Today approval and funding was given to 41 Australian medical research projects that will help ensure the Australian Government’s response to the evolving threat of H1N1 is based on the most up-to-date information available. The research will help the Government tailor its response to the spread and nature of the disease, and better equip the Government to help those most at risk from the disease.
$7 million has been provided for these projects from the Government’s peak health and medical research agency, the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).
The projects cover research from the laboratory to the bedside, from patients to community health, with an emphasis on rapid results to benefit Australians and the rest of the world. The successful applicants are based throughout Australia.
Some of the research to be supported includes:
- understanding why some people get more severe flu than others;
- strategies for containment in rural, remote and Indigenous communities
- improving the detection of swine flu;
- the best strategies for anti viral use;
- the prospects for swine flu to interact with other flu strains; and
- risks to children in hospitals.
NHMRC has fast-tracked a robust international peer review of applications for medical research grants to identify the critical projects that would best shed more light on H1N1.
The peer review process, which can typically take many months, was completed in little more than a week thanks to the involvement of highly-experienced researchers not only in Australia but also from countries including Singapore, New Zealand and the United States.
The quick, collaborative international response seeks to take advantage of the current Australian flu season to learn much more about the virus. The results will be shared internationally, and will be particularly valuable for those countries who are currently preparing for their coming flu season.
Researchers will report their findings at a symposium in December 2009 attended by the Chief Medical Officers of Australia and each state and territory, as well as public health experts.
Media Contact
Minister Roxon’s office: Tel 02 6277 7220
NHMRC: Carolyn Norrie, Tel 02 6217 9342 Mob 0422 008 512
email carolyn.norrie@nhmrc.gov.au
Successful H1N1 grant applications
|
App ID
|
Chief Investigator
|
Title
|
Administering Institution
|
State | Recommended Budget |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 585530 | Dr Lisa Marie Alleva | Trialling agents that could limit influenza disease and improve resistance to secondary infections | Australian National University | ACT | $159,903 |
| 585531 | A/Prof Paul Kelly | Establishing a Rapid Alert System for Severe Respiratory Illness in Adults: The FluCAN Surveillance system | Australian National University | ACT | $268,991 |
| 585533 | Dr Kamalini Lokuge | Surveillance for H1N1 influenza 09 and evaluation of the impact of control measures in prisoner populations | Australian National University | ACT | $58,765 |
| 585534 | A/Prof Leslee Roberts | Transmission dynamics of H1N1 variant in households and schools | Australian National University | ACT | $97,923 |
| 585536 | Prof Niels Becker | Improving Response by Monitoring Incidence and Assessing Seasonality and Specific Interventions | Australian National University | ACT | $125,550 |
| 587801 | Prof Chris Del Mar | Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses: an updated systematic review | Bond University | Qld | $83,014 |
| 594875 | Dr Tony Velkov | The structure and receptor binding properties of the 2009 swine influenza pandemic Hemagglutinin | Deakin University | Vic | $179,500 |
| 595625 | Dr Jennifer McKimm-Breshkin | Impact of resistance mutations on sensitivity of A(H1N1) swine flu neuraminidase (NA) to current and novel NA-inhibitors | CSIRO | Vic | $116,742 |
| 595996 | Prof David Gordon | Development of recombinant GPI-anchored haemagglutinin of swine influenza H1N1 for serological and immunological studies | Flinders University | SA | $191,000 |
| 601034 | Prof Richard Speare | Feasible containment strategies for swine influenza H1N1 in rural and remote Indigenous Communities | James Cook University | Qld | $457,750 |
| 603750 | Prof Suzanne Crowe | Immune responses to 2009 H1N1 to assist public health response | Burnet Institute | Vic | $184,712 |
| 603752 | A/Prof Rosemary Ffrench | A centralised facility for immunological monitoring of human H1N1 immunity post infection or vaccination | Burnet Institute | Vic | $184,395 |
| 603753 | A/Prof Margaret Hellard | The epidemiology, transmission and impact of new influenza a (H1N1) on the Victorian community in 2009. | Burnet Institute | Vic | $152,335 |
| 604925 | A/Prof Heath Kelly | Estimating the protective effect of seasonal influenza vaccine against medically attended ILI due to novel influenza A (H1N1) | Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory | Vic | $156,125 |
