Australia invests $12m in heart protection research

The funding will support the clinical trial of a peptide known as Hi1a.

The Australian government is set to invest nearly $12m (A$18m) in a research project that will trial a drug that protects the heart during a heart attack. The initiative will support a team from the University of Queensland, focusing on a peptide known as Hi1a.

The project, titled “The Heart Rehab Clinical Trials: Therapeutics to Protect the Human Heart”, will involve clinical trials using a miniaturised version of Hi1a to develop drugs for heart attack treatment and transplantation.

The funding is allocated through the Medical Research Future Fund's Frontier Health and Medical Research (Frontiers) grant opportunity.

According to the government, over 55,000 Australians experience a heart attack each year and approximately 7,000 fatalities result from these events.

A$1 = $0.67