A clinical trial of new treatments for relapsed acquired aplastic anaemia or Bone Marrow Failure Syndrome (BMFS) in younger Australians is to go ahead with $1 million in funding from the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF).

Funding for the RESELECT trial will be provided to Maddie Riewoldt’s Vision, which operates the Centre of Research Excellence in Bone Marrow Biology in Melbourne.

The trial – Rescuing bone marrow function in patients with relapsed acquired Aplastic Anaemia and/or bone marrow failure post allogeneic stem Cell Transplantation (RESELECT) – will provide patients immediate access to novel therapies. It will simultaneously developing a platform for the delivery of a pipeline of innovative treatments, including cutting edge cellular and gene therapies, for subsequent patient cohorts.

Partners in the trial are Royal Melbourne Hospital, ACRF Translational Research Laboratory Melbourne, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Fiona Stanley Hospital in Murdoch, Western Australia, and St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney.

About 160 Australians, the majority of whom are children or adolescents, are diagnosed with a BMFS each year, and more than 50% of these patients will die from their disease.

The Maddie’s Vision Scientific Advisory Committee includes adult and paediatric haematologists/oncologists and researchers. Chaired by Professor David Ritchie, a Haematologist and Bone Marrow transplant specialist at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, its function is to reviews and award funding to research projects that are criteria specific and scientific merit based via a competitive and transparent twice-yearly granting round.

The grant is being made under the MRFF’s Emerging Priorities and Consumer Driven Research Initiative.