) in early life to prevent food allergy, and identifying dietary factors and immunomodulatory nutrients (for example vitamin D and prebiotics) to reduce the risk of allergic disease development. Her research aims to provide high-quality evidence to better inform both maternal dietary guidelines during pregnancy and lactation, as well as infant feeding recommendations, for allergy prevention.
- Dr Shannon Simpson is a respiratory researcher interested in babies born premature with the aim of improving the lung health of this vulnerable population. Dr Simpson’s multi-faceted program of research aims to understand the impact of lung disease over the life-course, describe the mechanisms underpinning ongoing lung disease, and conduct interventions to improve the lung health of children and adolescents surviving very preterm birth.
Read the State Government's media release here.
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