NSW Health Pathology and medical research institute, NeuRA (Neuroscience Research Australia), have launched a new partnership aimed at advancing genomic medicine to improve patient care and our understanding of neurological conditions.

This alliance brings togeth­er NeuRA’s world-class research capa­bil­i­ties and NSW Health Pathology’s exper­tise in diag­nos­tic science.

Togeth­er, we aim to deliv­er not only bet­ter care but also deep­er insights into neu­ro­log­i­cal con­di­tions that affect so many in our community.

Under the part­ner­ship NSW Health Pathol­o­gy and Neu­RA share a vision of:
• Trans­lat­ing genom­ic insights into clin­i­cal care
• Dri­ving research innovation
• Build­ing the future genom­ic workforce.

To make this vision a real­i­ty, NSW Health Pathol­o­gy has estab­lished a Genet­ics Branch lab­o­ra­to­ry with­in NeuRA’s facil­i­ty, locat­ed near­by the main Prince of Wales Hos­pi­tal lab­o­ra­to­ry at Randwick.

More than just con­ve­nience, this strate­gic co-loca­tion will also be a cat­a­lyst for innovation.

“It means clin­i­cal sci­en­tists from NSW Health Pathol­o­gy, Neu­RA researchers and UNSW aca­d­e­mics can share access to cut­ting-edge infra­struc­ture and tech­nol­o­gy, cre­at­ing an envi­ron­ment where ideas move quick­ly from bench to bed­side,” said Prof Rob Lin­de­man, NSWHP Direc­tor of Clin­i­cal Transformation.

The part­ner­ship will help to sup­port trans­la­tion­al research projects, such as the Med­ical Research Future Fund Pre­na­tal Genom­ic Test­ing Pro­gram ini­tia­tives. It will allow for joint train­ing pro­grams, giv­ing spe­cial­ist trainee reg­is­trars access to world-class research facil­i­ties to com­ple­ment their clin­i­cal train­ing. It also facil­i­tates stu­dent co-super­vi­sion and work­force devel­op­ment, ensur­ing the next gen­er­a­tion of genom­ic spe­cial­ists is bet­ter equipped for the future.

Building on success

The agree­ment for­malis­es and expands col­lab­o­ra­tions that have already achieved remark­able out­comes. One pow­er­ful exam­ple was shared dur­ing the launch, a heart­felt video mes­sage from the par­ents of a two-year-old boy whose life was saved thanks to this very collaboration.

“Before baby Mitchell was even born, NSW Health Pathology’s genomics team uncov­ered a rare and poten­tial­ly life-threat­en­ing con­di­tion,” said lab­o­ra­to­ry man­ag­er Nila Quayum.

“This ear­ly diag­no­sis gave clin­i­cians the oppor­tu­ni­ty to inter­vene with life-sav­ing ther­a­pies, giv­ing Mitchell the best pos­si­ble start in life. With­out this cru­cial dis­cov­ery from our genomics team, he sim­ply would not have survived.

“By work­ing close­ly with NeuRA’s researchers, we’re able to build on these insights, deep­en­ing our under­stand­ing of the under­ly­ing mech­a­nisms and enhanc­ing how we diag­nose and treat these conditions.

“This part­ner­ship is about cre­at­ing a seam­less link between research and clin­i­cal care, and that’s where real break­throughs hap­pen,” she said.

NeuRA’s Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Matthew Kier­nan said the out­come in the case of baby Mitchell shows how such part­ner­ships can trans­form lives.

“It was a pow­er­ful reminder of what we can achieve togeth­er in advanc­ing brain health and inno­va­tion across the Rand­wick Precinct.”

(Top pho­to L‑R: Matthew Kier­nan, NeuRA’s Exec­u­tive Direc­tor, Dr Mar­jorie O’Neill, Mem­ber for Coogee, Ter­ri Hewlett  NSWHP Senior Oper­a­tions Man­ag­er South East Syd­ney LHD, Car­ole Renouf, Neu­RA Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Pro­fes­sion­al Ser­vices, Prof Rob Lin­de­man NSWHP Direc­tor Clin­i­cal Transformation)

Topics