(Press-News.org) A booster vaccine using implant technology for koalas is being developed by QUT researchers in the fight against the deadly Chlamydia disease.
The new technology is designed to avoid problems for wild koalas and wildlife handlers having to recapture or hold the animals for 30 days, to receive a second immunisation.
Koala chlamydia is a bacterial infection and is one of the leading causes of death for Australian koalas.
QUT researchers have been successfully testing a two-shot vaccine on an isolated wild koala colony in a five-year treat-and-track study.
The new booster vaccine will be like other drug-eluting implant devices used in humans, slightly larger than a pet microchip.
Professor Ken Beagley, from QUT’s School of Biomedical Science, is leading the research team after being awarded a health grant to develop the technology from the Saving Koalas Fund.
“This technology will significantly increase our ability to vaccinate wild koalas to protect against chlamydial infections, a major cause of infertility and population decline,” Professor Beagley said.
Professor Beagley developed the first koala vaccine for Chlamydia in 2010. Since then, the leading immunologist spearheaded the first immunisations of a wild koala colony in the Gold Coast hinterland after 10 years developing the vaccine in the lab.
Working with Dr Michael Pyne OAM and the team at Currumbin Wildlife Hospital, the project has now resulted in up to 300 vaccinated koalas, with grand joeys being born to healthy females, using a two-shot vaccine approach.
Development of one-shot vaccine implants to further protect koalas against Chlamydia will allow in-the-field vaccination of wild koalas.
“It will also allow all koalas being treated at Currumbin Wildlife hospital and other koala care facilities, to be vaccinated prior to release, without the need to hold the animals for a further 30 days,” he said.
“We want a vaccine that reduces human interference, letting koalas be koalas.”
The implant device is being designed to release the booster at four to five weeks after the first vaccination.
Professor Beagley is working with QUT polymer chemist Professor Tim Dargaville and postdoctoral research fellow Dr Emily Bryan to develop the device.
The grant is worth $749, 687 with the research to be completed by April 2026.
A project partner involves the Currumbin Wildlife Hospital Foundation.
END
Booster shot being developed to avoid recapturing koalas to fight Chlamydia disease
QUT researchers are developing a booster vaccine to “let koalas be koalas” using implant technology in the fight against the deadly Chlamydia disease that’s decimated local colonies.
2023-08-09
[Attachments] See images for this press release:
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
After 15 years, pulsar timing yields evidence of cosmic background gravitational waves
2023-08-09
The universe is humming with gravitational radiation — a very low-frequency rumble that rhythmically stretches and compresses spacetime and the matter embedded in it.
That is the conclusion of several groups of researchers from around the world who simultaneously published a slew of journal articles in June describing more than 15 years of observations of millisecond pulsars within our corner of the Milky Way galaxy. At least one group — the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) collaboration — has found compelling ...
Grant provides cancer research training experience to expand workforce for cancer prevention and control
2023-08-09
University of Arizona Cancer Center researchers were awarded a $1.5 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to deliver an intensive, multidisciplinary cancer prevention and control research training program for undergraduate and graduate students.
According to multiple principal investigators Jennifer Bea, PhD, and Cynthia Thomson, PhD, RD, the goal of the 10-week, full-time summer program is to motivate students to pursue a career in cancer prevention science.
“I am very concerned about the number of skilled scientists and clinicians retiring,” said Dr. Bea, co-leader of the UArizona Cancer ...
World’s largest study shows the more you walk, the lower your risk of death, even if you walk fewer than 5,000 steps
2023-08-09
The number of steps you should walk every day to start seeing benefits to your health is lower than previously thought, according to the largest analysis to investigate this.
The study, published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology [1] today (Wednesday), found that walking at least 3967 steps a day started to reduce the risk of dying from any cause, and 2337 steps a day reduced the risk of dying from diseases of the heart and blood vessels (cardiovascular disease).
However, the new analysis of 226,889 people from 17 different studies around the world has shown that the more you walk, the greater the health benefits. ...
Theory meets practice
2023-08-09
(Santa Barbara, Calif.) — Scientific findings don’t always translate neatly into actions, especially in conservation and resource management. The disconnect can leave academics and practitioners disheartened and a bit frustrated.
“We want conservation science to be informing real-world needs,” said Darcy Bradley, a senior ocean scientist at The Nature Conservancy and a former director of UC Santa Barbara’s Environmental Markets Lab.
“Most managers and practitioners also want to incorporate science into their work,” ...
$4M NIH grant will test worksite sleep health coaching for Arizona firefighters
2023-08-09
A $4 million award from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, a division of the National Institutes of Health, will allow researchers in the University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health to identify key factors for the successful implementation of workplace sleep coaching to improve sleep health in Arizona firefighters.
Almost half of career firefighters report short sleep and poor sleep quality, and about 37% of firefighters screen positive for sleep disorders like sleep apnea, insomnia or ...
