Biospecimen Collection Grants

Project summary
This project will provide the necessary infrastructure for basic and translational scientific discoveries in the field of pulmonary hypertension.

What is the issue for NSW?
In Australia and around the world, there is an increase in pulmonary hypertension and in a particular, a deadly subtype known as pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). PAH has a poor prognosis with a median survival of 6-7 years
Current treatment for pulmonary hypertension is unsatisfactory and only a minority of patients respond adequately to therapy.

What does the research aim to do and how?
The Sydney Pulmonary Hypertension Biobank is a research initiative supported by the NSW Statewide Biobank to collect and store biospecimens from patients attending expert pulmonary hypertension centres in NSW. Biospecimens will be analysed using modern molecular technologies in order to gain insights into risks factor for disease development, and predictors of disease progression and treatment response.

The collection will be linked to pre-existing large databases which contain detailed information about each participant and their long-term health outcomes. It will enable new scientific discoveries in diagnosis, prognostication and treatment of pulmonary hypertension. The hope is to develop a personalised approach to therapy based on the patient’s molecular disease profile.

Project summary
This project will collect and store blood samples from individuals who have had a COVID-19 vaccination. Samples will be linked to clinical and outcome data. The collection will enable research to identify biomarkers and genetic factors that impact on the risk, severity, complications, longer term health impact of serious adverse events associated with vaccinations.

What is the issue for NSW?
In 2021, the rollout of new COVID-19 vaccines, such as mRNA and adenoviral vector vaccines, was accompanied by high profile and novel vaccine adverse reactions that attracted significant media/political attention, negatively impacted public confidence in vaccines and significantly disrupted the Australia’s national COVID-19 vaccine program and vaccine uptake. Why some people experience an adverse reaction and others do not remains unknown.

What does the research aim to do and how?
This project will improve understanding the genomic and biological association underlying serious adverse events associated with vaccination. This information can then be used to tailor vaccination recommendations to individuals to reduce the risk of serious adverse events. The hope is to enable a personalised approach to the use of new vaccines and new vaccine platforms that minimises serious adverse events in the future. This approach it will make it possible for the whole population to be safely vaccinated and will improve vaccine confidence more broadly.

Project summary
The Critical Illness, Inflammation and Immunology (CI3) Biobank will collect peripheral blood mononuclear cells and serum samples from critically ill patients with inflammatory conditions and associated organ dysfunction, plus controls. Combined with clinical data this collection will be a resource that drives improvements in the care of the sickest members of the community.

What is the issue for NSW?
Sepsis is the leading cause of death in the ICU and life-threatening organ dysfunction due to sepsis is a global health priority. There is have poor understanding about why some people develop severe life-threatening inflammation and organ dysfunction, and others don’t. Doctors lack a detailed understanding of the underlying immunological mechanisms involved. There is little available knowledge about longer-term outcomes for patients who survive sepsis.

What does the research aim to do and how?
This project will identify critically unwell patients with inflammatory conditions such as sepsis and determine the specific immune signatures associated with their inflammation. This immunological data will be related back to patient demographic and clinical data.

This data-linked collection will enable researchers to explore the role of the immune system in critical illness and identify targets for immune modulation. The overall aims are to define biomarkers and correlates of severe sepsis, prolonged ICU admission, and death. The hope is to identify novel therapeutic targets and to improve patient outcomes by using emerging immune modulating medications.

Project summary
This project collects matched blood samples and tape-stripped samples (scarless biopsies) from a total of 2500 patients with inflammatory and cancerous skin conditions.

What is the issue for NSW?
Skin conditions are the third most common reason for GP visits, and skin diseases are frequent in specialist practices and inpatients in hospitals. Many doctors rely on surgical biopsies and histopathological diagnosis for help, a costly process that also leaves scars. New non-invasive techniques for skin diagnosis are needed, to minimise cost and facilitate diagnosis.

What does the research aim to do and how?
This collection will allow identification of molecular markers that enable development of accurate and non-invasive or minimally invasive diagnostic techniques. These markers of disease will be useful to understand the response to therapy.
The collection will also allow the team to study the possible causes of the skin conditions, leading to a better understanding of the mechanism behind their initiation, development, and progression.

Project summary
The proposal is to establish a collection of 500 blood samples from participants with Familial Hypercholesterolaemia (FH). Samples will be collected before and during treatment. The collection will be linked to health data and data in the National FH registry.

