Flinders Foundation Health Seed Grant Round 2019
Thanks to you we can fund world leading research at Flinders
Thanks to you, 31 exciting health and medical research projects across the Flinders medical precinct have received a boost after winning funding in the 2019 Flinders Foundation Health Seed Grant Round.
Flinders Foundation’s partnership with Flinders University, and generous support from individual supporters, fundraisers and corporate partners provided the research seed grants to help researchers kick-start discoveries across a variety of illnesses, diseases and social issues.
Read below about some of the exciting, ground-breaking projects which have been made possible thanks to your generous donations.
Addressing decades of inequities
Since the 1990s, Australia has benefitted from continual progress across a range of social and economic indicators. However, uneven distribution of these benefits across decades has resulted in growing social and health inequities. Read More
Antibiotics during labour – the long-term effects
Every year, more than 2.6 million babies die in their first month of life, with bacterial infections in developing countries a leading cause Read More
Building resilience to help combat smoking
People who live in vulnerable populations, where overall health levels are lower than the general population and have higher levels of perceived stress, often have the highest rate of smoking. Read More
Detecting parasites in our supermarket meat
Flinders University researchers are focusing in on parasites often found in our supermarket meat Read More
Does wealth mean health equity?
With the help of a Flinders Foundation Health Seed Grant, Dr Toby Freeman, Senior Research Fellow and Deputy Director of the Southgate Institute for Health, Society and Equity intends to answer the question. Read More
Health and Wellbeing for Refugees
Flinders University Professor Anna Ziersch says supportive factors, as well as resettlement challenges encountered along the way, can have a big impact on the experiences of refugees in Australia and on their health and wellbeing. Read More
Identifying biomarkers in breast and prostate cancers
A Health Seed Grant from Flinders Foundation will give Flinders cancer researchers a boost in their efforts to identify aggressive breast and prostate cancers and find new drug targets to treat them. Read More
Improving access to mental health services for African refugees
Associate Professor Lillian Mwanri will use a Flinders Foundation Health Seed Grant to interview members of the African community, as well as service providers, to better understand mental health access issues Read More
Improving Gut Function in Hirschsprung's Disease
Hirschsprung’s Disease is a condition present at birth as a result of missing nerve cells in the muscles of a baby’s colon and causes problems with passing stool. It’s the most common cause of neonatal intestinal obstruction. Read More
Improving the mental health of doctors working in hospitals
Professor Paul Ward will survey doctors working across different wards and areas at Flinders Medical Centre to better understand ‘psychosocial hazards’ that present risks to their mental health. Read More
Investigating endometriosis-related chronic pelvic pain
Flinders University Researchers are on a mission to help end chronic pelvic pain for endometriosis sufferers. Read More
Is Tinder driving increasing incidence of gonorrhoea?
Incidence of gonorrhoea is increasing worldwide and recent trends in South Australia have seen the biggest increases among young, heterosexual people in low socio-economic areas. Read More
New method for intensive care ventilation
Critically unwell patients requiring ventilation in intensive care stand to benefit from a Flinders University research project trialling a new mechanical ventilation monitor Read More
Peer mentoring for dietitians working in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health
Dr Annabelle Wilson has been awarded a Flinders Foundation Health Seed Grant to extend current work around developing a peer mentoring model to support dieticians and nutritionists working in Aboriginal health across Australia. Read More
Predicting - and preventing - glaucoma
Can a machine predict who will lose vision from glaucoma before a specialist can? Dr Owen Siggs would like to think so. Read More
Prevention and management of frailty in older Australians
Using a Flinders Foundation Health Seed Grant, Professor Karnon will use a newly created dataset on the health status of older Australians and their use of health services to estimate potential cost savings if improvements were made in preventing and managing the frail. Read More
Reducing the need for colonoscopy
More than 300,000 colonoscopies are performed in Australia each year for people experiencing symptoms, and often nothing serious is found. Read More
Relieving painful bladder syndrome
Relief could be on the way for people suffering chronic cystitis, with new research aiming for new therapies and improved diagnosis. Read More
Robotic testing to beat lower back lifting injuries
In a unique research project funded by a Flinders Foundation Health Seed Grant, Flinders University Associate Professor John Costi and team will take CT and MRI scans of lumbar spines from deceased persons, to allow patient-specific computer models to be developed. Read More
Single middle-aged women: The hidden homeless
At the last census, rates of homelessness in pre-retirement aged women, aged 50-64, had jumped 29 per cent. This can be attributed to single older women experiencing a decline in homeownership levels due to relationship breakdown, loss of the family home and insecure employment. Read More
Supporting refugee fathers
The challenges facing refugee families are many and varied, but the complex combination of factors surrounding pregnancy and postnatal support for refugee families have led to a range of disparities. Read More
Treating painful knee osteoarthritis
Professor Michael Shanahan, Professor of Musculoskeletal Medicine and Head of Rheumatology, Southern Adelaide Local Health Network, will trial a nerve block injection near the knee on a group of patients experiencing knee pain to numb the geniculate nerve which supplies pain fibres to the knee. Read More
UGT8 enzyme and colorectal cancer
Dr Julie-Ann Hulin will take a closer look at a recently discovered enzyme called UDP-glycosyltransferase 8 (UGT8) which has been found to chemically modify bile acids by adding sugars to them to change their function. Read More
Uncovering the mechanisms that generate pelvic pain
Pelvic pain is an unpleasant sensation stemming from a range of different conditions, including menstrual pain, painful bladder syndrome and irritable bowel syndrome. Although most commonly experienced by women, study of the mechanisms that generate pain has been largely based around male subjects Read More
Understanding oxidative stress
Now Flinders University researchers are hoping to understand how proteins that are modified during oxidative stress may lead to new targets for therapeutic treatment of these diseases. Read More
Understanding the impact of global alcohol companies
What part do alcohol companies play in the health impacts brought on by alcohol consumption? That’s the focus of a new research study. Read More
Understanding wellbeing
The costs of mental ill-health in Australia are estimated at $60 billion per year, giving our governments every reason to prioritise public wellbeing as a policy goal. But the way governments understand ‘wellbeing’ is crucial, as that understanding will shape what they do (or don’t do) about it. Read More
Urinary tract infections and long-term bladder health
Dr Luke Grundy will use a Flinders Foundation Health Seed Grant to unravel the mechanisms responsible for normal bladder sensation, and bladder sensation during urinary tract infection, and explore how infection can cause long term changes in the nerves that carry sensations from the bladder to the brain. Read More
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