The National Health and Medical Research Council is celebrating its ninth decade, and with an ageing population, rising chronic disease and evolving community needs, the role of research has never been more important.
Two pieces of ground-breaking research aimed largely at both ends of the human life span prove Australia’s research community produces world-leading work that strengthens the connection between research and practice while ensuring public investment translates into improving lives.
In a world-first, an Australian-led trial has found early evidence that an experimental drug called SNT-4728 could slow or even stop the development of Parkinson’s disease. Health reporter Rachel Rasker writes that Macquarie University’s Brain Institute and Clinic trialled the new drug in patients with isolated REM sleep behaviour disorder, a condition in which people act out their dreams, often vigorously and even violently, and which is among the strongest early alarm bells for the potential development of Parkinson’s disease.
In Melbourne, Wendy Tuohy reports the Royal Women’s Hospital has been chosen to trial a new drug that targets pre-eclampsia, the most common serious medical disorder of pregnancy.
The drug, CBP4888, uses RNA technology to target and reduce the placenta’s overproduction of the protein that causes the mother’s blood pressure to spike and damages blood vessels, reducing blood flow to organs including kidneys, liver, and brain. Pre-eclampsia can cause long-term cardiovascular damage, raise the risk of heart attack or stroke, kills one Australian woman a year and causes stillbirths and neo-natal deaths.
Australia has been chosen to trial the drug, invented by US group Comanche Biopharma, because local clinicians were the first in the world to measure levels of the protein.
Professor Shaun Brennecke, the hospital’s director of pregnancy research, has not seen any advances in treatment in 40 years of practice. “I’ve spent my career focused on caring for women with pre-eclampsia and researching the subject, and this is the most important and dramatically significant event and trial that I’ve had the good fortune to be involved in,” he said.
Historically, Australian health and medical research has been among the best in the world. Our achievements are many. They include our role in the development of penicillin as an antibiotic, and breakthroughs such as the bionic ear, greyscale ultrasound imaging, spray-on skin and the cervical cancer vaccine.
Sometimes the achievements in medical research become lost in the rancour and anger of debate surrounding Australia’s continued retreat from spending on research and innovation.
The Australian Health and Medical Research Workforce Audit estimated that more than 60 per cent of the nation’s research workforce left active research roles between 2019 and 2024. There were reports this year that more than $1 billion of medical research funding remained undistributed due to a government spending cap.
Despite all this, the drug trials aimed at Parkinson’s disease and pre-eclampsia are timely examples of how research advances knowledge about human health and leads to better health care while contributing to the Australian economy.
Get a weekly wrap of views that will challenge, champion and inform your own. Sign up for our Opinion newsletter.
The Herald’s View – Since the Herald was first published in 1831, the editorial team has believed it important to express a considered view on the issues of the day for readers, always putting the public interest first.From our partners
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
