Category: News

The two-week COVID-19 testing blitz on people not showing symptoms across Western Australia has ended with no positive cases detected.

The opportunity for people from identified groups to be tested for COVID-19 produced further evidence that there are no undetected cases COVID-19 in the community.

HBF has committed $2.5 million to the project. HBF’s contribution covers the full costs of DETECT Snapshot and will provide investment in other COVID-19 related research and innovation projects.

Between Thursday May 28 and Wednesday June 10, 2020, healthcare workers, WA Police staff, school staff, meat workers, and retail, hospitality, transport and tourism industry employees not displaying symptoms of COVID-19 were invited to undergo a swab test for the virus.

As part of the program 18,409 people stepped forward for testing and all tested negative, with the breakdown of major cohorts as follows:

• 11,192 health care workers (61%);
• 2,197 school staff (12%);
• 1,852 retail workers (10%);
• 925 hospitality workers (5%); and
• 875 meat workers (5%);

WA Police staff, transport workers and tourism industry workers accounted for under 5 per cent each.

The median age of people tested was 47 years, and 72 per cent were female.

Just over three quarters of participants reside in the metropolitan area.

The program was a major co-ordinated effort by public and private pathology providers PathWest, Australian Clinical Labs, Clinipath, and Western Diagnostic Pathology, to offer as many opportunities as possible within the two-week window.

Testing was offered at more than 100 clinics, drive-through facilities, and pop-up clinics across the State, and on-site testing was facilitated at nearly 200 businesses.

Read the full media statement

CSL has opened applications for its Centenary Fellowships that are offered to mid-career scientists wanting to undertake medical research at an Australian academic institute.

The scholarships, which are worth $1.25 million over five years, were established in 2016 to mark CSL’s 100 year anniversary. The ten-year $25 million program is focussed on supporting early-stage translational research.

“Australia is home to CSL’s global hub for early research and translation medicine and we are committed to helping grow the quality and quantity of Australian research and our biotech ecosystem generally,” said Professor Andrew Cuthbertson AO, CSL’s chief scientific officer.

“These fellowships are long term, high value, and mid-career. I am confident that the recipients of the CSL Centenary Fellowships will go on to become some of Australia’s most eminent scientists and will lead the next generation of Australian scientific endeavour,” said Professor Cuthbertson.

There are currently eight active CSL Fellows working at the QIMR Berghofer Institute, the Queensland Brain Institute, the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, Monash University, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Menzies School of Health Research and the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute.

Their research includes a focus on curing ‘hidden’ malaria, personalised cancer treatment, improving survival rates for patients with acute leukaemia, whether memories are stored in our DNA, liquid biopsies for cancer testing, what really causes arteries to clog, why people die from infection following stroke and vaccines against diseases such as tuberculosis.

The winners of the 2021 CSL Centenary Fellowships will be announced on 11 October 2021 in conjunction with the annual conference of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences.

More information, including application details, is available on the CSL website.

Health minister Greg Hunt has announced $66 million in funding for research into vaccine and treatments for COVID-19 and preparations for future pandemics.

The funding has been made available through the federal government’s Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) and builds on the $30 million already committed to the Coronavirus Research Response (response).

The response is part of the federal government’s $8 billion Coronavirus (COVID-19) National Health Plan.

The response is targeting four research areas – a vaccine, antiviral therapies, clinical trials and improving the health system response and preparedness for future pandemics.

A vaccine for COVID-19

The University of Queensland will receive a further $2 million, building on a previously announced $3 million, for its molecular clamp’ technology that can accelerate the development of new vaccines.

The university is collaborating with a number of biopharmaceutical companies and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations on the development of a COVID-19 vaccine.

The federal government will also provide a further $13.6 million to support other COVID-19 vaccine development projects in 2020‑21.

An independent panel of experts will assess expressions of interest and invite formal applications from the most promising projects.

Antiviral therapies for COVID-19

The response includes $7.3 million for nine research teams to support the development of antiviral therapies for COVID-19.

The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute will receive $1 million for the VirDUB research project. The project aims to develop medicines that stop COVID-19 from hijacking human cells and disabling their anti-viral defences.

Minister Hunt said the most successful projects awarded under this round will have an opportunity to seek additional funding of up to $10 million to accelerate their research.

