Analysing samples is a vital part of research, providing the answers needed to move forward with innovative new treatments and life- saving vaccines. But this process is often very time-consuming, taking many months to complete, and the long wait for information can have devastating consequences.
This is especially true for children in Papua New Guinea, where pneumonia is a major killer for kids. Pneumonia is responsible for one million deaths globally each year, but Papua New Guinea has the highest rate – 23 per cent of children don’t make it to their fifth birthday.
With new vaccine policies urgently required to save the lives of children, researchers from The Kids Research Institute Australia worked closely with the Papua New Guinea Institute of Medical Research (PNG IMR) to collect samples and find a way to analyse them as soon as possible.
Thanks to funding from the Wesfarmers Centre of Vaccines and Infectious Diseases, researchers established a new technique that dramatically reduces analysis time. Instead of just 24 samples a day, researchers can now analyse 96 every 90 minutes.
“With this new method we could get through 2,400 samples within a week, where as previously this would have taken us more than six months,” said Dr Lea-Ann Kirkham, Co- Head of the Wesfarmers Centre’s Bacterial Respiratory Infectious Disease Group.
“We were able to get answers much faster, identifying which vaccines worked best at preventing pneumonia and informing new vaccine policies at the time they are urgently needed.”
The Kids is the only place in Western Australia currently using this fast-track technique, which involves extracting DNA to quickly identify the number of specific
bacteria present to identify how well different vaccines are working.
“The most exciting thing about this new method is that we now have a platform that can be used across all microbiology studies and on a much greater scale, including areas such as ear infections, rheumatic heart disease and skin infections,” Dr Kirkham said.
“It opens the door for the Wesfarmers Centre of Vaccines and Infectious Diseases to be a key player in a diverse range of international collaborations – the opportunities are endless.”
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Researchers from The Kids are currently using the new fast-track technique to assist clinicians at King Edward Memorial Hospital in their studies to prevent skin infections in premature babies.
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This method will also play a vital role in a $35 million grant developing a world-first group A streptococcus vaccine.