Queensland COVID-19 research
This page of Queensland’s research related to the COVID-19 pandemic is compiled from information provided by Queensland universities and research institutes.
While many of our researchers are working on potential vaccines, treatments and other medical interventions, other researchers are applying their expertise to other impacts of the pandemic upon our economy and other aspects of society. The data includes immediate research activity, recent relevant work, proposed research (subject to available funds) and other responses using the resources and expertise of our research organisations.
Listing all of 27 matching responses out of 149 total responses.
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A systematic review of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare utilisation September 2021
This systematic review by the Institute for Evidence-Based Healthcare sought to determine the extent and nature of changes in utilisation of healthcare services during COVID-19 pandemic by comparing utilisation of services during the pandemic to at least one comparable period in prior years. Services included visits, admissions, diagnostics, and therapeutics. The review included 81 studies across 20 countries that reported on over 11 million services pre-pandemic and 6.9 million services during pandemic. The review concluded that healthcare utilisation decreased by about a third during the pandemic, with considerable variation, and with greater reductions among people with less severe illness. While addressing unmet need remains a priority, studies of health impacts of reductions may help health-systems prioritise higher-value care in the post-pandemic recovery.
#Treatment#Diagnostics
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Institute for Evidence-Based Healthcare
Bond University - Contact details
- Asst Prof Ray Moynihan
Asst Prof
raymoynihan@bond.edu.au
+617 5595 4787 - Collaborations
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- Co-Researcher:
- Sharon Sanders - Institute for Evidence-Based Healthcare
- Dr Zoe A Michaleff - Institute for Evidence-Based Healthcare
- Asst Prof Anna Scott - Institute for Evidence-Based Healthcare
- Justin Clark - Institute for Evidence-Based Healthcare
- Emma J To - University of Calgary
- Assoc Prof Mark Jones - Institute for Evidence-Based Healthcare
- Eliza Kitchener - Griffith University
- Melissa Fox - Health Consumers Queensland
- Minna Johansson - Cochrane Sustainable Healthcare
- Eddy Lang - University of Calgary
- Anne Duggan - Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare
- Proff Ian Scott - Princess Alexander Hospital
- Dr Loai Albarqouni - Institute for Evidence-Based Healthcare
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A systematic review of soap versus sanitiser for preventing the transmission of acute respiratory infections September 2021
Early on in the COVID-19 pandemic researchers from the Institute for Evidence-Based Healthcare undertook a systematic review of randomised trials to compare the effectiveness of hand hygiene using alcohol-based hand sanitiser to soap and water for preventing the transmission of acute respiratory infections, and assess the relationship between the dose of hand hygiene and the number of acute respiratory infections, influenza-like illness, or influenza events. The review concluded that dequately performed hand hygiene, with either soap or sanitiser, reduces the risk of acute respiratory infections virus transmission, however direct and indirect evidence suggest sanitiser might be more effective in practice.
#Treatment#Prevention#Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)#Infection management
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Institute for Evidence-Based Healthcare
Bond University - Contact details
- Prof Tammy Hoffmann
Epidemiologist
thoffmann@bond.edu.au
+617 5595 5522 - Collaborations
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- Co-researchers: Dr Mina Bakhit - Institute for Evidence-Based Healthcare
- Dr Natalia Krzyzaniak - Institute for Evidence-Based Healthcare
- Prof Chris del Mar - Institute for Evidence-Based Healthcare
- Asst Prof Anna Scott - Institute for Evidence-Based Healthcare
- Prof Paul Glasziou - Institute for Evidence-Based Healthcare
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A systematic review and meta-analysis of physical interventions (face masks, eye protection and person distancing) to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses September 2021
This systematic Cochrane Review examined the effectiveness of eye protection, face masks, or person distancing on interrupting or reducing the spread of respiratory viruses. This review included a meta-analysis of observational studies during the SARS outbreak of 2003. The study led by the University of Oxford involving seven researchers from Bond Univesity examined randomised and cluster-randomised trials of people of any age, testing the use of eye protection, face masks, or person distancing against standard practice, or a similar physical barrier. Outcomes included any acute respiratory illness and its related consequences. The preprint, still to be peer-reviewed report concluded: Most included trials had poor design, reporting and sparse events. There was insufficient evidence to provide a recommendation on the use of facial barriers without other measures. The researchers found insufficient evidence for a difference between surgical masks and N95 respirators and limited evidence to support effectiveness of quarantine. Based on observational evidence from the previous SARS epidemic included in the previous version of their Cochrane review the researchers recommend the use of masks combined with other measures.
