Menzies awarded $1 million in research fellowships
Menzies awarded $1 million in research fellowships
Menzies Research Institute Tasmania (Menzies) has been awarded more than one million dollars in funding in the latest round of National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Fellowship Grants, announced today.
Menzies Research Institute Tasmania (Menzies) has been awarded more than one million dollars in funding in the latest round of National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Fellowship Grants, announced today.
Today's announcement of $1.3 million by Mark Butler, Minister for Health and Ageing, adds to the $3.37 million awarded to Menzies through the NHMRC Project Grant funding, already announced last week.
The new funding will enable three Menzies' researchers to continue their careers here in Tasmania and further their work on improving residential aged care, the cause and prevention of chronic disease, and Alzheimer's disease.
Research Associate, Ms Sharon Andrews from Menzies' Wicking Dementia Centre received a NHMRC Translating Research Into Practice (TRIP) fellowship for $124,000 for her project titled Promoting positive staff-family relationships in residential aged care.
"My work over the next two years aims to improve the care of nursing home residents, especially those with dementia, through research into building family-staff relationships," Ms Andrews said.
"This research will focus on strategies that improve information sharing between aged care staff and family members and facilitate more collaborative care provision."
Ms Sharon Andrews was invited to attended and speak at the grant announcement at Parliament House in Canberra today.
Professorial Fellow, Professor Alison Venn received $560,640 to further her studies on Epidemiological approaches to understanding the causes and prevention of chronic disease.
"My research program over the next five years will focus principally on reducing the burden of chronic disease in Australia by conducting epidemiological research that improves understanding of the causes of chronic disease and evaluates interventions to prevent chronic disease," Professor Venn said.
"The chronic diseases of primary focus in this plan are cardiovascular disease, type-2 diabetes, cancer, musculoskeletal disorders, dementia and depression. Together these represent more than half of the burden of disease and injury in Australia."
Professorial Fellow, Professor David Small was awarded $630,505 to further his work on the biochemistry and molecular biology of amyloidosis over the next five years.
"The aim of my group's research is to identify molecular mechanisms that cause diseases like Alzheimer's disease and to identify drugs which can be used to treat these diseases," Professor Small said.
Director of Menzies, Professor Simon Foote, said that the funding would sustain fundamental research and enable these researchers to continue their careers in contributing to the health of all Australians.
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