Funding Success for Drs Hollier, Vela and Srinivasan
PCFA Awards for Dr Brett Hollier and Dr Sri Srinivasan
Two APCRC-Q researchers, Dr Brett Hollier and Dr Srilakshmi (Sri) Srinivasan, recently received funding from the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia.
Dr Hollier’s project, entitled: “Discovery of new therapeutic targets for aggressive prostate cancer”, was awarded a New Concept Grant valued at $100,000 for one year.
“I am delighted to be a recipient of this award,” said Dr Hollier, “The project aims to discover new therapeutic targets for a particularly aggressive and therapy resistant form of prostate cancer, known as Neuroendocrine prostate cancer (NEPC).
“Current clinical therapies are not effective at inhibiting the growth and spread of NEPC and men diagnosed with NEPC have a very poor prognosis. It is hoped that findings from our study will reveal new therapeutic strategies to specifically kill this form of prostate cancer and improve outcomes for men with NEPC.”
Dr Srinivasan received a John Mills Young Investigator Award of $75,000 for one year, for her project entitled “Improving the effectiveness of the PSA test”.
“I am honoured to receive this Award,” said Dr Srinivasan. “The current PSA test needs to be more effective and reliable and a personalised approach to modify this test could improve its effectiveness.”
“This study will comprehensively analyse how an inherited factor affects PSA’s role in disease progression. The outcomes from this study may lead to a new type of PSA test that has the potential to save and improve the lives of men with prostate cancer.”
Metro South Health Research Support Scheme Award for Dr Ian Vela
Dr Ian Vela successfully secured a Metro South Health Research Support Scheme Project Grant of $75,000 for one year, for his project entitled: "Investigation of the role of lymph node metastasis in initiation and progression of bone metastasis.”
“I am very pleased to receive this award,” said Dr Vela. “We don’t understand why some patients have only lymph node metastasis and some patients present with bone only or mixed metastasis. This study will help us to understand if there are specific interactions between prostate cancer cells and bone cells, which leads to bone metastasis and how spread to lymph nodes by the cancer may influence this interaction. This information is critical to find new targets to inhibit, prevent, or treat prostate cancer metastases.”
