An incredible five Children’s Medical Research Institute scientists were thrilled to receive an Australian Research Council Discovery Project grant this month.

Professor Tony Cesare, Professor Hilda Pickett, Professor Phil Robinson, Professor Patrick Tam, and Associate Professor Pengyi Yang were all recognised by the Australian Government for excellence with support for their latest research addressing fundamentally important questions in biology.

Professors Pickett and Cesare’s project aims to generate new knowledge about the area of telomeres and understanding how they protect our DNA.

Professor Phil Robinson will work with his long-term collaborator Professor Adam McCluskey at the University of Newcastle to extend their work in a key factor in three major biological processes: cell division, communication between cells using hormones and other factors, as well as actin dynamics which is an exciting new area of research looking at the skeleton or scaffold that underlies and controls a wide range of cellular functions.

The final grant went to Professor Patrick Tam and Associated Professor Pengyi Yang who are studying the genome activity of diverse tissue types which will aid our understanding of the early steps of how the embryonic head is formed.

Australian Research Council Chief Executive Officer Judi Zielke announced more than $220.2 million of funding for 421 research projects to be undertaken across the country.

“The Discovery Projects will share funding that supports excellent basic and applied research to expand Australia’s knowledge base and research capability and enhance the scale and focus of research in the Australian Government priority areas,” Ms Zielke said.

“Individual researchers and research teams will be supported by ARC funding to provide economic, commercial, environmental, social and/or cultural benefits to the Australian community.”

Ms Zielke said with every $1 of research that the ARC funds generating $3.32 in economic output back into the Australian community.