NHMRC Ideas grant to develop new blood tests for preeclampsia

Congratulations to Associate Professor Tu'uhevaha Kaitu'u-Lino and her co-investigators Professor Sue Walker and Dr Teresa MacDonald who have been awarded $1.1 million as part of the NHMRC Ideas Grants scheme for 2021.

The award was announced on Tuesday 15th December by the Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt and NHMRC CEO Anne Kelso who visited the Mercy Hospital for Women, Dept of Obstetrics and Gynaecology to announce the scheme funding.

Associate Professor Tu’uhevaha Kaitu’u-Lino’s grant entitled “Developing a screening test to identify women at risk of preeclampsia” aims to develop new blood tests that could be offered universally to all pregnant women to identify those at greatest risk of this serious complication.

The research team will use large collections of human blood samples to screen for novel proteins within pregnant women's blood. They will then use artificial intelligence to select the best biomarkers and combine them with clinical information to develop a multi-marker blood test to predict women at risk.

The Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology congratulate Tu’uhevaha and the team on their success.

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