Australian-European research collaboration
Under an Australian Government research grant, Australian and European scientists will join forces to try to develop new treatments for diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, type1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis and prostate cancer.
Two Victorian researchers will receive almost $1.2 million over five years through the National Health and Medical Research Council.
The Australian-European Union Collaborative Grants Program provides additional money to Australian researchers that are already part of a team that has been given funding from the European Union under its Sixth Framework Programme. Because the selection process is peer reviewed it is extremely competitive and the grants are highly sought after.
Researchers that have been selected to work on these projects are considered among the best in their field.
Dr Hamish Scott from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research will receive $995,640 over five years to develop a treatment for autoimmune diseases, such as type1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. The EU’s contribution to the research program is up to 12 million Euro (approx. AUD$20 million).
Dr Miles Prince from the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre will receive $180,923 over two years to join French, Italian, Austrian and German researchers to develop and test a new treatment for prostate cancer. The EU’s contribution to the research program is up to 1,999,940 Euro (approx AUD$3.3 million).
The Sixth Framework Programme aims to create a European Research Area that is the most dynamic and competitive knowledge-based economy in the world. The EU has allocated 17.5 billion Euro over five years, or approximately AUD$30 billion to this initiative.
In the 2002-03 budget, the Government allocated $344.2 million to the NHMRC for health and medical research projects.
Dr Hamish Scott: Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research $995,640. Novel Approaches to Pathogenesis, Diagnosis and Treatment of Autoimmune Diseases based on new insights into Thymus-Dependent Self-Tolerance.
An individual relies upon their immune system to protect against invasion by hostile organisms. The system usually works well. Invading agents (the ‘non-self’) are detected and attacked by the immune system’s patrolling killer T cells.
These normally beneficial cells are called T cells because they were formed and educated in an organ called the thymus, which kick-starts our immune system in childhood, but falls into inactivity by adolescence. Sometimes the education system in the thymus goes wrong and it releases T cells that mistakenly attack ‘self’ instead of ‘non-self’. This causes autoimmune diseases, such as type1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis.
The Euro-Thymaide project aims to determine why and how self-attacking T cells are mistakenly released from the thymus into the body. Usually such errant T cells are detected and destroyed within the thymus, before they have the opportunity to escape and cause autoimmune diseases. The ultimate objective is to learn about the thymus recognition process and help the immune system detect and destroy faulty T cells that patrol the body, thereby preventing the onset of autoimmune diseases.
