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Australian scientists awarded $2.5 million CSL Centenary Fellowships to advance lifelong immunity research and AI-designed proteins

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Could we all have lifelong robust immunity? Dr Carolien van de Sandt, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Melbourne

Making proteins with AI: Dr Rhys Grinter, Bio21 Institute, The University of Melbourne

MELBOURNE – Two Australian scientists, Dr Carolien van de Sandt and Dr Rhys Grinter, have each been awarded CSL Centenary Fellowships, valued at $1.25 million over five years.  Together, these fellowships represent a $2.5 million investment in pioneering health research.

Advancing lifelong immunity

Dr Carolien van de Sandt’s fellowship supports her groundbreaking work on lifelong immunity.  She is tackling the challenge of immune system ageing, a key factor in vulnerability to viruses and declining vaccine effectiveness.

Her research explores how, as we age, our T-cells become less effective at fighting acute viral infections and less flexible in responding to novel viruses. She will use her $1.25 million CSL Centenary Fellowship to study how children generate robust immunity, how healthy adults maintain optimal immunity, and how immunity becomes impaired in most older people and in certain other population groups.

She will investigate how our immunity develops and then declines:

• following viral infections including influenza A and B, COVID-19, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), measles, smallpox, cytomegalovirus (CMV), Epstein-Barr virus;
• following vaccination.

She will also identify targets that could be used to restore our immune systems as we age.

Accelerating protein-drug development with AI

Dr Rhys Grinter is transforming drug development by harnessing Nobel Prize-winning AI technology to design new proteins.  His innovative approach streamlines the production of these proteins in the lab, delivering potential drugs many times faster than traditional methods.

Rhys will use his $1.25 million CSL Centenary Fellowship to target a group of proteins that regulate a host of fundamental cellular processes and play a role in many diseases including cancer, metabolic dysregulation, heart disease, and infertility.

He hopes to develop a range of potential drugs to treat these diseases. His longer-term vision is to build and share a protein development capability that will fast-track drugs to patients.

Dr Michael Wilson, CSL Senior Vice President, Head of Research said, “Dr van de Sandt and Dr Grinter are both conducting fundamental research in their respective fields of immunology and drug discovery.

“With the support of the CSL Centenary Fellowships, their research will hopefully transform how we protect health and accelerate the development of essential new medicines.

“With today’s announcement, CSL has provided $25 million to support 20 leading mid-career Australian researchers.  The CSL Centenary Fellowships have given them funding stability to enable the delivery of innovations that could transform medicine for patients living with rare and serious diseases, and to protect public health.”

The Fellowships were presented at the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences Annual Meeting on Wednesday 29 October in Canberra.

About the CSL Centenary Fellowships

The Fellowships are competitively selected, high-value grants available to mid-career Australians who wish to continue a career in medical research in Australia.

They are open to medical researchers working on discovery or translational research with a focus on rare or serious diseases. They are overseen by a selection committee comprising three independent members and two CSL representatives.

The Fellowships were established to mark 100 years since the establishment of CSL in 1916. Two individual, five-year A$1.25 million fellowships have been awarded each year for 10 years.

For further information, visit www.cslfellowships.com.au

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About CSL

CSL (ASX:CSL; USOTC:CSLLY) is a leading global biopharma company with a dynamic portfolio of lifesaving medicines, including those that treat haemophilia and immune deficiencies, vaccines to prevent influenza, and therapies in iron deficiency, dialysis and nephrology. Since our start in 1916, we have been driven by our promise to save lives using the latest technologies. Today, CSL – including our three businesses, CSL Behring, CSL Seqirus and CSL Vifor – provides lifesaving products to patients in more than 100 countries and employs 29,000+ people. Our unique combination of commercial strength, R&D focus and operational excellence enables us to identify, develop and deliver innovations so our patients can live life to the fullest. For inspiring stories about the promise of biotechnology, visit CSL.com/Vita

For more information about CSL, visit CSL.com. 

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