VIVA

Investigating the genetics of the development of lung cancer.

Asthma is a common and often disabling chronic disease that makes breathing difficult. Approximately 3 million Australians have asthma – 10% of the population. Asthma causes significant lifetime disability, has a high disease burden, and caused 455 deaths in Australia in 2016. Estimated direct and indirect costs to the Australian Government and businesses are $24.7 billion due to health care costs, productivity loss, reduced quality of life and premature death (Deloitte Access Economics, “Hidden Costs of Asthma”, 2015). Much of this burden comes from people with severe asthma who do not have control of their asthma symptoms despite high-dose treatment. Severe asthma is the focus of my research.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the commonest cancer that affects both men and women in Australia. Approximately one third of patients diagnosed with the disease die from it within five years of diagnosis. Most of these deaths occur from metastatic disease. Many of these cancers develop in patients who had no apparent metastatic disease when they were first treated with what is intended to be curative resection.

Smoking leads to lung inflammation that causes emphysema - a major health problem in Australia. Emphysema progressively declines even if smoking stops and there are no treatments. Recently changes in gut microbes have been linked to inducing or protecting against inflammation in the gut and lung. Thus we may be able to control inflammation by modifying these gut microbiomes. We may be able to ingest specific microbes or use specific antibiotics or other factors as new treatments for emphysema.

If successful, the funds will partly cover up for my enrolment in advanced or accelerated leadership program offered through The National Excellence in Educational Leadership Initiative (NEELI), Women & Leadership Australia (WLA). The program elements emphasizes on leadership foundation, interpersonal skills, leadership challenges and peer coaching through self-directed learning and online sessions, including an interactive online community portal to engage in effective discussions and feedback.

A key problem with kidney transplantation is the potential for the patient’s immune system to reject the kidney. Hence all transplant patients are given medications to suppress their immune systems. If their immune system is too suppressed, patients are at risk of severe infection; if it is not suppressed enough, they are at risk of rejecting the kidney. Our current methods for monitoring the degree of immune suppression are crude and episodes of both severe infection and organ rejection are common. There is currently no simple and practical blood test which quantifies how suppressed the immune system is. Such a blood test would allow us to get the doses of immunosuppressive drugs just right in each patient, using an individually tailored approach. 

Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is the most common life threatening genetic condition in Australia and affects many organs, including the lungs, pancreas, and the gastrointestinal tract. Although improved treatments have seen life expectancy significantly extended, the average life expectancy of a CF patient in Australia is still only 38. Therefore, there is an urgent need for new therapies tailored to individual CF patient mutations.

My proposed travel will all be occurring in Europe. First I would first be visiting Heidelberg, Germany, where the European Molecular Biology Laboratory is holding a 6 day course on ‘ Techniques for Mammary Gland Research’, from 4-9 March 2018.

Ussing chamber apparatus to measure barrier ion flux/permeability across multiple tissues in vitro. This includes 4xUSS5SD and USS4SD USSING SYSTEM W/DRAIN, with the EVC4000-4 PRECISION V/I CLAMP 4 CHANNEL voltage/current clamp, 505063 Circulating Water Bath 13L 230V 50HZ, and LAB-TRAX-4 DATA ACQUISITION SYS 4 CHANNEL.

Partial funding for 15x Racks for -80 freezer, multichannel pipette, conventional freezer.

The Baseunit controller extension is required to ventilate the models whilst on the machine and run the new lung function ""maneuvers"" that are required to gather the PFT/FEV data.

Asthma affects more than 300 million people worldwide, with Australian’s suffering more from asthma (one in ten) than almost any other people in the world. Asthma is a major burden on Australia’s health care system and the economy. It can affect people of all ages - some people get asthma when they are young, others when they are older.

Smoking leads to lung inflammation that causes emphysema - a major health problem in Australia. Emphysema progressively declines even if smoking stops and there are no treatments.

Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy, or CBT, is one of the few effective therapies for children with functional abdominal pain. But CBT sessions can be costly and difficult to access, particularly as multiple sessions are required.

Children born to mothers with asthma are three times more likely to develop asthma themselves than those with asthmatic fathers, which suggests that a risk factor extends beyond genetics. There is emerging evidence that bacteria in the infant’s gut can impact immune function and contribute to the types of immune responses that are seen in asthma.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is a condition of persistent, progressive lung destruction caused by inhalation of damaging particles. Many current treatments are expensive, come with side-effects, or have very little effect on some patients.

Current therapies prevent only ~40% of asthma exacerbations. These figures are in the context of clinical trials - real life asthma exacerbations are even less likely to be prevented.

Net will use her Jennie Thomas medical research travel grant to travel to two conferences -the first being the Annual Scientific meeting of the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand in perth and the European Respiratory Society International COngress in London.

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a genetic disorder that affects 1 in 2,500 people born in Australia. 

Early-life lung infections, caused by respiratory bacteria and viruses, lead to permanent alterations in lung structure and function that predispose children to the development of chronic lung diseases such as asthma and emphysema in later-life.

If I am successful, the Jennie Thomas Medical research travel grant will be used to support my travel to two of the worlds biggest immunology conferences. 

Smoking leads to lung inflammation that causes emphysema - a major health problem in Australia.

Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) is the umbrella term for a group of chronic gastrointestinal diseases which include Crohn’s (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), affecting over 70,000 Australians, for which there is no cure.

Over 70,000 hip and knee replacements are performed in Australia each year. Unfortunately approximately 2% of these will become infected and there is a lack of high quality evidence to guide the management of these prosthetic joint infections (PJI). 

In patients with asthma, the airways narrow leading to shortness of breath, cough and asthma attacks.

If persistent painful ear infections of childhood can lead to long-term hearing and learning difficulties. 

An acute exacerbation (also known as infection) is a critical event for a CF patient.  

While symptoms of food allergy range from mild to severe, patients with peanut allergy are at the highest risk of a potentially life threatening reaction known as anaphylaxis affecting up to half of all individuals who are allergic to peanut. 

The first paper from Hayley’s PhD was published in the highly prestigious journal, European Respiratory Journal. 

Immunological aging in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)

Six to eight percent of children suffer from clinically relevant food allergy and the prevalence is increasing worldwide(1-3).

Asthma prevelance has increased in many western countries over recent decades. Currently, 1 in 6 children in Australia are affected by the disease. Over this time, obesity rates have also increased, and obesity now effects around 10% of Australian children.