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Two Griffith University research projects have been successful in gaining grants from the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF).

The MRFF seeks to transform health and medical research and innovation to improve lives, build the economy and contribute to health system sustainability.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Research, Professor Lee Smith said the grants will go a long way in improving health outcomes.

“We have some incredible researchers here at Griffith working on ground-breaking solutions to worldwide issues.

“These teams are very passionate about what they do, with Professor Belinda Beck working with osteoporosis patients and Dr Mo Chen working on a biological nerve bridge device for repairing spinal cord injury.”

Professor Beck has been offered a $1.4 million grant for her project STOP FRACTURE! which stands for Strength Training for Optimum Prevention of Fracture. Refocussing a Clinical Paradigm That Underutilises Recognised Effective Therapy.

Her team is addressing the growing problem that osteoporosis presents, dramatically reducing quality of life and leading to loss of independence and an increased risk of an earlier death.

While there are some medications that improve bone mass and reduce risk of osteoporotic fracture, many patients dislike them and prefer lifestyle interventions.

The team has shown high intensity resistance and impact training improves bone and reduces falls that cause fracture, however awareness of the program they’ve developed is quite low.

Professor Beck said one of the biggest challenges they’ve faced is doctors tending to have no faith in exercise as therapy for osteoporosis.

“To make bone adapt, you have to load it heavily, but doctors didn’t want to tell people with osteoporosis to go do heavy lifting because they thought they would break them,” she said.

“We did a series of trials and all of them show this exercise program we have is effective and safe if it’s supervised.

“We’ve been delivering our heavy lifting exercise program for eight years now, and while there is a small group of clinicians who are constantly referring patients to us because they know it works, this grant will be used to build awareness and referral pathways to exercise physiologists instead of simply issuing drug prescriptions, working with GPs and fracture liaison services in hospitals, to improve osteoporosis care.”

Dr Mo Chen was also awarded an MRFF Early to Mid-Career Researchers grant of $761,471 for a biological nerve bridge device (BIOND) for repairing spinal cord injury in humans.

The BIOND is a ground-breaking 3D cellular product for treating spinal cord injury (SCI), completely composed of autologous olfactory ensheathing cells obtained from nasal biopsies, with no artificial materials.

Dr Chen’s team has already extensively tested the nerve bridge in preclinical SCI animal models and identified further enhancements to improve efficacy that they will test with this funding, with the overall goal of introducing them into their existing clinical trial pipeline.