MRFF and NHMRC funding successes

Two of the Melbourne Medical School’s senior academics have been awarded funding as part of the Medical Research Future Fund’s Clinical Trials Activity Initiative, announced by Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt in early January.

Professor Tom Marwick, Director of the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute and member of the new MMS Department of Cardiometabolic Health, was the recipient of $2.5 million in funding for a clinical trial investigating a cardioprotective therapy to manage persistent cardiovascular effects of COVID-19. The trial will test how targeted therapeutic interventions – including the use of ‘exercise as medicine’ – might help protect the heart from the long-term impacts of COVID-19. This will be a multidisciplinary project leveraging leading expertise in cardiology, exercise science, imaging, epidemiology and health economics.

Professor Gustavo Duque, Chair of Medicine (Western Health) and Director of the Australian Institute for Musculoskeletal Science (in strategic partnership with Western Health and Victoria University) was the recipient of almost $1.2 million in funding to progress a clinical trial that investigates whether specialised nutritional supplementation offers aged care residents a degree of protection from COVID-19.

Congratulations must also go to the recipients of the NHMRC Ideas Grants: Associate Professor Tu'uhevaha Kaitu'u-Lino, Professor Richard Kanaan, Professor Kelsey Hegarty and Professor David Forbes. The funding received will help progress research into treatments and interventions for a vast range of health and societal issues including preeclampsia, schizophrenia, non-epileptic seizures, intimate-partner violence and problem anger.