Three million dollars from the NSW Government, Federal Government and industry partners will now go towards establishing \u201cPhage Australia\u201d at the Westmead Health Precinct to step up the fight against antibiotic resistant infections.<\/p>\n
The Federal Government announced in the Budget last week it would invest $1 million on top of the NSW Government\u2019s previous commitment of $1.15 million along with additional funds from industry partners.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s estimated that by 2050, antibiotic resistant infections are projected to become the leading cause of death worldwide resulting in approximately 10 million deaths annually.<\/p>\n
Bacteriophages \u2013 also known as phages \u2013 are viruses that prey on bacteria and remain completely effective against antibiotic resistant bacterial strains. They offer a last defence against otherwise untreatable infection.<\/p>\n
Professor Jon Iredell, Director of WIMR’s Centre for Infectious Diseases and Microbiology and Director of the Centre for Infectious Disease and Microbiology at Westmead Hospital and says phage therapy could provide the answer to addressing the rapidly emerging threat to global health of antibiotic resistance.<\/p>\n
\u201cAntibiotic resistance is a huge threat to our health system. Without effective treatment against infections, doctors wouldn\u2019t be able to perform life-saving treatments such as transplants or cancer therapy,\u201d Professor Iredell said.<\/p>\n
Phage Australia which will focus on the rapid translation of phage therapeutics into clinical practice and explore how phage therapy can be \u2018supercharged\u2019 using cutting edge technology.<\/p>\n
\u201cPhages are everywhere in nature and there is a more than a century of safety data, but they have been difficult to harness for treatment,\u201d Professor Iredell said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow is the time to be finding safe treatments for serious infections. Phage therapy is both our last resort for antibiotic resistance now and our best hope for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Phage Australia will be led by Professor Jon Iredell. He is supported by two Deputy Directors \u2013 WIMR\u2019s Associate Professor Ruby Lin (Science\/Biotechnology) and Dr Ameneh Khatami (Clinical\/Therapeutics\/Trials) from the Children’s Hospital Westmead.<\/p>\n
Westmead Health Precinct is one of the largest health, education, research and training precincts in Australia, employing more than 18,000 people across the biomedical, health and life sciences fields. It is being delivered in partnership between Health Infrastructure, Western Sydney Local Health District, Sydney Children\u2019s Hospital Network and the University of Sydney.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Three million dollars from the NSW Government, Federal Government and industry partners will now go towards establishing \u201cPhage Australia\u201d at the Westmead Health Precinct to step up the fight against antibiotic resistant infections. The Federal Government announced in the Budget last week it would invest $1 million on top of the NSW Government\u2019s previous commitment […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":3117,"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-3116","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\/3116","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\/3117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}