Welcome to the January Edition of #TALK.Research

Tēnā koutou

Happy New Year to all our researchers at Middlemore and Whangārei Hospitals. 2025 promises to be an exciting year for clinical trials with ACTT planning to activate more new trials than ever before. The range and breadth is impressive ranging from new chemical entities in weight loss to CRISPR and other gene editing technologies.

Our Grant trials team have been successful in securing funding for several large grant funded trials with a significant increase in researchers approaching Nicola Jackson and her team asking for help taking their research ideas forward such as in: budgeting, regulatory expertise, trial and protocol design, arranging funding support etc.

We look forward to another successful year bringing clinical trials to the Counties Manukau and Te Tai Tokerau communities.

Ma te wā

Dr Edward Watson

CEO

What’s In This Issue:

• Catherine Howie - Senior Regulatory Specialist Retires

• Research Week 2024 Recap

• Aotearoa Clinical Trials Annual Report 2024

• Trials Starting at ACTT

• Recent Publications by CMH Investigators

• Join us at the Goodman Highbrook Fun Run Walk 2025

After 17 years with ACTT Catherine Howie has retired from her position as Senior Regulatory lead. Catherine has had a few positions in this time but since 2010 has been the go-to person for all things Regulatory.  We are immensely grateful for her expertise, guidance, attention to detail, and unwavering support over this time. We wish her all the best in her retirement!

Catherine has kindly spent her last month at ACTT training up her replacement to ensure a seamless transition.  

We would like to welcome Tanya Poppe, PhD who is passionate about the regulatory processes of research. Tanya comes to us with over a decade of clinical trials experience, both in New Zealand and the UK.

ACTT News Highlights

Research Week 2024 Whakahonohono - Making Connections

From October 14th to 18th, Aotearoa Clinical Trials proudly hosted Research Week at Counties Manukau Health | Middlemore Hospital, with this year’s theme, Whakahonohono: Making Connections. This event celebrated the collaborative spirit of Middlemore’s vibrant research community, with sessions spanning 25 hospital departments and showcasing the work of students, emerging researchers, nurses, doctors, dietitians, and allied health professionals.

Throughout the week, our sessions highlighted essential research topics such as Respiratory Research, Paediatrics, Infectious Diseases, Mental Health, and more. We were fortunate to hear from leaders like Health New Zealand’s Chief of Tikanga, Mahaki Albert, who spoke on increasing access to Hauora Māori solutions.

Wednesday and Thursday featured exceptional sessions and were sponsored by BeiGene (Silver) and the Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Foundation (Gold). Special thanks to our speakers, including Dr Robert Weinkove, Clinical Director at the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research, for his keynote on precision immunotherapy, and Dr Robyn Whittaker for sharing insights into building research networks across Aotearoa.

Research Week also showcased 57 impressive poster submissions, with 187 votes for the People’s Choice Award! On Friday, we wrapped up with inspiring keynote addresses from Margie Apa, CEO of Te Whatu Ora, and Professor Ian Town, Chief Science Advisor at the Ministry of Health, who highlighted the role of research in driving innovations in public health.

We concluded with the Poster Submission Competition prize-giving, presented by Dr Vanessa Thornton, Group Director at Te Whatu Ora. Dr Adam Dennison was awarded the best poster prize. Congratulations to all poster competition participants—their contributions are helping shape the future of healthcare. Thank you to our Poster Prize Sponsors, whose support enables further investments in research and innovation.

A final thank you to our sponsors, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Foundation (Gold) and BeiGene (Silver), for their invaluable support in making Research Week 2024 a success. Here’s to continued collaboration and impactful research across Aotearoa!

Annual Report FY24

Aotearoa Clinical Trials is proud to present our Annual Report 2024.

This year has been a milestone for us, as we achieved accreditation and continued to navigate challenges while driving meaningful change. The report highlights the incredible achievements we’ve accomplished in collaboration with our international partners, investigators, and the dedicated departments at Middlemore Hospital and Whangārei Hospital.

Together, we have brought clinical trials to benefit the Counties Manukau and Northland communities.

Trials starting at ACTT

List of upcoming trials that are planned to start recruitment in the next three months:

To learn more about the trials we are undertaking at Middlemore Hospital and Whangārei Hospital, please visit our website to see what trials and what disease areas we are currently working on.
 

Together through research we can improve the lives of many of the patients in Counties Manukau and Te Tai Tokerau.

