A Centre for Research Excellence working to improve the treatment of mesothelioma and lung cancer and a centre designed to improve the health and wellbeing of older Aboriginal Australians at The University of Western Australia have received a combined $5 million in funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council Centres of Research Excellence (NHMRC).

Professor Anna Nowak, Director of UWA’s National Centre for Asbestos Related Diseases, and her team are part of a world-leading centre studying the deadly cancers mesothelioma and lung cancer. 

The team received $2.5 million in NHMRC funding which will help them develop new treatments, new ways of imaging cancer and ways to improve care of people living with these cancers. 

"Research such as this is vital to keeping us at the forefront of discovering health and medical solutions for those with serious health conditions."

Professor Amit Chakma, UWA Vice-Chancellor

Professor Dawn Bessarab from UWA’s Centre for Aboriginal Medical and Dental Health and her team will lead the Centre for Research Excellence on the Good Spirit Good Life: Better health and wellbeing for older Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. 

The first Centre for Research Excellence in Australia to explore Indigenous ageing, Professor Bessarab and her team were awarded $2.5 million in NHMRC funding. They will develop their research with and from the perspective of Aboriginal people, to better understand healthy ageing in older Aboriginal people and inform culturally secure and effective service provision. 

UWA Vice-Chancellor Professor Amit Chakma congratulated the researchers, who are working on projects critical to improving health and wellbeing in the community.

“Research such as this is vital to keeping us at the forefront of discovering health and medical solutions for those with serious health conditions,” Professor Chakma said. 

“Many people will live better and longer lives, and we will know and understand more. That knowledge and understanding can lead in many directions. This is important and exciting work.”

NHMRC funding from the Federal Government aims to support research that will improve health outcomes and benefit communities in Australia and around the world.