Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI)

🌟 Meet world-leading immunologist Associate Professor Dan Pellicci! 👨🔬🦠 As one of our Brilliant Minds, Associate Professor Pellicci is driving advancements in immunology at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI). His groundbreaking research covers critical child health areas like diabetes, transplantations and infectious diseases, helping build essential knowledge for child health research. 🔬🛡️ Your support is vital to advancing Dan's research and that of many other researchers, bringing hope to children and families around the world. Support the career of a talented researcher today and make a meaningful investment in the future of child health ➡️  https://direc.to/mZ6c #SupportUs #MedicalResearch #Appeal #ChildHealth #MCRIresearch

Expanded genetic reproductive carrier screening should be available to all Australian couples, says Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI)'s Professor Martin Delatycki. Carrier screening currently tests for three conditions and is available through medicare. But expanded screening, which tests for over 1,000 genes, is costly. Professor Delatycki spoke to the ABC's Dr Norman Swan about a new study that has explored the best way to deliver a national screening program that would be accessible to all couples. "With time, we are very confident we could scale this so that every couple who would wish to avail themselves of genetic reproductive screening could have equitable access where cost is not a barrier," he said. Listen to the interview: https://bitly.cx/piIC Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Mackenzie's Mission Victorian Clinical Genetics Services (VCGS) Australian Genomics

How can we best advocate for, and empower, young people in Australia? Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI) has partnered with Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth) and the AUSTRALIAN RESEARCH ALLIANCE FOR CHILDREN AND YOUTH LIMITED (ARACY) as part of the Future Healthy Countdown 2030. The Countdown identifies eight key ways we can help young people participate in major policy decisions and significantly improve their health and wellbeing in less than a decade. A Future Healthy Countdown 2030 webinar focused on empowering young people to participate in policy decisions will be hosted by National Children's Commissioner Anne Hollonds on December 3 from 10-11am. Register 👉 https://bit.ly/3UWjXKh #MCRI #MedicalResearch #ChildHealth ##FHC2030 

Meet Associate Professor Amanda Gwee, AAMRI Rising Star finalist. A/Prof Gwee and her team at Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI) are improving access to safe and effective antimicrobial treatments to children in Australia and around the world for common and serious infections. Her research aims to fill the information gap on antibiotic dosing in young children and improve access to these life-saving drugs.   Through clinical trials and modelling studies, A/Prof Gwee and her team determined a safe and effective dose for the drug, ivermectin, so it can be used in vulnerable young children with scabies and other neglected tropical diseases. Her team also established effective dosing for vancomycin, creating a dosing app which generates individualised doses for children so they can receive the best treatment for their infections. A/Prof Gwee created and leads the Australasian KIDS DOSE Consortium, a network of paediatric clinician researchers across Australia and New Zealand collaborating to improve antimicrobial treatment for children. T-minus 5 days! The winner of the 2024 AAMRI Rising Star award, which is proudly sponsored by CSL, will be announced on 27 Nov at the AAMRI Dinner. #risingstar #medicalresearch #antimicrobials #children #treatmentequity #aamriconvention2024

We are excited to share that MCRI's World Scabies Program has won a Falcon Award for Disease Elimination awarded by the Global Institute for Disease Elimination (GLIDE).   Grants such as the Falcon Awards play an important role in boosting local initiatives and research to accelerate disease elimination.   This grant enables our local team in the Solomon Islands to explore community perceptions of scabies control, an area with limited understanding. We will assess the social impact of two national mass drug administration campaigns and collect community insights to collaboratively design future interventions for scabies control in the Solomon Islands.   Find out more about our work ➡️  https://lnkd.in/g5mefETT #SolomonIslands #ScabiesControl #WorldScabiesProgram #FalconAwards #DiseaseElimination #EndDiseases #GlobalHealth

