Ramaciotti Foundations grant $1.5M to Australian biomedical research to make inexpensive medicines worldwide

The Clive and Vera Ramaciotti Foundations have revealed the 2015 recipients of its Biomedical Research Awards that will focus on improving the health and wellbeing of millions of people worldwide. Almost $1.5 million in total is distributed to seven biomedical researchers, with a single research receiving $1 million to create inexpensive medicines for people worldwide.

The past recipients of the Ramaciotti awards focused on the development of the first cervical cancer vaccines in the world and the Cochlear implant. To date, the $1 million award has been granted to two professors who will establish the Clive and Vera Ramaciotti Facility, or CVRF, for the project called Producing Pharmaceuticals in Plants.

Professor David Craik, of the University of Queensland’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience, and Professor Marilyn Anderson, of the La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science, La Trobe University, will be working on the “state-of-the-art facility” to develop technologies producing cheaper, potent next-generation medicines for patients in developed and developing countries.

Craik and Anderson’s work will focus on new drugs that could be incorporated into plant products such as bio-pills or seeds, and medicinal teas and foods. The Ramaciotti foundations aim to make the drugs inexpensive and helpful for poor patients who cannot tolerate the side effects of current medications.

“We are thrilled to receive the Ramaciotti Biomedical Research Award for our work on using plants as ‘biofactories’ for producing next-generation pharmaceuticals,” Craik said in a press release.

Ramaciotti Foundations are known to be one of the largest private contributors to biomedical research in Australia, according to Caitriona Fay, national manager of Philanthropy and Non Profit Services of Perpetual, the trustee of the foundations. With the current awards, the Ramaciotti Foundations have already provided almost $56 million for biomedical research since 1970.

Aside from the funds for the new Ramaciotti facility, four other recipients will have about $150,000 each from the Ramaciotti Health Investment Grants. The grants are for scientists beginning their early career to support health or medical research, and also with the potential to conduct clinical application within five years.

“The Health Investment Grants cannot be underestimated in the assistance they provide to our best young researchers as they move their work into practical clinical application,” said University of Sydney Professor Derek Hart, who led the Ramaciotti Scientific Advisory Committee to select the grant recipients. “The potential contribution of some of these projects is enormous,” he added.

Another research that discovered the protein family, called ROQUIN, was selected to receive the Ramaciotti Medal for Excellence in Biomedical Research. The researcher, Carola Vinuesa, a professor at the Australian National University, will receive an annual award of $50,000 due to her discovery that will allow new ways to diagnose and treat autoimmune diseases.

“As trustee of the Foundations, we have witnessed the life changing impact that philanthropy can have on millions of people. Thanks to Vera Ramaciotti’s vision and the legacy she has created, she has helped shape the futures of not only the recipients, but people worldwide who will benefit from their work,” Fay said.

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