Biospecimen Collection Grants

Project summary
This grant will support Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA), Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) and Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) collection within the A3BC. The A3BC is the first national collaborative project of its kind anywhere in the world! The A3BC vision is to identify causes and cures for a wide range of inflammatory arthritic and autoimmune conditions using broad and integrated big data, biobank-enabled, collaborative and multidisciplinary research. It presents a holistic and large-scale resource to best enable both precision and preventive medicine advances.

What is the issue for NSW?
Musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions are Australia’s leading cause of disability. JIA affects more than 5,000 children under 16 years and can lead to restricted development. SLE affects 15-20,000 young people and children and is associated with a high rate of premature death. And AS affects ~250,000 younger people, with significant losses in worker productivity. Of note, MSK is the disease group with the highest total annual health expenditure. However, it has been estimated that as much as 30-40% of such spending is wasted through a lack of efficacy and/or side-effects due to poorly targeted therapeutics. While drug development has produced biologic therapies that can improve symptoms, they do not cure, pose serious side effects, are expensive, and there is no clear evidence for predicting optimal delivery or response.

What does the research aim to do and how?
The A3BC aims to:
1. Establish a national, open-access, best-practice biobank network to collect, process and store a broad range of biospecimens (blood, tissue etc.) for pioneering multi-omic research;
2. Combine broad biological data (from biospecimens) with multiple national datasets, including patient-reported outcome/ experience data, medical records, Commonwealth data (i.e. Medicare, pharmaceutical benefits) and cancer/death registries;
3. Apply cutting-edge data sharing and analytical tools to these combined datasets and search for potential associations/patterns that are significant to the patient and/or population health; and
4. Work with doctors, government and industry to build a strong evidence base and translate our discoveries into new decision-making tools and policies to better prevent and predict disease.

Project summary
This project will build a research infrastructure asset of blood samples from adolescent and adult epilepsy patients for future research and improve the health outcomes for people with Epilepsy.

What is the issue for NSW?
Epilepsy has over 50 different diagnostic sub-types and is often complicated by considerable co-morbidity with mental health issues, learning disabilities and neurodegeneration.

What does the research aim to do and how?
This study will aim to collect and biobank 2,500 epilepsy samples from NSW Precincts & LHD epilepsy clinics using mature, in-depth clinical databases held at Royal Prince Alfred, Westmead and Kolling-North Shore. The EpiGen collection will have transparent & governed use of biosamples & data for patient benefit, research in Sydney, NSW, national or international collaboration.

Project summary
This collection will supplement the main collection of the MIA Biospecimen Bank, allowing research into rare melanoma and skin cancer subtypes by NSW researchers in collaboration with national and international colleagues.

What is the issue for NSW?
Melanoma Institute Australia (MIA) biospecimen collection services are vital for numerous clinical and translation research programs. Western Sydney and Regional NSW are not currently within MIA catchment or capabilities, hence many rural NSW patients are not able to participate in clinical trials or research programs which require biospecimen collection.

What the research aims to do and how?
The success of this project is two-fold. It will allow access and improve availability to innovative clinical trials and research programs for rural patients and their clinical teams. It will allow melanoma researchers to study rare melanoma and skin cancer subtypes, including rural patient cohorts in translational research programs and collaborations.

Project summary
This project will create a unique, open-access platform for research to improve brain cancer patient survival

What is the issue for NSW?
Glioblastomas are universally fatal brain tumours, with common occurrence in young adults. Currently treatment options are limited with surgical resection still being gold standard followed by standard chemo radiation. Tumours re-emerge aggressively following treatment and usually develop treatment resistance. Depending on the location of the tumour within the brain, this can be often challenging with a significant risk of mental and physical impairment . Tumour recurrences often result in premature death with lack of targetable agents available for treatment.

What does the research aim to do and how?
This study aims to create a unique, open-access platform for critical research to improve brain cancer patient survival. Recent molecular profiling has shown that Glioblastomas and diffuse gliomas are quite diverse group of tumours and based on their molecular signature, clinical behaviour and treatment response can vary. Further work is required to identify targetable mutations and personalised treatment. This will be achieved through expanding collections from glioma patients, at an additional site, ICPMR Westmead.

Project summary
The Glomerular Disease Registry and Biobank (GRIT) will facilitate the discovery of potential genetic markers and novel therapeutic options for patients with glomerular diseases

What is the issue for NSW?
Glomerular disease is associated with serious morbidity and mortality, accounting for 20% of all incident end stage kidney disease with few proven treatments.