#Treatment#Prevention
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Institute for Evidence-Based Healthcare
Bond University - Contact details
- A/Prof Mark Jones
Biostatistician
majones@bond.edu.au
+61 7 5595 5523
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Identifying drug combinations to prevent COVID-19 from entering host cells September 2021
SARS-CoV-2 entry into cells requires the activation of spike proteins on the virus surface by one of two classes of host proteases (enzymes that speed up the breakdown of proteins): the serine protease (TMPRSS2) and cysteine proteases (Cathepsin B/L). Drugs targeting these protease pathways are in clinical trials for COVID-19 treatment. Ideally, you need to block both proteases at once. Researchers made a computational model of SARS-CoV-2 entry via the two pathways and then simulated blocking each pathway, as well as both pathways at once, to see what effect this would have on viral entry. Targeting both the pathways simultaneously had an unexpected, but welcome, synergistic effect whereby their combined effect is more than their individual effects.
#Treatment
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Queensland Brain Institute
The University of Queensland - Contact details
- Dr Pranesh Padmanabhan
Research Fellow
p.padmanabhan@uq.edu.au
+617 3346 6341 - Collaborations
- Collaborator: Indian Institute of Science (IISc)
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Researchers develop low-cost ventilator to help countries still fighting COVID-19 using a system to automate the ambu bag September 2021
A team led by Professor Yongsheng Gao at GU have created the Ventil-8, a device that turns ambu bags, the self-inflating hand pump bag used in resuscitation into automated ventilators. “This replacement ventilator needed to be low-cost and built quickly and relatively easily anywhere in the world. A key design requirement was that all its components have to be available locally and accessible within one day, and in sufficient quantities to create thousands.” Professor Gao said. The team settled on a prototype driven by an easily available car windscreen wiper motor that cost just AUS $600. “The makeshift ventilator meets the doctors’ needs, with adjustable volume and speed or breaths per minute and three different Inspiratory/Expiratory (I/E) ratios,” said Dr Mousa Hadipour, a research fellow at GU’s Institute for Integrated and Intelligent Systems.
#Treatment
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Institute for Integrated and Intelligent Systems
Griffith University - Contact details
- Prof Yongsheng Gao
Director
yongsheng.gao@griffith.edu.au
+61 (0)7 3735 3652
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Placebo-controlled randomized Clinical Trial of Perispinal Etanercept (Enbrel) in Australian patients affected by stroke September 2021
There is a 37% increase of the incidence of stroke in those infected by COVID-19. The underlying pathology of COVID-19 is systemic inflammation and is closely related to post-stroke pathology. Etanercept (Enbrel) has been used for many years to treat inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. A recent trial led by Associate Professor Stephen Ralph from GU’s Menzies Health Institute Queensland showed a significant decrease in post-stroke pain levels and reduced muscle spasticity experienced by people affected by stroke. Subject to funding and approvals this treatment will be trialled in Australian COVID-19 patients affected by stroke.
#Treatment
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Menzies Health Institute Queensland (MHIQ)
- Griffith University
- University of Southern Queensland
- Contact details
- Ass Prof Stephen Ralph
Co-investigator
s.ralph@griffith.edu.au
+61 (0)7 5552 8583 - Collaborations
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Preventing the respiratory failure causing COVID-19 mortality, potent new drugs targeting hyperinflammation September 2021
This Advance Queensland Industry Research Fellowship project led by Dr Lisa Philp, leader of the Translational Adipokine Research group, within the Australian Prostate Cancer Research Centre, will develop highly potent novel drugs to prevent and cure acute respiratory distress syndrome, the rapid-onset life-threatening respiratory failure that is killing patients with COVID-19 and other respiratory viruses. These drugs will save lives by targeting adipokine receptors responsible for the extreme overreaction of the body’s immune system and hyperactive inflammatory response that underpin rapid patient decline from respiratory failure.
