Queensland University of Technology

ADHA seeks MHR interoperability enabler The Australian Digital Health Agency went to market recently to seek a provider of a FHIR server solution as part of efforts to modernise My Health Record (MHR). "The aim is to build the internal technical platform capabilities and infrastructure integrations to enable FHIR interoperability capability for the MHR," it said in a request for tender. The contract is estimated to be worth between A$45 million and A$50 million ($30 million-$33 million). The agency also wants its chosen partner to provide continuous FHIR interoperability support for future national digital health infrastructure components and systems. Since 2022, the ADHA has been working with HL7 Australia to promote the adoption of FHIR standards across the health system. WA on the look for EMR vendors Western Australia's Department of Health has also gone to market to seek organisations that will assist in deploying its statewide EMR platform. The state targets to have a fully functional EMR system by July 2029, as stated in the 10-year WA Health Digital Strategy. As described, the EMR is "both a medical record and a suite of capabilities that support clinical care and workflows across care settings." WA has invested around A$150 million ($100 million) so far in the EMR project. The project is currently in phase 1 , which involves the implementation of digital medical records with single sign-on technology and virtual desktop infrastructure across state public hospitals. Online atlas on children, youth health goes live An online atlas focused on children and youth wellbeing has been recently launched by the University of Western Australia. The Australian Child and Youth Wellbeing Atlas, which UWA claims to be the world's first, is a free mapping resource providing location-specific data on children and young people’s health and wellbeing indicators. "The atlas highlights key indicators across health, education, and social outcomes, giving policymakers, researchers, and community leaders the ability to make data-driven decisions," explained Rebecca Glauert, project lead and associate professor at UWA School of Population and Global Health. UWA developed the online tool with the Queensland University of Technology.

An international research team has found almost a million potential sources of antibiotics in the natural world. An international research team has found almost a million potential sources of antibiotics in the natural world. Research published in the journal Cell by a team including Queensland University of Technology (QUT) computational biologist Associate Professor Luis Pedro Coelho has used machine learning to identify 863,498 promising antimicrobial peptides -- small molecules that can kill or inhibit the growth of infectious microbes. The findings of the study come with a renewed global focus on combatting antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as humanity contends with the growing number of superbugs resistant to current drugs. "There is an urgent need for new methods for antibiotic discovery," Professor Coelho, a researcher at the QUT Centre for Microbiome Research, said. The centre studies the structure and function of microbial communities from around the globe. "It is one of the top public health threats, killing 1.27 million people each year." Without intervention, it is estimated that AMR could cause up to 10 million deaths per year by 2050. "Using artificial intelligence to understand and harness the power of the global microbiome will hopefully drive innovative research for better public health outcomes," he said. The team verified the machine predictions by testing 100 laboratory-made peptides against clinically significant pathogens. They found 79 disrupted bacterial membranes and 63 specifically targeted antibiotic-resistant bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. "Moreover, some peptides helped to eliminate infections in mice; two in particular reduced bacteria by up to four orders of magnitude," Professor Coelho said. In a preclinical model, tested on infected mice, treatment with these peptides produced results similar to the effects of polymyxin B -- a commercially available antibiotic which is used to treat meningitis, pneumonia, sepsis and urinary tract infections. More than 60,000 metagenomes (a collection of genomes within a specific environment), which together contained the genetic makeup of over one million organisms, were analysed to get these results. They came from sources across the globe including marine and soil environments, and human and animal guts. The resulting AMPSphere -- a comprehensive database comprising these novel peptides -- has been published as a publicly available, open-access resource for new antibiotic discovery. Professor Coelho's research was conducted as part of his ARC Future Fellowship through the QUT School of Biomedical Science, in collaboration with the Cesar de la Fuente laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania, Fudan University, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory and APC Microbiome Ireland.

The team developing treatments for Parkinson’s disease by targeting the gut microbiome and gut-brain axis. Credit: Queensland University of Technology. Scientists of Queensland University of Technology (QUT) based at the Translational Research Institute (TRI) in Australia have secured an A$4m ($2.65m) grant from the US Department of Defense (DoD) to develop new treatments for Parkinson’s disease. Aimed at exploring the gut microbiome’s role in the disease, the funding will support a programme that could revolutionise treatment approaches. The scientists are assessing new therapeutics that target the gut microbiome and gut-brain axis. The grant was awarded to associate professor Richard Gordon and his team from the QUT School of Biomedical Sciences. They received the funds through congressionally directed medical research programmes. The investment will bolster the team’s ongoing research into Parkinson’s disease and facilitate the testing of new strategies to halt or reverse its progression. See Also: ASCO 2024: Verastem’s combo therapy for pancreatic cancer hits early trial success FDA advisory committee reviews Novo Nordisk insulin icodec for T1D The QUT team plans to identify new drug classes and develop engineered microbes as live biotherapeutics. These efforts aim to modify the gut ecosystem and trigger protective mechanisms against the disease. The research will utilise TRI’s clinical research facility for subject recruitment and sample collection. The gnotobiotic facility will carry out the microbiome work and biological research facilities will evaluate the newly developed therapeutics. Subject recruitment for the microbiome study is set to begin in August 2024, enrolling individuals with Parkinson’s disease and healthy volunteers. Participants will provide blood samples and use a take-home microbiome kit, which they can return by mail for analysis. Gordon stated: “Rather than taking the usual approach of blocking immune pathways that drive inflammation, our research will explore the potential of restoring the gut microbial ecosystem and harnessing protective factors lost in the disease to limit inflammation and prevent vulnerable neurons from degeneration. “If our approach is successful, it will open new avenues by which we can attempt to slow or stop Parkinson’s disease and improve the quality of life for millions living with this condition.” The US DoD-funded initiative builds upon previous research supported by the Michael J Fox Foundation and the Shake It Up Australia Foundation on the NLRP3 inflammasome and the gut microbiome.