What does the research aim to do and how?
This study will support the collection and storage of blood samples for patients with glomerular disease which can be used in research and clinical trials to address the challenges of treatments for patients with glomerular disease.

Project summary
Building biospecimen collections from patients enrolled in the NHMRC-funded NSW Inherited Cardiomyopathy Study for ongoing research.

What is the issue for NSW?
Inherited cardiomyopathies can have important health implications, often presenting in younger patients conferring a risk of heart failure and sudden cardiac death. Many aspects of care are not well understood. The NSW health system and research environment offer unique opportunities to follow patients over a long period of time to make important discoveries.

What does the research aim to do and how?
This study will aim to collect blood samples from ~3,000 individuals with an inherited cardiomyopathy who are alive and residing in NSW during 2021-2022; and to obtain permission for ongoing data collection in to the future. This will allow researchers to answer important questions about inherited cardiomyopathies, including who is at risk of serious cardiovascular outcomes and whether genomics can improve disease management.

Project summary
Expanding the collection of Head and Neck Cancer Biobank for Discovery and Development of Novel Head and Neck Cancer Biomarkers and Therapies

What is the issue for NSW?
Head and Neck Cancer is significantly over represented in lower socioeconomic and indigenous population. Head and Neck cancers and their management lead to loss of several critical structures required for breathing, swallowing and vision. Despite the high morbidity and adverse psychosocial impact, there has been comparatively little investment in clinical trials, drug therapies, or screening for Head and Neck Cancer.

What does the research aim to do and how?
This study aims to support collection of pre and post therapy head and neck cancer tissues, normal tissues, metastatic samples and timed blood samples from Head and Neck cancer patients to form a research asset for future biomarker discovery, clinical trials and inform development of treatment strategies.

Project summary
BioHEART is a study of people with, or at risk for, heart disease. The BioHEART Biobank seeks to improve the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cardiovascular disease through state-of-the-art scientific analyses of blood samples, imaging studies, and health data.

What is the issue for NSW?
One Australian suffers a heart attack every 10 minutes, and often without any warning. Heart attacks are usually caused by atherosclerosis in the coronary arteries. This is a build-up of cholesterol, with associated inflammation. The plaque can become unstable, rupturing its contents, and causing a sudden blood clot that can precipitate cardiac arrest.

For the last 50 years, we’ve known that high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, and smoking are the main drivers for heart disease in our community. However, up to 27% of people presenting to our centre with heart attacks have none of these risk factors, and are left asking, “Why me?”.

What does the research aim to do and how?
This grant will leverage a previously awarded Biospecimen grant, focused on stable patients who were clinically suspected of having coronary artery disease and who were referred for a CT coronary angiogram (CTCA) and not suspected of having an acute coronary syndrome. Whilst this previously awarded Biospecimen grant will continue to collect data on patients with suspected stable coronary artery disease presenting for a clinically indicated CTCA, the newly awarded Biospecimen grant will allow BioHEART to contribute biosamples on a complementary cohort presenting with a life-threatening myocardial infarction (BioHEART-MI). The complementary nature of BioHEART-CT and BioHEART-MI biospecimens, in addition to detailed imaging and clinical data, will enhance the value of the resource for researchers in NSW and beyond. The resource and the anonymized data will be valuable for a broad range of researchers in NSW and beyond.

The purpose of the Sydney Sleep Biobank (SSB) is to create a research platform that can support a diverse range of research initiatives to better understand sleep health and its link to chronic diseases, leading to advances in Precision Sleep Medicine. As sleep interacts with a range of other diseases (cardiovascular, metabolic, cancer, neurocognitive), whole blood collection is vital to understanding these interactions and has the potential to make advances across a number of priority health areas. Competitive advantages of the SSB include access to high clinical activity across busy NSW Hospitals with world class clinical sleep programs, unique high-throughput phenotypic tools, establishment of processes for data linkage, and access to state of the art data science capabilities.

The Centre for Infectious Diseases and Microbiology Laboratory Services (at the NSWHP-ICPMR, Westmead) in conjunction with The National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS, Sydney Children’s Hospital Network), has collected a series of population, age and location matched serum biobanks since 1996.

These samples are used to determine immunity or past infection to a range of vaccine preventable diseases. The results guide government vaccination policies for children and adults. They can also be used to identify the rates in the community of infection with new or emerging pathogens, assisting public health responses and improving the understanding of new infections.

