Doherty Institute and University of Calgary partner to award AU$175,000 (more than $155,000 CAD) in grant funding

Five cross-institutional teams from the Doherty Institute and the University of Calgary received a collective AU$175,000 (more than $155,000 CAD) in the Melbourne-Calgary Collaborative Seed Funding, a program established to develop a research partnership between the two institutions with a focus on infectious diseases, supported by the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences (MDHS). 

The program also builds on an existing strategic partnership between MDHS and the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary through shared interests in infectious diseases, the microbiome, and its impact on many different areas of medicine, neuroscience and clinical trials. 

This partnership grew from a mutual connection sparked by the generosity and vision of Geoffrey Cumming, the shared benefactor of the Cumming School of Medicine and the Cumming Global Centre for Pandemic Therapeutics.

The program comprises two streams of funding, each with different areas of priority focus. The first stream of funding, called the Melbourne-Calgary Collaborative Seed Grants, focuses on One Health/Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), Diagnostics and Clinical Trials, identified as critical scientific areas for improving public health. 

The second stream of funding, called the Melbourne-Calgary Enabling Capabilities Collaborative Seed Grants, focuses on enabling capabilities – critical technologies that enhance work efficiency and reduce duplication to accelerate research outcomes. This stream is jointly funded by the Cumming Global Centre for Pandemic Therapeutics (Cumming Global Centre) and the University of Calgary’s Snyder Institute for Chronic Diseases and focuses on technologies that will deliver on their shared focus of easing the burden of the next pandemic.   

In a bid to strengthen collaboration, all grant applications across both streams required two Principal Investigators – one based at the Doherty Institute and one at the University of Calgary.

Director of the Doherty Institute and the Cumming Global Centre, Melbourne Laureate Professor Sharon Lewin, congratulated the funding recipients.

“Well done to the recipients of these grants for demonstrating innovative vision in conceiving novel projects that will contribute to preventing, treating and curing infectious diseases, particularly those of pandemic potential,” said Professor Lewin. 

Dean of the University of Calgary’s Cumming School of Medicine, Professor Todd Anderson, commended the collaboration between the two institutions.

“Throughout the application process, it was heartening to see our talented researchers working together across institutes to come up with new ideas that could lead to the next critical breakthrough in tackling infectious diseases globally,” said Professor Anderson. 

Director of the Snyder Institute, Professor Derek McKay, welcomed the strengthening relationship between the Snyder Institute and the Cumming Global Centre.

“The successful recipients of this joint grant program demonstrate strong potential for fostering greater collaboration, cooperation and partnership between our two institutes. The Cumming Global Centre will be an important strategic partner moving forward due to our shared focus on research that will ease the burden of the next pandemic,” said Professor McKay. 

See more detail of the funded projects below.

Melbourne-Calgary Collaborative Seed Grants

Focus area: Rapid Diagnostics
Project title: RAMP: Rapid Advancement of Mpox Point-of-care Diagnostics
Chief Investigators: Dr Shivani Pasricha (Doherty Institute) and Professor Dylan Pillai (University of Calgary)

Focus area: One Health/AMR
Project title: Guardians of the Gut: Microbiome Therapeutics for Decolonising AMR pathogens from the gut
Chief Investigators: Dr Glen Carter (Doherty Institute) and Professor Kathy McCoy (University of Calgary)

Focus area: Clinical Trials
Project title: A cross-jurisdictional electronic health record based observational cohort of Enterococcal bacteraemia
Chief Investigators: Professor Steven Tong (Doherty Institute) and Professor Ranjani Somayaji (University of Calgary)

Melbourne-Calgary Enabling Capabilities Collaborative Seed Grants

Project title: Dirty mice, clean results: a pre-clinical model for immunity to infection that better mimics human immune responses
Chief Investigators: Dr Maximillien Evrard (Doherty Institute) and Prof Kathy McCoy (University of Calgary). AU$35,000 via the Snyder Institute

Project title: Synergising Human Organoid Platforms to Support Pandemic Therapeutic Research
Chief Investigators: Dr Laura Cook (Doherty Institute) and Prof Simon Hirota (University of Calgary). AU$35,000 via the Cumming Global Centre for Pandemic Therapeutics