“By offering a bigger gene panel (expanded carrier screening), we know that children will be born with these (genetic) conditions and that many, but by no means all, couples would want to take steps to avoid that.” Murdoch Children's Research Institute Professor Martin Delatycki AM has spoken to The Sydney Morning Herald about how 9107 couples screened for 1300 genes were linked to over 750 rare childhood-onset diseases by the Mackenzie’s Mission project – an unprecedented study exploring the feasibility of a nationwide, voluntary genetic reproductive carrier screening program. Full story below ⬇️ #MackenziesMission #Genomics #ChildHealth #MedicalResearch Australian Genomics Victorian Clinical Genetics Services (VCGS)

Almost one in 50 couples is at “increased chance” of having children with one or more of 750 severe genetic conditions, the final report into the ground-breaking Mackenzie’s Mission study has found. The findings, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, are from one of the world’s largest studies into reproductive genetic carrier screening at population level. Mackenzie’s Mission tested 9107 couples across Australia to see if they carried genetic variants that meant they had a one-in-four chance of having children with one or more of the 750 severe genetic conditions screened. Of those couples 1.9 per cent were found to be carriers, three quarters of whom used that information to inform their decisions about having children, including using IVF and selecting embryos unaffected by the genetic condition. The study was named after Mackenzie Casella, the daughter of Rachael and Jonathan Casella, who died of spinal muscular atrophy at seven months old. The project, administered by Australian Genomics and funded by the Federal Government’s Genomics Health Futures Mission, set out to find answers to the challenges involved in setting up a national government-funded carrier screening program. These included how best to offer it at population level, which genes to include, how laboratories report results, how couples respond once they learn they are carriers, and costs. The study leads were Professor Martin Delatycki AM (Victorian Clinical Genetics Services (VCGS), Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI)), Emeritus Professor Nigel Laing AO (Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research, PATHWEST LABORATORY MEDICINE WA and The University of Western Australia) and Professor Edwin Kirk AM (NSW Health Pathology, UNSW, Sydney Children's Hospitals Network). Read more on the Australian Genomics website: https://lnkd.in/gsRMzzty Read the abstract in the NEJM Group journal: https://lnkd.in/gEpEyKci Learn more about the Mackenzie’s Mission study: https://lnkd.in/gs5pmffj #MackenziesMission #AustralianGenomics #geneticcarrierscreening #reproductivecarrierscreening #genomics #genomicresearch #research

We all want our kids to lead happier, healthier, and better lives than those who came before us. But that doesn’t just happen – it takes work.   And our contribution to that is the Future Healthy Countdown 2030.  Every year, we team up with public health experts including ARACY and Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI) to measure the data and provide policy solutions to issues facing young Australians.   This year, it’s all about participation and exploring how we can give young people more of a say on the issues that affect them.   Read it here: https://lnkd.in/gR5Nuvdt 

A promising daily tablet is effective at increasing height and improving proportional limb growth in children with achondroplasia, the most common form of dwarfism, according to a new study. And the findings could spare these children from needing to have a daily injection to boost growth.   The phase II study, led by Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI), found the drug infigratinib was safe and effective in treating children with achondroplasia aged 3-11 years.   MCRI Professor Ravi Savarirayan said infigratinib not only boosts bone growth but also improves the quality of life for these children.   Read more: https://direc.to/mXG9   #MedicalResearch #ChildHealth

Just announced: Pamela Galli AO has made a transformational $20 million gift to advance medical research at the University of Melbourne and our partners The Royal Children's Hospital, WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research), Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI) and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. This visionary donation will drive pioneering work in: 🔷 Neurodevelopmental disorders 🔷 Cancer prevention and treatments 🔷 Research collaboration across the Melbourne Biomedical Precinct Announced today at the Galli Research Symposium, this latest gift builds on the incredible impact of the Pamela and Lorenzo Galli Medical Research Trust, supporting research that saves and improves lives. Learn how this new funding will shape the future of health research → unimelb.me/3AUgHZ6 📸 Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences Dean Professor Jane Gunn AO with Pamela Galli AO and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Mark Cassidy.