Theme Collaborative Seed Grant Recipients
Our Theme Collaborative Seed Grant Schemes provide Early and Mid-Career Researchers (EMCRs) at UNSW opportunities to lead innovative projects. Funded by UNSW Medicine & Health, our grants foster cross-disciplinary collaborations to produce high-quality research and clinical outcomes. Successful projects enhance competitiveness for external grant funding and serve as a pathway to more ambitious projects.
2025 Theme Collaborative Seed Grant Recipients
Recipients |
Theme |
Affiliation |
Grant Title |
Dr Zien Zhou Dr Menglu Ouyang |
Cardiovascular & Metabolic Medicine | The George Institute for Global Health | The willingness to accept brain imaging evaluation for the optimisation of anticoagulation management among people with atrial fibrillation and low-to-intermediate stroke risk. |
Dr Aaminah Khan Dr Vikram Tallapragada |
Cardiovascular & Metabolic Medicine | Childrens Cancer Institute & Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute | Balancing Efficacy and Safety: Modulating Polyamine Inhibition to Reduce Cardiotoxicity in Paediatric Oncology. |
A/Prof Clare Arnott Dr Nila Dharan |
Cardiovascular & Metabolic Medicine | The George Institute for Global Health & Kirby Institute |
OPTIMAR-Heart Study: Assessing the impact of SGLT2 inhibitors on epicardial adipose tissue in HIV positive patients on integrase-based anti-retroviral therapies. |
A/Prof Izzy Jayasinghe Dr Vaishnavi Ananthanarayanan |
Cardiovascular & Metabolic Medicine | School of Biomedical Sciences | Unmasking and targeting the structural and molecular drivers of heterogeneity in the failing heart. |
Dr Katrina Kissock Dr Kathy Trieu |
Cardiovascular & Metabolic Medicine | The George Institute for Global Health | Integrating potassium-enriched salt into usual healthcare practice for hypertension management in Australia. |
Ms Martina Beretta Dr Brenna Osborne |
Cardiovascular & Metabolic Medicine | BABS | Investigating the efficacy of mitochondrial uncoupler BAM15 in promoting neuronal resistance to metabolic and oxidative stress in ischemic conditions. |
Dr Yunjia (Carmen) Zhang Dr Jingjing Li
|
Cardiovascular & Metabolic Medicine | School of Biomedical Sciences & Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering | A novel strategy for preventing heart failure in myocardial infarction survivors. |
| Dr Marianne Martinello | Triple I | Kirby Institute/POWH | People with injecting related infections: Assessing Treatment outcomes for those who are Hospitalised (PATH). |
| Dr Parvathy Rajan | Triple I | SoCM (Liverpool) | Alcoholic chronic pancreatitis – the role of ER stress and autophagy in driving PSC-macrophage interactions. |
| Dr Md Saiful Islam | Triple I | School of Population Health | Wastewater-based surveillance for rapid detection and informed response to Monkeypox virus in New South Wales, Australia |
| Dr Stefan Michalsk | Health Systems Reseasrch | National Centre of Excellence in Intellectual Disability Health (NCEIDH). | Evaluating the Effectiveness of Virtual Reality for Preparing People with Intellectual Disability for Healthcare Systems |
| Dr David Goodman | Health Systems Reseasrch | Kirby Institute | Feasibility of a pilot one-stop test and treat intervention to increase hepatitis C treatment uptake within the Australian National HCV Point of Care Testing Program. |
| Dr Sarah Ellis | Health Systems Reseasrch | SoCM Dspln Paed & Child Health | Delivering Equitable Psychosocial Care in Paediatric Oncology: Co-designing Consumer. & Clinician Resources to Identify and Respond to PROMs for Implementation. |
Dr Vikneswary (Vicky) Batumalai |
Health Systems Reseasrch | The George Institute for Global Health | Identifying factors driving disparities in lung cancer care and outcomes among CALD populations to inform recommendations for improving access to lung cancer screening. |
