The MEGA-SCORES research group brings emerging national and international leaders across a range of discovery science disciplines together with clinician-scientists from across Australia and has been created to promote bi-directional bench-to-bedside critical care research. Having received a $4.9 million funding boost from the Australian Federal Government’s Medical Research Future Fund Early-to-Mid-Career Researcher (EMCR) grant, the group is now ready to take this sodium ascorbate formulation into clinical trials across Australia.
“This potentially life-saving treatment could be transformative for how sepsis is managed in Australia and across the world” said the research program’s lead investigator A/Prof Lankadeva
Scientific leaders are based across multiple research institutes including The Florey (A/Prof Yugeesh Lankadeva, Dr Lindsea Booth, Dr Connie Ow, Prof Clive May, Dr Ashenafi Betrie), The Doherty Institute (Dr Laura Cook, Prof Antoine Roquilly), Monash University (Dr Shu Wen Wen, A/Prof Connie Wong), Peter McCallum Cancer Centre (Dr Jen Baquier), and Walter & Eliza Hall Institute (Dr Samantha Emery) to understand the effects of sodium ascorbate on physiological, biochemical and immunological systems.
Clinicians from Royal Adelaide Hospital (A/Prof Mark Plummer), Austin Health (Prof Rinaldo Bellomo & Dr Neil Glassford), The Royal Melbourne Hospital (Dr Emily See), Monash Health (Prof Yahya Shehabi), Alice Springs Hospital (Dr Paul Secombe), Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital (Prof Michael Reade), St George's Hospital (Prof Manoj Saxena) and Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital (Dr Alex Wood) will use these insights to implement clinical trials across Mainland Australia.