This year, SSMRF proudly funded three researchers and their groundbreaking projects:
- Dr Ramesh Shanmugasundaram received $20,000 (supported by Southern Cancer Care) to advance his research on “Assessing the diagnostic utility of multi-parametric MRI ‘diffusion kurtosis imaging’ in the evaluation of masses: a multicentre prospective study.”
- PhD Student Sabrina Koentgen was awarded $20,000 for her project, “Understanding gastrointestinal health in first-degree relatives of inflammatory bowel disease patients.”
- Dr Joel Poder received $18,122 (supported by Southern Cancer Care) to explore “Quantifying robustness of prostate cancer radiomics features across imaging devices.”
Your generous donations have played a critical role in enabling these researchers to push the boundaries of medical innovation.
Hear directly from Sabrina and Joel about how your contributions to SSMRF’s medical research grants have impacted their work.
Dr. Joel Poder shared:
“The use of artificial intelligence analysis of PET and MRI images to predict prostate cancer patient’s response to treatment is an expanding field. Our team is investigating the reproducibility of the artificial intelligence tools across multiple imaging devices to ensure that the prediction of the artificial intelligence tool is independent of the scanner being used. This SSMRF grant has allowed our team to 3D print a tool to test this reproducibility, ensuring accuracy of the artificial intelligence regardless of where the PET and MRI images are acquired.
Currently, we have acquired the imaging data from St George Hospital under a number of different image settings. Our next step is to take the device on tour to multiple hospitals throughout NSW to test it in a larger setting.”
PhD Student Sabrina Koentgen shared:
“SSMRF ECR funding has allowed further functional microbiome characterisation of a unique patient group; first-degree relatives (FDRs) of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) patients. The correlation of microbial composition to the resultant metabolic outputs (funded by SSMRF) allows us to understand the distinct microbial environment and how it correlates with gut health in this patient group.
“With the funding awarded by SSMRF, we have successfully analysed faecal metabolites (short-chain fatty acids) from 70 first-degree relatives (FDRs) of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) patients across 3 timepoints (alongside healthy controls and IBD relatives). Short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) and other faecal metabolites are indicative of gut microbial output and are often used as a marker of gut health – crucial in understanding the gut microbiome in these unique patients. Faecal calprotectin was also analysed using SSMRF funding to explore gastrointestinal inflammation in this patient group.
“FDRs have unique microbial compositions hallmarked by an increase in oral pathogens (Oral microbiome) and enrichment of key beneficial species (SFCA producers) in the faecal microbiome. We can now correlate this microbial composition to the resultant metabolic outputs to more holistically understand gut health in FDRs and the interplay with IBD risk.”
