Deakin health researchers awarded over $1.9 million in NHMRC Ideas Grants

Deakin University health researchers have received just over $1.9 million in the newly announced round of National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Ideas Grants.

Dr Nandi Vijayakumar and Professor Tania de Koning-Ward will lead two new projects exploring the impact of social media on adolescent mental health and new targets for malaria interventions respectively.

The NHMRC Ideas Grants scheme supports innovative research projects that address specific questions. It is open to researchers at all career stages and in any area of health and medical research from discovery to implementation.

‘By empowering our researchers to pursue their bold ideas and collaborate with others, we strengthen the sector’s ability to tackle complex health challenges’, says Professor Steve Wesselingh, NHMRC CEO.

Dr Nandi Vijayakumar, Deakin Lifespan Institute within the Faculty of Health.

Social media is a central aspect of adolescent life, with most young Australians spending 2-3 hours daily on social media platforms. While these channels can support social connection and self-expression, its rapid proliferation over the past decade has coincided with a sharp rise in common mental health problems like depression and anxiety.

With Australia’s recently enacted social media ban for under-16s, the policy has created conditions resembling a controlled intervention to reduce social media use.

The research team led by Dr Vijayakumar will use this rare ‘natural experiment’ to establish causal effects in this area and advance understanding of the impact of social media use on mental health.

Findings will inform evidence-based strategies for policymakers, health professionals, educators and parents on whether restricting under-16s from these platforms truly can mitigate mental health risks, or whether alternative strategies are needed.

The project team includes fellow Deakin researchers Dr Sharon Horwood, Associate Professor Jeromy Anglim, Dr Hannah Jarman and Professor Matthew Fuller-Tyszkiewicz, alongside Susan Ellul, Dr Ghazaleh Dashti, Dr Monika Raniti and Professor Susan Sawyer from the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Professor Nicholas Allen from University of Oregon and Associate Professor Siân McLean from La Trobe University.

Professor Tania de Koning-Ward, Deakin Institute for Mental and Physical Health and Clinical Translation within the Faculty of Health.

Malaria continues to threaten a significant portion the world’s population, with 263 million cases and 597,000 deaths reported in 2023.

While there are existing drugs and remedies to prevent disease and death, the emergence of parasites resistant to these treatments requires a new approach.

This new project led by Professor de Koning-Ward aims to decode the rhoptry proteome of malaria parasites - the collection of proteins they use to invade people’s liver and red blood cells (RBCs) to cause infection and disease.

New knowledge gained through this research will help understand how these parasites invade and survive within their host RBC. It will also provide much-needed novel drug and vaccine targets alongside new strategies to control malaria, with potential future applications to similar parasitic infections like Toxoplasmosis.

The project includes collaborations with researchers in the Centre for Innovation in Infectious Disease and Immunology at Deakin University, as well as with the Burnet Institute and The University of Melbourne.