A three-year grant from the Australian Research Council will help strengthen the partnership between the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute (ARMI) and AstraZeneca.
The $AUD857,800 grant will enable critical research into developing macrophage-based technologies for tissue regeneration to be conducted by a multidisciplinary team, led by Australian EMBL Partnership Laboratory Head (ARMI) Professor Peter Currie and EMBL Australia group leader Associate Professor Mikaël Martino – based at ARMI – and Dr Ryan Hicks from AstraZeneca.
“The goal is to develop new regenerative medicine technologies that we can take to the clinic,” said Professor Currie.
“This project has the potential to be a game-changer in harnessing the body’s immune system to kickstart and accelerate tissue healing.”
Ryan Hicks, Head of Bioscience Cell Therapy, BioPharmaceuticals R&D, AstraZeneca said: “AstraZeneca’s deep understanding of the biological mechanisms driving disease and knowledge in stem cells and cell engineering technologies, combined with ARMI’s vast expertise in the nature of macrophages could lead to novel cell therapies for debilitating chronic diseases that affect different organs in the body.”
As only one of six biological sciences applications funded in this round of linkage grants, the project will build on foundational discoveries in zebrafish to better understand the role of macrophages, a type of immune cell, in mediating regeneration and to investigate whether these cells can be reprogrammed to stimulate regeneration in different settings.
While most of the research will take place in the laboratory of Associate Professor Mikaël Martino at ARMI, collaborative research will be also conducted at AstraZeneca with innovative new technologies and unique expertise in stem cell research.
Ben McDonald, Country President for Australia and New Zealand, AstraZeneca said: “At AstraZeneca we recognise that collaboration is central to our success and I’m pleased that we can circumvent geographic boundaries to ensure we are collaborating with leading academic institutes, such as ARMI at Monash University.”
“We are excited to form this collaboration with AstraZeneca, one of the world’s leading biotechnology companies,” commented Professor Currie.
“Translation of exciting new biomedical discoveries cannot come to fruition without such partnerships between academia and industry. We look forward to working with the team at AstraZeneca to realise the full potential of this research and to make an impact in the lives of patients.”
About The Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute at Monash University
The Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute is one of the largest regenerative medicine and stem cell research organisations globally and Australia’s only research institute specialising in regeneration and stem cells. Located on the Clayton campus of Monash University, researchers at ARMI focus on understanding the basic mechanisms of the regenerative process, aiming to eventually enable doctors to prevent, halt and reverse damage to vital organs due to disease, injury or genetic conditions.
This article originally appeared on the ARMI website and was reproduced here with permission.