#Treatment
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Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation
Queensland University of Technology - Contact details
- Dr Lisa Philp
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
lisa.philp@qut.edu.au
+61 7 3443 7283 - Collaborations
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- Allysta Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
- Arrevus, Inc.
- Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital
- Princess Alexandra Hospital ICU
- Translational Research Institute
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Development and translation of epigenetic drugs for infectious diseases including COVID-19 and also heart failure August 2021
A team of QIMR Berghofer researchers lead by A/Prof James Hudson have discovered some of the ways COVID-19 damages the heart. By screening for drugs using human cardiac organoids they have identified a class of drugs that could potentially protect or reverse this cardiac injury. In severe cases of COVID-19, the immune system overreacts to the infection, releasing inflammatory molecules called cytokines into the bloodstream. This so-called ’cytokine storm’ can damage multiple organs, including the heart. Canadian company Resverlogix has used the QIMR Berghofer research findings as the basis for expanding its clinical trial of the drug, apabetalone, in COVID-19 patients. This project is one of several projects enabled by a $5 million funding injection, in 2020, from the Queensland Government.
#Treatment#Drug discovery
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- Contact details
- Associate Professor James Hudson
Group Leader
james.hudson@qimrberghofer.edu.au
+617 43225 8331 - Collaborations
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- Collaborators:
- Professor Andreas Suhrbier, QIMR Berghofer">
- Professor David James, University of Sydney
- Resverlogix
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Better statistical methods to discover host genetic factors in symptom response to SARS-CoV-2 infection August 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic has infected >5 million people worldwide. While the majority of infected individuals recover within a few weeks of infection, others develop severe forms, that in some cases prove fatal. To date, the causes of differences in symptom response are unknown. In this proposal, we seek to discover genetic factors that can contribute to explaining these differences. Our findings have the potential to inform the design and analysis of clinical trials for vaccines and treatments.
#Diagnostics#Infection management#Treatment
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Institute for Molecular Bioscience
The University of Queensland - Contact details
- Dr Loic Yengo Dimbou
ARC DECRA Fellow
l.yengo@imb.uq.edu.au
+617 3346 2095 - Collaborations
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- Collaborators:
- Professor Peter Visscher, Institute for Molecular Bioscience
- Professor Naomi Wray, Institute for Molecular Bioscience
- Jian Yang, , Institute for Molecular Bioscience
- Dr Kirsty Short, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences
- Martin Tobin, UK Biobank
- Harold Sneider, Lifelines Biobank, Netherlands
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The Immuno-Storm Chip for COVID-19 patients - An early warning for immune system over-reaction in cancer treatment and COVID-19 August 2021
The team at the Centre for Personalised Nanomedicine, led by Prof Matt Trau, have developed a nanopillar chip to read molecular signatures in the blood, such as those left by immune cells. The latest data show that the majority of COVID-19 deaths seem to arise (very quickly) after a cytokine storm where the immune system of a patient over-responds to the infection, killing the patient. Deploying this technology, to detect these cytokine storms early, could save many lives by prioritising hospital treatment and resources to those patients in danger.
#Diagnostics#Infection management#Treatment
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Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology
The University of Queensland - Contact details
- Professor Matt Trau
Senior Group Leader
m.trau@uq.edu.au
+617 3346 4173 - Collaborations
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- Collaborators:
- Dr Alain Wuethrich, Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology
- Ms Junrong Li, Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology
- Dr Andreas Behren at the Olivia Newton John Cancer Centre
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The National COVID-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce - Primary and Chronic Care Committee August 2021
As clinicians work to provide the best possible care for Australians during the COVID-19 pandemic, we are working to keep them up-to-date with the latest evidence. Clinician researchers Prof Sarah Larkins, James Cook University and Dr Mark Morgan, Bond University co-chair the Taskforce Primary and Chronic Care Panel. This panel is synthesizing emerging evidence about best care for people with acute COVID-19 and longer term symptoms following COVID-19 infection. This is presented in clinical flowcharts and recommendations, to assist clinicians at the point of care.
