Griffith University Institute for Biomedicine and Glycomics

We are proud to share the many successes and highlights from the final three months of 2024. Please enjoy reading this edition of the IBG Tribune: https://bit.ly/3DzdBuv

We are offering a number of prestigious student scholarships to undertake research at our Institute for Biomedicine and Glycomics Gold Coast site. The following schemes are open to both Honours and Masters students wishing to undertake a research project within IBG: Sally & Warren von Bibra Student Scholarships valued at $5,000 each. Institute for Biomedicine and Glycomics Student Scholarships valued at $5,000 each. For more information and to apply visit: bit.ly/3DqFvZN

Congratulations to Institute for Biomedicine and Glycomics Early Career Research Leader Dr Larissa Dirr, recipient of the Australian Glycoscience Society 2025 Protein Metrics ECR Award!

The Mucosal Immunology Research Group and the Central Facility for Genomics, within Griffith University’s Institute for Biomedicine and Glycomics have been awarded Department of State Development, Infrastructure and Planning grant funding, through Round 4 of the Queensland Biomedical Business Attraction Program (QBBAP). “We are thrilled to be recipients of the QBBAP grant and the recognition of the capabilities and services we can provide as part of Queensland’s biomedical sector.” Says Health Group, Griffith University Associate Professor Nic West and Dr Amanda Cox, Academic Leads of the Mucosal Immunology Research Group and the Central Facility for Genomics. “The funds are a significant contribution to a project we are working on with commercial partner ENA Respiratory to examine the biological responses of its novel, innate immune enhancer, INNA-051, as part of its ongoing clinical testing. Griffith University will undertake immune gene expression profiling on the Bruker Spatial Biology nCounter platform and bioinformatics analysis to assess the effect of intranasal administration of INNA-051 delivered as a dry powder. ENA Respiratory ’s INNA-051 is being developed as a convenient, once-a-week nasal dry powder product to prevent complications associated with respiratory viral infections in at-risk populations, including the elderly, those with an underlying medical condition (including chronic lung conditions, diabetes, kidney disease, and cardiovascular disease) and individuals with occupational risk (e.g. first responders, military or essential services personnel). Results from our work will support the continued clinical development of INNA-051.” Griffith University’s Central Facility for Genomics is a Bruker Spatial Centre of Excellence in Spatial Biology specialising in spatial transcriptomics, RNA sequencing, single cell sequencing and data science. The facility utilises state-of-the-art technologies and data analytics to generate high quality genomics data for discovery, diagnostic and clinical application. For more information: https://lnkd.in/gnMivA6y Research at Griffith

Congratulations to Institute for Biomedicine and Glycomics Principal Research Leader Professor Katherine Andrews who has been awarded a $50,000 Therapeutic Innovation Australia (TIA) Pipeline Accelerator Voucher with Associate Professor Tina Skinner-Adams, PhD student Wisam Dawood and partners Medicines for Malaria Venture and CSIRO. This project will be carried out with the WEHI National Drug discovery Centre and Griffith University Compounds Australia Facility. 

Compounds Australia is excited to announce a new partnership with opnMe, the open innovation portal of Boehringer Ingelheim that fosters science and collaboration initiatives in areas of high unmet medical need. OpnMe has shared their collection of high-quality, well-characterised tool compounds with Compounds Australia to add to the facility’s existing Open Access compound collection. Through Compounds Australia, the opnMe collection can now be accessed in flexible assay-ready formats by researchers across Australia and around the world to fuel their drug discovery programs. Watch the opnMe Collection deposited into Compounds Australia’s automated sample store below! Dr Florian Montel, Head of Open Science at Boehringer Ingelheim said “Through partnership with Compounds Australia, who have the capability to manage and dispense large compound libraries in a wide range of assay-ready formats, we hope to make it even easier for researchers to access and use the opnMe collection.” The opnMe collection contains over 90 molecules rigorously quality-controlled and carefully selected for relevance to key disease research topics. It covers a wide range of mechanisms of action against contemporary targets, including GPCRs, nuclear receptors, epigenetic targets, membrane transporters, ion channels, kinases, RNA targets, PROTACs, and enzymes. Professor Sally-Ann Poulsen, Academic Director of Compounds Australia said “Compounds Australia and opnMe share a vision to facilitate drug discovery by sharing research tools and resources. With this partnership, our goal is to further accelerate drug discovery and promote information- and resource- sharing and collaborations to meet global health needs.” #OpenInnovation #OpenScience

We were honoured to host Governor of Queensland Her Excellency the Honourable Dr Jeannette Young AC PSM and Professor Graeme Nimmo RFD to share the ground-breaking research of our Malaria Vaccine Research Project team. The Malaria Vaccine Project lead research scientists, Professor Michael Good and Associate Professor Danielle Stanisic presented an overview of their break-through malaria vaccine candidate. For the past 10 years Griffith University, in partnership with Rotary, has been developing a vaccine candidate with the potential to provide lifelong protection against all strains of malaria. Her Excellency and Professor Nimmo were escorted on a tour of the Laboratory of Vaccines for the Developing World and introduced to the dedicated and passionate team of researchers working tirelessly in the fight against malaria. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gQfxUynh

We were delighted to host delegates from the Korean Institute for Science and Technology (KIST) last week. IBG Associates Executive Director Professor Paul Clarke, A/Prof Rohan Davis, Dr Phil Ellery, Dr Nagaraj Gopisetty, Professor Emeritus Ron Quinn and Professor Yun Feng met with KIST Director of Natural Product Drug Development Division, Dr Sang Hoon Jung and senior researchers Dr Suk Woo Kang and Dr Joonki Kim.   The program included presentations on key projects and capabilities, collaboration discussions and tours of the NatureBank and Compounds Australia Facilities, the Ramaciotti Australian Native Mass Spectrometry Platform for Health Discoveries and IBG Gold Coast campus.

Congratulations to Institute for Biomedicine and Glycomics Principal Research Leader Professor Chamindie Punyadeera who was successful in securing an Australian Research Council Discovery Project Grant as Chief Investigator B lead by Charles Sturt University for the project entitled: Capturing elusive bionanoparticles via oscillating field induced convection.