SBS researchers secure highly competitive 2025 NHMRC Grants funding
13 projects across the School have been awarded NHMRC funding (Ideas, Development and Synergy Grants) to drive innovative and creative research.
The NHMRC Ideas Grant scheme is designed to support transformative research, funding projects that show originality and potential for impact.
The highly competitive program saw the University of Melbourne awarded funding for projects tackling some of the most pressing challenges in medicine and healthcare – from cancer and mRNA vaccines to traumatic brain injury.
Our successes were remarkable when considered against national averages, with Ideas Grants achieving a 12.3% success rate, compared to the national rate of 8.1%. For Development Grants our success rate of 40% was well above the national success rate of 8.3%.
These achievements reflect the expertise of our researchers and the importance of their work in continuing to shape the future of biomedical research. They are also a testament to the invaluable work done by research support staff and mentors.
Congratulations to all our grant recipients.
NHMRC Ideas Grants
 | Prof Gordon LynchResearch Group Leader, DAPBioactive scaffolds to promote the restoration of muscle function in injury and disease |
 | Prof Stuart RalphHead of Department, DBP Decoding the epitranscriptome of mRNA vaccines |
| Prof Peter CrackResearch Group Leader, DBP Targeting STING in treating traumatic brain injury Professor Crack's research project will look at developing new medicines that calm harmful brain inflammation after traumatic brain injury. The research will target a key immune “alarm system” in the brain called STING, which becomes overactive after injury and can worsen long-term damage."Receiving this NHMRC Ideas Grant allows us to move from understanding how brain inflammation causes damage after injury to actively developing new treatments to stop it. This funding gives us the opportunity to translate our discoveries into therapies that could meaningfully improve recovery and long-term quality of life for people living with traumatic brain injury." |
| Prof Andrew BrooksHead of Department, DMI Understanding the function of activating KIRDuring pregnancy, maternal Natural Killer cells help the development of arteries that supply blood to the developing foetus, but it is not fully understood how these cells work. Pregnancy disorders like preeclampsia have been genetically associated with a family of Natural Killer receptors called KIR that bind to subsets of highly variable molecules on the trophoblast. Prof Brooks' project will investigate how interactions between KIR and their binding partners influences Natural Killer cell function and how this is shaped by genetic differences. "The association of KIR with pregnancy complications can vary enormously between different individuals due to inherited variability. This grant will allow us to unpick the complex molecular interactions responsible for these divergent responses. This has the potential to pave the way for better predictive tools to identify reproductive complications and ultimately may suggest therapeutic approaches to improve clinical outcomes." |
| Dr Glen CarterSenior Research Fellow, DMI A VRE concerning threat: unravelling the mechanisms of daptomycin resistance and spread in Enterococcus faecium |
| Prof Thomas GebhardtResearch Group Leader, DMI Understanding and harnessing the role of IFNg in metastatic lymph nodes |
| Dr Harry HorsnellResearch Officer, Mueller Research Group, DMI Reversing local corruption of metastatic lymph nodes: a novel approach to advanced cancer treatment Dr Horsnell's funded research project will work to understand how immune and structural cells inside the lymph node interact with cancer metastasis. The research will focus on how fibroblasts (a key structural cell) control immune responses. Finding new ways of targeting structural cells to restore lymph node immune function could improve patient outcomes.
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 | Prof Christopher McDevittResearch Group Leader, DMI Deciphering the molecular architecture of the pneumococcal manganese transport for new therapeutics The McDevitt Lab's research project will focus on studying how the essential micronutrient metal manganese is scavenged by the globally important bacterial pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae during infection. This knowledge will be used to develop a new antimicrobial therapeutic strategy to block the pathway and prevent disease.
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| Dr Daniel UtzschneiderResearch Group Leader, DMI Project 1: Deciphering and targeting of transcriptional drivers of T cell exhaustion Project 2: Balancing self-renewal versus differentiation to promote T cell responses in chronic infection and cancer |
NHMRC Development Grants
| Prof Christopher McDevittResearch Group Leader, DMI Translational development of an antibiotic potentiator for bacterial pneumonia |
 | Prof Alastair StewartResearch Group Leader, DBPOptimising delivery of inhaled agents for chronic respiratory diseases Lung fibrosis affects more than 10,000 Australians and can make everyday activities such as running for the bus stop impossible. But the current medicines have severe side effects. Delivered directly to the lung, our new drugs avoid the side effects associated with traditional tablets. "This grant will support our efforts to increase by ten-fold the amount of drug delivered directly to the lung, optimising the impact of this inhaled medicine." |
NHMRC Synergy Grant
| Prof Katherine KedzierskaResearch Group Leader, DMI Defining and overcoming disease drivers in pregnancy to ensure pregnancies are safe and protected |