Recent Publications

Bromberg,J. E. C., Issa, S., vander Holt, B., van der Meulen, M., Dirven, L., Minnema, M. C., Seute, T.,Durian, M., Cull, G., van der Poel, M. W. M., Stevens, W. B. C., Zijlstra, J.M., Brandsma, D., Nijland, M., Mason, K. D., Beeker, A., Abrahamse-Testroote,M. C. J., van den Bent, M. J., de Jong, D., & Doorduijn, J. K. (2024).Survival, neurocognitive function, and health-related quality of life outcomesafter rituximab-methotrexate, BCNU, teniposide, and prednisolone for primary CNS lymphoma: Final results of the HOVON 105/ALLG NHL 24 study. Neuro Oncol,26(4), 724-734. https://doi.org/10.1093/neuonc/noad224

Campbell,A. J., Anpalagan, K., Best, E. J., Britton, P. N., Gwee, A., Hatcher, J.,Manley, B. J., Marsh, J., Webb, R. H., Davis, J. S., Mahar, R. K., McGlothlin,A., McMullan, B., Meyer,M., Mora, J., Murthy, S., Nourse, C., Papenburg, J., Schwartz, K. L., .. . Youth working group, S. G. T. S. C. (2024). Whole-of-Life Inclusion inBayesian Adaptive Platform Clinical Trials. JAMA Pediatr, 178(10),1066-1071. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2024.2697

Gane, E.J., Kim, W., Lim, T. H.,Tangkijvanich, P., Yoon, J. H., Sievert, W., Sukeepaisarnjaroen, W., Thompson,A. J., Pavlovic, V., Surujbally, B., Wat, C., Brown, B. D., Achneck, H. E.,& Yuen, M. F. (2023). First-in-human randomized study of RNAi therapeuticRG6346 for chronic hepatitis B virus infection. J Hepatol, 79(5),1139-1149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhep.2023.07.026

Long, E.,Borland, M. L., George, S., Jani, S., Tan, E., Neutze, J., Phillips, N., Kochar, A., Craig, S., Lithgow,A., Rao, A., Dalziel, S., Oakley, E., Hearps, S., Singh, S., Gelbart, B.,McNab, S., Balamuth, F., Weiss, S., . . . New, Z. (2024). Sepsis epidemiologyin Australian and New Zealand children (SENTINEL): protocol for a multicountryprospective observational study. BMJ Open, 14(1), e077471.https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2023-077471

Meyer, M. P., & Nevill, E. (2024). Early Breathing in Very Preterm Infants during Deferred Cord Clamping (DCC) Is Related to Gestational Age and Is Not Independently Associated with Important Neonatal Outcomes: A 5-Year Cohort Study. Children(Basel), 11(3). https://doi.org/10.3390/children11030347

Selvarajah,V., Robertson, D.,Hansen, L., Jermutus, L., Smith, K., Coggi, A., Sanchez, J., Chang, Y. T., Yu,H., Parkinson, J., Khan, A., Chung, H. S., Hess, S., Dumas, R., Duck, T.,Jolly, S., Elliott, T. G., Baker,J., Lecube, A., . . . study, i. (2024). A randomized phase 2b trialexamined the effects of the glucagon-like peptide-1 and glucagon receptor agonist cotadutide on kidney outcomes in patients with diabetic kidney disease. Kidney Int. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.kint.2024.08.023

Yuen, M.F., Lim, Y. S., Yoon, K. T., Lim,T. H., Heo, J., Tangkijvanich, P., Tak, W. Y., Thanawala, V., Cloutier,D., Mao, S., Arizpe, A., Cathcart, A. L., Gupta, S. V., Hwang, C., & Gane,E. (2024). VIR-2218 (elebsiran) plus pegylated interferon-alfa-2a in participants with chronic hepatitis B virus infection: a phase 2 study. Lancet Gastroenterol Hepatol. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-1253(24)00237-1

Interested in Applying for Funding?

A range of grant funding opportunities are available for research projects. If you are interested in applying or not sure which grant is right for you, please email the Grants Team.

Goodman Highbrook Fun Run Walk 2025

ACTT is proud to be supporting the Goodman Highbrook Fun Run Walk again in 2025, our company has been supporting this Fun Run since 2018.

This year the Fun Run will be on Wednesday 12th March and we welcome anyone to join us in supporting the local community and getting active! For more information, click here.

Please contact Esther Ji by the 7th of February 2025 if you are interested in doing this Fun Run with team ACTT.

Contact Us

Follow us on social media to keep up to date