South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI)

SAHMRI research themes

Aboriginal Health
Cancer
Healthy Mothers, Babies and Children
Heart Health
Infection and Immunity
Mind and Brain
Nutrition and Metabolism

Flinders University is one of the founding members of the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI) in partnership with the Government of South Australia, The University of Adelaide and University of South Australia.

The flagship building for SAHMRI is a $200 million facility located in the new health and biomedical precinct on North Terrace in Adelaide CBD. The SAHMRI network extends across many geographical locations in South Australia, including nodes to be established at Flinders University.

SAHMRI aims to strengthen health and medical research capacity in South Australia, attract world- class researchers to the state and support research collaborations to deliver health outcomes and community impact.

Flinders research

Flinders University research aligns with a number of the SAHMRI Research Themes allowing us to identify collaborative opportunities to build capacity and make significant contributions to SAHMRI activities.

» Aboriginal Health

Flinders University has a number of long standing initiatives supporting aboriginal health including the South Australian Poche Centre for Indigenous Health and Well-Being and The Lowitja Institute.

The Wardliparingga Aboriginal Research Unit within SAHMRI conducts research that is of direct relevance to Aboriginal people in South Australia and will provide new opportunities for Flinders research regarding the health status and life opportunities available to Aboriginal people when compared to other Australians.

» Cancer

Our world-class Flinders Centre for Innovation in Cancer (FCIC) at Flinders Medical Centre has a primary focus on cancer prevention, early intervention research and support and cancer survivorship. The Cancer Theme is establishing a solid tumour “node” at FCIC and the Basil Hetzel Institute (BHI), and these collaborative links are now becoming well established with formalisation of these associations imminent.

Flinders is already receiving benefits from new projects at SAHMRI in the area of Cancer research, including the Cancer Council SA Beat Cancer Project research partnership between SA Health and SAHMRI.

» Heart Health

The Flinders Cardiology Research groups (Clinical Trials, Data Management and Cardiac Imaging) were amongst the first to transition to SAHMRI’s Heart Health theme upon its formation.

Professor Derek Chew directs the data management group, which manages data for various phase 3 and 4 clinical trials including the Australasian Cardiac Outcomes Registry (ACOR).

The Cardiac Imaging Research Group (CIRG) is under the directorship of Professor Joseph Selvanayagam and undertakes grant and commercially funded mechanistic and phase 2/3 clinical trials in cardiovascular disease, with a special focus on heart failure, cardiomyopathies and novel heart perfusion techniques. CIRG also conducts cardiac MRI core lab work for national and international multi-centre trials.

» Healthy Mothers, Babies and Children

SAHMRI Fellow Dr Jacqueline Miller from our discipline of Nutrition and Dietetics plays a critical role in driving research and policy that will optimise nutritional intake in premature infants and implement human milk banking in South Australia.

Dr Miller sits on a cross jurisdictional advisory committee representing the two South Australian hospitals involved (Women’s and Children Hospital and Flinders Medical Centre) to guide the establishment of a human milk bank in South Australia and to further research in this area. The Australian Red Cross is currently undertaking a pilot project on providing human milk to neonatal units nationally.

» Infection and Immunity

The Infection and Immunity Theme is co-located at SAHMRI and at the School of Medicine in Flinders University. Flinders University Associate Professor Geraint Rogers has been appointed by SAHMRI to lead microbiome research within the Infection & Immunity theme, running a research laboratory at Flinders Medical School.

» Mind and Brain

Professor Julio Licinio, Strategic Professor of Psychiatry at Flinders University has been appointed Theme Leader of Mind and Brain and Deputy Director for Translational Medicine at SAHMRI. Working with wife and collaborator of 27 years, Professor Ma-Li Wong, also a Strategic Professor of Psychiatry at Flinders, they plan to continue to do exceptional research in mind – brain in order to improve the lives of South Australians.

Find out more about our research in depression, anxiety, stress or chronic fatigue.

» Nutrition and Metabolism

The involvement of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in the SAHMRI Nutrition and Metabolism Theme is exciting for Flinders given our expertise in nutrition and dietetics.

SAHMRI will work in collaboration with the CSIRO Nutrition Division/Preventative Health Flagship, the University of Adelaide, Flinders University and will also have a strong link to Waite agriculture and plant research. This opens up opportunities for enhanced research strengths for Flinders in areas including health promotion, nutrition and cancer, food security and meeting the nutritional requirements of the older population.

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5 start student-staff ratio as rated by Good Universities Guide 2016

SA’s top rated uni for overall educational experience and student support as rated by Quality Indicators in Learning and Teaching (QILT).