Program Area
Medical Research
Medical research has historically been one of the Foundation's strongest program areas. Sir Ian Potter's support of the Howard Florey Institute, which he helped found in collaboration with two other great philanthropists Ken and Baillieu Myer, pre-dates the establishment of the Foundation.
The Foundation's strong commitment to supporting medical research has been instrumental in the establishment and ongoing success of the sector.
The Foundation built on Sir Ian Potter's earlier commitment to the Howard Florey Institute through a grant in 1996 of $1 million over five years for two novel technologies for studying brain chemistry and function and a grant in 2002 of $1.2 million for the establishment of a Neuropeptide Laboratory. In 2006 the Foundation made a commitment of $10 million for the Florey Neuroscience Institutes, a visionary project that will bring together Melbourne's key brain research institutes into a new world class facility.
The Foundation supports the use of cutting edge technology and equipment to advance our understanding of disease.
Funding Information
THEME
Research into and treatment of major diseases.
OBJECTIVES
- To support major initiatives by leading Australian research institutes, universities and teaching hospitals in innovative biomedical research, the anticipated benefits of which are likely to advance the research outcomes of the institution as a whole.
- To support organisations undertaking research into major diseases.
EXCLUSIONS
The Foundation will not normally support requests for funds for:
- Projects suitable for submission to the Australian Research Council (ARC) and / or the National Health and Medical Research Council (NH&MRC)
- Salaries for researchers or research assistants and for equipment which should be the subject of submissions to the ARC or NH&MRC
- Purposes which are core to the operations of the organisation and should more appropriately be funded from institutional operating funds
- Research projects for which there would be a reasonable prospect of attracting commercial funding
- Research scholarships or projects which would be awarded by the grantseeker to third parties.
CLOSING DATE
Applications for 2010 have closed. The next funding round for Medical Research will be in 2011. The date will be advised later this year.Grant Summaries
St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne
Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones with a patient in the treatment program for cannabis dependence
$100,000 in 2008 to support a randomised controlled trial of a novel medical treatment program for cannabis dependence.
The effectiveness of a new intervention for cannabis users will be assessed by St Vincent's Hospital in a pilot project supported by funding from The Ian Potter Foundation.
Current treatment for cannabis dependence focuses on psychological and counselling modalities such as cognitive behavioural therapies. The success rates with these treatment approaches are usually relatively limited, often achieving abstinence rates of only 10–15%. This is because the majority of people who use cannabis regularly experience severe and persistent withdrawal symptoms that prevent them from successfully stopping cannabis use. The commonly used counselling-based treatment modalities do not adequately address the distressing nature of this cannabis withdrawal syndrome, nor the underlying neurobiological abnormalities that are associated with cannabis dependence and withdrawal.
The treatment program at St Vincent’s Hospital uses a combination of three medications that target the effects of cannabis on brain function, augmented with physical and psychological support that specifically targets the reality of cannabis withdrawal. Pharmacotherapy dosages are tailored according to clinical need and symptom, and are combined with a stepped-care model of nurse-based, symptom-focused, supportive counselling, with additional psychological treatment available if required.
In clinical studies to date, 72% of 290 patients initially treated in a hospital outpatient clinic setting, and 67% of 160 patients subsequently treated in a nurse-based outpatient setting successfully achieved and maintained abstinence from cannabis at three months.
Baker Medical Research Institute
$1,000,000 in 2008 towards the purchase of two major items of equipment essential to the new DNA & Blood Profiling Facility at the Institute.
The new equipment is assisting the Institute to apply the latest techniques in genomics, epigenomics, proteomics, metabolomics to help explain and reduce the chronic disease disadvantage in certain populations.
The Institute now finds itself with the scale and scope to be able to study health and disease at a greater depth and with a broader range of approaches.
As well, the capacity to attract and retain some of the world's leading scientists in the field of cardiovascular disease and diabetes research has been realised.
The program of research will continue, using the two new items of equipment to study samples from patients in the target populations who are undergoing different forms of therapy for CVD, diabetes, renal disease and obesity.
Dr Peter Meikle at work in the DNA & Blood Profiling Facility