#Treatment#Epidemiology#Data science#Evidence based guidelines
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Anton Breinl Research Centre for Health Systems Strengthening
James Cook University - Contact details
- Prof Sarah Larkins
Director, Research Development, DTHM
sarah.larkins@jcu.edu.au
+614 0888 2639 - Collaborations
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- Collaborators:
- National COVID19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce - Prof Julian Elliott
- A/Prof Mark Morgan - Bond University
- Prof Mieke van Driel, The University of Queensland
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Development of a novel antiviral agent to treat and prevent infections of SARS-CoV-2 May 2021
Existing antivirals have only limited efficacy against COVID-19. With the threat of immune escape variants of the SARS-CoV-2 emerging, a broad-spectrum antiviral treatment is needed. This project will adapt our patent-pending defective interfering particles (DIPs) production platform to make SARS-CoV-2 DIPs, which will be investigated for anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity in cell-based assays and in a mouse model of SARS-CoV-2 infection.
#Treatment#Antivirals
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- Contact details
- Associate Professor David Harrich
Senior Research Fellow
david.harrich@qimrberghofer.edu.au
+617 3845 3679 - Collaborations
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- Dongsheng Li, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute
- Professor Andreas Suhrbier, QIMR Berghofer
- Dr Min-Shuan Lin
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Application of separation technologies for rapid treatment of COVID-19 and related outbreaks August 2021
This Advance Queensland Industry Research Fellowship project led by Dr Craig Bell from UQ’s Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology aims to produce a rapid, first-pass treatment for COVID-19 patients, and inoculation protection for front-line health workers. This project will evaluate application of separation membranes to create concentrated antibody-rich hyperimmune sera derived from blood of recovered COVID-19 patients. Without working vaccines, hyperimmune sera are the only viable rapid turnaround treatment for infectious diseases now and in the future.
#Treatment
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Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology
The University of Queensland - Contact details
- Dr Craig Bell
UQ Amplify Researcher
c.bell1@uq.edu.au
+61 7 334 60322 - Collaborations
- Aegros
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Accelerating technology uptake during a pandemic: enabling and extending delivery of rehabilitation August 2020
COVID-19 significantly disrupted the delivery of healthcare, especially in areas that require physical interaction, such as disability and rehabilitation. Although existing technology could enable remote interventions, its widespread adoption is limited. In this Advance Queensland Industry Research Fellowship project led by Dr Camila Shirota from the Griffith University Hopkins Centre, a Technology Assessment and Adoption Framework will be co-designed across multiple stakeholders, to accelerate and facilitate the uptake of remote technology in rehabilitation settings across Queensland.
#Treatment
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The Hopkins Centre, Menzies Health Institute Queensland
Griffith University - Contact details
- Dr Camila Shirota
Research Fellow
c.shirota@griffith.edu.au
+617 3735 8101 - Collaborations
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- Spinal Life Australia
- Metro South Hospital and Health Service
- Motor Accident Insurance Commission
- Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing Hub
- Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service
- The University of Queensland
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Optimising telehealth to future-proof the delivery of autism related services August 2020
This Advance Queensland Industry Research Fellowship project led by A/Prof David Trembath from the Griffith University Hopkins Centre will support Queensland’s lead service provider for individuals with autism and their families as it responds to COVID-19 disruption and builds resilience through the transition to telehealth delivery. The work will identify and extend the most effective models to keep individuals and families supported, minimise staff impacts, and improve access to services for regional and remote Queenslanders.
#Treatment
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The Hopkins Centre, Menzies Health Institute Queensland
Griffith University - Contact details
- A/Prof David Trembath
Deputy Research Director
d.trembath@griffith.edu.au
+617 5678 0103 - Collaborations
- Autism Queensland
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COVID-19 Vaccine Efficacy in patients with Haematological Malignancy (COVEM) March 2021
This study will collect blood samples from patients receiving vaccination for SARS-CoV-2 virus which causes Corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We will examine cellular and humoral immune responses to vaccination in patients who have received treatments for haematological malignancies targeting specific immune cells, B cells, and those who have undergone bone marrow transplantation. This will enable us to understand how these treatments affect the immune response to COVID-19 vaccination and whether vaccination will provide effective protection in patients with haematological malignancies.
