Funding for new HIV and cancer therapy
by Geraldine Hinter
The development of a new line of therapy for preventing major diseases
such as HIV and cancer will receive a major boost following an Australian
Research Council Linkage Project grant won by UniSA researchers and biotech
company Starpharma Holdings Limited.
Associate Professor Clive Prestidge and Professor Hans Griesser from UniSA’s Ian Wark Research Institute will conduct research in partnership with Dr Guy Krippner, Head of Chemistry at Starpharma, on novel therapies involving dendrimers that could have enormous social and economic benefits nationally and internationally.
Described as highly branched, tree-like structures, dendrimers are an unusual class of nanoparticles (or macro molecules) that act as carriers for drugs or as pharmaceutically active treatments, according to Prof Prestidge.
Starpharma is widely recognised as the world leader in the development of dendrimer-based pharmaceuticals, having recently initiated human clinical trials of another agent, VivaGel for prevention of sexual transmission of HIV.
“Dendrimers offer many advantages over conventional pharmaceutical treatments,
particularly in relation to their high efficiency, low toxicity, high stability
and ease of manufacture.
“When compared with conventional drug molecules, dendrimers have a much higher level of activity on cell and virus particle surfaces,” Prof Prestidge said.
“They offer exciting possibilities in fighting sexually transmitted disease, respiratory viruses, systemic viral disease, tumours, tropical disease and treatments to prevent disease.
“Our aim will be to understand the nature of the interaction between dendrimers and the cell membranes of viruses, cancer cells and bacteria.
We will be researching new methods for investigating dendrimers and develop a model for their interactive properties. We believe these will assist in the design and development of dendrimer-based pharmaceutical products and novel drug delivery vehicles with potentially billion dollar markets,” Prof Prestidge said.
UniSA has been awarded $2.8 million in ARC Linkage Project grants over the next three years and has been placed tenth among the universities nationally.
Researchers in chemical sciences were the big winners followed by education, engineering, environmental and mathematical sciences.
A total of 13 grants was awarded plus three with researchers from other universities.
Director of Research Services, Dr Mark Hochman, says the results are a pleasing testament to the efforts of our researchers and the 62 per cent success rate, well above the national average of 51.8 per cent, is confirmation of the developing quality assurance measures being placed around applications submitted.
Professor Ian Davey, Pro Vice Chancellor: Research and Innovation, said he was particularly pleased to see significant ARC grants for research in the field of education. These include reinvigorating studies in the middle years of ‘rustbelt’ secondary schools; examining the causes, impact and implications of part-time senior secondary study; and literacy and the environment.