About Us

Executive Summary

Our centre has a goal to perform an international standard of medical research. We have built up a strong medical research network including scientists and collaborators from molecular biology (CMB), clinical medicine (GMS), medical imaging (ANSTO), chemistry (CMC), drug delivery (Sydney University) and material science (ISEM). Our centre has 23 members including 8 doctoral scientists. We have state-of-the-art technology in order to study altered genes, proteins and organs from the diseased state. Currently, we hold 5 NHMRC grants, of those four are University of Wollongong  based projects ($1.66M) and one is in collaboration with the Garvin Medical Research Institute. In the past 5 years we have published 108 international peer reviewed papers, 66 conference presentations, 2 books, and have had 7 PhD, 2 Master’s and 12 Honours completions. Our research projects are basic scientific theory driven into the understanding of the pathophysiology, prevention and treatment of diseases including schizophrenia, obesity and cancer. We encourage and carry out translational research ranging from bench top to bed side research. It is our goal in the next 3 years to build an international centre of excellence in medical research.

Aims and Significance

We aim to build a centre of excellence in medical research at the international level. Medical research for the better health of all Australians is the first priority of this country. CTN’s expertise lies in the field of metabolism and mental health. Overweight and obesity has reached 40% of the population in Australia. The consequences of obesity are severe and include Type II diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and certain cancers, such as bowel cancer. Mental health is also an important health issue needing immediate attention to develop good strategies for prevention and better treatment. Currently, the University of Wollongong has put forward a substantial amount of effort to increase research activity in medical research. We are very happy to contribute and are proud of being a part of this great initiative.

Research Plan

We plan to promote the standard of our discovery research, increase commercialisation studies, attract major infrastructural funding, and build up an expert network for medical research. In order to achieve these goals we have invested a substantial amount of time and funding to: set up new assays for the detection of diseased genes and proteins; build up a histological laboratory; and establish animal models with specific gene knockouts to mimic diseased conditions. All these have accelerated exponentially in our centre during the last 3 years with the support from various levels of this University (as an URC research initiative) as well as the NHMRC, ARC-Linkage, Schizophrenia Research Institute (SRI), and AstraZeneca. However, we do realise that we need to improve and grow in a number of areas prior to being recognised as a research strength of this University. We hope to achieve this in 3 years by: 

1. attracting a senior researcher with an outstanding track record at the NHMRC competitive level, 
2. helping junior researchers promote to senior level and have their independent research program in the main research stream of our Centre, and, 
3. enhancing our research activity in collaboration with SRI, ANSTO, Colorado Nutrition Centre and centres of university strength.

At the project research end, the vision of the CTN is to find the means to prevent and treat schizophrenia, obesity and obesity-related colon cancer. Our approach is to study the pathological mechanisms of these diseases using human brain tissue, animal models and cell culture. New findings are then translated into novel pharmacological and dietary interventions for human trials. Major research focus>>

Flow on Expectations>>