| Dr Gemma Sicouri | Neuroscience, Mental Health & Addiction | Black Dog Institute | Codesigning and integrating a digital parent-led intervention for child anxiety in hospitals: An exploratory study. |
| Dr Peter Brown | Neuroscience, Mental Health & Addiction | Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering | Unifying digital health self-management tools for adults living with severe mental illness: A novel approach to enable lifestyle behaviour change. |
| Dr Jun Cao | Neuroscience, Mental Health & Addiction | NeuRA | Tissue conductivity imaging as an efficient substitute for FDG-PET. |
| Dr Felix Aplin | Neuroscience, Mental Health & Addiction | School of Biomedical Sciences | Measuring chemosensitivity to predict pathophysiology in respiratory disorders. |
| Amy Logan | Cancer | Childrens Cancer Institute | Tumour-targeted siRNA conjugates for therapeutic gene silencing in brain cancer. |
| Marjan Naeini | Cancer | Garvan Institute | Investigating Genomic and Epigenomic Drivers of Chemotherapy Resistance in Oesophageal Adenocarcinoma: A Pilot Study Using Nanopore Sequencing. |
| Venessa Chin | Cancer | Garvan Institute | Unravelling Genomic Diversity in ALK-Positive Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Insights from Paired RNA/DNA Sequencing of Circulating Tumour Cells. |
Shannon Chiang
|
Cancer | School of Biomedical Sciences | Pre-clinical development of a novel RNA-based therapy for pancreatic cancer. |
S M Zahid Hosen
|
Cancer | Ingham Institute | Mapping Metabolic Dysregulation in Pancreatic Stellate: Implications for Tumour Growth and Immune Evasion in Pancreatic Cancer |
Recipients
Dr Zien Zhou
Dr Menglu Ouyang
Theme
- Cardiovascular & Metabolic Medicine
Affiliation
- The George Institute for Global Health
Grant Title
- The willingness to accept brain imaging evaluation for the optimisation of anticoagulation management among people with atrial fibrillation and low-to-intermediate stroke risk.
Recipients
Dr Aaminah Khan
Dr Vikram Tallapragada
Theme
- Cardiovascular & Metabolic Medicine
Affiliation
- Childrens Cancer Institute & Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute
Grant Title
- Balancing Efficacy and Safety: Modulating Polyamine Inhibition to Reduce Cardiotoxicity in Paediatric Oncology.
Recipients
A/Prof Clare Arnott
Dr Nila Dharan
Theme
- Cardiovascular & Metabolic Medicine
Affiliation
The George Institute for Global Health &
Kirby Institute
Grant Title
- OPTIMAR-Heart Study: Assessing the impact of SGLT2 inhibitors on epicardial adipose tissue in HIV positive patients on integrase-based anti-retroviral therapies.
Recipients
A/Prof Izzy Jayasinghe
Dr Vaishnavi Ananthanarayanan
Theme
- Cardiovascular & Metabolic Medicine
Affiliation
- School of Biomedical Sciences
Grant Title
- Unmasking and targeting the structural and molecular drivers of heterogeneity in the failing heart.
Recipients
Dr Katrina Kissock
Dr Kathy Trieu
Theme
- Cardiovascular & Metabolic Medicine
Affiliation
- The George Institute for Global Health
Grant Title
- Integrating potassium-enriched salt into usual healthcare practice for hypertension management in Australia.
Recipients
Ms Martina Beretta
Dr Brenna Osborne
Theme
- Cardiovascular & Metabolic Medicine
Affiliation
- BABS
Grant Title
- Investigating the efficacy of mitochondrial uncoupler BAM15 in promoting neuronal resistance to metabolic and oxidative stress in ischemic conditions.
Recipients
Dr Yunjia (Carmen) Zhang
Dr Jingjing Li
Theme
- Cardiovascular & Metabolic Medicine
Affiliation
- School of Biomedical Sciences & Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering
Grant Title
- A novel strategy for preventing heart failure in myocardial infarction survivors.
Recipients
- Dr Marianne Martinello
Theme
- Triple I
Affiliation
- Kirby Institute/POWH
Grant Title
- People with injecting related infections: Assessing Treatment outcomes for those who are Hospitalised (PATH).
