Spinal cord awards to UNSW researchers
8th November 2005
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| Professor McLachlan |
UNSW medical researchers have scooped the pool in grants for work on spinal cord injury and neurological conditions.
NSW Minister for Science and Medical Research, Frank Sartor has announced nearly $3 million in grants to NSW researchers, half of which has gone in a single grant to Professor Elspeth McLachlan of the Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute (POW MRI).
Professor McLachlan, Co-Director of the Institute’s Spinal Injuries Research Centre, received the only program grant awarded, of $1.5 million. Professor McLachlan and her collaborators in the Centre, Dr James Brock, Dr Matthew Kiernan and Dr Vaughan Macefield will develop an experimental program to understand the changes in nerve and muscle function after a spinal cord injury. They will conduct parallel studies of changes in excitability and reactivity of different peripheral nerve and muscle tissues in human subjects and experimental animals with spinal cord injury.
Their findings will provide crucial information for the development of new drug treatments and improvement of existing therapies for people with spinal cord injury, in particular stimulation therapy which can prevent muscle wasting and help spinal cord injured people generate enough muscle power to bear weight and so increase their degree of independence.
Five project grants were awarded, of which three went to researchers affiliated with UNSW.
Dr Kiernan also received $175, 000 for his work on the origins and patterns of neuronal degeneration in motor neurone disease.
Dr Bryce Vissel from the Garvan Institute for Medical Research, who is investigating the role of individual glutamate receptor subtypes in conditions including spinal cord injury and Huntington’s disease, received $400,000.
A quarter of a million dollars went to Professor Elizabeth Burcher, from the School of Medical Sciences, for work to investigate receptor changes in the bladder following spinal cord injury and multiple sclerosis.
Making the announcement, Mr Sartor said that almost 100 people suffer a spinal cord injury each year in NSW alone. The cost of care is close to $1 million per person every year throughout their lifetime. Most spinal cord patients are aged between 15 and 44, almost 80 percent are male, and most are caused by car and road accidents, falls, or sports.
Grant recipients were chosen by a panel chaired by Professor Perry Bartlett, Foundation Professor of Molecular Neuroscience at the University of Queensland. The panel included clinicians, neuroscientists, medical researchers, government and a consumer representative.
NSW Minister for Science and Medical Research, Frank Sartor has announced nearly $3 million in grants to NSW researchers, half of which has gone in a single grant to Professor Elspeth McLachlan of the Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute (POW MRI).
Professor McLachlan, Co-Director of the Institute’s Spinal Injuries Research Centre, received the only program grant awarded, of $1.5 million. Professor McLachlan and her collaborators in the Centre, Dr James Brock, Dr Matthew Kiernan and Dr Vaughan Macefield will develop an experimental program to understand the changes in nerve and muscle function after a spinal cord injury. They will conduct parallel studies of changes in excitability and reactivity of different peripheral nerve and muscle tissues in human subjects and experimental animals with spinal cord injury.
Their findings will provide crucial information for the development of new drug treatments and improvement of existing therapies for people with spinal cord injury, in particular stimulation therapy which can prevent muscle wasting and help spinal cord injured people generate enough muscle power to bear weight and so increase their degree of independence.
Five project grants were awarded, of which three went to researchers affiliated with UNSW.
Dr Kiernan also received $175, 000 for his work on the origins and patterns of neuronal degeneration in motor neurone disease.
Dr Bryce Vissel from the Garvan Institute for Medical Research, who is investigating the role of individual glutamate receptor subtypes in conditions including spinal cord injury and Huntington’s disease, received $400,000.
A quarter of a million dollars went to Professor Elizabeth Burcher, from the School of Medical Sciences, for work to investigate receptor changes in the bladder following spinal cord injury and multiple sclerosis.
Making the announcement, Mr Sartor said that almost 100 people suffer a spinal cord injury each year in NSW alone. The cost of care is close to $1 million per person every year throughout their lifetime. Most spinal cord patients are aged between 15 and 44, almost 80 percent are male, and most are caused by car and road accidents, falls, or sports.
Grant recipients were chosen by a panel chaired by Professor Perry Bartlett, Foundation Professor of Molecular Neuroscience at the University of Queensland. The panel included clinicians, neuroscientists, medical researchers, government and a consumer representative.
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