Wondering what has these three Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute researchers beaming? Conducting research at the Australian Synchrotron of course.

Dr Ross Graham, PhD student Clinton Kidman and research assistant James Chasland recently visited the X-ray Fluorescence beamline at the Australian Synchrotron in Melbourne as part of their research into links between iron and fatty liver disease.

Along with CHIRI’s Associate Professor Cyril Mamotte and Dr Mark Hackett, the trio is investigating the distribution of iron and other metals in liver cells exposed to high concentrations of iron and fatty acids.

Their aim is to better understand the underlying mechanisms of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and iron overload disorders and the link between them. These disorders manifest largely in middle age and may cause complications such as liver failure if untreated. Read more…

 

Massive news out of the Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute – A research mission led by our Deputy Director Melinda (Lindy) Fitzgerald to help improve the lives of children and adults with traumatic brain injuries has been awarded $50 million in Federal Government funding over the next 10 years.

The Mission for Traumatic Brain Injury initiative will bring together health professionals from major hospitals, universities and research institutes across Australia to help identify the predictors of poor outcomes following a traumatic brain injury and develop feasible initiatives to help improve the lives of patients.

The research will cover traumatic brain injuries of all severities, from concussion in sports to severe brain injuries from road accidents. Read more…

Two European pharmaceutical company researchers have travelled across the world as part of a new bio-nanotechnology based industrial partnership with the Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute (CHIRI).

Dr Walter Minnella, a physicist from pharmaceutical company Elvesys in Paris, France and Dr Katrin Borrmann, from MARCOTECH oHG in Muenster, Germany are working in collaboration with CHIRI diabetes researcher Dr Hani Al-Salami, whose team is committed to identifying new therapies for diabetes and age-related diseases using novel bio-nanotechnologies and pharmaceutical formulation delivery systems.

Walter, who is a scientist and a field-application specialist, is on a two-month placement at CHIRI, overseeing nanotechnological microchip (lab-on-a-chip) testing for the treatment of diabetes. He received his PhD from the University of Bordeaux (France) under the European Training Network focused on label-free cell sorting, and is an expert in microfluidics and microchips/PCR technologies.

Katrin Borrmann, a chemist and a researcher at Westphalian Wilhelms University, is with CHIRI for a one-month placement. As an expert in hydrophilic nanoencapsulation of antioxidants and the development of novel therapeutics for chronic injuries/wounds, she is overseeing testing of nanotechnological formulations using industrial standards. Read more…

Better than one in a million – how’s three in a hundred!

Congratulations to Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute’s (CHIRI) Professor Christopher Reid, who’s among three Curtin University scientists in a worldwide list of the 100 most-mentioned scholarly research articles online in 2018.

Remarkably, Chris made the Altmetric Top 100 list not once, but three times for articles on his pioneering studies into the effect of aspirin in the healthy elderly. One of the articles alone reached a potential audience of around 4 million people. Read more…

With the Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute’s (CHIRI) research continuing to grow, so too has its leadership team, with Professor Melinda (Lindy) Fitzgerald being appointed as the inaugural Deputy Director of the institute.

Already a CHIRI researcher co-appointed by the Perron Institute for Neurological and Translational Sciences and located at the Sarich Neurosciences Research Institute Building in Nedlands, Lindy will work closely with CHIRI’s Director, Professor John Mamo, to take the significant work undertaken by the institute “to the next level”. At the top of Lindy’s list is capitalising on existing research collaborations and identifying new opportunities.

“Since its inception, CHIRI has been busy refining its research focus and strengths and building a culture of research excellence,” Lindy said. “Now is the time for CHIRI to take the opportunity to capitalise and further encourage national and international collaborations to the next level.” Read more…

A collaborative team led by Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute (CHIRI) researchers is hopeful of inspiring new and innovative prevention strategies to control the burden of metabolic-related conditions after securing funding through a competitive national grants scheme.

Funded by the Endeavour College of Natural Health in late 2018, the grant is aimed at mechanistically characterising how nutraceutical compounds (a group of chemical compounds of plant origin, which are claimed to provide health benefits) modulate the gut-liver axis to prevent the development of metabolic disorders.

The research team includes CHIRI researchers Professor Fergal O’Gara, Dr Jose Caparros-Martin and Dr Ricky Lareu from Curtin’s School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, and Dr Natalie Ward from the School of Public Health, in collaboration with Dr Sangeetha Mathavan (Endeavour College of Natural Health and Curtin University) and Dr Patricia Agudelo-Romero (Telethon Kids Institute and The University of Western Australia).

The team will use the grant to carry out different ‘omics’ analyses to progress its research program on the molecular pathways involved in host-gut microbiota interaction. Read more…

Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute (CHIRI) researchers recently convened in the spectacular setting of the Mounts Bay Sailing Club for a Research Retreat.

The day was an opportunity for CHIRI’s research team to consider strategies to enhance their own health and wellbeing, which would in turn would have a positive impact on their professional development and research performance.

Check out this video of highlights from the day.

“CHIRI’s work is all about wellness, and as an institute, we’re committed to walking the walk and ensuring the health, wellbeing and professional development of our own researchers and staff,” CHIRI Director John Mamo said. Read more…

Former PhD student Dr Sebastian Pohl and his Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute (CHIRI) colleagues have recently had two articles published in premiere redox biology journals. Redox biology has been demonstrated to be critical in the understanding of cancer progression, as well as being studied in the development of therapeutics. Changes in the levels of different antioxidants within cancers cells can be both beneficial or detrimental for cancer growth.

Sebastian was lead author of both articles, with contributions from two of his CHIRI co-supervisors Professor Arun Dharmarajan and Senior Research Fellow Dr Mark Agostino, in collaboration with Prof. Shazib Pervaiz (National University of Singapore). Read more…

The Australasian Society for Immunology’s (ASI) Annual Scientific Meeting returned to Perth for the first time in eight years this December.

The annual meeting of this broad-based society focused on supporting the discipline of immunology, is rotated around Australia and New Zealand. The meeting was last held in Western Australia in 2010.

For the past three years, staff and students from the Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute (CHIRI) and Curtin’s School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences have been heavily involved in organising the national meeting – Dr Connie Jackaman as the meeting’s Chair, as well as Jeanne Edmands, Dr Mark Agostino, A/Prof Delia Nelson and student representative Lelinh Duong.

This year, approximately 420 delegates attended the meeting across five days. Highlights of the meeting included a dynamic scientific program filled with outstanding international and national speakers, as well as the vibrant conference dinner sponsored by CHIRI. Read more…

Two Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute (CHIRI) researchers received a total of more than $2.24 million in funding from the latest round of National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) grants.

Professor Melinda (Lindy) Fitzgerald (CHIRI/Perron Institute for Neurological and Translational Sciences) received $1,245,138 as the chief investigator of a research project looking to define the unifying mechanisms of oxidative damage to oligodendrocyte DNA in neurotrauma, neurodegenerative and demyelinating disease.

As the chief investigator of a research project targeting the TWEAK/Fn14 signalling pathway as a novel therapeutic strategy to prevent chronic liver disease progression, Associate Professor Nina Tirnitz-Parker (School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences), received $997,485. Read more…