School of Biomedical Sciences' researchers awarded $22m in NHMRC Investigator Grants

The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Investigator Grant scheme supports outstanding health and medical researchers at all career stages, helping to drive innovative discoveries that improve health outcomes for Australians and communities worldwide.

This year's success reflects the strength, depth and impact of research across the School of Biomedical Sciences. The funding will enable our researchers to continue addressing some of the most significant challenges in human health and disease.

Professor Jennifer Wilkinson Berka said the grants recognise both the expertise of the recipients and the collaborative research culture within the School.

These awards are a testament to the outstanding calibre of our researchers and the important contributions they make to advancing human health. We are delighted to see their achievements recognised through this highly competitive national funding scheme and look forward to the impact their research will continue to deliver.

Dept of Anatomy and Physiology

• Yiyuan Han (Arriving from Harvard to join the Ivanusic Lab) | Harnessing Nanotechnology to Develop Next-Generation Skeletal Pain Relief
• A/Prof Benjamin Parker | Targeting the skeletal muscle proteome to improve health

Dept of Biochemistry and Pharmacology

• Dr Daniella Hock | Closing a Rare Gap: Translating proteomics into a pathology test for rare disease diagnosis
• Dr Bronte Johnstone | Uncovering HTLV-1 host-cell entry and cell+cell transmission at near-atomic resolution
• Dr Yilin Kang | Unravelling the Impact of External Stressors on Mitochondrial Disease
• A/Prof Michael Menden| ARTEMIS: Artificial intelligence for Response prediction and Translational Engineering in Medicine using Integrated Systems

Dept of Microbiology and Immunology

• Dr Thomas Burn | Uncoupling Tissue-Resident Memory T cells and Exhausted T cells in tumour
• Dr Andrew Buultjens | Advanced machine learning to understand the emergence and spread of bacterial pathogens
• Stefano Giulieri | Advancing outcomes of Staphylococcus aureus infections through genomics-based precision medicine
• Dr Claire Gorrie | Microbial genomics for management of antimicrobial resistance in hospitals
• Dr Jennifer Habel | Harnessing immunity in pregnancy, infancy & childhood to protect from severe viral diseases
• A/Prof Jennifer Juno | Harnessing CD4 T cell responses for antiviral immunity
• Dr Genevieve Martin | Targeting antiviral immunity to prevent morbidity and mortality from severe viral infections
• Dr Hyon Xhi Tan | Decoding and exploiting immune dynamics to maximise vaccine-induced protection
• A/Prof Sophie Valkenburg | Determining optimal immunity to respiratory viruses
• Dr Mai Ngoc Vu | Drive improvements of nanoparticle vaccines and therapeutics for infectious diseases
• Dr Huimeng Wang | Hamessing MAIT cells, an innate-like subset of T cells, for the treatment of skin infections

A/Prof Ben Parker Research Group Leader | Anatomy & Physiology Targeting the skeletal muscle proteome to improve health Poor muscle function is the single biggest contributor to the Australian economic healthcare burden, underlying metabolic disease, sarcopenia, muscular dystrophies, cancer cachexia, and motor neurone disease (MND). This grant will develop novel proteomics methods to uncover the molecular mechanisms driving skeletal muscle disorders and to.

Proteomics in Australia is what Nashville is to country music, what New Orleans is to Jazz, what London is to punk, and what Detroit is to Techno. We are in an incredible position and this amazing technology is transforming our ability to deconvolute the complex orchestra of our cells to discover new disease mechanisms and therapeutic targets.

Dr Daniella Hock Research Fellow | Dept Biochemistry & Pharmacology Closing a Rare Gap: Translating proteomics into a pathology test for rare disease diagnosis Only half of individuals with a rare disease receive a genetic diagnosis despite extensive clinical testing and my project will demonstrate the utility of rapid untargeted proteomics in increasing and speeding up the diagnosis of rare diseases.

This Investigator Grant will enable me to accelerate the translation of proteomics into a clinical test to improve the diagnosis of rare diseases, allowing patients and families to access appropriate care and reproductive options sooner.

Dr Bronte Johnstone Research Fellow | Dept Biochemistry & Pharmacology Uncovering HTLV-1 host-cell entry and cell+cell transmission at near-atomic resolution This research will investigate the structural mechanisms of how the human retrovirus HTLV-1, which is highly endemic in Indigenous Australian communities, enters and subsequently spreads throughout our cells using a multiscale structural biology approach.

This funding provides critical support at a pivotal stage of my career as an ECR, while also funding research that will help address the current lack of vaccines or effective treatments against a virus with a high impact in Australia.

Right now, families living with a mitochondrial disease genetic risk factor face huge uncertainty — we can't tell them when or how the disease might strike, or if it will strike at all. This grant lets me pursue the question of what actually triggers disease onset, so that one day we can offer real answers, and interventions that delay or even prevent the disease before it starts. That's the difference this funding makes — moving us from managing symptoms to genuinely changing outcomes for patients and their families.

This five-year fellowship will enable us to pioneer AI-powered digital twins that predict disease trajectories and identify the best treatments for individual patients. Just as importantly, it will help us train a new generation of hybrid AI-biomedical scientists, positioning Australia at the forefront of precision medicine.