Adjunct Associate Professor Elaine Wong leads the team working on world-leading research to develop gene therapy to repair and regenerate hearing using nanotechnology to target three genes that are essential to supporting cells in the cochlea.
Dr Wong is working alongside a dedicated team including Professor Marcus Atlas, Dr Filippo Valente at Ear Science, Dr Samuel McLenachan at Lions Eye Institute, Professor Lee Yong Lim at UWA, Dr Daniel Brown at Curtin University and Dr Livia Carvalho at University of Melbourne on novel nano-targeted gene therapy for hearing loss.
Supported by the Future Health Research and Innovation Fund, the WA Near Miss grants program assist WA researchers who submitted applicatio
ns to the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Ideas Grant scheme that were deemed suitable for funding but exceeded the NHMRC’s budget.
Successful applicants are given the opportunity to continue their valuable input towards specific health and medical research areas that will ultimately lead to improved health outcomes for the WA community.
Commenting on the award, Dr Wong said,
This grant will support the institute’s ongoing work in gene therapy. I am very privileged to lead an amazing team as we build on our knowledge and understanding of this groundbreaking research.
