The Australian Government will provide more than $14.2 million to establish or extend eight national research facilities, including tissue and cell banks, in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territory.
Announcing the funding today, the Federal Minister for Health and Ageing, Tony Abbott, said the facilities would be established under the National Health and Medical Research Council's new Enabling Grants Scheme.
"The Scheme is designed to assist health and medical researchers by providing support for specific facilities and activities that will enhance the national research effort," Mr Abbott said.
"All Australian researchers working in the health and medical field, will benefit from being able to get access to stored tissue and cell samples or to national databases.
"In Victoria, the Australian Twin Registry at the University of Melbourne has been funded by the Government since the 1980's. This national resource for scientists has supported more than 400 studies and will receive a further $1.7 million over five years to continue its work.
"In addition, the Mental Health Research Institute's National Network of Brain Banks, will receive $2 million over five years to improve its storage and provision of brain tissue for use by neuroscientists towards a better understanding of brain disorders."
- In New South Wales, the Children's Medical Research Institute will receive $1.2 million over five years to set up a high-standard cell culture facility called Cell Bank Australia, which will provide a national repository of quality-controlled vertebrate cell lines derived from various tissues and species. The University of Sydney will receive $2 million to establish a Breast Cancer Biospecimen Resource, which will store newly diagnosed breast cancer samples and accurate, tracked clinical data on each specimen;
- The Queensland University of Technology will receive more than $2 million over five years to support the Australian Prostate Cancer Collaboration (APCC) Bio-Resource. An innovative project to establish 'nodes' of a prostate tissue bank in each State where tissues are collected and to coordinate the use of this material from a central point;
- In Western Australia, more than $1.9 million over five years will build a new national resource for population-based medical research at the University of Western Australia. This National Population-based Genetic Epidemiology, Biospecimen and Bioinformatic Resource,will become one of the world's largest facilities for epidemiological and genetic epidemiological research, considerably enhancing our national research capacity in this area.
- In Canberra, the Australian National University will receive $1.5 million over five years to establish an Australian Phenome Bank, giving researchers access to new strains of genetically modified mice, through its establishment of a frozen sperm bank, database and training program;
- Building on the important Australasian Biospecimen Network at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Victoria, more than $1.7 million over five years, will establish an Australasian Biospecimen Network- Oncology, to collect, process and disseminate tumour tissue.