The George Institute for Global Health has received a landmark $24 million in NHMRC funding for research to prevent and treat cardiometabolic diseases.

The projects include:

• Better methods of managing stroke, including large scale clinical trials investigating the effects of blood pressure lowering in the prevention of stroke, and for improving outcomes in acute stroke patients, as well as new approaches to stroke rehabilitation.
• Trials of new combination pills for blood pressure management, aiming to make treatment simpler and more effective for patients.
• Whether specific blood sugar lowering medicines can prevent kidney damage and kidney failure in people with diabetes.
• A specific focus on improving the prevention and management of cardiovascular disease in women.

Professor Stephen MacMahon, Principal Director and Co-Founder of The George Institute for Global Health and Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at UNSW, said the funding recognised the global impact of the Institute’s research talent.

“The new funding will enable them to expand their high-impact work on the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases, kidney disease and diabetes, which remain the leading causes of early death in this country and many others,” he said.

Professor Bruce Neal, Deputy Director of The George Institute, Australia added the funding allowed for them ‘to search for solutions throughout a patient’s life and across every point of their healthcare journey’.

‘’Prevention is a big part of our work.  We want to make sure people are treated better in our hospitals but also to figure out how to keep them out of there in the first place.”

Program leads include Professor Anushka Patel, Professor Anthony Rodgers, Professor John Chalmers, Professor Clara Chow and Professor Richard Lindley.