Recipients
- Dr Parvathy Rajan
Theme
- Triple I
Affiliation
- SoCM (Liverpool)
Grant Title
- Alcoholic chronic pancreatitis – the role of ER stress and autophagy in driving PSC-macrophage interactions.
Recipients
- Dr Md Saiful Islam
Theme
- Triple I
Affiliation
- School of Population Health
Grant Title
- Wastewater-based surveillance for rapid detection and informed response to Monkeypox virus in New South Wales, Australia
Recipients
- Dr Stefan Michalsk
Theme
- Health Systems Reseasrch
Affiliation
- National Centre of Excellence in Intellectual Disability Health (NCEIDH).
Grant Title
- Evaluating the Effectiveness of Virtual Reality for Preparing People with Intellectual Disability for Healthcare Systems
Recipients
- Dr David Goodman
Theme
- Health Systems Reseasrch
Affiliation
- Kirby Institute
Grant Title
- Feasibility of a pilot one-stop test and treat intervention to increase hepatitis C treatment uptake within the Australian National HCV Point of Care Testing Program.
Recipients
- Dr Sarah Ellis
Theme
- Health Systems Reseasrch
Affiliation
- SoCM Dspln Paed & Child Health
Grant Title
Delivering Equitable Psychosocial Care in Paediatric Oncology: Co-designing Consumer.
&
Clinician Resources to Identify and Respond to PROMs for Implementation.
Recipients
-
Dr Vikneswary (Vicky) Batumalai
Theme
- Health Systems Reseasrch
Affiliation
- The George Institute for Global Health
Grant Title
- Identifying factors driving disparities in lung cancer care and outcomes among CALD populations to inform recommendations for improving access to lung cancer screening.
Recipients
- Dr Gemma Sicouri
Theme
- Neuroscience, Mental Health & Addiction
Affiliation
- Black Dog Institute
Grant Title
- Codesigning and integrating a digital parent-led intervention for child anxiety in hospitals: An exploratory study.
Recipients
- Dr Peter Brown
Theme
- Neuroscience, Mental Health & Addiction
Affiliation
- Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering
Grant Title
- Unifying digital health self-management tools for adults living with severe mental illness: A novel approach to enable lifestyle behaviour change.
Recipients
- Dr Jun Cao
Theme
- Neuroscience, Mental Health & Addiction
Affiliation
- NeuRA
Grant Title
- Tissue conductivity imaging as an efficient substitute for FDG-PET.
Recipients
- Dr Felix Aplin
Theme
- Neuroscience, Mental Health & Addiction
Affiliation
- School of Biomedical Sciences
Grant Title
- Measuring chemosensitivity to predict pathophysiology in respiratory disorders.
Recipients
- Amy Logan
Theme
- Cancer
Affiliation
- Childrens Cancer Institute
Grant Title
- Tumour-targeted siRNA conjugates for therapeutic gene silencing in brain cancer.
Recipients
- Marjan Naeini
Theme
- Cancer
Affiliation
- Garvan Institute
Grant Title
- Investigating Genomic and Epigenomic Drivers of Chemotherapy Resistance in Oesophageal Adenocarcinoma: A Pilot Study Using Nanopore Sequencing.
Recipients
- Venessa Chin
Theme
- Cancer
Affiliation
- Garvan Institute
Grant Title
- Unravelling Genomic Diversity in ALK-Positive Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Insights from Paired RNA/DNA Sequencing of Circulating Tumour Cells.
Recipients
-
Shannon Chiang
Theme
- Cancer
Affiliation
- School of Biomedical Sciences
Grant Title
- Pre-clinical development of a novel RNA-based therapy for pancreatic cancer.
Recipients
-
S M Zahid Hosen
Theme
- Cancer
Affiliation
- Ingham Institute
Grant Title
- Mapping Metabolic Dysregulation in Pancreatic Stellate: Implications for Tumour Growth and Immune Evasion in Pancreatic Cancer
Neuroscience, Mental Health & Addiction
Research Development Manager neuro.mentalhealth.addiction@unsw.edu.au