Centenary Institute Early Career Booster Grants
About the researcher
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Centenary UTS Centre for Inflammation
Dr Choi joined the Centenary Institute in 2015 and was awarded his PhD the following year. In 2020 he was awarded a highly prestigious UTS Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research Fellowship.
“Philanthropic support for research is absolutely crucial to develop careers of early career researchers like myself. It provides an opportunity to develop and increase research capabilities that are essential for my research career and achievements.”
Disease impact
Stroke is one of Australia’s biggest killers and a leading cause of disability. Stroke is not just an age-related disease.
Each year up to 600 Australian children suffer a stroke.
The burden of stroke in children is greater than in adults because the survivors have more years living with functional limitations and disability.
The project
Cerebral cavernous malformations (CCMs) are aberrantly dilated blood vessels that are a non-malignant but potentially fatal condition causing strokes. Commonly detected in the brain in as many as 1/200 individuals, CCM is one of the major causes of stroke in children.
Dr Choi’s project aims to identify novel CCM therapies by understanding the role of the microbiome and metabolites in its pathogenesis.
The project will utilise a state-of-the-art mouse animal that mimics human CCM conditions, in which Dr Choi’s laboratory is the only one in Australia with this model.
Desired outcomes
Surgery is currently the only cure for CCM patients and is only effective in a few cases and itself leads to complications. Dr Choi’s research aims to elucidate the role of the microbiome in CCM pathogenesis to reveal the potential use of precision microbiome therapies as safe and effective CCM treatments.
Microbiome therapies are non-invasive and are successfully used in clinics. The pre-clinical data generated from Dr Choi’s project has potential to be highly translatable to fulfil the unmet therapeutic need for CCM and childhood stroke.
Career aspirations
“I am an early career cardiovascular scientist with a strong vision to become a leader in medical research, driven by my values of honesty, fairness and dedication”.
Mentoring and leadership at Centenary
Dr Choi is currently supervising a PhD student and research assistant.
About the researcher
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Centenary UTS Centre for Inflammation
Dr Liu joined the Centenary UTS Centre for Inflammation in 2019 and concurrently holds a lecturer position with the University of Technology Sydney.
“As an early career researcher, it is very competitive to obtain funding to perform research in Australia. Philanthropic donations such as this Booster Grant from the Centenary Institute are very important and support me to conduct my research. This grant provides me with such a great opportunity to continue lung fibrosis research as my career.”
Disease impact
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive and devastating lung disease.
Over 1,250 people are diagnosed with IPF every year in Australia and an estimated prevalence of 13 to 20 per 100,000 people worldwide.
IPF is a disease with an unpredictable disease course, poor prognosis and quality of life burden on patients.
The project
Pulmonary fibrosis (PF) is a type of rare lung disease that causes the tissue around the air sacs within the lungs to become thickened and scarred. The scarring associated with PF can be caused by a multitude of factors. In most cases the cause cannot be pinpointed and the condition is then termed IPF.
Dr Liu’s project will develop animal models of lung fibrosis that do not self-resolve to progress the knowledge of the mechanisms of lung inflammation and fibrosis.
Desired outcomes
Current treatment options are limited with approved drugs only providing modest effects by slowing disease progression. There are significant side-effects and these drugs do not reduce existing fibrosis.
Dr Liu’s focus is to understand the mechanisms of lung fibrosis in IPF and develop new therapeutics for this severe and sometimes fatal disease. He has pioneered the study of a particular protein which is a key component of scar tissue in pulmonary diseases showing that it is increased in the blood and lung tissues of IPF patients. His further studies aim to lead to the potential development of urgently needed novel therapeutic strategies for IPF.
Career aspirations
“My ultimate career goal is to become an internationally recognised researcher in the fibrosis field”.
Mentoring and leadership at Centenary
Dr Liu is currently co-supervising two PhD students at UTS and has mentored six junior post-docs at Centenary.
About the researcher
Postdoctoral Fellow, Agnes Ginges Centre for Molecular Cardiology
Dr Orchard joined the Centenary Institute in 2021 and is a Heart Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow. She is also an Adjunct Senior Lecturer, School of Public Health, University of Sydney.
