Media Release

Wednesday, 30 October 2002

The University of Adelaide has received almost $7 million in funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) for 21 new research projects dealing with medical science and dentistry.

The projects, in the University's Faculty of Health Sciences and the Faculty of Sciences, span the fields of pharmacology, dentistry, medicine, obstetrics & gynaecology, orthopaedics & trauma, paediatrics, pathology, physiology and molecular biosciences/genetics.

Total funding announced for the projects is $6,948,500 million, more than half of the $10m received in total by South Australian institutions.

Among the projects funded at the University of Adelaide are:

• $405,000 over three years for a study of the "plasticity" of the brain and its link to recovery from stroke (Department of Physiology)
• $375,000 over three years to investigate a potential mechanism for the suppression of breast cancer growth (Department of Medicine - RAH)
• $137,500 over three years to study the impact of declining tooth loss on oral health and usage of dental care (School of Dentistry)
• $87,500 over two years to examine the effect of iron supplementation in pregnancy on children's cognitive development (Department of Paediatrics)

This latest announcement from the NHMRC, added to the recent announcement of funding from the Australian Research Council, means the University of Adelaide has been awarded more than $17.6m for new research projects, infrastructure and equipment in the past few weeks.

"That is a very strong injection of research funding into this University and into the State," says the Vice-Chancellor, Professor James McWha.

"Research can have many benefits for the community, and nowhere is this more evident than in medical research. The benefits that could one day be produced from these projects, such as new methods of preventing the spread of cancer, a better understanding of the human brain, and the basic science that underpins the many and varied conditions that affect mankind, will be of great value to future generations world-wide."