Global Leadership in Research
In the sixteen years of its existence, the IMB has risen to become a global leader in life sciences research in the rich context of the University of Queensland. The depth and quality of our research has contributed to UQ’s position as one of the top twenty institutions in the world for life sciences research. Below is just a snapshot of our success in 2017.
Research Funding
Newly awarded grants commencing in 2017 totalled just under $32 million. Here are some funding highlights for 2017:
- $2.3M grant awarded from the Australian Cancer Research Foundation to establish the new ACRF Cancer Ultrastructure and Function Facility
The facility will transform the visualization of cancer development in living cells. Combined with ARC funding, this facility will house 3D and 4D technologies including the Lattice Light Sheet microscope, of which there are just a few in the world.
- $10M awarded from the National Health and Medical Research Foundation
From discovery projects and development grants that drive the translation of our research discoveries to support industry need – to fellowships that foster the career development of scientists to support further translation of research outcomes into practice. Projects will uncover research towards new treatment approaches for pain, identifying and exploring a new gene which causes cardiac arrhythmia and discover new strategies to boost the immune system to combat infectious diseases.
- $4.5M awarded from the Australian Research Council
Funding was awarded to IMB to lead a range of groundbreaking discovery research projects. Funded projects will explore growing and regenerating damaged heart tissue, reveal the inner workings of our innate immune system, use big data to investigate the biological content in our soil and water, and establish Queensland’s first Lattice Light Sheet Microscope facility.
- $1B agreement with global pharmaceutical company
IMB spin-out company Protagonist Therapeutics Inc. entered into an agreement with Janssen to co-develop and commercialise an oral peptide drug candidate for inflammatory bowel disease.
- Spider venom to prevent brain damage from stroke
IMB researcher Professor Glenn King led a research team who discovered a small protein in spider venom that could prevent the devastating brain damage caused by stroke.
- IMB is a partner in the ARC Training Centre for Biopharmaceutical Innovation
This Centre was established to transform Australia’s growing biopharmaceutical industry, by driving the discovery and manufacturing of new biopharmaceuticals. The Centre combines the research and development, and manufacturing expertise and capabilities of industry partners and The University of Queensland.
Research Fellows
IMB supported 41 external competitive research fellowships in 2017. These included 1 ARC Laureate and 4 NHMRC Senior Professorial Research Fellowships, recognising the highest calibre innovative researchers in Australia.
- 1 ARC Australian Laureate Fellow
- 3 ARC Future Fellows
- 3 ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA)
- 16 NHMRC Research Fellows
- 7 NHMRC Career Development Fellows
- 6 NHMRC Early Career Fellows
- 1 NHMRC/Heart Foundation Career Development Fellow
- 1 The Viertel Charitable Foundation Senior Medical Research Fellowship
- 1 NHMRC-ARC Dementia Research Development Fellow
- 1 CSIRO Future Science Fellow in Synthetic Biology
- 1 John Stocker Postdoctoral Fellow
Research Experts
Since inception, 11 of our Faculty have risen to become Fellows of the Academies of Sciences. Seven of those are still resident within the Institute: Professors David Craik, Peter Koopman, Grant Montgomery (NZ; Honorary), Rob Parton, Peter Visscher, Naomi Wray.
Professors Grant Montgomery, Peter Visscher, Phil Hugenholtz and Dr Mark Butler were named as some of the world’s most influential researchers in 2017, as measured by the Clarivate Analytics (formerly Thomson Reuters) Highly Cited Researchers list. The annual list recognises leading researchers who rank in the top one per cent by citations for their field.
Professor Peter Visscher joined the ranks of eminent international scientists when he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of London.
And Professors Visscher and Naomi Wray were recognised as some of the top referees for Nature Research in 2016, a measure of services provided by our researchers to the scientific community and a critical element in disseminating groundbreaking research to the global community.
Research Awards
In 2017 many IMB researchers received awards in recognition of their outstanding contributions to research.
- Professor Jian Yang was awarded the Frank Fenner Prize for Life Scientist of the Year, as well as the Senior Researcher Award for Queensland at the Australian Society for Medical Research gala dinner for his work on decoding the human genome.
- Dr Larisa Labzin received the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Frank Fenner Award for her research into how the body fights back against viruses.
- Dr Laura Genovesi was awarded a 2017 Early Career Fellowship from Cure Brain Cancer Foundation to progress research into medulloblastoma, the most common type of malignant childhood brain cancer.
- Dr Nathan Palpant received a UQ Foundation Research Excellence Award in recognition of the enormous contributions he has made to an international effort to fight cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death around the world.
Research Innovation
IMB spinout Protagonist entered into a $1B worldwide agreement to co-develop a drug for inflammatory bowel disease.
IMB partnered with Danish Biotech, Zealand Pharma, to research the use of venom as a potential treatment for a common gastrointestinal disease.
Inflazome Ltd, a company founded on inflammatory disease research at IMB, closed a Series A financing round of up to A$22M to develop better treatments for inflammatory disorders including Parkinson’s disease and asthma.
Five new patents were filed in 2017, bringing the total of patent families managed to 35.
Outstanding performance
Since 2006, the National Health and Medical Research Council has been celebrating the outstanding achievements of Australia’s most talented health and medical researchers for their outstanding performance and excellence in health and medical research and innovation.
“Of all human endeavours, health and medical research has some of the greatest potential to improve the quality of human life. The current era is one of unparalleled promise in our quest to understand, prevent, manage and cure previously intractable diseases.” — NHMRC CEO Professor Anne Kelso
Researchers from the IMB has been selected for an award in almost every year since 2010 for the quality of their research applications and for the quality of the impact of their results.
Research Excellence Awards
Presented to the top-ranked applications across NHMRC’s funding schemes.
2017: Dr Larisa Labzin
2016: Dr Joseph Powell (read the NHMRC story)
2015: Professor Kirill Alexandrov
2013: Professor Rob Parton
2010: Professor Rob Parton
2007: Professors John Hancock and Rob Parton
Ten of the Best
Awarded to NHMRC projects awarded in the previous year that achieved results of particular significance.
2015: Professor David Craik — The Scorpion King: Lighting The Way To Defeating Brain Cancer
2012: Professor Brandon Wainwright
2011: Professor Richard Lewis