Congratulations to 3 CFBD CIs for being awarded NHMRC Grants totalling almost $3 million.

Prof Ray Norton has been awarded an NHMRC Development Grant worth $753,140

His project is titled “Development of a Kv1.3 Potassium Channel Inhibitor as a New Class of Treatment for Diabetic Kidney Disease”. Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is a major public health problem, which is associated with kidney failure, cardiovascular disease and premature death. Current therapies often fail to stop disease progression. There is an urgent need for innovative strategies to prevent, arrest and reverse the development of DKD. Ray’s project will advance the development of a novel therapeutic for DKD that acts by a different mechanism from current drugs and has shown considerable promise in animal models of DKD.

Prof Michael Kassiou was successful with NHMRC Ideas Grant

His project titled “Developing Senolytics for treatment of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis” received a total of $1,037,875. When the body senses damaged cells, it can usually eliminate them, but dangerous senescent cells upregulate proteins such as Bcl-2 and Bcl-xl which make them resistant to the body’s elimination processes. These senescent cells accumulate in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). We are developing novel Bcl-2 and Bcl-xl inhibitors which selectively eliminate these senescent cells without eliminating healthy cells to examine the role of senescence in ALS and to develop new ALS treatments.

Prof Joel Mackay also received NHMRC Ideas Grant

For his project “RaPID assessment of the chromatin remodeller CHD4 as a therapeutic target for hemoglobinopathies using a new target validation strategy”, Joel has been awarded $1,133,816. Recently, the enzyme CHD4 has emerged as a possible therapeutic target for hemoglobinopathies. However, no molecules exist that specifically inhibit its activity. The goal of this project is to develop specific chemical probes to assess the potential of CHD4 inhibition for the treatment of hematological disorders. The work will also provide proof-of-principle for a new strategy that we propose for faster validation of therapeutic targets.