What is the issue for NSW?
Familial Hypercholesterolaemia is a form of inherited high cholesterol and affects 1/250 people but is underdiagnosed and undertreated. It is associated with a high risk of cardiovascular disease, heart attack, or stroke at a young age.
There is typically a genetic component to hypercholesterolaemia, and in people with FH, monogenic variations vastly elevate cholesterol levels and the risk of premature cardiovascular disease.


What does the research aim to do and how?
This research aims to reduce disease and deaths for FH patients and the broader population by identifying inflammatory changes that are markers for personalised treatments.

This collection will be used to establish a new method to detect presence of FH in dried blood samples. Having a biobank of familial hypercholesterolaemia biospecimens will expedite research into improved detection of FH and the search for cellular alterations that could be targeted to improve treatment. Linked health data will enable broader research into treatment and long-term outcomes, benefiting both FH patients and the broader population impacted by high cholesterol.

Because this sample type is currently collected from newborns and used to screen for other diseases. This technique could be used for universal screening for FH to ensure earlier detection and treatment to improve health.

Project summary
This project is facilitating population health and multi-omics research by building an open access biospecimen collection linked to health and lifestyle data from the 45 and Up Study.

This grant will enable the collection of 750 biospecimens (blood samples) from 45 and Up Study participants. Specimens will be available to researchers for omics analyses with all data returned to the Study for new linkages and reuse by other researchers.

What is the issue for NSW?
The 45 and Up Study is building a collection of 50,000 biospecimens which is the critical number required for population health research. The proposed collection, will support future population multi-omics research, including research into cognitive decline and chronic conditions in diverse communities.

What does the research aim to do and how?
The 45 and Up Study has over 250,000 participants and is one of the largest ongoing studies of health and ageing in the world.

The study links the biospecimens funded by this grant to the existing 45 and up study data study including, to health, lifestyle and administrative data. These data linked biospecimens will support a range of health and medical research including causes of cancer, dementia, heart, respiratory, liver and kidney diseases.

Omics research will support better health and wellbeing by:
1. Better understanding disease processes
2. Identifying new biomarkers that predict disease progression or response to treatment
3. Identifying at-risk individuals, who may be missed by current screening
4. Completing the profile of risk factors both genetic, lifestyle and social
5. Informing people of future disease risk (calculate genetic risk scores) which are increasingly being used in medicine
6. Identifying individuals who will benefit from disease-deferring therapies

Project summary
Severe brain injury carries a significant burden for patients, for their families and carers, and for society.

This collaborative project will collect cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and blood biospecimens from brain injury patients and link them to detailed patient data via an existing brain injury registry.

What is the issue for NSW?
Severe brain injury is a major health problem in Australia. The incidence of traumatic brain injury in Australia is about 100/100,000 and is the leading cause of death and disability in Australia for children and young adults.

Severe brain injury has catastrophic impacts on patients and their families. Knowledge of the expected long-term outcomes is among the top needs of family members of patients admitted with severe brain injury. Recovery from a brain injury is variable and dependent on the severity of the injury.

A means to determine the severity of the brain injury early is needed for clinicians and families to make informed decisions regarding treatment options for patients with brain injury.

What does the research aim to do and how?
The research team has created a registry of detailed information about brain injury patients admitted to the Royal North Shore Hospital Intensive Care Unit. This grant will fund collection of blood and brain fluid also called cerebrospinal fluid that will be linked to data in the registry.

Research using these data-linked biospecimens will allow new understanding into the biological events associated with brain injury, and lead to improved patient outcomes.

Following brain injury, a complex sequence of biological events occurs and may influence the patient recovery. This research will investigate specific proteins which may be useful markers that help determine the severity of brain injury earlier and hence provide a prognosis earlier.

Identification of biomarkers that can be used as early indicators of the severity of brain injury will enable clinicians and families to make informed decisions regarding treatment options for patients and loved ones. Such biomarkers will also facilitate a more targeted approach to future research.

Project summary
This project is a prospective, Australian, patient centric, longitudinal clinical and laboratory investigation of Tick-Borne Disease which focuses on sample collection and associated data. It aims to evaluate the effectiveness of serological, immunological and Various 'omics platforms.

Two hundred and forty patients with undiagnosed, untreated, and recent suspected tick bite will be recruited. Health information and biospecimens (blood, urine, faeces, skin biopsies and others) will be collected eight times over two years. Patient samples will be analysed for inflammatory biomarkers, immune responses, cellular dysfunctions and virulence genes.

