NHMRC 2023 Ideas Grants

^{Pictured Prof Natalie Hannan & A/Prof Fiona Brownfoot}

Congratulations to Department of Obstetrics, Gynaecology & Newborn Health researchers Prof Natalie Hannan & A/Prof Fiona Brownfoot who are both recipients of the NHMRC 2023 Ideas Grant. We are so proud of you & your teams.

NHMRC received 2182 applications for the  2023 Ideas Grant and just 232 grants were awarded.

Prof Natalie Hannan was awarded the Ideas Grant for the project "A mother’s risk of future cardiovascular disease following preeclampsia: is early detection and prevention possible?" Preeclampsia is a deadly complication of pregnancy. Worse yet, women with a history of preeclampsia are up to 5-times more likely to develop cardiovascular disease following pregnancy, putting them at serious risk of dying early.  This project aims to revolutionise our understanding of this serious condition and its longterm consequences, by determining if mother's at highest risk can be identified earlier and if promising medication can be used to prevent cardiovascular disease and early death.

A/Prof Fiona Brownfoot was awarded the Ideas Grant for the project "A novel device to detect fetal asphyxia in labour". Birth asphyxia is a leading cause of cerebral palsy, seizures, developmental delay and death in term babies. Current methods of detecting fetal distress are inaccurate and can be misinterpreted. In this project we are using new technology to develop a device to continuously assess fetal pH, a direct measure of fetal stress in labour. We will validate our sensor using neonatal cord blood at delivery and assess the accuracy of our device using a fetal sheep model of hypoxia and a clinical study.