Another $2 million is being provided to a project using stem cell-derived tissues to rapidly test drugs already approved for use in humans for activity against COVID-19.

In the early stages of the program, the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity and the Queensland Institute of Medical Research Berghofer will commence this work. Other laboratories will be able to join in the coming months.

Clinical trials of potential treatments

The response will provide $6.8 million to support seven clinical trials investigating treatments for the severe respiratory symptoms of COVID-19.

Improving the health system’s response to COVID-19 and future pandemics

The University of New South Wales will receive $3.3 million for genomics research into the behaviour, spread and evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Other grant opportunities include $4 million for digital health research infrastructure, $2 million for research into the human immune response to COVID-19 infection, and $600,000 for research to understand the community’s information needs and behavioural drivers during outbreaks.

The Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation has extended the submission deadline for applications to the current round of the Premier’s Science Fellowship Program to 2 March 2021.

This scheme funds a package to support a distinguished researcher and leader of international prominence who must be from interstate or overseas (Premier’s Science Fellow), together with funding for a talented early to mid-career researcher (Premier’s EMC Fellow) who may be from WA, interstate or overseas.

Each package to be funded in 2021 must address specific areas of strategic importance to WA that fall within one or more of the following priority areas:

1. Remote asset management
2. New energy technologies
3. Mine rehabilitation and closure
4. Other (Energy, Environment, Food, Health, Mining, Space, Technology)

To learn more, visit the Premier’s Science Fellowship Program web page.

 

Twelve Western Australian research projects have been boosted with funding from the McGowan Government.

$1.9 million in research grants has been awarded to support COVID-related research projects. Another $1 million has been provided for infrastructure support which will cover costs of consumables, staffing and site set-up for local COVID-19 research.

The WAHTN were tasked with distributing the funding along with the Department of Health, appointed the Panel including the Chair, Peter Klinken and worked with the research community to best use the $1 million for infrastructure.

The funding for the 12 research projects will go towards treatments, studies of at-risk groups, development of less invasive tests, study of mental health impacts and tests that will more accurately inform us about immunity of COVID-19.

One of these projects is a pilot study that will assess the effectiveness of transfusing active COVID-19 cases with plasma from recovered patients (convalescent plasma).

The pilot, being led by Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital respiratory specialist Dr Anna Tai, will determine whether antibodies contained in donated plasma can prevent patients from deteriorating to the point where they need to be hospitalised or develop Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

The project will also see whether such early intervention can reduce the time it takes for the person to feel better or clear the virus from his or her system.

With Western Australia’s current low number of active cases, Dr Tai is collaborating with other research groups to involve patients from other states and jurisdictions.

In the absence of a vaccine or treatment for COVID-19, Dr Tai’s study will investigate the therapeutic potential of convalescent plasma in treating COVID-19 patients in the early stages of disease.

Convalescent plasma has been shown to be effective in managing patients during other major viral outbreaks including the SARS, MERS, Ebola and H1N1 and H5N1 pandemics.

The full list of recipients is on the Department of Health website.

The full media statement can be found on the Government of Western Australia’s website.

Western Australia is poised to be a leader in the future of health and medicine after the Western Australian Future Fund Amendment (Future Health Research and Innovation Fund) Bill passed State Parliament today.

The milestone legislation will give Western Australian health and medical researchers and innovators a secure and ongoing source of funding that will include an initial commitment of an extra $37 million over the next three years.

The legislation repurposes the $1.4 billion WA Future Fund – allowing interest earned on it to be directed to local health and medical research, innovation and commercialisation.

Under the fund’s ramp-up program the first year’s allocation, expected to be up to $6 million, will be dedicated to COVID-19 research, including the McGowan Government’s nation-leading DETECT program.

The DETECT program tests selected cohorts of asymptomatic people in order to learn more about COVID-19. It is currently examining education and FIFO groups. Other cohorts being investigated for potential inclusion include health care, aged care, police, retail, hospitality and meat workers.

Going beyond COVID-19, the increased certainty provided by the Future Health Research and Innovation Fund is expected to help create health sector jobs, diversify the economy, improve patient care, and help Western Australia retain its brightest health researchers, innovators and clinicians, as well as attract global projects and partnerships.

The full media statement can be found on the Government of Western Australia’s website.

