HEALTH - Gold Coast Health & Knowledge Precinct

Filed Under: HEALTH, PROJECTS Tagged With: Professor Randy Bindra

In good hands – Professor Randy Bindra

Professor Randy Bindra tests a model on Griffith's Six Degree of Freedom robotic testing machine

A ROUNDABOUT JOURNEY ACROSS THREE CONTINENTS BROUGHT PROFESSOR RANDY BINDRA FROM HIS CHILDHOOD HOME IN INDIA TO THE GOLD COAST HEALTH AND KNOWLEDGE PRECINCT (GCHKP) WHERE HE INNOVATES IN ORTHOPAEDIC SURGERY.

The softly-spoken Sikh did his medical training in India’s largest city, Mumbai, before doing further specialist studies in the UK and the US, then leaving Chicago for the sunny shores of Australia’s Gold Coast in 2014.

With an Australian wife and the offer of work as a leading hand and wrist surgeon at the then brand new Gold Coast University Hospital (GCUH), along with a Professorship at Griffith University, the appeal was obvious.

Since arriving, Professor Bindra has found ready research partners within Griffith’s health and engineering faculties, as well as a growing appetite for surgical training from Indian specialists keen to learn from his extensive experience in trauma, and his cutting-edge research to regrow nerves and ligament tissue.

Now it is coming together in unique project with his Griffith University colleague Professor David Lloyd and team that offers the promise of not only repairing the most common wrist injury in young, active people, but providing a platform technology that will transform how sports injuries are treated.

From left: PhD candidate Alastair Quinn, Professor Bindra, Biomechanical engineer Dr David Saxby, PhD candidate Kaecee Fitzgerald, Griffith University

The project, funded by an almost $900,000 BioMedTech Horizons program grant from the Australian Government, is using groundbreaking bioengineering and 3D printing technology to create hope for sufferers of Scapholunate Interosseous Ligament (SLIL) injury.

SLIL injuries cause dislocation of scaphoid and lunate bones and can be career-ending for an athlete and result in long-term disability for others, with current treatments that improvise to use tendon in place of ligament having a poor prognosis. Long-term pain, limitation of movement and arthritis are often the eventual outcome.

“What we are trying to create is a ligament scaffold that is customised to the patient and is seeded with cells, so its a live ligament that is ready to grow and heal,” explains Professor Bindra.

“If we can perfect the science and make this a reliable platform starting off in the wrist, we could use it anywhere else where there’s a ligament injury.

We don’t even fully realise the potential yet, so its very exciting to be at the starting curve of something that could be dramatic in terms of sports injuries.”

Having already been trialled in successful animal studies, Professor Bindra, who was named 2016 Queensland Clinical Educator, says he expects the research to expand into human clinical trials within the next two to three years.

The project draws on the expertise of industry partner Orthocell, a successful Australian regenerative medicine company who are responsible for the cell biology work, and also involves collaboration with the Universities of Queensland and Western Australia, however the core multi-disciplinary team benefits from co-location within the GCHKP.

“The great thing about the Gold Coast and this health and knowledge precinct is the proximity of all the different teams. So you’ve got a hosptial and a medical school, we have access to cadavers, access to fantastic mechanical labs, we have ADaPT where we can print and create scaffolds and prototypes and we’ve got a lot of smart people at Griffith university,” Professor Bindra says.

“So we’ve got this combination of everything in one place which I’m not sure is replicated anywhere else.”

Filed Under: HEALTH, INVEST Tagged With: Chengdu, China, Institute for Glycomics, Mayor Tom Tate

China’s home of pandas has giant health investment promise

The delegation visits Olymvax Biopharmaceuticals

As the Gold Coast signs a key Sister City agreement with Chengdu, capital of China’s Sichuan province and home to the famous giant pandas, the promise of investment into the Gold Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct (GCHKP) is rapidly taking shape.

With a vaccine licensing agreement already in place between Griffith University’s Institute for Glycomics and Chengdu-based Olymvax Biopharmaceuticals to deliver a world-first vaccine for Streptococcus A infection, the next steps in engaging the sector in China will see expansion of biotech company relationships to position the GCHKP as a key location for Chinese investment in drug, vaccine and diagnostics development and other health technologies.

GCHKP Project Director Di Dixon joined Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate in a 40-strong Gold Coast group, the largest ever Australian delegation to Chengdu, to celebrate the Sister City agreement, host strategic partnership meetings and make key presentations to significant investors.

Mayor Tate joined Mayor of Chengdu, Mr Luo Qiang and other government and industry VIPs from both cities at a ceremony to formally affirm the sister city relationship.

“Becoming sister cities has been a work in progress over the past five years and I’m so pleased to have secured this agreement for the Gold Coast with one of China’s economic powerhouse cities,” says Mayor Tate.

“The signing recognises the momentum that has built up over the past few years and we’re pleased to see an increasing focus on health technology and medical research as the relationship now matures,” says Ms Dixon.

Formal Sister City signing

Why Chengdu?

Home to a metropolitan population of 10 million in a catchment of 16 million, Chengdu is at the centre of China’s fastest growing region as the Chinese government fosters development of its western cities and global influence through its signature ‘Belt and Road’ (BRI) policy initiative.

The Southern starting point of the historic Silk Road overland to Europe, Chengdu is being reimagined as a modern hub for Chinese trade and investment linking through the Eurasian ‘belt’ to European markets, and a burgeoning global centre of health technology.

The Sichuan capital offers global reach without the competition and costs of China’s eastern seaboard centres, where the cost of business is 20-40% higher.