What is the issue for NSW?
To date the evidence available to describe the relationship between tick bites and health effects in Australia is limited. Most tick bites cause little more than itchiness. However, tick bites can cause health problems ranging from localised reactions to systemic illnesses.

Patients suffering from Debilitating Symptom Complexes Attributed to Ticks have endured years of misdiagnosis and incapacitating symptoms, and often are unable to work or function.

In 2016, the Australian Parliament Senate Community Affairs References Committee published its final report to address the growing evidence of emerging tick borne disease.

What does the research aim to do and how?
This study aims to address the majority of recommendations from the Senate Committee's Final Report.

The longitudinal collections will be used to identify novel predictive factors, and fundamental occurrences of inflammatory biomarkers, immune responses, cellular dysfunctions, and virulence genes present in patients with tick borne disease.

Collected samples will be analysed using the internationally recognised diagnostic test TICKPLEX® Plus and compared with Australian pathology testing. The comparative analysis of these two test results will provide valuable data to regulators to improve diagnostic tools in Australia.

The meta genomics and transcriptomics on samples will identify potential infecting microbes.

Additional biomarker testing will deepen understanding of the level of inflammation, immune response and the degree of cellular dysfunction present in patients with tick borne disease. This work will produce improved diagnostic tools for illness associated with tick bites, and result in faster diagnosis and reduced burden on the healthcare system.

Project summary
This study will collect blood specimens from patients with cardiorenal syndrome (CRS), as well as patients with heart or kidney disease who don’t have cardiorenal syndrome. Blood specimens will also be collected from patients undergoing kidney transplantation before and after their transplant.

The project will establish a cardiorenal data-linked biospecimen research asset for cardiorenal disease research including biomarker and genomic discovery.

What is the issue for NSW?
There is a direct relationship between heart and kidney disease known as cardiorenal syndrome, deterioration of one organ leads to worsening of the other. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is associated with reduced life expectancy, and cardiovascular mortality accounts for nearly 50% of all deaths.

There are no specific diagnostic criteria for cardiorenal syndrome, and no tests to identify worsening disease, nor tailored treatment. Therapeutic guidelines for CRS are largely based on cardiovascular trials, and yet CKD patients with CRS have been excluded from the majority (80%) of studies. The current NSW Clinical Service Framework for Chronic Heart Failure identifies CKD as a significant risk factor but provides no specific guidelines for management.

There is no dedicated biobank committed to the study of cardiorenal disease. Yet there is a clear need for research to understand the prevalence and underlying biological mechanism(s) of CRS, and to identify useful biomarkers which will inform diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of cardiorenal disease.

What does the research aim to do and how?
Despite the well-recognised role of biomarkers in cardiovascular disease (troponin, brain natriuretic peptide), many used in clinical practice are non-specific and chronically elevated in patients with kidney disease. By data-linking CRS biospecimens this project will facilitate research into novel and specific biomarkers of cardiorenal syndrome.

The collection establishes a dedicated cardiorenal research resource that will improve knowledge of the disease and facilitate diagnostic and therapeutic development.

Project summary
This project is developing a blood test to detect breast cancer. The team will collect blood from 3000 women at the time of their routine mammogram and from newly diagnosed breast cancer patients attending breast cancer clinics. The biospecimens will be used in ‘omics analysis including lipidomics to develop breast cancer screening and monitoring tools.

What is the issue for NSW?
1 in 7 women in NSW will develop breast cancer in their lifetime. Breast cancer screening is important for early detection of breast cancer, if detected at a very early stage most women recover quickly and can lead a normal life.

The current breast cancer screening method is mammography. However, mammograms are not offered to women under 40 and breast screening by mammography is less effective in younger women due to denser breast tissue.
Breast cancer survival, outcomes and costs could be improved by development of a more accurate breast cancer screening tool.

This research aligns with the goals and objectives of NSW Women’s Health Framework and The NSW Cancer Plan.

What does the research aim to do and how?
This project aims to develop a blood test that can screen for breast cancer alongside other regular health check-ups. This will reduce the breast cancer burden and increase the quality of life for Australian women.

This project has novel data which reveals unique lipid-based signatures as biomarkers of breast cancer detection. Genomic and lipidomic profiling will be used to develop a circulating lipidome assay for the detection of recurrent malignancy. The accuracy of the test will be compared with circulating tumour DNA profiling. The collection will be accessible to a wide range of multiomics-based studies aimed at advancing breast cancer diagnostics.

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://x.com/sydneycatalyst

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