The Woolcock Institute of Medical Research

Woolcock researchers have had enjoyed some research grant funding success in recent months. Professor Daniela Traini and Dr Hui Xin (YY) Ong were successful with, not one but, two Australian Research Council (ARC) grants announced within a day of each other. This was certainly very welcome news to researchers who pour their hearts and souls into completing and submitting grant applications.

Professor Traini and Dr Ong were awarded an ARC Discovery grant with the title “Sometimes it is better to keep your mouth shut: mouth versus nose breathing” and they will use a specialised airflow and particle deposition model to investigate the effects of mouth breathing on particle deposition in the upper airways. The second ARC grant they were awarded was an ARC Linkage grant with the title “Unlocking the Potential of Dry Powder Carriers for Biologic Applications” to systematically investigate and characterise the formulation design and aerosol delivery performance using a novel dry powder inhaler.

Dr Aurore Perrault received funding from the American Thoracic Society as an unrestricted grant with the title “Understanding the influence of the menstrual cycle on obstructive sleep apnea severity”. This furthers Dr Perrault’s work understanding gender differences in sleep.

We were also successful earlier in the year with two grants awarded through the Perpetual IMPACT Philanthropy scheme. Dr Camilla Hoyos and Professor Chris Gordon received funding for a project “Sleep restoration, Brain preservation: A pathway to preventing dementia” and our lung cancer researchers led by Professor Maija Kohonen-Corish and Dr Maddie Berry received funding for a project “Harnessing doxycycline (an antibiotic) as a powerful anticancer agent to combat lung cancer”.

Funding for research is extremely competitive and so when we receive the good news that our projects have been funded we like to share the exciting news. However, what helps drive our research success is ability to do pilot projects and use our data to demonstrate feasibility of novel innovative research projects. This is where the importance of our donors really comes to the fore. It is the donations that we receive through the year that helps keep our research going where we don’t have a dedicated funding source. From small donations we are able to dedicate seed funding to research and this has a very large impact on our ability to win the larger grants. Every donation, no matter what size provides us with the opportunity to leverage funding and to apply for and be awarded bigger grants.

Find out more

• The Woolcock Institute of Medical Research website
• About the Woolcock