Associate Professor Yasmin Jayasinghe and Dr Clare Whitehead awarded MRFF grant

The Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology congratulates researchers Associate Professor Yasmin Jayasinghe and Dr Clare Whitehead for being awarded funding by the Medical Research Future Fund in the latest round of Life Saving and Job Creating Medical Research grants. Almost half of the grants in the funding round went to University of Melbourne clinician researchers.

Congratulations to Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology researchers Associate Professor Yasmin Jayasinghe and Dr Clare Whitehead, who hold positions at the Royal Women’s Hospital, for receiving funding in the latest round of Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) Life Saving and Job Creating Medical Research grants. Six of the fourteen Clinician Researcher grants were awarded to The University of Melbourne, of which two were awarded to Chief Investigators in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

Associate Professor Yasmin Jayasinghe, Chief Investigator (CIA) was awarded $2,999,970 to lead the project The Australian New Zealand Oncofertility Clinical Trials Network. Many children and young people diagnosed with cancer receive treatment that renders them infertile. This research will enable the broad implementation of new digital tools, guidance and models of oncofertility care across nine Australian New Zealand Haematology Oncology (ANZCHOG) cancer centres in order to raise benchmarks of patient-centred oncofertility care. Families will receive discussion of the risks to fertility, and potential fertility preservation options (freezing of eggs, sperm, or gonadal tissue) in the critical window between cancer diagnosis and cancer treatment. This will offer clinicians new models of care and young cancer survivors the chance of future parenthood.

Chief Investigators Dr Clare Whitehead (CIA), Associate Professor Brett Manley (CIB) and Professor Peter Davis (CIC) were awarded $2,642,199 for their project Transforming Clinical Research to Improve Preterm Birth Outcomes for Preterm Infants. 15 million babies are born preterm each year. Preterm birth is the leading cause of death and disability among children who are younger than five years of age. There is urgent need for interventions to reduce the complications associated with prematurity and to improve outcomes. Traditional trials are often resource-intensive and may take many years to complete.

Adaptive Platform Trials are an innovative approach allowing multiple interventions to be evaluated simultaneously. This project will develop an Australasian Adaptive Platform Trial to Improve Preterm Birth Outcomes. The project will identify research priorities and core outcomes important to families and the health service. It will help develop the infrastructure and expertise needed to run the platform trial and implement the findings into clinical practice.

The Department congratulates Associate Professor Yasmin Jayasinghe, Dr Clare Whitehead, Associate Professor Brett Manley and Professor Peter Davis on their fantastic achievements and looks forward to learning about the outcomes of their research.