NHMRC funding boost aids health research

Health

University of Adelaide scientists have again underscored their contribution to world-class research by benefiting from a Commonwealth Government announcement of medical research and clinical trials funding.

Through the Government's National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), Professor Caroline Crowther from the Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology will be the chief investigator in an Enabling Grant worth $1.4 million over five years.

And Dr Sarah Robertson, also from Obstetrics & Gynaecology, has received a Development Grant of $101,000 over one year.

Professor Crowther's grant title is "Interdisciplinary Maternal Perinatal Action on Clinical Trials - The IMPACT Collaboration."

"The aims of the IMPACT collaboration is to promote and support high quality clinical trials addressing important research questions to improve the health and wellbeing of women and their children," Professor Crowther said.

Dr Robertson's project is titled "Cytokine Diagnostics in Human Semen" and aims to develop a new test for male fertility that is based on seminal plasma proteins and independent of existing sperm count tests.

"We will also determine whether seminal protein imbalance can result from the 'silent' presence of male reproductive tract infection," Dr Robertson said.

Story by Howard Salkow