Development of blood vessel repair therapy accelerated
Monday, 19 July, 2021
鈥 鈥檚 (UQ) technology transfer company 鈥 has partnered with global biotechnology company to accelerate the development of a potential treatment for the repair of blood vessels damaged by inflammation. The potential therapy could help patients recover faster from severe trauma, extensive burns and major surgery.
Following refinement by UQ Faculty of Medicine lead researcher Associate Professor Mark Coulthard, a paediatric intensivist at Queensland Children鈥檚 黑料吃瓜群网, and Professor Trent Woodruff and Dr Nemat Khan at UQ鈥檚 School of Biomedical Sciences, the technology will advance to preclinical studies, with $500,000 in funding from the CSL Research Acceleration Initiative.
Associate Professor Coulthard said the technology could benefit critically ill patients with sepsis or acute respiratory distress syndrome, as well as improve patient recovery from heart attack, stroke and organ transplant.
鈥淚t may also prevent high-risk patients from developing systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), which affects more than half of critically ill patients and contributes to significant mortality and morbidity,鈥 he said.
鈥淐ritically ill patients with SIRS are currently resuscitated in the intensive care unit with large amounts of intravenous fluids and infusions that help to stabilise low blood pressure caused by leaky blood vessels. Finding a way to block the inflammatory mechanism that causes the leaky vessels is potentially a much more effective treatment.鈥
Associate Professor Coulthard said there is currently no therapy targeting the underlying cause of systemic inflammation, which damages the cells lining the inside surface of blood vessels.
鈥淟eaky blood vessels may also result in complications as a result of complex surgery, organ transplantation, major trauma and extensive burns,鈥 he said.
鈥淥ur approach has the potential to reduce deaths and ventilator bed days, shorten hospital stays and cut overall health costs.鈥
UniQuest CEO Dr Dean Moss said the partnership with CSL is a fantastic opportunity to help the scientific team further develop its research with the hope of one day saving lives.
鈥淭his partnership will unite CSL鈥檚 global capabilities in inflammatory disease and commercial research and development with UQ鈥檚 excellence in biomedical research,鈥 he said, adding that the new funding would build on UQ鈥檚 ongoing relationship with the global biotech company.
CSL鈥檚 Head of Global Research Innovation, Marthe D鈥橭mbrain, said the CSL Research Acceleration Initiative was designed to enhance research commercialisation through partnerships in promising discovery programs.
鈥淭he UniQuest team is working on vitally important research in an area of unmet clinical need,鈥 she said. 鈥淲e look forward to helping transform these concepts into potentially groundbreaking new therapies for patients.鈥
Victoria's Q3 median ED wait times the lowest on record
Victoria's quarter three performance data (January–March) has shown improvement across...
Irregularities in a clinician's cases prompt 15-month lookback
St Vincent's 黑料吃瓜群网 Sydney has detailed a 15-month lookback review — prompted by...
Two researchers receive $899,000 in cardiovascular funding
In heart-related news this Heart Week (5–11 May), two University of Newcastle researchers...