Members of the RespiTech team have been instrumental in establishing a world first: The Centre for Lung Cancer Research and the Lung Cancer Research Network. As part of this initiative, we are pleased to announce a recent commitment by the Australian NSW State Government for $3 million, if re-elected next term.

When completed The Centre will be the home to the Lung Cancer Research Network, a multidisciplinary group of basic/applied researchers and clinicians, covering Universities, Hospitals and Institutes. This facility will promote research in the area of lung cancer and will result in significant advances in the field with respect to diagnosis and treatments. To learn more about the initiative you can watch our video or contact the project coordinator Prof Paul Young.

This is our February 2015 update of news from the RespiTech group at the WIMR. February has seen the arrival of a number of new personnel. Firstly, Roberto Paleco joins the group as a research assistant, supporting lab operations and running a number of projects within the group. We also have a number of new graduate students commencing. Michael Lau joins us to undertake a Mphil degree and Stewart Yeung to undertake a PhD. Both will be working on projects related to dry powder inhaler modelling and optimisation and both are be co-supervised by members of the Chiesi Chippenham, UK team and Prof David Fletcher at the Engineering department at Usyd. We also have Isabella Martignoni, a student from the University of Ferrara, Italy, visiting. Isabella is working on a joint project with Prof Scalia studying a novel molecule for nasal deposition.

We have also hosted members from the UK Chiesi group this month. David Lewis and Alan Tweedie joined us to develop a strategic plan for future projects and also to meet our two new higher degree researchers that they are co-supervising. 

RespiTech February BBQ. Snags, Pizza and Century Egg challenge

Alan Tweedie (Chiesi UK) with new postgrad students Stewart and Mic

During the visit we had a February RespiTech BBQ to say goodbye (temporally) to Valentina, our Coutelle PhD student, who returns to Ferrara to continue aspects of her research program. Valentina also gave a presentation at the Woolcock Institute Friday seminars before leaving. You can follow the social aspect of our group on our RespiTech Facebook page.

Lastly, we would like to congratulate members of the team for their achievements. This month, the group were mentioned in Austrade for their international partnerships. Also, Judy Loo received seed funds from a kind donor for a new ECR project. Judy will develop in vitro models for rapid screening of inhaled drug delivery systems for the treatment of lung infections. Well done Judy!

This is our January 2015 update of news from the RespiTech group at the WIMR. This marks the beginning of our 3rd year of the group and our successful monthly newsletter.

January is the holiday season in Australia and the group is just getting back into the swing of things. Of note, the group welcome new members and say goodbye to long-standing members. Firstly, Lala Sarkissian joins the group to undertake a PhD. Lala will be studying dissolution of inhaled particles and the impact on pharmacokinetics and bioequivelency. Secondly, we have seen the arrival of a team of Lego scientists. This group of extremely qualified female researchers have already got to work in our laboratories and you can follow their exploits on our Facebook page. Importantly, Eric (Bing Zhu) left us this month. Eric will take up a management position in a leading Chinese pharmaceutical company developing innovative inhalation therapies. The group had a party towards the end of the month to celebrate Eric’s farewell. 

Also this month, the group published a couple of papers and were awarded a grant. Dr Mehra Haghi (now a lecturer at UTS, Sydney) had a paper accepted in the Journal of Materials Chemistry B. entitled ‘A ‘soft spot’ for drug transport’. This paper investigates the implication of diet on the effectiveness of drugs on asthma. Dr. Judy Loo also had a paper accepted this month entitled ‘Implications and emerging control strategies for ventilator-associated infections’ in the journal ‘Expert Review of Anti-infective therapy’ Well done both!  Lastly Daniela was awarded the first grant of the year with a team from across the University of Sydney. The NHMRC Equipment Grant is worth $75,000 and supported the purchase of a specialised aerosol generation chamber for controlled drug delivery in lab studies.

2015 looks to be a fantastic year ahead and we look forward to exciting new opportunities, collaborations and programs of research within the respiratory field.

This is our December 2014 update of news from the RespiTech group at the WIMR. The Respiratory Technology Team at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research celebrate their second year of operation. The group has achieved a lot in the past 12 months. We have grown since January and have had over 30 research personal come through our doors. We have published 31 peer reviewed articles, sourced funding for a number of projects (>$3.5M) and have established wider initiatives within the community. To highlight some of the achievements over the past year, the group has prepared an annual report outlining some of the initiatives and key performance outcomes. The 2014 RespiTech report can be downloaded here. 

More importantly, our group has had plenty of fun time. While the team work hard we always find time to enjoy cook-ups, Karaoke, all-important pub trips and a number of social events. To learn more about the social side of RespiTech you can always like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. If you are interested in joining RespiTech as a postgraduate or doctorate researcher you can contact us through the contact tab on our website.

December saw members of the group travel to Edinburgh to attend Drug Delivery to the Lungs 25. Emelie, Valentina and Mary presented posters and Valentina and Mary were also invited to present in the Pat Burnell speakers session. YY also attended and gave a podium presentation on nasal epithelia models for drug delivery. Well done all! Back at home, Valentina gave her annual PhD talk and Emelie gave her final Grad talk to Pharmacology. Valentina has been working on developing antioxidant formulations for the treatment of COPD and has been utilising a number of formulation and cell based models while Emelie has been investigating the use of inhalation medicines in  emergency departments setting.