Chemical contamination on International Space Station is out of this world
2023-08-09
Concentrations of potentially harmful chemical compounds in dust collected from air filtration systems on the International Space Station (ISS) exceed those found in floor dust from many American homes, a new study reveals.
In the first study of its kind, scientists analysed a sample of dust from air filters within the ISS and found levels of organic contaminants which were higher than the median values found in US and Western European homes.
Publishing their results today in Environmental Science and Technology Letters, researchers from the University of Birmingham, UK, as ...
$150,000 awarded to research race in clinical algorithms
2023-08-09
DALLAS, August 8, 2023 — As part of a focused effort to assess current cardiovascular treatment algorithms for racial bias, the American Heart Association, the single largest non-government supporter of heart and brain health research in the U.S., is funding three new scientific research projects at $50,000 each.
Clinical algorithms are formulas, flow charts and computerized “calculators” that work behind the scenes to analyze health data and help determine a person’s risk for heart disease or guide their ...
New guidance on safe injection practice in hospitals emphasises the importance of prefilled and labelled syringes in avoiding medication errors
2023-08-09
New guidance published in Anaesthesia (the journal of the Association of Anaesthetists) provides clear advice to reduce avoidable errors on all steps of the pathway involving injectable medications used routinely in anaesthesia care. The guidance has been written by a working party of UK anaesthesia experts that include Dr Mike Kinsella, Honorary Consultant, Department of Anaesthesia, University Hospitals Bristol and Weston, Bristol, UK and Chair of the Working Party.
The authors explain: “Peri-operative medication safety is complex. Avoidance of medication ...
Health experts urge clinicians to ‘remain vigilant’ about malaria cases in new commentary
2023-08-08
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, August 8, 2023
Contact:
Michael Saunders, msaunder@bu.edu
Jillian McKoy, jpmckoy@bu.edu
##
As worsening climate change and increased global travel create ideal conditions for a resurgence of malaria in areas where it has long been eradicated, clinicians must be vigilant of the disease’s symptoms and act swiftly once cases are detected, health experts warn in a new commentary published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
In the last few months, Florida and Texas have reported ...
Inflammation slows malaria parasite growth and reproduction in the body
2023-08-08
Research led by the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity (Doherty Institute) and the Kirby Institute found that inflammation in the body can slow down the development of malaria parasites in the bloodstream – a discovery that may constitute a potential new strategy for preventing or limiting severe disease.
A mosquito-borne disease, malaria is caused by Plasmodium parasites, which invade and multiply within red blood cells. Previous research has shown that the parasites can rapidly sense and respond to conditions within the host by intimately syncing with their internal body clocks. While it is known that the body’s nutrient levels and daily circadian rhythms affect ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
The U-shaped relationship between admission peripheral oxygen saturation and all-cause hospital mortality in acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a retrospective analysis using
New research highlights wide variation in prostate cancer testing between GP practices
Antidepressants linked to faster cognitive decline in dementia
DNA origami suggests route to reusable, multifunctional biosensors
Virginia Tech study reveals that honeybee dance ‘styles’ sway food foraging success
Beehive sensors offer hope in saving honeybee colonies
Award-winning research may unlock universe’s origins
BRCA1 gene mutations may not be key to prostate cancer initiation, as previously thought
Melatonin supplementation may help offset DNA damage linked to night shift work
Common gynaecological disorders linked to raised heart and cerebrovascular disease risk
Nerve fibers in the inner ear adjust sound levels and help compensate for hearing loss in mice, study finds
ECMWF – Europe’s leading centre for weather prediction makes forecast data from AI model available to all
New paper-based device boosts HIV test accuracy from dried blood samples
Pay-for-performance metrics must be more impactful and physician-controlled
GLP-1RAs may offer modest antidepressant effects compared to DPP4is but not SGLT-2is
Performance-based reimbursement increases administrative burden and moral distress, lowers perceived quality of care
Survey finds many Americans greatly overestimate primary care spending
Researchers advance RNA medical discovery decades ahead of schedule
Immune ‘fingerprints’ aid diagnosis of complex diseases in Stanford Medicine study
Ancient beaches testify to long-ago ocean on Mars
Gulf of Mars: Rover finds evidence of ‘vacation-style’ beaches on Mars
MSU researchers use open-access data to study climate change effects in 24,000 US lakes
More than meets the eye: An adrenal gland tumor is more complex than previously thought
Origin and diversity of Hun Empire populations
New AI model measures how fast the brain ages
This new treatment can adjust to Parkinson's symptoms in real time
Bigger animals get more cancer, defying decades-old belief
As dengue spreads, researchers discover a clue to fighting the virus
Teaming up tiny robot swimmers to transform medicine
The Center for Open Science welcomes Daniel Correa and Amanda Kay Montoya to its Board of Directors
[Press-News.org] Booster shot being developed to avoid recapturing koalas to fight Chlamydia diseaseQUT researchers are developing a booster vaccine to “let koalas be koalas” using implant technology in the fight against the deadly Chlamydia disease that’s decimated local colonies.