Emerging Researchers celebrated with New Investigator Grants
CCRG Emerging Researchers have been awarded close to $100,000 in the latest round of grants from The Common Good, an initiative of The Prince Charles Hospital Foundation. New Investigator Grant (NIG) recipients, Khanh Dieu Le, Yanyun Pan, Bara Kubanova, Sang Huynh, Dr Johannes Böesch, Cheng Zhang, Molly-rose McInerney, Dhayananth Kanagarajan, and Jinyang Yang will undertake projects to further CCRG research in pulsatile ECMO, hydrogen gas as a therapeutic strategy ARDS, and donor organ perfusion.
CCRG New Investigator Grant recipients including, (L-R back row) Jinyang Yang, Cheng Zhang, Molly-rose McInerney, (L-R front row) Dr Johannes Böesch and Sang Huynh
Among the recipients from CCRG is Jinyang Yang, a Biomedical Science Student from The University of Queensland. Yang said the NIG scheme offered good experience to prepare for future research opportunities in a very competitive field.
“Applying for the New Investigator Grant offered me a valuable opportunity to practice my academic writing skills, assess the feasibility of my project, and understand the financial aspects of preclinical research,” said Yang.
With his new grant, fourth-year medicine student Cheng Zhang, will work with Dr Keibun Liu in a follow-up preclinical trial investigating the use of hydrogen gas as a therapeutic strategy for treating acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), a critical lung condition that has a high mortality rate.
“I discovered CCRG and their impressive work while studying my Doctor of Medicine at UQ and was drawn to the innovative research ideas and projects their international team are working on. I’m grateful for the experience I’ve gained at CCRG so far, and excited to take on this new challenge and further my research with the support of their world-leading team,” said Cheng.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow Molly-rose McInerney expressed her gratitude to The Common Good, an initiative of The Price Charles Hospital Foundation, who administer the grants, a scheme designed specifically for emerging researchers.
“End-stage heart failure kills one Australian every three hours. And while heart transplant remains the only definitive solution for these patients, there is still a critical shortage of donor hearts. Despite the urgent need for innovation in this area, the practice of cardiothoracic transplantation has remained relatively unchanged for decades,” said Molly-rose.
“My research through CCRG, now made possible with this grant, aims to further our understanding of organ donation following circulatory death (DCD) and I’m hoping to generate new data that could help support the routine inclusion of DCD hearts to expand the donor pool for people waiting for a new heart.”
Dr Johannes Böesch, International Research Fellow, will continue exploring CCRG's ECMO research programme, focusing on the differences in blood damage between pulse-less and pulse-added ECMO systems.
“My motivation to apply for a New Investigator Grant was the opportunity to research the effect of blood pumps on blood itself, a topic I have long been fascinated by,” said Dr Böesch.
Khanh Dieu Le, who will commence a PhD with CCRG later this year, said her New Investigator Grant will further my research ambitions in the field of heart cell biology during the organ preservation process.
“My research investigates the changes in mitochondrial function during the donation process and during the hypothermic oxygenated machine perfusion (HOPE) process. It aims to demonstrate the efficacy of HOPE in mitigating mitochondrial function damage and achieving superior outcomes compared to the current standard preservation,” said Khanh.
Second-year medicine student, Yanyun Pan will continue CCRG’s research in pulsatile flow extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), with her projects aimed at investigating endothelial integrity and pulmonary endocrine function to ultimately improve outcomes for ECMO patients.
ICETLab Research Fellow, Dhayananth Kanagarajan, said his research aims to conduct an in vitro study to visualise the mixing zone in a human aorta model. “We’ll use thermochromic liquid crystals for both continuous flow and pulsatile flow VA-ECMO configurations to be able to study the movement of blood in both systems.”
About the New Investigator Grants
The Prince Charles Hospital Foundation’s New Investigator Grants are open to researchers who have never before received a funding grant and want to begin their research career. The grants provide researchers with up to $12,000 to use on a project that can be achieved within 1-2 years. The new investigator scheme is supported by the Prince Charles Hospital’s Study Education Research Trust Account (SERTA) Committee.
About The Common Good, an initiative of The Prince Charles Hospital Foundation
The Common Good exists to enable people to live healthier for longer. They financially support researchers who are dedicated to making breakthroughs in the areas of heart disease, lung disease, mental health and aging. By funding research, we can provide hope to those suffering today, and hope for future generations to come.
The CCRG Fellowship Programme is the perfect steppingstone to kick-start or progress your medical research career and has been the springboard to many of the most sought after research positions. From leading universities to cutting edge science institutes, CCRG Alumni go on to achieve incredible things.