This month has also seen the group building further infrastructure capacity. We have now installed a new HPLC-MS system in our analytical laboratory. This recent addition will allow us to push the sensitivity of chemical analysis so that we  able to routinely quantify pharmacokinetic samples from clinical subjects. Additionally, the group have invested in an automated apparatus 4, flow through set-up for determination of poorly soluble drug dissolution and controlled release matrices for inhaled pulmonary therapy. The group also celebrated the Christmas break by hosting a pasta night and a number of drinks. We also welcome back Mehra Haghi, who is now taking up a position as lecturer at UTS and say goodbye to our close collaborator, Fabio Sonvico who will return to the University of Parma to take up a Associate Professorship. Fabio will continue to work closely with the team from Europe and co-supervise a number of students including Michele. Also, in terms of new appointments, Paul was appointed Full Professor this month. He is now Professor of Respiratory Technology in the School of Medicine, Discipline of Pharmacology as well as a member of the team at the Woolcock.

As always, we would like to congratulate members of the team for recent publications. This month the group have published two articles. John Chan was the first author on an article accepted for publication in ‘International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents’ entitled ‘Murine pharmacokinetics of rifapentine delivered as an inhalable dry powder’. Secondly, Mehra had a paper accepted in ‘Pharmaceutical Research’ entitled ‘Immunomodulatory effects of a low dose clarithromycin-based macrolide solution pressurised metered dose inhaler’. This later paper is part of an ongoing project to develop innovative therapies for COPD.
 
Lastly, we would like to wish all our subscribers and followers seasons greetings and thank you all for your support over the past 12 months. We wish everyone a prosperous 2015 and look forward to the year ahead.

This is our November 2014 update of news from the RespiTech group at the WIMR. November has been a month of capacity building, grant successes and travel for the group. Firstly, Dr Wing-Hin Lee was awarded a Cancer Institute of New South Wales 3-year Early Career Fellowship grant worth $592,183. Wing will expand the group's focus in the area of lung cancer via the development of innovative drug delivery therapies and diagnostic imaging. His research will bridge across the RespiTech, Lung Physiology and Imaging groups within the Institute. Well-done Wing!

Daniela, Paul and Patrick Spicer (University of New South Wales) were also awarded a grant this month, from the Australian Research Council, to develop Smartdrop technology that can be used in drug delivery. The 3-year ARC Discovery grant, worth $521,800 will be used to investigate a novel microfluidic technology that can generate particles with well defined surface morphology and shape for specific cell targeting. Additionally, Paul and Daniela were investigators on an ARC Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities (LIEF) grant worth $440,000. This multi-centre grant was led by A/Prof Dayong Jin at Macquarie University and involved leaders from The University of Adelaide, The University of Sydney and RMIT University. The money will be used to build an Integrated Facility for Real-time Localization, Quantification and Characterization of Nanoparticles in Living Cells.

Overseas, the group travelled to India to attend the inaugural RDD-Asia conference in Goa. Both Paul and Daniela attended and Paul giving an invited podium presentation on the importance and measurement of bioequivalence in inhaled drug delivery. Daniela chaired a session on ensuring access to inhaled medicine in developing countries. Sumit also had a paper on inhaled Voriconazole for treatment of respiratory fungal infection. Back at home, Daniela attended an Italian Commission meeting in Canberra- 'Italian Scientist Down Under' - aimed at enhancing excellence in research by Italian scientists overseas. Towards the end of the month, The Woolcock had its annual ‘ThinkTank’ meeting; intended to foster and develop collaborations and core strategies within the Institute. As part of this meeting, Wing presented his preliminary data from his 2013 ThinkTank Woolcock ECR Award that led to his Fellowship. Overall, the meeting was a success and we have a number of interesting and innovative programs of research lined up for 2015!

Lastly, we like to say goodbye and welcome new members of the group as well as give an update on our social activities. The group celebrated Yang’s and Judy’s Birthday this month. Yang also invited members of the group to a BBQ; a day where the mercury topped 40C (104F). We also celebrated the competition of this years Honours and Grad Dip cohort in the local pub! Thus, we say goodbye to Khanh, Tim, Anphy, Joao and Emelie! We wish you all the best and hope to see you back for a PhD soon. Also we would like to welcome Maliheh Ghadiri as a new PostDoc to the team. Mali will be working on an inhaled anti-fibrotic program. To learn more about all our social activities you can Like us on Facebook and Follow us on Twitter.

Dr Wing-Hin Lee

Dr Wing-Hin Lee was awarded a Cancer Institute of New South Wales ECF grant worth $592,183 to develop innovative therapies for lung cancer. Dr Lee's Fellowship will last three years and will investigate the development of a novel drug delivery system for treating lung cancer. To-date no local therapy exists and current approaches result in significant side effects. The proposed technology that he will develop utilises a magnetically trigged nano-carrier system that can be activated during routine imaging in the clinic. Importantly, this technology will only release chemotherapeutics at toxic levels within tumor regions in the lung, minimising side-effects of chemotherapy treatments. 

