GenV research project into health problems

At The Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH), clinicians and researchers are tackling the biggest health problems facing children, from mental health, to obesity, autism and allergies.

Thanks to the Good Friday Appeal and Run for the Kids, a new digital platform will help collect information for a large-scale population health study to provide the big picture on the current health challenges facing children.

Led by the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) and Scientific Director Professor Melissa Wake, the ambitious Generation Victoria (GenV) research project will ask all Victorian families with babies born in 2021 – 2022 to be involved.

“GenV offers the possibility of a better future for us all. It aims to gather information from around 150,000 babies born over the next two years and their parents, and to follow them into the future. This will give us a research platform to better understand problems such as asthma, food allergies, obesity and mental illness, and give us the opportunity to better treat and prevent common and complex conditions,” said Melissa.

GenV research team from MCRI, including Melissa (front centre)

Health, development and wellbeing information from both parents and their newborns will be collected over a number of years via the Personize Digital Platform. Measuring characteristics on such a large scale will inform targeted research to change the future of children’s health.

“The Personize data platform is vital to GenV’s success. It solves research roadblocks of size, speed, cost and burden – not just for GenV, but for other studies too. Families can contribute their research data via ultra-short and engaging digital sessions. This means that everyone, no matter who or where they are, can take part easily from home,” said Melissa.

“GenV truly is a collaborative study and a partnership of many. We are profoundly grateful to supporters of Run for the Kids and the Good Friday Appeal for making the Personize data platform possible.”

Published: 3 December 2021

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A National Centre of Excellence in Speech Genetics: Transforming Patient Care

Even with intense therapy, children with apraxia have severely impaired speech development, which has lifelong impacts on literacy, educational and employment outcomes. 

Thanks to funding provided by the Good Friday Appeal, clinician researchers from The Royal Children’s Hospital and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute are establishing a speech genetics clinic for speech apraxia.

The new clinic will draw on expertise in speech pathology, neurology, neuropsychology and clinical genetics.

The centre will transform standard practice for children with debilitating speech apraxia, moving from the current ‘watch and wait’ surveillance, or ‘trial and error’ symptom-based therapies, toward precision medicine, with a focus on genetic testing, advancing detection, diagnosis, genetic counselling, earlier targeted intervention and even prevention. 

This will improve life outcomes for children at the Royal Children’s Hospital and across the country.

Posted June 2020

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Children’s Cancer Centre Tissue Bank

The Children’s Cancer Centre (CCC) Tissue Bank collects solid tumour, blood and bone marrow samples from oncology patients to learn more about cancer in children.

The tissue bank staff work in collaboration with hospitals, laboratories and researchers both locally and internationally to translate those findings into potentially life-saving treatments.

“Samples are preserved with the utmost care and dignity for future clinical and research purposes. Over 50 staff including consultants, surgeons, haematologists, oncologists, specialist pathologists, researchers and research enablers work together as part of the team,” said Louise Ludlow, CCC Tissue Bank Coordinator.

“Together we are committed to improving the survival rate and long term health outcomes for children diagnosed with cancer.”

In addition to the processing of samples for clinical trials, the CCC Tissue Bank also prepares clinical samples for further molecular testing (testing for certain genes, proteins, or other molecules in a tissue sample) as standard of care.

Thanks to donor support, the CCC Tissue Bank has also participated in important research projects outside of the Melbourne Children’s campus, including research conducted by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in the Memphis USA, The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada, and the Kid’s Cancer Centre, Sydney Children’s Hospital.

“The Tissue Bank is an invaluable resource which allows us to collaborate in adequately powered international studies through sample and knowledge sharing, ensuring that we remain at the forefront of cutting edge paediatric cancer research,” Louise said.

Posted June 2020

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The Kidney Flagship

Bringing together researchers from the Hospital and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI), the Kidney Flagship aims to reduce the burden of genetic kidney disease on patients and their families by improving diagnosis and treatment, and the development of new targeted therapies.

The new clinical pipeline will see kidney patients with suspected genetic disease undergo a genomic test that can easily be added to routine blood tests. In many cases this test will be able to find the genetic change and identify how or why kidney disease occurred.

It will also reduce the need for unnecessary biopsies and mean less time in hospital for patients.

Following this test, researchers will be able to grow or ‘model’ the disease in a lab and aim to identify targeted treatments for the patient.

Ultimately, this could lead to the development of a drug or treatment that could improve outcomes for all kidney patients.

Posted May 2020

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The CLARITY Juvenile Arthritis Research Platform

With support from the Good Friday Appeal, The Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) Department of Rheumatology has established the CLARITY Juvenile Arthritis Research Platform to better understand and treat the disease.

The RCH and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute are home to Australia’s only paediatric rheumatology research program, and the new CLARITY study is set to help translate research findings into practice, improving clinical care for children both locally, nationally and internationally. With the aim of enrolling 250 participants annually, the study will enable new research that aims to identify biomarkers for diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of children with juvenile arthritis.

Photo: RCH Melbourne – Creative Studio Photography
Posted June 2018

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Murdoch Children’s Research Institute

As Australia’s largest child health research institute, their work improves the health of millions of children in Australia and around the world each year.

More than 1,900 MCRI researchers are working to find answers to rare and common childhood conditions. This research allows cures, new treatments and medications to be developed for the biggest health problems facing children.

mcri

“The support we receive through the Good Friday Appeal helps us achieve great things at MCRI. With your help, we can continue to find cures and prevent illnesses and disease in babies, children and adolescents so they can live long, healthy and fulfilling lives”

– MCRI Director, Professor Kathryn North AM

Thanks to the Good Friday Appeal, MCRI can undertake significant research projects and access cutting-edge technology.

Sharing a campus with The Royal Children’s Hospital means patients have ready access to clinical trials and research, helping to quickly translate research into great care. Many MCRI researchers are also clinicians, which allows them to use their research to solve problems they see in their daily work with children and families.

Posted November 2016

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