A strategic goal of the Australia and New Zealand Gynaecological Oncology clinical trials group, ANZGOG, is to build capacity for translational research by supporting the collection of biospecimens associated with allANZGOG trials. This grant will support collection of biospecimens from NSW Health Pathology (NSWHP) centres, biospecimen processing, storage and dissemination to maximize the use of biospecimens through research. The ability to further interrogate biospecimens associated from clinical trials will add enormous value to the contributions that patients have made by identifying biomarkers associated with good treatment response and those associated with resistance, thereby contributing to implementation of new treatments and design of future trials.

We have established a large, well characterized study of patients with biobanked blood +/- tissue and imaging data (BioHEART), to address the question being asked by the increasing number of heart attack patients who are asking “why me”? This grant will support the extension of this from the ~1500 subjects currently recruited under the protocol, to ~7000, and will facilitate the discovery of new mechanisms and markers of both coronary disease susceptibility, as well as resilience using state-of-the artmetabolomics/proteomics/genomics. The resource and the anonymized data will be valuable for a broad range of researchers in NSW and beyond.

The 45 and Up Study cohort, comprising over 267,000 Australians, offers a unique opportunity to leverage detailed health records spanning 15 years via data linkage, combined with cutting edge genomics data and blood biomarker analysis. We will perform a series of studies to examine the health outcomes and trajectories of individuals from the 45 and Up Study with bipolar disorder, and who have increased rates of many other common medical conditions, to aid both diagnosis and treatment. This research has the potential for development of stratified interventions, tailored treatment and improved prognosis for people living with this severe psychiatric illness.

More information:
https://www.neura.edu.au/

This application represents a consortium of clinicians and researchers from NSW Health Pathology, WSLHD and Westmead Institute for Medical Research aiming to integrate the existing microbial collections to create a state-wide dedicated repository with a standardised governance as basis for diagnostics, epidemiology and research of human microbial pathogens, bio-surveillance and biosecurity, an under-researched area. An integrated interdisciplinary biobank enables a substantial improvement of the state’s research capacity. The integrated microbial biobank will be the fundamental resource for the extended demand of reference materials, genomics and surveillance of microbial pathogens from clinicians and researchers across the NSW-Newcastle region and beyond.

Stroke is a leading cause of death and disability in Australia. The provision of this grant will establish an Australia-first NSW-wide brain clot bank that would allow improved diagnostic pathways and opportunities for research in stroke patients. Brain clots retrieved after mechanical procedures will be collected as part of the clot bank. The emergence of endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) has significantly improved standards of care and outcomes in ischemic stroke patients and opened doors to critically examine brain clots retrieved after the procedure.

Over 7 million Australians have musculoskeletal conditions. While drug development has produced biologic therapies that can improve symptoms, these drugs do not cure, there is no clear evidence base for predicting who needs them or will respond, they are expensive, and pose serious side effects. This A3BC is a network of scientists & doctors for improving treatments and outcomes for people living with arthritic and autoimmune conditions and ultimately finding ways to prevent and cure them. We need to study a wide range of health data and samples from a large population to allow the latest computer analyses to answer these important questions.

More information:
https://a3bc.org.au/

The Sydney Catalyst ‘Embedding Research (and Evidence) in Cancer Healthcare – EnRICH’ program is a prospective clinical cohort of 1000 patients with lung cancer, which aims to better define, treat and care for patients in Sydney Catalyst member hospitals, and to provide infrastructure for translational cancer research. The program is capturing diagnostic tumour specimens and serial blood samples for molecular and biomarker studies, with matched demographic, clinical and outcome data (including patient reported outcomes) to answer defined program core research questions, and support further translational research in lung cancer in NSW through linked sub-studies.

More information:
https://sydneycatalyst.org.au/

Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is the most common, fatal genetic mutation in the Australian population. It results in defective function of a crucial protein that leads to thick sticky mucus. This builds up in the lungs and other organs, causing recurring infections and eventually premature death. New medications that improve the working of this protein are about to become available. This proposal will collect blood, sputum and tissue from all the CF clinics in NSW, during the introduction of these drugs. Clinical data is already captured on a national data registry the Australian CF data registry. This will then be a powerful tool to better understand disease progression in CF and assess the impact of novel treatments and determine in whom they work best.

More information:
https://www.newcastle.edu.au/research-and-innovation/centre/card/about-us