Advances in human health that matter

We are committed to innovation and excellence in health research. Through leadership and collaboration, we champion research to optimise health in our local and global communities.

Reimagining disability and rehabilitation

Improving patients’ lives and helping them to walk again one day lie at the heart of Griffith’s BioSpine project, which seeks to personalise spinal injury rehabilitation through groundbreaking medical technology.

Led by biomechanical engineers Professor David Lloyd and Dr Claudio Pizzolato, the project combines leading approaches to treating spinal cord injury by integrating existing, commercially available rehabilitation devices with a digital twin.

Alongside fellow co-lead researcher—and 2021 Queensland Australian of the Year—Dr Dinesh Palipana OAM, the team uses functional modelling of a patient’s musculoskeletal system to create smart rehabilitation devices designed to meet their individual needs.

Further testifying to its collaborative nature, the project has worked with patients, clinicians, researchers, and engineers from the beginning to ensure the technology it is creating works and is easy to use in clinics and hospitals.

Lead researchers: Professor David Lloyd

Griffith institute:  Griffith Centre of Biomedical and Rehabilitation Engineering (GCORE)

Griffith partners with California’s City of Hope research centre on next-generation “coronavirus killer”

In collaboration with the City of Hope, Griffith researchers have developed an experimental direct-acting antiviral therapy to treat COVID-19.

The treatment is designed to work on all betacoronaviruses, including the original SARS virus (SARS-CoV-1) as well as SARS-CoV-2 and any new variants that may arise in the future.

This next-generation antiviral approach uses gene-silencing RNA technology called siRNA (small-interfering RNA) to attack the virus’s genome directly, which stops the virus from replicating, as well as novel lipid nanoparticles to deliver the siRNA to the lungs, the critical site of infection.

These nanoparticles are scalable and relatively cost-effective to produce in bulk, with this type of RNA medicine able to be manufactured in Australia. The technology has already attracted international interest, with plans for commercialization in early stages.

Lead researchers: Professor Nigel McMillan and Professor Kevin Morris

Griffith institute: The former Menzies Health Institute Queensland

New long-term research program to reimagine disability

Griffith University is reimagining an inclusive future for people with disabilities by launching a major new long-term research initiative.

Reimagining Disability: Creating Inclusive Futures is a university-led, collaborative alliance between key research, design, education, industry and healthcare organisations that will look to solve pressing real-world challenges for people living with disabling neurological conditions.

Lead by Professor Elizabeth Kendall, the program aims to deliver bold and life-changing innovations for people with neurological conditions, including those associated with developmental delay, injury, illness or degeneration of the brain and spinal cord across the lifespan.

To solve the challenges faced by people with disability, the research will be driven by end users, with researchers and people with experience of disability working together to create solutions that impact quality of life.

Lead researcher: Professor Elizabeth Kendall

Project: Reimagining Disability

Read more at Griffith News

What if the answer for spinal cord injury is in our noses?

Griffith’s Spinal Injury Project brings together scientists, engineers, medical doctors, veterinarians and educators to develop an olfactory cell therapy for spinal cord injury.

The project involves the transplant of olfactory ensheathing cells into the spinal cord to help the guidance and regrowth of neurons across the injury site.

This world-leading research into the development of a cell-based therapy for treating spinal cord injuries—pioneered by Australian of the Year Alan Mackay-Sim—has been supported by partners including the Queensland Government, MAIC, The Clem Jones Foundation and the Perry Cross Spinal Research Foundation.

The project is focused on developing an easily available, affordable and accessible treatment for all patients with spinal injury.

Lead researchers:  Professor James St John and Associate Professor Jenny Ekberg

Griffith institute: The Clem Jones Centre for Neurobiology and Stem Cell Research

Read more at Griffith News

Personalised Achilles tendon rehabilitation and training

Giffith researchers are working with industry partner OrthoCell to develop tools that enable localised Achilles tendon repair using real-time training that targets strain in a clinical environment.

Musculoskeletal tissues such as tendons are sensitive to their mechanical environment, with both excessive and insufficient loading resulting in reductions of tissue strength.

Our technologies are integrated in a framework to provide real-time feedback of localized Achilles tendon strain during dynamic motor tasks.

The new framework connects, across size scales, knowledge from isolated tendons and whole-body biomechanics and offers a new approach to Achilles tendon rehabilitation and training.

Lead researchersProfessor David Lloyd, Professor Rod Barrett, Dr Claudio Pizzolato

Project: Griffith Centre of Biomedical and Rehabilitation Engineering (GCORE)

Plasma protein purifying research wins global challenge

Scientists from the Griffith Institute for Drug Discovery have won a worldwide search for new ways to recover lifesaving antibodies from human plasma.

Global biotechnology leader CSL Behring supported the Griffith team led by Professor Bernd Rehm, Director of the Centre for Cell Factories and Biopolymers, with a $40,000 award.

The grant was awarded after earlier Griffith research indicated progress towards the isolation of immunoglobulins and other plasma-derived proteins to meet future demands for this product type.

Lead researcherProfessor Bernd Rehm

Project: Griffith Institute for Drug Discovery (GRIDD)

Read more at Griffith News

GRIDD the new home for chemical compound library

Compounds Australia within the Griffith Institute for Drug Discovery (GRIDD) is the new home for a uniquely curated library of 329,000 chemical compounds used to advance drug discovery research in Australia.

In agreement with the Australian Lead Identification Consortium (ALIDC), the Australian Drug Discovery Library (ADDL) was relocated from Scotland to the Compounds Australia facility on the Nathan campus.

Griffith University’s role in the ALIDC partnership strengthens national capability in drug discovery and epidemic preparedness, while facilitating new collaborative opportunities that aim to improve human health.

Compounds Australia now houses approximately 1.5 million compounds that can be  accessed and assessed to find new therapies for diseases including cancers and infectious diseases.

Griffith institute: Compounds Australia

Read more at Griffith News

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