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Centre for Precision Health - ECU Strategic Research Centre

Centre for Precision Health - ECU Strategic Research Centre
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  • Figure showing the Precision Health model of the interaction between biological data, environment and lifestyle

    Precision health

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  • See Also
  • Our Research Groups
    https://www.ecu.edu.au/schools/medical-and-health-sciences/our-research/centre-for-precision-health/lp-research-groups
  • Our Research Groups

About

The Centre for Precision Health (CPH) is a leading biomedical ECU strategic research centre driving cutting-edge multidisciplinary research to develop and apply precision health strategies that address our key health priorities to optimise health and quality of life.

Our researchers have been successful in:

  • Developing liquid biopsies for melanoma, lung cancer, and other cancers as well as new treatment targets.
  • Uncovering therapeutic targets and biomarkers that are important for understanding cancer metastases, tumour growth and patient response to therapies, and to inform personalised treatment decisions.
  • Developing innovative solutions focused on genomics and environmental factors to improve Alzheimer’s disease, dementia and other neurological conditions such as Huntington's Disease and Parkinsons Disease.
  • Establishing screening and monitoring tools for chronic diseases and metabolic conditions.
  • Non-invasively assessing motor unit firings in humans using high-density electromyography brain and nerve stimulation.
  • Developing interventions that promote mental health and quality of life, and how mental health may impact research outcomes in relation to health conditions and in other contexts.
  • Co-designing community-driven programs with the neurological community, experts and industry partners to create  practical solutions that make a real difference in everyday life.

Research program

The Centre's research program focuses on three strategic research domains including:

  1. Biomarker discovery - Finding the biological signals that unlock better health
  2. Disease mechanisms - Decoding the biology of disease development
  3. Health translation - Turning research into real-world impact

Each research group in the Centre contributes to one or more of the strategic research domains.

Precision Health model

The Vision: Imagine a future where you visit the doctor, and they present a personalised plan to keep you healthy for as long as possible or prescribe the most optimal treatment strategy that is tailored specifically to you.

Instead of a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach, we take a holistic approach that focuses on an individual's unique biology, psychosocial factors and how they interact, with the aim of informing personalised treatment strategies and health interventions.

Benefits of our approach

Precision Health allows clinicians and researchers to:

  • Understand the underlying mechanisms of disease development and progression.
  • Identify disease-specific genetic changes to inform diagnosis and recognise or predict undiagnosed conditions.
  • Provide better population health improvements through evidence-based risk profiling.
  • Predict treatment response to optimise treatment and ongoing care for each individual.
  • Prevent potentially life-threatening side effects from medications and other systemic treatments.
  • Guide lifestyle and environmental recommendations based on an individual's unique genetic risk factors.
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