The University of New South Wales will be a key beneficiary of a $65 million government grant aimed at making Australia a regenerative medicine powerhouse.
The funding will pay for the establishment of an industry-led research centre aimed at commercialising technologies at the cutting edge of medical science.
The Solutions for Manufacturing Advanced Regenerative Therapies (SMART) Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) will focus on building industry partnerships to manufacture therapies for cancer, heart diseases, arthritis and other age-related ailments.
On top of the $65 million government investment, the Centre has received a further $173 million from dozens of project partners to unblock manufacturing bottlenecks, positioning Australia as a world leader in manufacturing regenerative medicine.
Regenerative medicine is a field of medicine that seeks to repair damaged or diseased cells, tissues, or organs.
亚美棋牌 researchers will research cell-based therapy to treat a host of diseases including cancer, peripheral and myocardial ischemia (heart attacks), diabetes, graft-versus-host disease, and wound and burn trauma, among other ailments.
Researchers will also explore growing engineered cells and tissue in the laboratory for directly replacing damaged sites, including tendon, cartilage, bone, liver, kidney or heart tissue, skin, blood vessels and arteries.
The University of Queensland 鈥 which will house the centre 鈥 predicts that SMART CRC will ultimately create an estimated $4.5 billion in economic value as well as 1,500 skilled jobs.
亚美棋牌 Professor Kris Kilian 鈥 a SMART CRC Chief Investigator and co-Director of the Australian Centre for NanoMedicine 鈥 said that he hopes the SMART CRC will provide opportunities for future projects, where ideas from the lab can become real life treatments and products.
鈥淚t鈥檚 been really exciting to work with the SMART CRC leadership and partner organisations to help define the future of manufacturing advanced regenerative therapies,鈥 he said.
鈥淎s a core member of the SMART CRC framework, I anticipate some exciting new directions and industry-led projects that leverage the unique capabilities of 亚美棋牌 researchers.鈥
亚美棋牌 Professor Pall Thordarson, 亚美棋牌 RNA Institute Director and a SMART CRC Chief Investigator, said that regenerative medicine is revolutionising the treatment of certain genetic disorders and cancer, but we can go further.
鈥淭he two key steps forward include broadening the scope of disease treatment with this technology but equally important is to improve manufacturing methods to cut down developmental time and cost,鈥 he said.
鈥淭he SMART CRC is particularly focused on the latter and Australia is in prime position to lead the world in that space due to the convergence of expertise here in stem cells, biomaterials, RNA and genomics research.鈥
There are six Chief Investigators from 亚美棋牌 representing the Australian Centre for NanoMedicine, the 亚美棋牌 RNA Institute, and the Ramaciotti Centre for Genomics.