Four Telethon Kids Institute researchers have received prestigious fellowships and four significant cohort studies led or co-led by Telethon Kids have received key grants under two new funding programs supported by the State Government’s Future Health Research and Innovation (FHRI) Fund.
Announced by Medical Research Minister Stephen Dawson this week, the four cohort studies are among seven studies to share in $2 million in funding through the FHRI Fund’s inaugural WA Cohort Studies-Operational Support Program (WACS-OSP).
The WACS-OSP aims to provide operational funding necessary for such studies to continue to contribute to the delivery of clinical outcomes, changes to health policy and translational health outcomes.
Minister Dawson also announced that inaugural WA Early Career Child Health Researcher Fellowships would be awarded to four researchers based at Telethon Kids Institute to develop their vision and approach to improving child health. The Fellowships program is co-funded by the FHRI Fund and the Brightspark Foundation as a way to ensure emerging local expertise in research and innovation stays in WA.
The joint initiative aims to identify early career researchers with a passion for child health and help them to become better qualified, experienced and positioned to seek longer term child health research funding through other avenues, such as the National Health and Medical Research Council.
Between them the FHRI Fund and Brightspark Foundation will inject more than $5 million over three years into the Fellowship program, with an additional $2.1 million being provided by research entities. A total of 20 Fellowships will be awarded over three years, with the four inaugural Fellowships to commence next year.
The four inaugural recipients, who will share in just over $1 million under this round, are:
- Ms Denby Evans, from the Wal-yan Respiratory Research Centre – a powerhouse partnership between Telethon Kids Institute, Perth Children’s Hospital Foundation and Perth Children’s Hospital – and Curtin University, who will study the airways of premature babies whose lung function can often worsen with age. Ms Evans plans to identify what aspect of the cell structure and behaviour contributes to lung disease – opening the door to new treatments and improved lung health following preterm birth
- Dr Brittany Dewdney, from the Telethon Kids Cancer Centre and The University of Western Australia (UWA) Medical School, who will explore how brain surgery changes the tumour and immune environment in children with brain cancer. Her work has the potential to change surgical approaches for children and lead to improved immunotherapy clinical trials
- Dr Samantha Carlson, from the Wesfarmers Centre of Vaccines and Infectious Diseases at Telethon Kids Institute, and UWA’s School of Social Sciences, who aims to protect more WA families from vaccine-preventable diseases by improving childhood vaccine uptake. Dr Carlson will work with the community, health care providers, and organisations to codesign research projects and activities to ensure people are vaccinated on time; and
- Dr Hannah Thomas, from the Wesfarmers Centre of Vaccines and Infectious Diseases at Telethon Kids Institute and UWA’s School of Biomedical Sciences, who will work with communities involved in the SToP (See, Treat Prevent skin sores and scabies) Trial to identify, understand and action community-led skin health research. Untreated skin infections can lead to acute rheumatic fever and subsequent rheumatic heart disease (RHD) – a preventable disease.
The Telethon Kids-led cohort studies to receive FHRI funding support, administered through UWA, are:
- The ORIGINS Project (ORIGINS): Co-led by Professor Desiree Silva and Professor Susan Prescott, ORIGINS is a collaboration between Telethon Kids Institute and Joondalup Health Campus involving families from the Joondalup and Wanneroo communities. The largest study of its kind in Australia, ORIGINS is following 10,000 children over a decade, starting from their time in the womb, to better understand the origins of disease and improve child and adult health. ORIGINS’ ultimate goal is to reduce the rising epidemic of non-communicable diseases through ‘a healthy start to life’ ($499,497)
- The PLAY Spaces and Environments for Children’s Physical Activity Study (PLAYCE) Cohort. This cohort study, led by Associate Professor Hayley Christian, is working to establish healthy behaviours such as physical activity in early childhood – critical for children’s health and development. The study investigates physical activity patterns across childhood and the best intervention windows to help halt declining physical activity, and informs programs and policies to promote more active healthy childhoods ($114,972)
- The Western Australia (WA) Paediatric Cancer Cohort: Led by paediatric oncologist and researcher Associate Professor Rishi Kotecha, this cohort study is working to improve treatment outcomes for childhood cancer. The cohort consists of every consented child diagnosed with cancer in Western Australia, with access to associated clinical samples and data allowing laboratory researchers at the Telethon Kids Cancer Centre and oncologists and researchers from the Perth Children’s Hospital Oncology Unit to work together to discover novel, more effective and safer treatments ($214,271).
- The Respiratory Centre Cystic Fibrosis Biobank (BANK CF): BANK CF, led by Professor Stephen Stick from the Wal-yan Respiratory Research Centre, is a comprehensive repository of respiratory-related biological samples and associated data, gathered over more than two decades and housed at Telethon Kids Institute to help advance the management and understanding of cystic fibrosis (CF). The biobank collects information and samples from children diagnosed with CF, following patient trajectories from diagnosis through to the age of six. Currently holding more than 40,000 biological samples – ranging from blood and bronchoscopy fluid to exhaled breath condensate – BANK CF is an invaluable asset to researchers locally and internationally, facilitating ground-breaking explorations into CF and other respiratory conditions ($221,833).
Telethon Kids Institute Director Professor Jonathan Carapetis AM welcomed the cohort study funding and the new Fellowships, saying they would contribute in critical ways to the development of child health research in Western Australia.
“The Institute welcomes the opportunity to join with the State Government and the Brightspark Foundation to support WA’s early career child health researchers,” Professor Carapetis said.
This program is an innovative way to provide the sort of career security needed to help some of our most talented researchers to build a track record of success and new discoveries that will grow WA’s reputation for conducting outstanding child health research.
“We also fully support the investment by the State Government into WA’s cohort studies. These studies are a fundamental part of WA’s research landscape, providing an invaluable platform for researchers to get access to multiple longitudinal data sets, including biological data. WA has a proud history in this area and the support shown by Government recognises its value and importance to the community.”
For more information on the Fellowships, see the Minister’s media release here, and for more information on the cohort funding, see here.