#Treatment
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- Contact details
- Dr Andrea Henden
Research Officer
andrea.henden@qimrberghofer.edu.au
+61 7 (0)408 742 334 - Collaborations
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- Collaborators:
- Dr Siok Tey - QIMR Berghofer
- Dr Cameron Curley - Metro North Hospital and Health Service
- Dr Patrick Harris - UQ Centre for Clinical Research
- Prof David Paterson - UQ Centre for Clinical Research
- Dr Robert Bird - Director of Haematology Queensland Health
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Advancing a clinical drug targeting the complement system to treat COVID-19 April 2021
COVID-19 is an infectious and potentially lethal respiratory disease that has altered the way we all live. There is, therefore, an urgent need to identify effective drugs for this disease. This Advance Queensland Industry Research Fellowship project led by
Dr John Lee at UQ School of Biomedical Sciences entails validating and advancing a pre-existing clinical drug that targets our immune system, in the hope of finding an effective therapy for COVID-19 patients.
#Treatment
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School of Biomedical Sciences
The University of Queensland - Contact details
- Dr John Lee
Advance Queensland Industry Research Fellow
j.lee9@uq.edu.au
+61 7 336 52384 - Collaborations
- Alsonex Pty Ltd
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Drug discovery team use super-computer to screen compounds for treatment of COVID-19 May 2021
The QUT Cancer and Ageing Research Program’s drug discovery team is using a super-computer to screen thousands of FDA-approved therapeutics and millions of drug-like compounds to see if any of them could be effective in treating COVID-19. In parallel, they have the capacity to physically screen 40,000 therapeutics in their TRI-based laboratory.
#Treatment
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Cancer and Ageing Research Program
Queensland University of Technology - Contact details
- Prof Derek Richard
derek.richard@qut.edu.au
+61 7 34437236 - Collaborations
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- Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation
- Translational Research Institute
- PA Research Foundation
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Telehealth and coronavirus: Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) activity in Australia April 2021
In March 2020, additional telehealth item numbers were added to the Australian Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) to encourage physical distancing, for those accessing medical, nursing and allied health services during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. UQ’s Centre for Online Health (COH) has analysed the MBS service data and summarised telehealth uptake throughout Australia. This information will be updated on a monthly basis.
#Treatment
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Centre for Online Health, Centre for Health Services Research
The University of Queensland - Contact details
- Dr Centaine Snoswell
Research Fellow Health Economics
c.snoswell@uq.edu.au
+61 7 3176 5314 - Collaborations
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- Co-researchers:
- Monica Taylor
- Georgina Hobson
- A/Prof Liam Caffery
- Dr Emma Thomas
- Dr Helen Haydon
- Prof Anthony Smith
- Collaborator: NHMRC Partnership Centre for Health System Sustainability
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Protecting frontline workers from COVID-19 June 2020
Prof Bala Venkatesh, Director of the Intensive Care Unit at the Wesley Hospital is leading the “Protecting frontline workers from COVID-19” research project. The project, due for completion in July 2020, sets out to determine whether the safe, low-cost, orally available agent – hydroxychloroquine – will prevent COVID-19 infection in healthcare workers. HCQ has shown promising efficacy in preventing COVID-19 in previous research – but needs to be tested in a large multi-site clinical trial. Every day, front-line healthcare workers come face-to-face with COVID-19; putting their lives at risk in order to save others. In the 2003 SARS pandemic, healthcare workers accounted for 21% of global cases. This trial does not use hydroxychloroquine for the treatment of COVID-19, it is only being tested with healthy healthcare workers for preventative or prophylactic use.
