2024 GCI Cross-Faculty Seed Funding Scheme Winners Announcement!
The GCI Cross-faculty Seed Funding Scheme is created in partnership with the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology (FEIT), Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences (MDHS), and Faculty of Science (FOS) to provide financial support to early to mid- career researchers who are employed by the University of Melbourne. The funding is for small to medium sized projects within the biomedical engineering and medtech research fields.
The GCI is pleased to announce the following winning projects of the GCI 2024 Cross-Faculty Seed Funding Scheme!
Automated 3D High-Throughput Drug Screening of Endometrial Organoids using Advanced Reproducible Hydrogels:
This project expects to deliver a reliable hydrogel compatible with endometrial epithelial cell organoid growth that is compatible with HTS automated plating procedures. This work will expand the team's ability to identify new therapeutics for endometrial disorders and provide a new fully synthetic hydrogel for 3D-HTS that will also have significant commercialisation potential.
Project Members: Dr Jacqueline Donoghue (MDHS), Dr Lilith Caballero Aguilar (FEIT)
Leveraging Learning from Demonstration (LfD) approaches for efficient robotic arm rehabilitation postroke:
The project aims to:
- Develop dedicated Learning from Demonstration (LfD) approaches for neurorehabilitation and evaluate them in the clinical context with patients post-stroke (lead by both CIs)
- Collect necessary preliminary evidence during this same study to establish first evidence of effectiveness in view of a future Phase II trial.
Project Members: Dr Vincent Crocher (FEIT), Dr Marlena Klaic (MDHS), Prof Leonid Churilov (MDHS), Prof Denny Oetomo (FEIT), Prof Ying Tan (FEIT)
Metallic nanoglasses as novel anti-microbial coatings for medical implants:
In this project metallic gold nanoglasses were synthesised via a simple ligand exchange, suggesting a path to a whole new range of metallic nanoglasses using a range of metals (e.g. Mg, Fe, Ti), and forming diverse shapes (e.g. nanospheres, nanorods, etc.). The team aims to explore the anti-microbial response of these completely new nanomaterials.
Project Members: Dr James Hutchison (Science), Dr Sacha Pidot (MDHS), Dr Charlotte Petersen (Science)
For further details of the GCI Cross-Faculty Seed Funding Scheme, please click here.