Congratulations to recipients of 2020 Project Grants and thank you to members of the SAC who volunteered their expertise and time to partake in our peer review process. 34 Project Grants have been awarded, representing a success rate of 20%.
It is with pride that the Foundation has once again increased funding to a record high of $3.59 million in 2020.
We are delighted to announce that Dr Robyn Marsh of the Menzies School of Health Research has been awarded the 2020 Al & Val Rosenstrauss Fellowship.
Dr Marsh’s important research aims to improve understanding of disease processes underlying chronic wet cough. She aims to translate this knowledge into new diagnostics that will be validated by clinical trials. Her research goal is to develop diagnostic tests that improve paediatric respiratory care, reduce the need for long-term antibiotic therapies, and can be delivered in urban and remote areas. She has an ambitious long-term vision of leading a well-established program that is internationally recognised for research and translational excellence.
Click here to see Dr Marsh’s profile and find out more about her research.
Research on E-Cigarettes carried out by Dr Miranda Ween from the Royal Adelaide Hospital has shown that flavoured vaping liquid, both with and without nicotine is toxic to the cells that line the upper airways and could trigger cell death. She additionally found extracts of the vapour interfered with the immune system by altering the functioning of macrophages. The next phase in Dr Ween’s research, funded by the Rebecca L Cooper Medical Research Foundation, will examine the effects of varied temperature found in the latest generation of E-cigarettes on epithelial cells and macrophage function. Click here to hear Dr Ween’s interview on 3AW.
The 2019 Foundation dinner was held on 4 March 2019 to recognise exceptional people and projects funded in 2019.
Big congratulations to our very own Foundation director, Professor Brian Dean, who has received the following awards in 2019 recognising the outstanding contribution he has made to basic research in Schizophrenia:
2019 Outstanding Basic Research Award winner by Schizophrenia International Research Society (SIRS)
Lundbeck Basic Science Award from the Asian College of Neuropsychopharmacology (AsCNP)
Prof Dean has published more than 250 Peer-reviewed original research articles and his major research interest aims to understanding the roles of muscarinic receptors, serotonin receptors, cytokine-regulated pathways and changed gene expression in causing, and as potential drug targets for, schizophrenia.
Professor Dean has now reached the point in his career where some of his basic research findings are being translated into the clinic. This is being achieved by collaborations with clinical colleagues and involves the use of a newly synthesised PET muscarinic receptor radioligand to measure brain receptor levels in people with schizophrenia and to use a newly discovered technology to develop a diagnostic test for the disorder.
When Professor Dean applied to the Rebecca L Cooper Medical Research Foundation for an equipment grant as an early-career researcher in 1988, it was clear that we had an outstanding researcher in our midst. He has clearly gone on to prove us right, carving out a career to be proud of and achieving bigger and better awards. The Foundation is fortunate to have Professor Dean’s guidance in steering the Foundation, and especially its funding strategy.
Congratulations Brian!!!!
Read more about how the Foundation helped launch Professor Dean’s research career.
It is with pride that the Foundation has responded to the current scarcity of Federal funding for medical research by increasing its funding allocation for 2019 to $3 million; doubling the contribution made in 2018.
The Foundation’s driving philosophy, since inception, has been to create impact by identifying areas of research that are not well recognised by other funding bodies and our commitment to this goal is reflected in our mission to increase levels of funding to our chosen areas of research.
We congratulate recipients of 2019 Project Grants and thank members of the SAC who volunteered their expertise and time to partake in our peer review process. the success rate for 2019 Project Grants is a strong 26.6%.
We are delighted to announce that Dr Andy Philp of The Garvan Institute of Medical Research has been awarded the 2019 Al & Val Rosenstrauss Fellowship. Dr Philp’ s research program aims to explore new therapeutic avenues to alleviate the debilitating effects of sarcopenia, a condition that is highly relevant to Australia’s ageing population.
It is with great sadness that we advise that Valerie Rosenstrauss, the wife of Founding Director Al Rosenstrauss passed away at her Launceston home on Sunday 12 August. She was 89 years old.
Val met Al through their common interest in photography and they also shared a passion for travel. She moved from Brisbane to Sydney in 1979 and they married in 1980. It wasn’t long afterwards that Val resigned her position as a radiographer at Prince of Wales Hospital to help Al manage the work of “a strange old lady who owns a lot of real estate”. That lady was of course, the Late Mrs Rebecca L Cooper.
After Mrs Cooper regained her strength following her hospitalisation from a domestic accident, Val and Al would take her out for picnics and other outings on weekends and arrange for her medical care. Val was present on the day the Foundation was created and took a keen interest in the Foundation’s activities after she retired in 2011.
Although happy to run with the label of “Al’s wife”, it was a well known fact that Val was the ‘Engine Room” of the Foundation from its inception until her retirement. In addition to her work helping with the administrative side of managing Mrs Cooper’s and later the Foundation’s properties, Val collated and controlled the grant applications and coordinated their scoring before computers were there to assist. She also organised and hosted the Foundation’s Annual awards dinner, which grew from a gathering of a handful of people in 1985 to events for nearer to 150 people. All of this was done voluntarily, foregoing any payment so that the Foundation could make “one extra grant”, which she would say “might be the project that changes the world”.
It is for that reason that the directors created the Al and Val Rosenstrauss Fellowship in 2012 to recognise and commemorate the contribution both made to the Foundation. Fittingly, the last Foundation event Al & Val attended was to present the inaugural Fellowship Award (photo below).
All who knew Val recognised a loving and caring and incredibly patient woman who was generous with her time combined intellect and humour with a warm welcoming personality. She loved life and is now reunited with the love of her life. Val is survived by her children John, Robert and Helen as well as her step-children Jeffrey, David, Graham, Carol, Steven and Lyn; their partners and a brace of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
1984 – Val attends the inauguration of the Foundation (image below) 2012 – Al, Tom and Val present inaugural Fellowship to Dr Graeme Polglase (image below)
Dr Kylie Quinn, 2016 grant recipient, is establishing a strong international reputation in aging, immunology and vaccine research. She has recently published key findings highlighting the potential to revert age-associated decline in the immune system (known as immunosenescence) by targeting “virtual memory’’ T cells (TVM cells).
It is known that older individuals are more susceptible to infections and cancer, and are less responsive to vaccination. Dr Quinn’s research aims to understand the molecular mechanisms that underpin the dysfunction of primary T cell responses in the elderly; and to develop vaccines and cancer treatments that are tailored to a patient’s age.
Her paper titled “Age-Related Decline in Primary CD8+ T Cell Responses Is Associated with the Development of Senescence in Virtual Memory CD8+ T Cells” was recently published in Cell Reports, detailing the different proliferative activity of “virtual memory’’ (TVM ) and “conventional naïve” (TN) T cells, and it highlights the potential for targeting of TVM cells to revert senescence.
Dr Quinn’s findings have been making a significant impact internationally, with invited talks in 2018 at the Keystone Symposium of Ageing, Immunity and Inflammation and the Australian Biology of Ageing Conference, and speaker prizes in 2017 at the Australasian Society for Immunology (ASI) Annual Meeting and the Ageing Cell Conference, held by the British Society for Research on Ageing and the Babraham Institute.
The image below is a representation of immune decline with age.
The Foundation hosted an dinner on 20 March 2018 to recognise exceptional people and projects funded in 2018.