63 higher education institutes and 50 scientific research institutes
Leads China in blood products, vaccines, stem cells and genomics
Strong in clinical trials with 8 clinical trial bases
2 key biotech precincts

(Source Austrade)

Long term relationships

Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate has visited Chengdu six times, while GCHKP Project Director Di Dixon has now joined four Mayoral delegations to the city and has actively worked alongside Institute for Glycomics General Manager Dr Chris Davis to mature a growing relationship with Olymvax, cemented in a 2016 licensing deal to co-develop a potential blockbuster vaccine for the Strep A bacteria.

“Since the co-development deal a joint lab has been established and pre-clinical evaluation has commenced en route to a Phase 1 clinical trial, while we’ve been working towards a longer-term vision for expanding the partnership into a physical presence in the Precinct,” says Ms Dixon.

Mayor Tate with Olymvax Chairman Shaowen Fan

With education, civic and cultural links forging initial foundations of the emerging relationship between the Gold Coast and Chengdu, health was firmly a focus for the Sister City signing mission, with visits to the Sichuan Academy of Medical Services, Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital and the Chengdu International Medical City, as well as presentations to health focused investors.

The GCHKP hosted representatives from Olymvax, Chinese research and infrastructure investors and major Chinese biotechnology company Sinobioway for the celebration dinner, following signings of MOU’s with Sinobioway by the GCHKP and Griffith University in January, as the new partnership builds towards significant investment.

The delegation also visited Chengdu Medical city, an impressive 65kmsq land area focussed on the development of medicine, medical device manufacturing, medical research and services. The impressive approach to investment and facility development, alongside significant industry partners provides an opportunity for a future sister park collaboration.

Austrade Health Focus

“We can use the Sister City agreement to drive commercial opportunities in key areas of health and education – the timing is perfect for the new relationship to drive these opportunities.”

Tim White, Austrade Trade and Investment Commisioner, Chengdu

The China (Chengdu)–Australia Health Industry Fund is an initiative of Chengdu Municipal Government and Chengdu-based health industry representatives, with support from Austrade and the Australian Consulate-General in Chengdu. The objective is to provide new channels for project funding, IP incubation and research commercialisation partnerships in health and life sciences.

Chengdu media interview Mayor Tate, Di Dixon and Study Gold Coast CEO Alfred Slogrove

A weekend visit to see the pandas completed a busy itinerary

Filed Under: HEALTH, INVEST

Clinical trial capacity grows through collaboration and cost advantage

Austrade's A/g Manager International Health Abdul Ekram (centre), with representatives from the GCHKP, Grififth University Clinical Trials Unit and Gold Coast Health

The Gold Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct is drawing national and international attention as a clinical trial hot spot, with a senior Austrade representative outlining the growing opportunities for the Precinct in the global clinical trial landscape.

Griffith University’s Clinical Trial Unit (CTU), together with the Gold Coast Health and Hospital Service, are fast building the GCHKP’s clinical trial capacity through a collaborative approach that brings researchers and clinicians together with industry partners to build business opportunities and best practice, supported by Australia’s cost-advantage and reputation.

Collaboration was formalised through an MOU, signed in November 2017, and continues to build with more than 100 registered trials either underway or completed.

Speaking at the inaugural ‘lunch and learn’ event, Austrade’s A/g Manager International Health, Mr Abdul Ekram, outlined the cost advantage of clinical trials in Australia, with early-phase trials 60% cheaper than they are in the United States, after tax incentives.

1,300 clinical trails are conducted in Australia each year, 63% involving industry, with the US sponsoring around 6,000 trials a year, 260 of which are conducted in Australia – there is a real growth opportunity

Professor Michael Good (left) participating in his own first-in-human clinical trial for a whole parasite Malaria vaccine with GCUH Director of Infectious Diseases Dr John Gerard

Trials range from Phase I to IV, including a second stage (1b) trial of the novel malaria vaccine PlasProtecT®, developed by the Institute for Glycomics’s Professor Michael Good AO and Senior Research Fellow Danielle Stanisic through extensive research since 2010; to a trauma study investigating whether early cooling of patients with severe traumatic brain injury produces better outcomes, led by the GCUH’s Director of Trauma and Griffith University Professor of Traumotology, Dr Martin Wullschleger.

Many trials are national and international multi-centre studies, including as part of Clinical Trials Networks such as the Australasian Kidney Trials Network, Australasian Stroke Trials Network and the National Trauma Research Institute, and conducted with leading global pharmaceutical and medtech companies, including Stryker, Medtronic, Paradigm Biopharmaceuticals and more.

Trials range across pharmaceutical studies for new and existing drugs, medical devices and surgical procedures to cancer treatment and a full range of medical specialty areas including haemotology, oncology, cardiology, endocrinology, interventional neuroradiology (led by global expert and GCUH specialist Dr Hal Rice), neurology, emergency medicine, surgery, trauma, obstetrics and gynaecology, paediatrics, allied health and complimentary medicine.

A full-list of Gold Coast Health registered trials is available here.

Dr Martin Wullschleger, GCUH Medical Director of Trauma, GU Professor of Traumology

Griffith University’s Clinical Trial Unit (CTU), located in the Griffith Health Centre on the Gold Coast campus adjacent to Gold Coast University Hospital, offers purpose-built, GCP aligned facilities for Phase I–IV clinical trials.

As a Core Research Facility of the University, the unit supports staff and collaborators to conduct a wide range of investigator initiated trials. It also provides professional trial coordination services to external clients such as the pharmaceutical, biotech, nutraceutical and complementary medicine industries, as well as Clinical Research Organisations.

The CTU has successfully conducted trials in: