Institute for Mental and Physical Health and Clinical Translation (IMPACT)

CALM Trial breakthrough: healthy diet and exercise improve depressive symptoms
The Food & Mood Centre found that lifestyle change such as improving diet and increasing movement, were as effective as psychotherapy in reducing depressive symptoms. The program, delivered by dietitians and exercise physiologists, achieved similar outcomes and costs as cognitive behavioural therapy.

2024 Australian Mental Health Prize awarded to Professor Michael Berk
Deakin Distinguished Professor Michael Berk received the 2024 Australian Mental Health Prize (Professional category) for his innovative work on bipolar disorder and novel treatment approaches for mental health conditions.

Geelong Osteoporosis Study marks 30 years of impact
Now in its 30th year, the Geelong Osteoporosis Study continues to provide critical insights into healthy ageing. The long-running study has shaped understanding of how lifestyle, mental health, and physical changes affect men and women across the lifespan.

• Researchers from Barwon Health, Deakin University and Murdoch Children’s Research Institute found a big piece of the food allergy puzzle. Their research highlighted how siblings can speed up the rate at which babies develop their gut microbiome and that this protects them from future allergic diseases. Researcher Yuan Gao completed the research as part of her PhD studies.
• Dr Roey Elnathan, an ARC Future Fellow, successfully found a way to inject beneficial genetic material into white blood cells in a world-first breakthrough that could significantly improve treatment options for certain types of blood cancer.
• Four IMPACT researchers were announced on the Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers List. This includes Deakin Distinguished Prof Felice Jacka OAM, Deakin Distinguished Prof Michael Berk, Prof Alison Yung and Dr Andre Caravlho.

Our Clinical Interventions theme encompasses research to discover new treatments and understand biological pathways in mental illness and physical health conditions.

Theme Leader A/Prof Alyna Turner and Deputy Theme Leader Prof Olivia Dean lead a team of passionate researchers, students, volunteers and research assistants. The continuous development of new collaborations and programs keeps our team on the frontline of discovering and evaluating new treatments and responses for a range of mental and physical conditions.

Our Food and Mood theme conducts research that aims to understand the complex ways in which what we eat influences our brain, mood, and mental health.

World-class researchers from various backgrounds study the food-mood relationship at different levels, from microbiology to public health. Theme Leader Deakin Distinguished Professor Felice Jacka OAM (Director, Food & Mood Centre) and Deputy Theme Leader Dr Wolfgang Marx lead the multi-disciplinary team of researchers and students.

Our Infection, Immunity and Cancer team undertakes discovery-based research focused on understanding the molecular basis of health and disease at the individual and population level.

Led by Professor Tania De Koning-Ward and Professor John Stambas, our internationally renowned researchers produce findings that are critical for identifying and accelerating new approaches to improving health and preventing diseases such as cancer, metabolic disorders and infectious diseases.  The team is also home to the joint Barwon Health and Deakin University Centre for Innovation in Infectious Disease and Immunology Research (CIIDIR).

Our Mental Health and Neuroscience team explores chronic disease patterns, risk factors, novel therapies, and effective treatments of psychiatric conditions, such as bipolar disorder and depression.

Led by Theme Leader Professor Alison Yung and Deputy Theme Leader Dr Seetal Dodd, our diverse research aims to develop new therapies, repurpose existing medicines and explore the efficacy of nutraceuticals that may lead to better mental health and metabolic outcomes, and enhanced drug safety. We explore a range of mental health issues across the life-course, from early life epigenetics to mental health and ageing.

Our Molecular Medicine team seeks to understand and improve the treatment of many of the most common chronic diseases impacting populations across all ages.

Our team, led by Theme Leader Professor Sean McGee and Deputy Theme Leader Associate Professor Kathryn Aston-Mourney, includes prominent clinicians and scientists.

Our approach focuses on studying and understanding the basic biology of a condition and leveraging this new knowledge to develop novel treatment approaches. We use cutting-edge pre-clinical models and large-scale clinical cohort studies to gain new insights into the molecular mechanisms of disease.

Our Drug Discovery, Repurposing Therapeutics and Biomarkers team is led by Theme Leader Professor Ken Walder and Deputy Theme Leader Associate Professor Richard Williams. Our team focus on developing new treatments for many prevalent health problems.

We aim to help those in our community whose lives and livelihoods are disrupted by complex and difficult to treat chronic health problems. This includes finding new uses for existing drugs, discovering new drugs or drug delivery strategies and finding better ways of diagnosing diseases.

Our Population Health team explores the physical and mental health of humans across the lifespan. Our projects integrate epidemiological, clinical and basic research approaches to conduct studies that have real-world translational applications. With this comes the unique ability to describe the epidemiology of physical and mental health conditions in the population.

Together, Theme Leader Professor Julie Pasco and Deputy Theme Leader Professor Lana Williams oversee a diverse team of researchers and students. Our study participants visit the state-of-the-art clinical facilities at Barwon Health, where we conduct physical and mental health assessments. Data linkage with health registries broadens the scope of our research.

The Centre for Innovation in Infectious Disease and Immunology Research (CIIDIR), an initiative of the Deakin University and Barwon Health partnership, was established in 2022 to build on strengths in human infectious disease, microbiome and immunology research, linking to a national network to enhance the response to emerging and existing infectious disease threats locally and globally.

In 2020, initiatives such as the Deakin–Barwon Health COVID-19 Research Taskforce highlighted the collective power of infectious diseases expertise in Geelong. Several high-profile researchers, clinicians and public health practitioners rapidly mobilised to establish a COVID-19 Observational Cohort Study and develop transdisciplinary research projects. Together, they amassed more than $1 million in external funding for COVID-19 research.

During the same period, IMPACT and Barwon Health increased capacity in microbiome and immunology research, and saw an opportunity to capitalise on the population health and laboratory capacity at the Health, Education and Research Building (HERB) in Geelong to further strengthen these areas and complement nutrition and mental health research in the building.

The partnership also saw an urgent need to link these previously disparate areas of research. CIIDIR was created to capitalise on new opportunities in these areas by bringing together infectious disease, microbiome and immunology expertise across the University and Barwon Health.

Dr Sajal Saha has been announced as a finalist for the 2022 Premier’s Awards for Health and Medical Research.

Established in 1995 by the Victorian Government in partnership with the Australian Society for Medical Research, the awards recognise the exceptional contributions of Victoria’s mid and early-career health and medical researchers.

It’s a chance to highlight the breadth of research being done to improve the lives of people in Victoria and around the world and to celebrate rising stars and future scientific leaders.

There are 14 finalists across the five categories: Basic Science Researcher, Clinical Researcher, Health Services Researcher, Public Health Researcher, and Aboriginal Researcher.

Sajal is an Executive Dean Health Research Fellow and part of the newly formed Centre for Innovation in Infectious Disease and Immunology Research, a partnership between Deakin University and Barwon Health.

In a world-first, Australian researchers are trialling a new medication to help people who want to stop using crystal methamphetamine or ‘ice’.

Led by researchers from the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC) at UNSW Sydney, the Tina Trial will investigate if the antidepressant drug, mirtazapine can help people to stop using ice. Currently there are no medications available to treat methamphetamine dependence.

The Tina Trial is the largest trial of its kind ever attempted in Australia. It is being conducted at frontline clinical services in Wollongong, Geelong, Brisbane and Perth.

Funded by the Medical Research Future Fund, NDARC is leading the randomised controlled trial in collaboration with Deakin University, Monash University, the University of Wollongong, and the University of Sydney, together with health services in Brisbane, Perth, Geelong and Wollongong.

Associate Professor Olivia Dean from Deakin University and Barwon Health says reusing existing medications for new applications fast tracks new treatments.

“If proven effective, it would provide a relatively cheap treatment option that could be quickly put into clinical practice,” Associate Professor Dean says.