Nearly $5 million in funding has been awarded to 12 Western Australian innovators and startups working on local health and medical innovation projects
The ideas, many from academics and WA’s universities span tests for liver cancer to heart monitoring, endometriosis diagnosis, asthma treatment and more, were funded from the Innovation Seed Fund 2024-25 Program.
The state government’s Future Health Research and Innovation Fund regularly awards grants to individual researchers and companies. Its Innovation Seed Fund backs WA innovators to develop and commercialise their innovations that could improve the health of West Australians, create high-level health sector jobs and enhance the production/manufacturing capacity of the state. Funding in the latest round ranged between $90,000 and $500,000.
The Innovation Seed Fund 2024-25 recipients are:
| Recipient | Company | Project | Funding |
| Natalie Barber | DermR Health Research WA Pty Ltd | Translating Insights from the Pilbara Challenge: Advancing The DermR Patch α2 Through Early Clinical Validation and Design Refinement | $500,000.00 |
| Dr Rodrigo Maron Carlessi | Curtin University | LIVER-Trace: A Blood Test for Early Liver Cancer Recurrence Detection | $499,939.80 |
| Dr Barry Clements | Respirion Pharmaceuticals Pty Ltd | Inhaled RSP-1502, an improved treatment of resistant infection and inflammation in persons with Cystic Fibrosis | $649,312.00 |
| Prof Andrew Currie | Murdoch University | NeoSep-4 – Development of a 4-marker Point-Of-Care Lateral Flow Assay for the Rapid Screening of Neonatal Sepsis | $99,842.00 |
| Prof Girish Dwivedi | ProGenis Pharmaceuticals | Revolutionising Aortic Stenosis Treatment with Nucleic Acid Therapy | $100,000.00 |
| Prof Girish Dwivedi | University of Western Australia | Every Heartbeat Matters: a pocket-sized radar to bring advanced heart monitoring into every home | $99,937.00 |
| Dr Thomas Iosifidis | The Kids Research Institute Australia on behalf of the Centre for Child Health Research, The University of Western Australia | First-in-class small molecules to improve outcomes in asthma | $499,640.00 |
| Prof Riaz Khan | Australian Institute of Robotic Orthopaedics Pty Ltd trading as ArthoLase | Local Manufacture and Functional Qualification of the HAiLOTM System: Paving the Way for First-In-Human Robotic-Assisted Laser Arthroplasty | $496,332.00 |
| Dr Richard Lipscombe | Proteomics International Pty Ltd | Promarker Endo: A novel blood test for endometriosis diagnosis | $500,000.00 |
| Assoc Prof Samuel Lundin | Biotome Pty Ltd | Project Hummingbird: A Novel Diagnostic for Preeclampsia risk | $498,000.00 |
| Dr Nipanjana Patra | Pretect Devices Pty Ltd | Development of a commercialisation ready Minimum Viable Product of Vedette – a device to prevent Extravasation injury in neonates | $494,821.00 |
| Dr Emily Zhen | Materia Health Pty Ltd | MateriaPOD: Revolutionising the standard of care in organ and tissue transportation | $500,000.00 |
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