“I’m very grateful to the Centenary Institute for this Early Career Booster Grant. This grant will support my research in cardiac screening of young athletes for conditions associated with sudden cardiac death. My work will build Australia’s first registry of athlete ECGs, and will have a focus on looking at data from under-represented populations such as female athletes.
Philanthropic support through grants such as the Centenary Booster is critically important for early career researchers to establish and develop projects. Thank you so much for this opportunity.”
Disease impact
Sudden cardiac death (SCD) is a tragic outcome for athletes, their families and the entire community, resulting in many years of life lost.
SCD is the leading cause of death for people playing sport, with athletes estimated to have a 2.5 times higher risk than the general population.
Around 25,000 Australians die every year from SCD.
The project
While many Australian sports are screening athletes, data are not structured to be shared, meaning few comparisons exist across different sports. The unique blend of Australian sports has not been adequately profiled in terms of cardiac adaptions. Studies indicate ethnicity and gender play a role in athlete cardiovascular adaptation to exercise, but diverse ethnic groups and female athletes are under-represented in research that informs current guidelines.
Dr Orchard’s project aims to develop an Australian Registry of screening ECGs of National Athletes (ARENA) to facilitate current and future research. This will expand on the existing database of 1800 elite athlete ECGs, developed during her PhD, to 3000+ across multiple elite sports by recruiting sporting organisations which conduct cardiac screening of athletes. Data from this registry will be analysed to look at under-represented groups and make comparisons across sports.
Desired outcomes
Dr Orchard’s research aims to improve the quality of cardiac screening programs to prevent SCD and catastrophic disability from stroke. She is committed to improving the understanding of ECG features of currently under-represented groups to enable a greater accuracy in cardiac screening of young Australian athletes.
The development of the Australian Registry of screening ECGs of National Athletes (ARENA), Australia’s first national registry of athlete screening ECGs, has the potential to provide long-term national data and change guidelines, thereby reducing premature death and improving cardiovascular care.
Career aspirations
“My vision is to develop a research program which improves the quality, accuracy and implementation of cardiac screening of athletes to prevent sudden cardiac death (SCD). I will lead an established team of world experts to create Australia’s first national registry of athlete cardiac screening ECGs.”
Mentoring and leadership at Centenary
Within her research group, Dr Orchard supervises a Research Assistant, who she also mentored as an Honours student for four years.
About the researcher
Dr Mehdi Sharifi Tabar
Research Officer, Gene and Stem Cell Therapy Program
Dr Tabar joined the Centenary Institute in 2019. Completing his B.SC and M.SC in Iran in the field of biology and protein chemistry in 2008, he then worked as a research assistant for seven years. In 2015 he commenced his PhD at the University of Sydney, completing it in 2018 and taking up his first Postdoctoral position at Centenary.
“The Centenary Institute Early Career Booster grant will not only facilitate and accelerate my findings but also may contribute to finding an effective way to cure diseases.”
Disease impact
Every year, millions of people around the world are infected with a range of viruses, such as Influenza, Hepatitis C and SARS-COV. Viral infections can be the causation of many serious and chronic diseases.
The project
Prevention and treatment of viral infections is a key step to saving human lives and preventing economic crisis.
Dr Tabar’s project aims to better understand the mechanical actions of human antiviral genes that prevent viral invasion. Understanding how antiviral genes provide resistance to viral infection can lead to the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases.
Desired outcomes
Upon infection, human cells rapidly express hundreds or thousands of antiviral genes to limit virus infection. Dr Tabar and his team have identified a novel human gene, named ZNF-MT, that widely regulates antiviral gene expression.
He is further investigating ZNF-MT and has proven that in the absence of this gene antiviral genes are turned off and consequently cells become permissive to viral invasion. Dr Tabar is looking at how viruses target ZNF-MT to supress immune response and hopes the data from his project will lay foundations for future drug and vaccine developments.
Career aspirations
“In the medium and long-term with both independent and supporting research projects I intend to further grow my own laboratory and strive to become an Associate Faculty member of the Centenary Institute.”
Mentoring and leadership at Centenary
Dr Tabar has mentored two PhD students and one summer student at Centenary.