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Directing immune development to curb sky-rocketing diseaseOnce upon a time it was infectious diseases like polio, measles or tuberculosis that most worried parents. With these threats now largely under control, parents face a new challenge – sky-rocketing rates of non-infectious diseases such as asthma, allergies and autism.
The Advancing Innovation in Respiratory (AIR) Health Team is a multi-disciplinary group with skills in clinical medicine, physiology, psychology, and in cellular and molecular biology, that are committed to improving the lives of children with respiratory diseases and their families.
Research
COMBAT CF: A phase 3 multi-centre randomized placebo-controlled study of azithromycin in the primary prevention of radiologically-defined bronchiectasis in infants with cystic fibrosis.A phase 3 multi-centre randomized placebo-controlled study of azithromycin in the primary prevention of radiologically-defined bronchiectasis in infants with cystic fibrosis
Research
SHIP CT: A Phase 3 randomised, double-blind, controlled trial of inhaled 7% hypertonic saline versus 0.9% isotonic saline for 48 weeks in patients with Cystic Fibrosis at 3-6 years of age in parallel with the North American SHIP clinical trial.SHIP-CT, led by Professor Stephen Stick, Director of the Wal-yan Respiratory Research Centre at The Kids, is a unique study in preschool-aged children (from 3-6 years of age) with CF using images of the lung from chest CT scans as the main outcome measure.
Research
Altered dietary behaviour during pregnancy impacts systemic metabolic phenotypesEvidence suggests consumption of a Mediterranean diet (MD) can positively impact both maternal and offspring health, potentially mediated by a beneficial effect on inflammatory pathways. We aimed to apply metabolic profiling of serum and urine samples to assess differences between women who were stratified into high and low alignment to a MD throughout pregnancy and investigate the relationship of the diet to inflammatory markers.
Research
A phase I clinical trial assessing the safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics of inhaled ethanol in humans as a potential treatment for respiratory tract infectionsCurrent treatments for respiratory infections are severely limited. Ethanol's unique properties including antimicrobial, immunomodulatory, and surfactant-like activity make it a promising candidate treatment for respiratory infections if it can be delivered safely to the airway by inhalation. Here, we explore the safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics of inhaled ethanol in a phase I clinical trial.
Research
Net benefit of smaller human populations to environmental integrity and individual health and wellbeingThe global human population is still growing such that our collective enterprise is driving environmental catastrophe. Despite a decline in average population growth rate, we are still experiencing the highest annual increase of global human population size in the history of our species-averaging an additional 84 million people per year since 1990.
Research
From hype to hope: Considerations in conducting robust microbiome scienceMicrobiome science has been one of the most exciting and rapidly evolving research fields in the past two decades. Breakthroughs in technologies including DNA sequencing have meant that the trillions of microbes (particularly bacteria) inhabiting human biological niches (particularly the gut) can be profiled and analysed in exquisite detail.
Research
Lentiviral vector gene therapy and CFTR modulators show comparable effectiveness in cystic fibrosis rat airway modelsMutation-agnostic treatments such as airway gene therapy have the potential to treat any individual with cystic fibrosis (CF), irrespective of their CF transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene variants. The aim of this study was to employ two CF rat models, Phe508del and CFTR knockout to assess the comparative effectiveness of CFTR modulators and lentiviral vector-mediated gene therapy.
Research
Transcriptomic analysis of primary nasal epithelial cells reveals altered interferon signalling in preterm birth survivors at one year of ageMany survivors of preterm birth (<37 weeks gestation) have lifelong respiratory deficits, the drivers of which remain unknown. Influencers of pathophysiological outcomes are often detectable at the gene level and pinpointing these differences can help guide targeted research and interventions. This study provides the first transcriptomic analysis of primary nasal airway epithelial cells in survivors of preterm birth at approximately 1 year of age.