{"id":2951,"date":"2019-08-20T16:20:49","date_gmt":"2019-08-20T06:20:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/?post_type=wimr_news&p=2951"},"modified":"2024-09-30T18:26:30","modified_gmt":"2024-09-30T08:26:30","slug":"grant-funding-to-kick-start-development-of-a-new-wimr-led-biobank","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/news\/grant-funding-to-kick-start-development-of-a-new-wimr-led-biobank\/","title":{"rendered":"Grant funding to kick-start development of a new WIMR-led biobank"},"content":{"rendered":"

Associate Professor Ruby Lin from The Westmead Institute for Medical Research (WIMR) has received a research grant from BGI Australia.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
Members of the Critical Infection Group: Dr Ali Khalid,\u00a0Dr Aleksandra Petrovic Fabijan and Associate Professor Ruby Lin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The grant will support the sequencing needs of a bacteriophage biobank, which will aid research into a potential treatment for antibiotic resistant infections, a growing threat to global health.<\/figure>\n

Associate Professor Lin is part of\u00a0WIMR\u2019s Critical Infection group<\/a>\u00a0led by Professor Jon Iredell, who are investigating the safety and effectiveness of bacteriophage (phage) \u2013 viruses that naturally attack bacteria \u2013 as a method of treating infections that do not respond to antibiotics.<\/p>\n

Associate Professor Lin said, \u201cPhage therapy has been around for decades. However, it has fallen out of use, particularly in the Western world, due to the widespread use of antibiotics.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow that our antibiotics are no longer as effective as they once were, we are re-examining phage therapy as a viable treatment.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo far, we have found that phage therapy is safe and tolerable in patients \u2013 phage only kill bacteria, and don\u2019t harm surrounding human cells.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, we need more evidence, particularly from randomised controlled clinical trials, before the treatment can be approved and offered in a healthcare setting.<\/p>\n

\u201cA biobank could offer significant benefit. It would give researchers from across New South Wales access to a broad range of high-quality phage samples, enabling research to progress and the body of evidence in support of phage therapy to develop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Associate Professor Lin was one of just three grant recipients out of a competitive pool of more than 70 applicants.<\/p>\n

She said she was grateful to have the opportunity to progress phage research in Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cPhage therapy is an exciting prospect, and certainly worth the investment. The phage biobank program will be the first of its kind in Australia.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cEventually, we hope that the biobank will lead to the development of \u2018personalised\u2019 phage therapy, where a specific species of phage is selected based on an individual\u2019s infection.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very excited to be leading this program, and this research grant will help myself, and my team, get the program started.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know my team are just as pleased as I have to have received this funding.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00adAssociate Professor Ruby Lin is affiliated with The Westmead Institute for Medical Research and the University of Sydney. The core team for human phage therapy include: Professor Jon Iredell (principal investigator), Associate Professor Ruby Lin (project manager and scientific lead), Dr Aleksandra Petrovic Fabijan (phage biologist), Ms Josephine Ho, Dr Susan Maddocks, Dr Ali Khalid, Dr Nouri Ben Zakour, Dr Indy Sandaradura and Ms Angela Netluch. Phage therapy collective include; Professor Richard Chard, Dr Carola Venturini, Dr Muhammad Kamruzzaman, Dr Alicia Fajardo Lubian and Ms Bethany Bowring.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Associate Professor Ruby Lin from The Westmead Institute for Medical Research (WIMR) has received a research grant from BGI Australia. The grant will support the sequencing needs of a bacteriophage biobank, which will aid research into a potential treatment for antibiotic resistant infections, a growing threat to global health. Associate Professor Lin is part of\u00a0WIMR\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2953,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"categories":[19],"class_list":["post-2951","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cat-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/2951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}