Research Showcase
Sansom Institute researchers shape projects to meet needs, not fit conventions or preconceived ideas. The result is an exciting and sometime surprising body of work with the common theme of linking research to better health outcomes. This small selection captures some of the diversity and significance of our work.
A new gel developed by Sansom Institute researchers could help reduce the prevalence of the most common form of skin cancer.
Sansom spin-off company PharmaQest is studying the ability of the drug R-flurbiprofen to prevent non-melanoma skin cancers, including basal cell carcinomas.
Initial human clinical trials have shown excellent safety results for a topical gel applied directly to the skin with an efficacy trial planned to begin in 2008. The company is also pursuing a number of other product development opportunities.
“Until now, nobody has developed a medication to prevent skin cancers forming on already sun-damaged skin,” says PharmaQest R&D director and Head of the School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences, Professor Allan Evans. “We believe that we can provide people with a preventative option that they currently don’t have.”
Despite advances in drug development, getting drugs into the body remains a challenge – some forms of delivery aren’t always suitable or effective, and others are simply not appealing.
The Sansom Institute’s Centre for Drug Formulation and Delivery has developed a small adhesive patch that sticks to the inside of the mouth and releases the drug directly into the bloodstream via the buccal membrane in the mucosal tissue. By avoiding the stomach, the risk of drug degradation is diminished, reducing the need to administer at higher doses to compensate.
Made of polymers, the patch is small and flexible and stays firmly attached to the buccal membrane. It is particularly valuable where patients are nauseous or unconscious, and potential applications include better treatments for diabetes and migraines.
The CDFD is continuing to refinine the patch technology, with plans to commercialise it via Sansom spin-off company PharmaQest.
Better systems for the health of our veterans
Pinpointing the early origins of obesity
and cardiovascular disease
Researchers in the Early Origins of Adult Health laboratory have attracted several major National Health and Medical Research Council grants to look at how events before birth can have an impact on adult health.
One project is examining the early origins of obesity, with a focus on intervening to block the effects of over-nutrition by administering a specific drug that can stop a particular gene inside fat cells from being over-activated and producing too much fat tissue.
Another study is looking at how the heart functions in low birth weight babies and why small babies have a twofold risk of developing cardiovascular disease when compared with normal birth weight babies.
A third project will investigate under-nutrition caused by mothers’ dieting around the time of conception, which causes changes in fetal development that could be related to problems in adult health.
Sansom Institute researchers are working towards developing new ways to fight vascular tumours following their discovery of a natural compound in an Australian snake venom that shows anti-cancer effects.
The compound works by activating the destruction of cells which make up the blood vessels that supply nutrients to tumours.
The Venoms Research Group’s Associate Professor Tony Woods says that while research into the use of snake venoms is not new, this compound is different in that it can be used in very low concentrations – which could lead to cancer treatments with less toxic side effects compared to existing treatments.
“Conventional chemotherapy, radiotherapy and drug treatment do not distinguish between tumour cells and other healthy cells, which often result in debilitating side-effects,” Professor Woods says. “Our research shows that Australian venoms target the cells that surround the tumours, while having less or no effect on some other cells.”
Indigenous knowledge meets pharmaceutical
science
Researchers from the Sansom Institute’s Quality Use of Medicines Research Centre are working with the Kaanju people of far north Queensland on the first in-depth scientific evaluation of the pharmacology of plant medicines from the region.
The Australian Research Council-funded project has the dual aim of preserving traditional knowledge and helping establish new economic enterprises to benefit the community, through the development of medicinal products derived from plants from the biologically-diverse Wenlock and Pascoe Rivers revion.
One of the key researchers involved in the project, Dr Susan Semple, says the project is also helping to develop a fairer model for Indigenous-scientific collaboration.
“This project is driven by the community – they are directly involved in the research, and any intellectual property rights and benefits derived from the project will be shared,” she said.