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.
GENERAL EXCLUSIONS
Refer to the Eligibility page for the Foundation's General Exclusions.
CLOSING DATE
Monday, 30 January 2012
Detailed information regarding the application process can be found on the How to Apply page.
Children's Medical Research Institute
Research Breakthrough
CRMI Scientist Dr Mark Graham has made an exciting discovery about a brain signalling mechanism.
A equipment grant made in 2009 to the Children’s Medical Research Institute, Sydney, has enabled young, up-and-coming scientist Dr Mark Graham to make a fundamental discovery about an entirely new brain cell signalling mechanism. This discovery opens a new avenue to pursue treatments for neurological related disorders. Mark won a major ARC project grant to further pursue this discovery.
A contribution of $100,000 from The Ian Potter Foundation combined with an equipment grant from the Cancer Institute NSW enabled CMRI to purchase a state of the art mass spectrometry system dedicated to the study of protein phosphorylation.
The most common way that biological processes or cell signalling events are regulated or triggered is by phosphorylation of proteins. Phosphorylation acts like a molecular switch to regulate protein function and is frequently the target for designing new drugs. Another common modification, known as post translational modification (PTM) of proteins, is addition of carbohydrate molecules, or glycosylation.
However, before drug design can take place, the exact number, location and biological significance of post-translational modification sites in a protein or collection of proteins must be determined. Mass spectrometry is the most sensitive and rapid method for identifying and quantifying PTMs, and CMRI scientists have developed world-leading expertise in this area of research.
With the help of the new instrument and additional support from the Mizutani Foundation for Glycoscience, Dr Graham has been studying the role of PTMs in neuronal signalling in the brain.
He made the surprising discovery that the signalling protein AP180 has a completely new form of PTM that consists of a carbohydrate molecule with a phosphate attached – glycosylphosphorylation.
The discovery of new PTMs has been extremely rare over the last couple of decades and such a fundamental discovery offers a completely new type of cellular signalling switch to examine. The full implications for brain research and other biological systems is yet to be established, but with glycosylation being generally a slower process and phosphorylation very rapid, the double modification suggests very interesting possibilities for regulating biological processes.
Dr Graham has been awarded a three year project grant from the Australian Research Council of $300,000 to further investigate the role of this new PTM in the brain and establish whether it is present in any other biological systems.
“We are excited by the prospect that we can exploit this new discovery to develop new treatments and research tools for epilepsy and other neurological disorders,” said Dr Graham, “There is also the potential for this discovery to impact on a wide range of human conditions, if it is found to be common. The discovery, and several others we have made recently, would not have been possible without the Ian Potter Foundation’s help to purchase this highly specialised mass spectrometer.”
The research has been submitted for publication to the Journal for Proteomic Research.
Article by Lisa Melton, CMRI.
