Biomedical Health and Innovation

The burden of chronic inflammatory diseases and cancer is escalating across the globe, while endemic and emerging infectious diseases are overwhelming health systems in under-resourced countries.

More effective drugs, vaccines, health monitoring and community-level intervention programs are needed to safeguard human lives and community wellbeing. This Platform brings together hundreds of highly respected, cross-disciplinary experts who are passionately committed to addressing innovatively the rising health challenges in our society.

Our Vision

Magdalena Plebanski, Director, RMIT Biomedical Health and Innovation ECP

We will harness the multidisciplinary excellence at RMIT and work with our industry partners to address areas of medical need and deliver interventions for healthy living

Creating impact in the community

Fetal growth restriction (FGR) research

RMIT is partnering with two Melbourne hospitals to create a world-first aerosol pharmaceutical intervention to treat babies born after fetal growth restriction (FGR). FGR is a global health problem and babies born after FGR often suffer brain damage and lifelong disability for which there is no treatment. Also, there are no treatments that improve placental function, and clinicians have limited options for treating outcomes of an FGR pregnancy. The project aims to develop a patent-ready, portable, low-cost, easy-to-use device to deliver DITPA non-invasively as an aerosol into the airways or nasal passages of FGR infants.

Microbeam radiotherapy cancer research

A collaborative partnership has been established between leading Australian and international researchers who specialise in microbeam radiotherapy and immunotherapy. This innovative partnership is developing protocols for potentially revolutionary new cancer treatments. Synchrotron Microbeam Radiotherapy (MRT) is an experimental form of radiotherapy that is fundamentally different to conventional radiotherapy (CRT). MRT uses small beam sizes and extreme dose rates.

ECP Post-COVID-19 Restart Initiatives

Along with harnessing existing research networks and projects to respond to COVID-19, RMIT’s Enabling Capability Platforms (ECPs) launched five cross-platform initiatives in June 2020 to address various key areas for post COVID-19 recovery.

Find out more about our restart initiatives

Bioinformatics Network

This is a new initiative to support researchers at RMIT University to design, conduct and produce results in the area of Bioinformatics.

Find out more

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Key application areas

Personalised or precision medicine

Integrated healthcare

Medical practice, diagnosis, monitoring and treatment

Public healthcare, disease prevention and control

Pharmaceutical and vaccine innovation

Government and public policy

Health sustaining living environments

Remote monitoring

Research and innovation priorities

Ageing population

Our partnerships will pursue fundamental and applied research in ageing, developing:

new understanding of ageing biology
innovative therapies, diagnostics and monitoring tools for diseases in the elderly: cancers, musculoskeletal, inflammatory, cognitive
improvements and leap innovations in areas of need in existing health care models, and
optimised, practical and comprehensive community interventions such as vaccinations, drugs and lifestyle changes

Population growth and urbanisation

We will drive understanding of how urbanisation impacts human health by researching:

respiratory health and pollution
working and living in stressful environments
public health and abnormal behaviour, and
the prevention, early detection, treatment and amelioration of urban diseases

4.0 revolution and personalised medicine

We will focus on the opportunities arising from:

the omics revolution: to provide individually tailored health interventions
the digital revolution: to empower remote health monitoring and communication across patients and healthcare providers
the 4D printing and nanomaterials revolution

Regional and global citizenship

We will focus on:

Indigenous and regional health in Australia
global disease, epidemics and pandemics
endemic and emerging infectious diseases, and
biosecurity and biodiversity

Contact us

Contact Biomedical Health and Innovation ECP:

Professor Magdalena Plebanski
ECP Director
Tel: +61 3 9925 7263

Michelle Nicolo
Coordinator
Tel: +61 3 9925 6606

Connect with RMIT Research

If you're not sure how you can best work with us, our team can explain what's possible and put you in touch with the right person.