Australian scientist awarded $1 million by Pfizer Australia to develop gene therapies for muscle-related diseases

An Australian scientist has been awarded a $1 million research grant to develop innovative gene therapy tools for muscle-related diseases.

Dr Paul Gregorevic is developing novel methods of gene therapy in mouse models of muscle-related disease such as Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

Currently based in the USA, Dr Gregorevic will return to Australia to continue his research at the Baker Heart Research Institute in Melbourne to identify the key cellular processes underlying the development of specific muscular diseases.

Dr Gregorevic’s in vivo gene delivery may revolutionise current approaches to the treatment of heritable neuromuscular disease, and other conditions such as Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

Dr Gregorevic commented, “I am very pleased to have been awarded the 2008 Pfizer Australia Research Fellowship. I hope that my research will lead to a better understanding of how muscle diseases develop and thereby help to develop new and effective therapies.”

Dr Daniel Grant, head of Pfizer Australia’s Strategic Alliances Group, said: "Dr Gregorevic is an outstanding young scientist who we believe will make a substantial contribution to our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of muscle disease. We are very pleased to be able to provide the support needed to bring Dr Gregorevic back to continue his research career in Australia”.

Dr Gregorevic is the Acting Assistant Professor at the University of Washington Paul D Wellstone Muscular Dystrophy Co-operative Research Centre. In 2008, he will relocate his research program to the Baker Heart Research Institute in Melbourne.

Dr Gregorevic began his research career at the University of Melbourne, and took up a postdoctoral research position at the University of Washington with Dr Jeffrey Chamberlain, the world’s foremost authority on gene therapy approaches for the treatment of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

His research has been published in Nature Medicine numerous times and he received the 13th A. K. McIntyre Award from the Australian Physiological & Pharmacological Society in recognition of his outstanding contributions to science.

The Pfizer Australia Research Fellowships are the most prestigious in Pfizer's suite of grants that recognise excellence in Australian biomedical researchers and contribute to the development of Australia's high standing among the world's scientific leaders.

Dr Daniel Grant, head of Pfizer Australia’s Strategic Alliances Group said, “Through our Fellowship program, Pfizer Australia is investing in young Australian researchers who have demonstrated significant potential to attain leadership in their chosen field of research. Pfizer Australia believes that scientists like Dr Gregorevic can make significant contributions to Australian research and, in the long run, may lead to new or improved therapies for a wide-range of diseases.”