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The Western Australian Epithelial Research Program (WAERP) is a community cohort biobank that collects and stores airway cells from the upper (nose) and lower (trachea) airways of Western Australian children and adults (1-50 years of age) undergoing non respiratory elective surgery.

The Western Australian Epithelial Research Program (WAERP) biobank is undertaking a number of research projects intended to improve the understanding and preclinical assessment of therapeutics for respiratory conditions.

The Australian Epithelial Research Program (WAERP) comprises of several parties, including our Chief Investigators, Compliance, Scientific and Clinical Teams, and our Student group.

The Scientific Advisory Committee's (SAC) role is to provide scientific direction and to ensure the objectives of WAERP are reflected in the research performed; SAC forms part of our governance structure.

Want to know how to be involved with WAERP? Or how long the project is running for? View our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for answers to these questions and more.

A population of neutrophils recruited into cystic fibrosis (CF) airways is associated with proteolytic lung damage, exhibiting high expression of primary granule exocytosis marker CD63 and reduced phagocytic receptor CD16. Causative factors for this population are unknown, limiting intervention. Here we present a laboratory model to characterize responses of differentiated airway epithelium and neutrophils following respiratory infection.

Asthma exacerbations in children are associated with respiratory viral infection and atopy, resulting in systemic immune activation and infiltration of immune cells into the airways. The gene networks driving the immune activation and subsequent migration of immune cells into the airways remains incompletely understood. Cellular and molecular profiling of PBMC was employed on paired samples obtained from atopic asthmatic children during acute virus-associated exacerbations and later during convalescence.

Despite advances in neonatal intensive care, babies admitted to Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU) suffer from adverse outcomes. We aim to describe the longer-term respiratory infectious morbidity of infants discharged from NICU using state-wide population-based linked data in Western Australia.

Developing an effective therapy to overcome carbapenemase-positive Klebsiella pneumoniae (CPKp) is an important therapeutic challenge that must be addressed urgently. Here, we explored a Ca-EDTA combination with aztreonam or ceftazidime-avibactam in vitro and in vivo against diverse CPKp clinical isolates.