Associate Professor Adam Collison

Associate Professor Adam Collison
Project Grant
2022 Project Grant
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2019 Project Grant
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2018 Project Grant
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2017 Project Grant
Equipment Grant
2017 Equipment Grant
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2016 Project Grant
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2016 Project Grant
Equipment Grant
2015 Equipment Grant
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2015 Project Grant
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2015 Project Grant
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2014 Project Grant
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2013 Project Grant

What are your research interests?

I am interested in the mechanisms responsible for the early development of allergic diseases. 

Asthma: The development of asthma in early life is strongly linked to susceptibility to respiratory viral infections. I am interested in understanding the nature of this link and what can be done to reduce the high rates of asthma in Australia. 

Food Allergy: I am working on a new blood test to measure the severity of peanut allergy. This is a world first as current methods are inaccurate and do not give a good indication of allergy severity. 

Eosinophilic Oesophagitis: a relatively rare disorder that affects both children and adults with symptoms including difficulty swallowing, heartburn, vomiting with meals and food becoming stuck in the oesophagus. Current treatment options are limited, with many patients not responding to the dietary modifications or drugs available. My work is focused on developing new treatments and less invasive methods of diagnosis and disease monitoring. 

Why did you get into research?

Since a young age I have been fascinated by the intricate design of the world and the bodies we live in. Yet we all have friends and family who have been limited by poor health and even modern medicine often has little hope to offer. A career in medical research allows me to use my gifts, time and energies developing corrections for debilitating disease, always endeavouring to restore function to the brilliance of the original design.

What would be the ultimate goal for your research?

Ultimately the aim of my research efforts is for less children to have asthma and food allergy. Those who are still affected will have access to better diagnosis and treatment options. 

Brief Profile

Associate Professor Collison was awarded his PhD in 2012 and since that time has been a post-doctoral researcher in the Experimental and Translational Respiratory Medicine Group at HMRI. His PhD thesis focused upon modulating miRNA (mediators of genetic expression) and TRAIL signalling pathways (normal regulators of cell death) in the allergic airways as novel treatment strategies for allergic asthma.

Since relocating to the HMRI Building, he has collaborated with several clinicians based at the John Hunter Children’s Hospital on the same campus to explore both the role of TRAIL signalling in eosinophillic oesophagitis and the development of novel biomarker approaches for the detection of food allergy. In addition he has a particular interest in the role of asthma exacerbations and rhinovirus infections (the common cold) during pregnancy, and the impact this has on the development of allergy in childhood. 

Associate Professor Collison has received over 20 awards for his research including the 2015 University of Newcastle Priority Research Centre for Asthma early career award, 2014 Thrasher Research Fund (USA) Early Career Award and the 2011 Hunter Children's Research Foundation Achievement in Research Award.

Future Focus

Improving the management of allergic disease for our kids through the identification of less invasive clinical tools and development of new treatments where current therapies are limited. 

Specialised/Technical Skills

  • Models of Rhinovirus induced exacerbation of allergic airways disease
  • Models of Eosinophilic Oesophagitis
  • Preclinical lung function
  • Luminex based protein assay
  • Enzyme-linked Immunoassay (ELISA)
  • Semi-quantitative histological analysis,
  • Immuno florescence microscopy

Affiliations

Downloads

ABC Newcastle interview with Kia Handley - 19 March 2019

2022

Does healthy immune development during pregnancy set babies up for healthy respiratory viral responses
Project Grant
Researchers:

Dr Adam Collison

Description:

Dr Adam Collison from the HMRI Asthma and Breathing Research Program received a grant for his study into bronchiolitis, a severe viral infection that is the leading cause of babies under 12 months being admitted to the John Hunter Children’s Hospital.

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2019

Identifying the food trigger for Eosinophilic Oesophagitis
Project Grant
Researchers:
Description:

Eosinophilic Oesophagitis in childhood is associated with chronic heartburn, nausea, vomiting, dysphagia, failure to thrive, food getting stuck in the oesophagus and can result in permanent scarring of the oesophagus. Delays in diagnosis and treatment failure is not uncommon. There is no cure, and no predictor for treatment response has been identified.

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2018

Understanding the link between immune cell function and lung function in the development of asthma in early life
Project Grant
Researchers:
Description:

Asthma affects one in eight children in Australia and is the leading cause of hospitalisations and emergency visits, with an estimated annual health care cost of more than 24 billion Australian dollars in 2015. Asthma is the most common medical complication in pregnancy and is strongly associated with the development of childhood asthma. ntion strategy for asthma.

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2017

 Role of circRNAs in human eosinophilic Oesophagitis
Project Grant
Researchers:

Dr Adam Collison

Description:

 Role of circRNAs in human eosinophilic Oesophagitis - a novel assessment of disease pathogenesis with potential diagnostic and therapeutic benefit

Co-funded with the University of Newcastle’s Priority Research Centre Grow Up Well

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Countess II FL
Equipment Grant
Researchers:

Dr Malcolm Starkey, Dr Adam Collison, Dr Hock Tay, Dr Aniruddh Deshpande, Dr Gang Liu & Dr Jemma Mayall

Description:

The countess II FL is the major component of this equipment and is the core module that enables highly accurate, reproducible and high throughput cell counting. The Countess II reuse slide enables the same slide to be used for an infinite number of experiments and reduces consumable costs associated with individual slides. However, this equipment allows options for users who need individual slides at their own expense. The two EVOS LED Cubes are removable components that allow quantification of fluorescent cells. We have chosen green fluorescent protein and red fluorescent protein as these are the major fluorophores used. However, these can be switched out for other detectors in the future, making it future proof and adaptable to future research needs.

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2016

The role of microbiome development in the early origins of asthma in a high risk population
Project Grant
Description:

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.

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Brand new assay for prediction of anaphylaxis risk
Project Grant
Description:

Food allergies cause an enormous health burden to our community and peanut allergy is the most severe and persistent food allergy.

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2015

A novel peanut allergy biomarker to predict anaphalaxis risk
Project Grant
Description:

Year 1 - $16,050
Year 2 - $10,700
Total - $26,750

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Viral infections in the BLT cohort in the first year of life
Project Grant
Lung-function in early life for children at high asthma risk
Equipment Grant
Description:

Currently infants from the BLT cohort will be followed-up at birth, 6 weeks of age and 12 months of age.

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2014

A novel diagnostic blood test for peanut allergy
Project Grant
Researchers:

Dr Adam Collison, Dr Rani Bhatia

Description:

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. 

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2013

The prediction of egg allergy severity in children by non-invasive exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) measurement confirmed with food challenge
Project Grant
Researchers:

Dr Adam Collison, Dr Rani Bhatia

Description:

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

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