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nano-carrier system may provide a means of targeted lung cancer therapy

More information about this and other successful funding received by the RespiTech group at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research can be found here.

Daniela Traini, Patrick Spicer (UNSW) and Paul Young were awarded $521,800 from the Australian Research Council to develop innovative technologies for lung targeting. The grant is part of a collaboration between the Woolcock and The Spicer Group at the University of New South Wales.

Inhalable Smartdrops will be engineered using cutting edge microfluidic technology

The project will run for three years and will result in the development of a particle engineering technology, based on microfluidics, that results in micro-droplets with controlled geometry and morphology. These Smartdrops will be used to target respiratory macrophages for the delivery of inflammatory suppressants, since their dimensions can be controlled to optimise lung deposition and macrophage recognition. In addition, the project aims to develop an aerosol inhaler and a series of physico-chemical and in vitro characterisation tools that will be used to study Smartdrop formation, aerosol properties and their interactions with cells. The outcome of this project will be the development of a technology for treating chronic lung inflammation which could also be utilised for a number of other commercial applications. 

For further information regarding successfully funded research projects you can follow the link here.

This is our October 2014 update of news from the RespiTech group at the WIMR.October has been a productive and successful month for the RespiTech group. Firstly, members of the group were awarded a number of grants and prizes. Firstly, Paul and Dany were CI and AIs on a successful National Health and Medical Council Research Grant ($668,469) with Dr Lisa Wood ( Uni Newcastle/Woolcock) and Dr Brian Oliver (UTS/Woolcock) to study the ‘Mechanisms of impaired bronchodilator response associated with fatty acid intake in obese asthma’. This project will run over four yeas and combines basic molecular biology with clinical studies. You can learn more here. Also, this month the RespiTech group were awarded $250,000 in the Google Impact challenge to develop an App for monitoring health and the environment that can incorporate wearable health monitoring devices. The team included RespiTech, The Respiratory and Environmental Epidemiology and Allergen & upper airways groups from the Woolcock, Asthma Australia and BCG Ventures. You can learn more about the challenge here. 

We would also like to congratulate Tim Corish this month, who was awarded The Sydney Mechanical Engineering Association (USMEA) First Prize in Professional Communication in Mechanical Engineering - at the Biomedical Seminar. Well done Tim! This award is given annually by recommendation of the Head of the School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, (University of Sydney) after consultation with the officers and members of USMEA, to the candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering. Congratulations also go out to Matteo Padroni who graduated with his Pharmacy Degree at the University of Ferrara, Italy. Matteo spent the past six months working with the group studying inhaled antibiotic therapies.

Members of the group have also been travelling. Paul and Daniela visited three countries in Europe over 96 hours to establish a number of new projects and networks, while Eric travelled to China to attend IDDA China to establish a number of new collaborations. Towards the end of the month, Larissa, Emelie, Giulia, Yang, Michele, Valentina, Dany and Paul travelled to Adelaide to attend the CRS PostgGrad work shop on drug delivery. The workshop was both productive and social. The outcome of the Karaoke challenge can be found on the groups social Facebook page.

Lastly, the group published one paper this month entitled 'Solid Lipid microparticles as an approach to drug delivery' in Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery. This work is part of ongoing collaborations between the University of Ferrara , A/Prof Scalia, and the Woolcock.

Woolcock and partners to develop innovative mobile health technologies. 

Members of the Respiratory Technology team, allergy and epidemiology groups at the Woolock Institute of Medical Research have been awarded $250,000 as finalists in the Google Impact Challenge.

The project is a partnership between the Asthma Foundation NSW, Woolcock and BCG Digital Ventures. Via the Google grant, Asthmatics could soon have an app at their fingertips to predict and prevent their next attack thanks to smartphone technology. The app in development would give users quick and easy access to real-time air quality data from pollen, bush fire smoke, air pollution and other sources known to be troublesome for people with asthma as well as provide the framework for novel wearable devices that can track our well being.

The Woolcock team leaders on the project are Dr. Paul Young (Respiratory Technology), Dr. Euan Tovey (Allergen & Upper Airways) and Dr. Brett Tolle (Respiratory and Environmental Epidemiology).

to learn more about our vision you can watch the video here and learn more via our press release here.

Paul Young was part of the team successful in obtaining a four year National Health and Medical Research Council Project grant to study the mechanisms of impaired bronchodilator response associated with obesity and diet. The grant was announced by the Australian NHMRC body on Friday 17th November and is worth $668,469. The grant is a result of a collaboration between the University of Newcastle and Woolcock Researchers. Chief (CI) and Associate investigators (AI) are as follows:

• CIA Lisa Wood (University of Newcastle)
• CIB Brian Oliver (Woolcock & UTS, Sydney)
• CIC Paul M Young (Woolcock and University of Sydney)
• AI Daniela Traini (Woolcock & University of Sydney)
• AI Judy Black (Woolcock and University of Sydney)
• AI Peter Gibson (Woolcock and University of Newcastle)

More information about this and other successful funding received by the RespiTech group at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research can be found here.