A joint research team have received the $1 million Ramaciotti Biomedical Research Award to create a 'Centre for Kinomics'.
Kinomics is the detailed study of kinases. About 2% of the human genome appears to encode at least 515 protein kinases. Pharmaceutical companies are primarily attracted to protein kinases because of their linkage to over 400 human diseases, and the fact that as signalling enzymes they comprise about a fifth of the potential protein targets for drugs. The joint research team is led by Professor Phillip Robinson and Professor Roger Reddel from the Children's Medical Research Institute, and Professor Adam McCluskey from The University of Newcastle.
The ‘Centre for Kinomics’ will be located within two new custom-built research laboratories - one based at the Children's Medical Research Institute and the other at the University of Newcastle. The laboratories will provide the resources for 23 participating New South Wales research teams to analyse current therapeutic drugs and develop new, more effective ones.
“Receiving this funding means that people suffering from a range of conditions such as neurological diseases, viral diseases, inflammatory conditions and cancer will benefit, because scientists from all over the state will have access to this equipment for a broad range of research projects," said Professor Robinson. "Essentially, the equipment will allow scientists to identify the undesirable elements of existing therapeutic drugs - in particular the cause of negative side effects – and then use this information to develop new therapeutics.”
The grant is part of the annual awards made by the Ramaciotti Foundations, thanks to an initial bequest made in the early 1970s.