#Treatment
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COVID-19 Rapid Response Research Centre
Wesley Medical Research - Contact details
- Prof Bala Venkatesh
Director of the Intensive Care Unit at The Wesley Hospital
balasubramanian.venkatesh@uq.edu.au
07 3721 1500 - Collaborations
- Partners: The George Institute for Global Health
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QUT and Oxford researchers collaborate on new COVID-19 asthma drug trial July 2020
QUT mathematician, physician and Australian Research Council Future Fellow, A/Prof. Dan Nicolau, is a lead researcher in the STOIC (STerOids In COVID-19) trial. A/Prof Nicolau and Prof. Bafahdel from University of Oxford had noticed early in the pandemic that people with asthma and the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) were under-represented in the numbers of seriously ill COVID-19 patients. The STOIC trial is looking at whether asthma inhalers given to people with early stage COVID-19 can reduce progression of respiratory illness and cut emergency department presentations and hospital admissions. Prof. Nicolau and the QUT team will be coordinating trial data analysis, modelling of pathological mechanisms and building COVID-19 maths models to explain and use the clinical trial data to optimise patient treatment, while Prof. Mona Bafahdel will lead the clinical trial with about 500 patients. Some patients will be given the inexpensive, widely-prescribed inhaler medication corticosteroid budesonide that is used to prevent and control asthma symptoms, while others are given a placebo. Budesonide acts to reduce irritation and inflammation of the lungs and airways.
#Data science#Treatment
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Science and Engineering Faculty, School of Mathematical Sciences
Queensland University of Technology - Contact details
- A/Prof Dan Nicolau
Future Fellow, Science and Engineering Faculty
dan.nicolau@qut.edu.au
+61 7 3138 5238 - Collaborations
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- Co-researchers: Alexander Hasson - QUT Honours student
- Prof. Mona Bafahdel - University of Oxford
- A/Prof. Dr Nabil Fadai - University of Nottingham
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The COVID-19 Critical Care Consortium January 2022
The COVID-19 Critical Care Consortium (incorporating the ECMOCARD - COVID Critical group) led by Prof John Fraser is a global alliance of healthcare professionals and researchers committed to using groundbreaking technology to identify the most effective treatments for the most critically ill COVID-19 patients. Their mission is to equip all intensive care clinicians, regardless of nationality or affiliation, with the best and most up-to-date information to save lives and improve outcomes for their patients. To date, the consortium have collected over 35 million data point from over 16,000 ICU COVID-19 patients across 380 sites and 54 countries and harnesses AI and machine learning to draw insights from the anonymised “big data” as it is compiled. The consortium has created a world-first database to build an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) profile for a disease that was completely unknown to the world before December 2019 and openly publishes its results. The consortium is tracking the long-term progress of discharged patients, empowering governments and healthcare providers to budget and plan more effectively for future outbreaks and ongoing health issues caused by the virus
#Treatment
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The COVID-19 Critical Care Consortium
The University of Queensland, and The Prince Charles Hospital - Contact details
- Prof John Fraser
Chief Investigator, Director of Critical Care Research Group
ECMOCARD@health.qld.gov.au
+617 3139 6880 - Collaborations
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- Collaborations: The Prince Charles Hospital Foundation
- Wesley Medical Research
- Queensland Health
- Queensland University of Technology
- CSIRO
- Fisher & Paykel Healthcare
- ISARIC
- ISARIC
- SPRINT-SARI
- University of Oxford
- Extracorporeal Life Support Organisation (ELSO)
- ECMOnet
- ANZIC-CTG
- ICCTN
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The Long-term Impact of COVID-19 on survivors June 2020
Evidence from the 2003 SARS outbreak indicates that COVID-19 could substantially affect the quality of life in survivors. This two-year study, led by Associate Professor Gianluigi Li Bassi, ICU Specialist, St Andrew’s War Memorial Hospital (part of Wesley Medical Research), will investigate the long-term impact of COVID-19 on the millions of people infected with the virus around the world, to understand their future medical care. The work by A/Prof Gianluigi Li Bassi aims to understand the impact of COVID-19 on health outcomes such as renal, pulmonary, liver and neurological dysfunction and general health-related quality of life.
