Conjoint Professor Chris Levi has received $577,000 from the Medical Research Future Fund to support his clot-busting stroke trial.

Conjoint Professor Chris Levi  will be able to continue vital research into stroke treatment therapies after receiving $577,188 in funding from the inaugural Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF).

Announced yesterday by the Minister for Health, Mr Greg Hunt, the MRFF is a new funding scheme designed to support Australia’s leading researchers and their breakthroughs in the health and medical sector.

Through his partnership with HMRI, Professor Levi is renowned for his global trial investigations into improving stroke treatment options for patients using the clot-dissolving drug, Tenecteplase (TNK).

Introduced at 50 major hospitals around the world, TNK showed a promising rate of recovery among patients, with two-thirds displaying major improvement within 24 hours and 72 per cent showing excellent recovery three months after their stroke.

“The Tenecteplase versus Alteplase for Stroke Thrombolysis Evaluation (TASTE) trial recruitment has moved beyond 200 and is nearing halfway. It remains the most important intravenous stroke reperfusion trial globally and results will change practice globally.

“The new fellowship funding will focus on the completion of the phase 3 TASTE trial and implementation of newly discovered therapies, along with translation of these new therapies into new opportunities for making acute stroke treatments more personalised and safer,” Professor Levi said.

The MRFF funding builds on Professor Levi’s extensive program of work into the discovery and implementation of new stroke therapies.

* HMRI is a partnership between the University of Newcastle, Hunter New England Health and the community.