Clifford Craig Foundation announces 2018 medical research grants

The Clifford Craig Foundation announced its 10 funded projects for 2018 on Wednesday, which totalled more than $600,000.

The foundation received about 25 applications for potential research projects. 

The successful applicants included new research, as well as extending current projects, such as Associate Professor Katie Flanagan’s vaccine trial.

Foundation chief executive Peter Milne said the funding supported local research undertaken by medical researchers at Launceston General Hospital.

“Through research opportunities, which they wouldn’t normally get at a hospital, it provides an incentive for them to come here and also an attraction for clinicians to stay here,” he said.

“Those clinicians therefore provide better healthcare that you wouldn’t usually get in a regional setting.”

The successful projects ranged from preventative to clinical and covered a number of different conditions and diseases.

Dr Rohil Barthwal and Dr Michael Fox were granted $77,900 for their research involving laser therapy on people receiving coronary stents.

“Almost one-third to 50 per cent of the patient population will receive stents, which are metal scaffolds that keep the artery open,” Dr Barthwal said. 

“When we do the procedure, we can cause damage to the heart muscle. In most patients, the damage is minimal, but in some patients, the damage can be fairly substantial.

“Michael and I were having a chat and he suggested maybe we could use low-level laser therapy.

“That will be given to the heart and blood vessels, which will make the heart more resilient, or strong enough, to prevent this damage when we do an antiplasty, which is putting the stent in.”