Woodside Energy Ltd $69,000
A partnership between SpinalCure Australia and Woodside Energy Ltd will provide $69,000 for research over three years.
Each year Woodside Energy will make available five Woodside Neurotrauma Research Vacation Scholarships and two Woodside Neurotrauma Research PhD Excellence Awards in the field of Neurotrauma Research.
The Excellence Awards are designed to attract PhD students of the highest calibre to the Neurotrauma Research Program to undertake their research at The University of Western Australia.
The Neurotrauma Research Program (NRP) is a Western Australian State Government initiative funded by the Road Safety Council and recognizes the burden and cost of road accidents to individuals and society.
The NRP funds basic research into spinal cord and head injury and is based at The University of Western Australia.
Our gratitude to Collette James and Rick Mills for their contribution as Employee Champions for SpinalCure Australia, A/Professor Sarah Dunlop of The University of Western Australia, Fiona Shepherd and David Prast of SpinalCure Australia.
$23,000 (2006)
Woodside provided its second $23,000 for neural research. The three $3500 recipients of the Woodside Neurotrauma PhD Excellence Awards were:
1. Kirsty Dixon - School of Anatomy & Human Biology, UWA, and James Cook University
Supervisors: Dr Rachel Sherrard, A/Prof Fitzpatrick.
Project: Post-lesion transcommissural olivocerebellar reinnervation provides functional recovery in the neonatal Wistar rat.
2. Michelle Byrnes - Schools of Psychology at UWA, Curtin and CNND (Centre for Neuromuscular and Neurological Diseases)
Supervisors: A/Prof Andrew Page, A/Prof Geoff Hammond, Janet Beilby, A/Prof Gary Thickbroom, Prof Frank Mastaglia.
Project: Fluency and Confidence: A holistic approach to the treatment of Aphasia and Stuttering.
3. Jana Vukovic, School of Anatomy & Human Biology, UWA
Supervisors: Dr Giles Plant, Prof Alan Harvey, Dr Sam Busfield.
Project: Role of the glycoprotein - T16 (fibulin-3) - in the olfactory ensheathing glia.
The five $2500 recipients of the Woodside Neurotrauma Vacation Scholarships were:
1. Aygul Abzalov - School of Biomedical & Chemical Sciences, UWA
Supervisor: Dr Peter Arthur.
Project: Developing a method to measure oxidative stress in cultured neurons.
2. William Kien Hin Wong - School of Animal Biology and School of Anatomy & Human Biology, UWA
Supervisors: Dr Jenny Rodger and Dr Rachel Sherrard.
Project: Detecting ephrin-A2 and ephrin-A3 on cells in the rat cerebellum and assessing the role of interactions between these molecules in establishing connectivity following a cerebellar lesion.
3. Lucy Millar - Centre for Neuromuscular and Neurological Disorders, UWA
Supervisors: Dr Dylan Edwards, A/Prof Gary Thickbroom and Prof Frank Mastaglia.
Project: Exploring paired pulse Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation as a method to modulate brain plasticity and improve recovery following brain injury.
4. Renae Happs - School of Animal Biology, UWA
Supervisors: Dr Lisa Tee, Prof Sarah Dunlop and A/Prof May Lai.
Project: Assessing the effects of gene therapy to reduce retinal neovascularisation and improve retinal morphology in a transgenic mouse prone to blindness.
5. Lachlan Walsh, School of Animal Biology, UWA
Supervisor: Dr Jenny Rodger.
Project: Developing a live imaging protocol for visualising the outgrowth of neurites from retinal ganglion cells in a retinal explant culture.
$23,000 (2005)
Woodside provided its first $23,000 for neural research. Three outstanding researchers at the University of Western Australia received the Woodside Neurotrauma Excellence Awards of $10,000. They were:
1. Dr Michelle Byrnes, Psychology UWA and the Centre for Neuromuscular and Neurological Disorders ($4,000) "The role of brain plasticity in recovery from aphasia and stuttering and the influence of speech therapy"
2. Ying Hu, School of Anatomy & Human Biology, UWA ($3,000) "Lenti-viral-mediated transfer of CNTF to Schwann cells within reconstructed peripheral nerve grafts enhances adult retinal ganglion cell survival and axonal regeneration"
3. Kevin Park, School of Anatomy & Human Biology, UWA ($3,000) "Cellular mechanisms associated with spontaneous and ciliary neurotrophic factor/cAMP-induced survival and axonal regeneration of adult retinal ganglion cells"
To acknowledge Simone Leaver, School of Anatomy & Human Biology, UWA project and application ($500) “Regeneration of injured retinal ganglion cells in vivo and in vitro”
Five Research Vacation Scholarships of $2,500 were also awarded. The recipients were:
1. Grant Ferguson - School of Animal Biology
Supervisors: Dr Carolyn King, Prof Lyn Beazley
Research interest: The mechanism of a potentially therapeutic molecule that appears to keep nerve cells alive when they would otherwise die following trauma and stimulate neuro-regeneration of damaged tissue in the brain.
Achievements: Developed the necessary techniques for studying the action of this molecule in a peripheral nerve model; investigated means of analysing and quantifying the neural regeneration anticipated with this molecule.
2. Waleed Farid - School of Animal Biology
Supervisors: Dr Carolyn King, Professor Sarah Dunlop
Research interest: The effects of naltrexone (a treatment for opioid addiction) on the development of the fetal brain. In young pregnant women treated with naltrexone, it is possible that the brains of the unborn babies could be adversely affected by this treatment.
Achievements: Analysed rat brains and prepared them for measuring protein localisation and expression; gained understanding of the opioid system and developed skills to measure developmental neural alterations resulting from a maternally administered substance.
3. Sophie Callander - School of Anatomy & Human Biology
Supervisors: Dr Giles Plant, Dr Marc Ruitenberg
Research interest: The biology of olfactory ensheathing glia (OEG) cells and the potential for transplanting these cells to the injured spinal cord to stimulate regeneration.
Achievements: Established a method to prepare a tissue culture of OEG cells taken from the nasal cavity mucosal tissue; developed a protocol to ensure the tissue culture is unaffected by infection; obtained the skills needed to compare cell phenotypes to OEG cells taken from the olfactory bulb (within the brain).
4. Robin Cash - School of Anatomy & Human Biology
Supervisor: Dr Giles Plant
Research interest: The extent to which olfactory ensheathing glia (OEG) cells are effective in causing adult stem cells to differentiate into fully-fledged nerve cells. If OEG cells are capable of this, revolutionary methods of facilitating recovery from spinal cord injury could be developed.
Achievements: Obtained skills in creating co-cultures of OEG and stem cells; learned testing techniques to determine whether stem cells were developing into neuronal cells.
5. Graeme Matich - School of Biochemistry
Supervisor: Dr Peter Arthur
Research interest: The damage to nerve cells that occurs with oxygen starvation following stroke and traumatic brain injury. This work involves investigating ways to protect cells from such damage and to prevent the programmed cell death that follows stroke and head injury.
Achievements: Graeme was involved in a project that used a peptide inhibitor of a signalling pathway to achieve 90% protection of cultured neurons against a necrotic insult. The protective mechanism was found to be mediated by the mitochondria. A manuscript on this work is now being written.