15 Dec 2023
Doherty Institute researchers awarded more than $9 million in NHMRC Ideas Grants
Eight researchers at the Doherty Institute have secured $9.7 million in Ideas Grants from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), to help advance understanding of a wide range of health and medical challenges.
The prestigious Ideas Grant scheme, managed by the Australian Government, is a competitive, peer-reviewed grants system that aims to fund innovative and creative health and medical research from discovery to implementation.
University of Melbourne Laureate Professor Sharon Lewin, Director of the Doherty Institute, congratulated the grant recipients.
“This is a great achievement both for the Doherty Institute and the researchers who were awarded funding from the NHMRC. This is evidence of the dedication and hard work of our scientists whose research will be significantly propelled forward with these grants. We look forward to the impactful outcomes and remarkable accomplishments that lie ahead,” said Professor Lewin.
“Securing funding for medical research is highly competitive, and I want to acknowledge our colleagues who narrowly missed receiving a grant in this round. Their contributions remain valuable, and we continue to support and champion their ongoing research.”
Some of the successful projects, led by researchers from the University of Melbourne’s Department of Microbiology and Immunity and the Department of Infectious Diseases at the Doherty Institute, include halting transmission of respiratory viral infections using intranasally administered vaccines, developing an efficacious malaria mRNA vaccine and harnessing MAIT cells as the next frontier of solid tumour immunotherapy.
NHMRC Ideas Grant recipients from the Doherty Institute:
Fate and fidelity of T cell memory during repeated malaria infection, $2,248,976
Lead: University of Melbourne’s Associate Professor Ashraful Haque, Lab Head and co-lead of the Bacterial and Parasitic Infections theme at the Doherty Institute
Understanding the anatomical context and molecular mechanisms of T cell reinvigoration during therapeutic checkpoint blockade, $875,953
Lead: University of Melbourne’s Dr Carlson Tsui, Postdoctoral Research Officer at the Doherty Institute
A new approach to investigate how sulfa-drug-like small molecules induce hypersensitivities, $1,061,773
Lead: University of Melbourne’s Dr Catarina Almeida, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Doherty Institute
Halting transmission of respiratory viral infections using intranasally administered vaccines, $1,279,664
Lead: University of Melbourne’s Dr Georgia Deliyannis, Research Fellow at the Doherty Institute
Harnessing MAIT cells as the next frontier of solid tumour immunotherapy, $970,619
Lead: University of Melbourne’s Dr Hui-Fern Koay Postdoctoral Fellow at the Doherty Institute
Development of an efficacious malaria mRNA vaccine, $1,384,755
Lead: University of Melbourne’s Dr Lauren Holz, Postdoctoral Researcher at the Doherty Institute
Which Plasmodium falciparum virulence antigens elicit immunity associated with protection from severe malaria? $890,588
Lead: University of Melbourne’s Dr Michael Duffy, Senior Research Fellow at the Doherty Institute
Antibodies, white blood cells and protection from severe malaria, $1,020,306
Lead: University of Melbourne's Professor Stephen Rogerson, Head of the Malaria Laboratory at the Doherty Institute.
Visit https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/funding/find-funding/ideas-grants to find out more about the NHMRC Ideas Grant scheme.