The Minister for Health, the Hon Greg Hunt MP, has announced details of funding for the National Health and Medical Research Council and Medical Research Future Fund Investigator schemes. We would like to congratulate the following researchers on their successful applications:

NHMRC Investigator Grants

Duration: 5 years

Tipping the balance – improving response rates to cancer immunotherapy
Emerging Leadership 2
Dr Willem Lesterhuis, Centre for Child Health Research/Telethon Kids Institute
Total Funded: $1,562,250.00

Improving patient outcomes in familial hypercholesterolaemia across the continuum of care
Emerging Leadership 1
Dr Jing Pang, UWA Medical School
Total Funded: $645,205.00

Reducing global mortality and severity of disease in newborn infants through innovation and holistic interventions
Leadership 2
Professor Jane Pillow, School of Human Sciences
Total Funded: $2,060,520.00

 

MRFF Investigator Grants

Duration: 5 years

Better penicillin, better hearts: improving secondary prevention of rheumatic heart disease
Emerging Leadership 2
Doctor Laurens Manning, Centre for Child Health Research/Telethon Kids Institute
Total Funded: $1,281,125.00

Preventing bronchiectasis in Indigenous people
Emerging Leadership 2
Doctor Andre Schultz, Centre for Child Health Research/Telethon Kids Institute
Total Funded: $1,131,125.00

The Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre (DHCRC) has launched a new website, the Telehealth Hub, which will help clinicians, health professionals and health consumers to access and deliver telehealth services in Australia more effectively.

In the face of COVID19, rapid adoption of telehealth has been an essential tool in the delivery of health care services. DHCRC launched a series of telehealth webinars that were attended by almost 5,000 people, mainly health professionals.

In the webinars, large audiences learned from expert practitioners and clinicians who generously shared their own experience and tips on getting up to speed effectively and rapidly.

Q&A sessions in the webinars generated a huge amount of valuable information from both presenters and the audience who have submitted links, resources, and recommendations.

DHCRC have collated this crowd-sourced information and presented it on this website, and invite you to add to, update and correct any information you see here – go to the Contact form to submit your questions, information, or suggestions.

DHCRC would also like to acknowledge the numerous government agencies, professional bodies, organisations, and individuals who have contributed the resources shared on the site.

A Perth clinical research company has been selected to undertake a trial of a vaccine to combat COVID-19.

Linear Clinical Research announced it will conduct a human trial of the vaccine candidate, which is being developed to help the body produce antibodies to fight the coronavirus which causes COVID-19 disease.

The vaccine candidate COVID-19 S-Trimer has been developed by China-based, global biotechnology company Clover Biopharmaceuticals.

Phase 1 of the vaccine trial is planned to involve healthy adult and healthy elderly participants and the company is currently seeking volunteers to participate in the study within the next two months.

Linear’s Chief Executive Officer Jayden Rogers said if successful, a larger clinical trial involving thousands of people around the world would be conducted immediately.

Mr Rogers said the COVID-19 S-Trimer vaccine trial was a major coup for WA and Australia.

“WA is in the unique position of working towards successfully suppressing the disease, so medical experts can dedicate resources to prevention.

“We are fortunate to be one of the few countries in the world to still be offering functional clinical trial facilities because we do not have large volumes of COVID-19 cases as compared to other parts of the world,” he said.

Mr Rogers said Clover was one of the first companies to start developing a vaccine and started working on it in January this year.

The company’s access to early COVID-19 data and reagents made them one of the first companies to develop a vaccine which targets a protein that the virus needs to enter host cells.

He said there were more than 60 candidate COVID-19 vaccines in development around the world, but only a few were entering early clinical trials in human volunteers.

Small to Medium Enterprises (SME) Assist, live-streamed their last ‘Meeting Your Obligations’ workshop from Sydney and it is now available for viewing on the TGA Australia YouTube channel. Workshop content is specifically targeted at SMEs who are unfamiliar with the regulatory process for both medicines and medical devices. Topics covered include Basics of regulation, Market authorisation, Manufacturing, Advertising and Post-market monitoring as well as an interactive Q&A session with TGA staff.

Also, for the latest information about COVID-19 from TGA please refer to the Coronavirus (COVID-19): Information on medicines and medical devices webpage.