| 604931 | Mr Aeron Hurt | The role of NA inhibitor treatment and prophylaxis in reducing disease severity and spread of A(H1N1) swine origin virus | WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza | Vic | $252,812 |
| 604934 | Dr Caroline Marshall | Do frontline healthcare workers have increased risk of contracting influenza H1N1? A prevalance and risk factor study | The University of Melbourne | Vic | $220,000 |
| 604982 | A/Prof Heath Kelly | Laboratory confirmed novel influenza A(H1N1) and seasonal influenza, Victoria 2009: comparison of the clinical spectrum of disease | Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory | Vic | $55,645 |
| 606975 | Prof Anthony Harris | Impact of an influenza epidemic on the Australian economy | Monash University | Vic | $117,750 |
| 606976 | Prof Paul Herzog | Development of a signature for early responses to influenza strains that determine /correlate with severity of infection, vaccine response and changes in virulence. | Monash University | Vic | $313,063 |
| 614290 | Prof Gerard FitzGerald | Emergency Department impact and patient profile of H1N1 Influenza 09 outbreak in Australia: A national survey | Queensland University of Technology | Qld | $106,136 |
| 620240 | Prof Michael Parker | Swine influenza: Molecular basis of potential resistance to neuraminidase inhibitors | St. Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research | Vic | $97,250 |
| 626867 | Dr Helen Marshall | Evaluating community understanding of and participation in strategies to prevent the spread of H1N1 | University of Adelaide | SA | $185,922 |
| 628010 | Prof Warwick Blood | Public and media understandings of A/H1N1 within a risk communication environment | University of Canberra | ACT | $107,340 |
| 628962 | Prof Anne Kavanagh | H1N1-related Victorian school closures: quarantine compliance and impact of parents’ precarious employment | The University of Melbourne | Vic | $276,974 |
| 628965 | Dr Katherine Kedzierska | Understanding the extent of cross-reactive T cell immunity between H1N1 09 and seasonal influenza strains | The University of Melbourne | Vic | $186,808 |
| 628967 | Prof Terry Nolan | Immunity to novel H1N1 influenza prior to and after immunization with seasonal TIV in children aged 6 months to 9 years | The University of Melbourne | Vic | $59,521 |
| 628970 | Dr John Stambas | Identification of determinants associated with pathogenicity of Swine-Origin 2009 A (H1N1) influenza virus | The University of Melbourne | Vic | $127,250 |
| 628974 | Dr James McCaw | Determining optimal strategies for use of antiviral agents in the 2009/10 A(H1N1) swl influenza epidemic in Australia | The University of Melbourne | Vic | $75,250 |
| 628975 | Prof David Jackson | Is Pam2Cys the new anti-viral against influenza A virus? | The University of Melbourne | Vic | $143,250 |
| 628976 | A/Prof Joseph Torresi | Swine influenza: epidemiology and virology of the Victorian epidemic | The University of Melbourne | Vic | $414,724 |
| 628977 | Prof John Mathews | Models for influenza virulence to explain changes over time & place, including the differences between 1918-19 and 2009 | The University of Melbourne | Vic | $80,250 |
| 628980 | Dr Lorena Brown | Ability of H1N1/09 and seasonal influenza vaccines to reduce symptoms and halt spread of H1N1/09 infection in ferrets | The University of Melbourne | Vic | $290,500 |
| 628988 | A/Prof Louis Irving | Utility of POC predictive blood biomarkers in triage and management of high risk populations | The University of Melbourne | Vic | $191,500 |
| 630779 | Dr James Wood | Optimal use of vaccine to mitigate a second wave of H1N1 2009 influenza in Australia | University of New South Wales | NSW | $78,050 |
| 630785 | Prof William Rawlinson | Novel swine-origin influenza H1N1 09 Quality Assurance | University of New South Wales | NSW | $144,725 |
| 630787 | Prof Raina MacIntyre | Efficacy of face masks against H1N1 swine influenza | University of New South Wales | NSW | $337,563 |
| 631098 | Prof David Durrheim | Australian public’s H1N1 knowledge, risk perception, containment measure adoption and willingness to be vaccinated | University of Newcastle | NSW | $60,896 |
| 631720 | Prof Mark Kendall | Nanopatch immunisation against pandemic Novel A (H1N1) influenza virus 09: potent immunity at a reduced dose | The University of Queensland | Qld | $179,472 |
| 633027 | Dr Bin Wang | Real-time and quantitative monitoring of the emergence of oseltamivir resistance during the current influenza pandemic | University of Sydney | NSW | $183,500 |
| 633028 | Prof Elizabeth Elliott | Characterisation of H1N1 Influenza 09 in hospitalised children using Paediatric Active Enhanced Diseases Surveillance | University of Sydney | NSW | $118,513 |
| 633032 | Prof Robert Booy | An Unblinded randomized study of influenza A/H1N1 09 resistance to oseltamivir and zanamivir | National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance of Vaccine Preventable Diseases | NSW | $149,460 |
| TOTAL | >>> | $6,970,829 |