#Treatment
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COVID-19 Rapid Response Research Centre
Wesley Medical Research - Contact details
- Ass Prof Gianluigi Li Bassi
ICU Specialist, St Andrew’s War Memorial Hospital
g.libassi@uq.edu.au - Collaborations
- Co-researcher: Prof John Fraser, Director ICU, St Andrews War Memorial Hospital
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Six COVID-19 drug leads identified April 2020
A team of international researchers, including some from UQ, has tested over 10,000 approved drugs, drug candidates in clinical trials and other compounds as potential leads for fighting COVID-19. The research involved a program of high-throughput drug screening, both in laboratories and using computer software to predict how different drugs bind to the virus. The main COVID-19 virus enzyme called main protease or Mpro, was targeted as it plays a pivotal role in viral replication and transcription – but as humans don’t carry this enzyme, drugs that target Mpro are likely to have low toxicity for people. Researchers identified six drugs that appear to effectively inhibit the enzyme, with one drug of particular interest. The results of the study have been published in Nature for researchers across the world.
#Treatment
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School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences
The University of Queensland - Contact details
- Prof Luke Guddat
luke.guddat@uq.edu.au
+61 7 336 53549 - Collaborations
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- Project Leaders: ShanghaiTech University
- Funders:
- National Key R&D Programmes of China
- Project of International Cooperation and Exchanges - National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality
- Department of Science and Technology of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region
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Use of convalescent plasma in clinical trials for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 June 2020
Australian research into the use of convalescent plasma in clinical trials for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 should be supported according to a leading immunologist from Griffith University’s Institute for Glycomics. Professor Michael Good AO, a member of the National COVID-19 Health and Research Advisory Committee and chair of the working group on convalescent plasma therapy, said the working group’s conclusions included the active support of research into trials of convalescent plasma for treatment and prophylaxis. “Convalescent plasma therapy involves the transfusion of blood plasma collected from patients recovered from COVID-19. As they will have produced antibodies against the disease, the aim is to provide passive immunity in infected patients, as opposed to active immunity in patients that would be induced by a vaccine.” Said Professor Good. Convalescent plasma is not a new therapy and has been used and trialled in influenza, SARS-CoV-1 and Ebola infection, as well as in many established diseases such as diphtheria and tetanus.
#Treatment
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Institute for Glycomics
Griffith University - Contact details
- Prof Michael Good
Principal Research Leader
michael.good@griffith.edu.au
+61 (0)7 5552 9435
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MitoKhondrion: Decreasing COVID-19 mortality by increasing the functioning of our cell’s powerhouses August 2020
Protecting our most vulnerable from COVID-19 death is a prime medical priority. Kidney disease, often diabetes-caused, can contribute significantly to health complications in COVID-19 patients. Indeed 20-40% of COVID-19 patients in intensive care units suffer kidney failure. This Advance Queensland Industry Research Fellowship project led by Dr Mitchell Sullivan with Mater Research aims to significantly improve COVID-19 survival rates by protecting kidneys using a novel approach with potentially broad application to coronavirus diseases.
#Treatment
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Mater Research
The University of Queensland - Contact details
- Dr Mitchell Sullivan
Mater Research Career Track Fellow
mitchell.sullivan@mater.uq.edu.au - Collaborations
- Mater Misericordiae Ltd
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Stopping COVID-19 by targeting the viral replication August 2020
This Advance Queensland Industry Research Fellowship project led by Dr Mark Adams at QUT’s Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation seeks to determine the effectiveness of a novel anti-SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19 causing virus) candidate named DLSK02. DLSK02 is a first-in-class inhibitor of the SARS-CoV-2 replication complex. If the drug works, it will effectively stop the ability of the virus to replicate and survive.
#Treatment
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Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation
Queensland University of Technology - Contact details
- Dr Mark Adams
Strategic Research Fellow
mn.adams@qut.edu.au
+61 7 3443 7324 - Collaborations
- CARP Pharmaceuticals
Other Queensland COVID-19 initiatives
- Queensland Government
- Coronavirus (COVID-19) business assistance finder
- Life Sciences Queensland
- Life Sciences Queensland joins the data-powered alliance to stop COVID-19
Key Australian COVID-19 initiatives
- Australian Academy of Science
- Rapid Research Information Forum (RRIF)
- COVID-19 Expert Database
Key international COVID-19 initiatives
- CORD-19 (COVID-19 Open Research Dataset)
- Free database of 130,000 plus COVID-19 open research papers