Peak health body funds key research

Health Sciences

Clinical researcher and nuclear medicine technologist Associate Professor Karen Jones has been recognised for her outstanding contribution to medical research by Australia's leading health funding body.

The University of Adelaide researcher is one of nine people across the country to receive a 2010 National Health and Medical Research Foundation (NHMRC) Achievement Award for Career Development.

Assoc. Prof. Jones is currently a Chief Investigator on four NHMRC project grants focused on the role of the gut in postprandial hypotension (low blood pressure after meals) and the management of patients with diabetes. She works in the Centre of Clinical Research Excellence in Nutritional Physiology, Interventions and Outcome (CCRE).

Her award was for the highest ranked applicant for the NHMRC Clinical Senior Career Development Award, which provides her salary as a four-year fellowship.

Over the past 18 years Assoc. Prof. Jones has made significant inroads into the pivotal role of the stomach in low blood pressure (particularly among the elderly) and the management of diabetes.

She was the first nuclear medicine technologist in Australia to gain a PhD (in 1998) and to date has published 89 peer-reviewed papers, 19 editorials and four book chapters.

Four University of Adelaide researchers have also been awarded Training Fellowships from 2010-2013 inclusive, collectively worth more than $1.25 million. They are:

Dr Peter Psaltis (School of Medicine) - $349,487 Biomedical Fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, USA, to research the role of blood vessel stem cells in causing atherosclerosis;

Dr Adam Elshaug (Discipline of Public Health) - $336,170 Public Health Fellowship to work at Harvard Medical School to develop and test a framework for the effectiveness of health care practices;

Dr Lynne Giles (Discipline of Public Health) - $285,000 Public Health Fellowship to investigate the social support structures needed to maintain women and children's health across their lifetimes;

Dr Ying Zhang (Discipline of Public Health) - $285,000 Public Health Fellowship to develop policies to help the elderly cope with the effects of climate change.

The Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Research) at the University of Adelaide, Professor Mike Brooks, congratulated the five academic staff on their outstanding contribution to medical research in Australia.

"These awards and training fellowships are highly regarded and extremely competitive. It reflects the depth of talent that we have among our researchers and we look forward to the outcome of their individual projects."

Story by Candy Gibson