The Office of Health and Medical Research (OHMR) delivered three rounds of Biospecimen Collection Grants (BCGs) to support collections of high quality biospecimens and associated data. The aim is to build a research asset of biospecimens for the NSW state and beyond to facilitate research on priority health issues affecting the NSW population.
The biospecimens will be collected via the statewide NSW Health Pathology network and processed and stored in the NSW Health Statewide Biobank. They will be linked to NSW Health data collections by the Centre for Health Record Linkage (CHeReL), a dedicated data linkage centre within NSW Health. In this way each biospecimen collection is curated with data that builds over time.
These biospecimen collections will be an important research asset that will help make a difference to the health of the community for generations to come. Recipients and details about their studies are listed below.
Applications for this funding have now closed.
More information is available at: https://www.medicalresearch.nsw.gov.au/biospecimen-collections/
Funded collections – round three
The collections received funding in round three of the Biospecimen Collection Grants scheme.
| Recipient | Collection | Organisation |
|---|---|---|
| Associate Professor Edmund Lau | Sydney Pulmonary Hypertension Biobank (SPHB) | Sydney Local Health District |
| Associate Professor Nicholas Wood | Biomarkers for adverse events of special interest following COVID-19 vaccines | National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance |
| Professor Anthony Kelleher | Critical Illness, Inflammation and Immunology Biobank (CI3 Biobank) | The Kirby Institute, University of New South Wales |
| Professor Pablo Fernandez-Penas | Nonsurgical Molecular Profiling in Skin Conditions | Western Sydney Local Health District |
| Dr Helen Williams | NSW Familial Hypercholesterolaemia Biobank | Westmead Hospital |
| Dr Martin McNamara | 45 and Up Study Biospecimen collection | Sax Institute |
| Associate Professor Anthony Delaney | Australian Brain Injury Biobank | Royal North Shore Hospital |
| Associate Professor Bernard J Hudson | Tick Borne Disease Longitudinal Bio-resource | NSW Health Pathology/NSLHD |
| Associate Professor Natasha Rogers | WE-CARE: WEstern CArdiorenal REpository | Westmead Institute for Medical Research |
| Dr. J Dinny Graham | Breast cancer associated lipids found in plasma | The Westmead Institute for Medical Research |
Funded collections – round two
The following collections received funding in round two of the Biospecimen Collection Grants scheme.
| Recipient | Collection | Organisation |
|---|---|---|
| Professor Lyn March | The Australian Arthritis and Autoimmune Biobank Collaborative (A3BC) | University of Sydney |
| Professor Mark Rees | The EpiGen NSW Collaborative | University of Sydney |
| Professor Richard Scolyer | Melanoma Institute Australia Biospecimen Bank – External Collections | Melanoma Institute Australia |
| Dr Winny Varikatt | Sydney Brain Tumour Bank and GlioNET Observational study, Westmead site | NSW Health Pathology |
| Dr Sradha Kotwal | Glomerular Disease Registry and Biobank (GRIT) | The George Institute for Global Health |
| Associate Professor Jodie Ingles | NSW HEARTS: The NSW Inherited Cardiomyopathy Cohort Study | Centenary Institute |
| Associate Professor Ruta Gupta | A Head and Neck Cancer Biobank for Discovery and Development of Novel Head and Neck Cancer Biomarkers and Therapies | NSW Health Pathology |
| Professor Gemma Figtree | The BioHEART Cohort | Northern Clinical School, The University of Sydney |
Funded collections – round one
The collections received funding in round one of the Biospecimen Collection Grants scheme.
| Recipient | Collection | Organisation |
|---|---|---|
| Professor Lyn March | The Australian Arthritis and Autoimmune Biobank Collaborative (A3BC) | University of Sydney |
| Professor John Simes | Embedding Research (and Evidence) in Cancer Healthcare -EnRICH | Sydney Catalyst Translational Cancer Research Centre, NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre, University of Sydney |
| Dr Janice Fullerton | 45 and Up Bipolar Disorder Substudy | UNSW, Neuroscience Research Australia |
| Professor Peter Wark | Cystic Fibrosis Biological Specispecimens | Centre for Healthy Lungs, Hunter Medical Research Institute, University of Newcastle |
| Professor Peter Cistulli | Sydney Sleep Biobank | Charles Perkins Centre, The University of Sydney |
| Professor Jonathan Iredell | NSW Pathogen Biobank | NSW Health Pathology |
| Dr Martin McNamara | The 45 and Up Biospecimen Collection | Sax Institute |
| Professor Gemma Figtree | The BioHEART Cohort | Northern Clinical School, The University of Sydney |
| Prof Dominic Dwyer | Serum biobanks for infectious diseases studies | NSWHP-ICPMR, Westmead Hospital |
| Professor Anna de Fazio | Translational Australian New Zealand Gynaecological Oncology Group (TR-ANZGOG) | Australia New Zealand Gynaecological Oncology Group (ANZGOG) |
For more information
- Contact the Biospecimen Collection Grants team by visiting the Office for Health and Medical Research website or email: [email protected]
- Contact the NSW Health Statewide Biobank team: [email protected]
- Contact the Centre for Health Research Linkage (CHeReL): [email protected]
- Access information about routinely linked NSW Health datasets available for linkage to biospecimens including data dictionaries and variable lists at CHeReL’s Data Dictionaries resource.