Tag Archives: Liver Research

Preventable liver disease costs more than diabetes

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Sydney team hopes to reduce the burden with research-led intervention

Professor Geoff McCaughan

Professor Geoff McCaughan

Liver diseases have an impact on the Australian economy 40 per cent greater than chronic kidney disease and Type 2 diabetes combined, according to a report released today.

The report estimates the annual burden of liver diseases in Australia at more than $50 billion. And yet almost all liver disease is preventable.

The Centenary Institute’s liver research unit is one of the biggest in Australia. It is also one of first in the world to try to come to grips with liver damage at its most fundamental molecular level.

Head of research into liver disease and damage at Centenary, Professor Geoff McCaughan, and his team are focusing their research on promoting liver health, and understanding how chronic liver damage can develop into liver cancer. Continue reading →

Dr Devanshi Seth ready to test the genes of thousands of drinkers

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Dr Devanshi Seth, Group Leader, Alcoholic Liver Disease

Dr Devanshi Seth, Group Leader, Alcoholic Liver Disease, Liver Injury & Cancer

Centenary’s Dr Devanshi Seth, a researcher who works in the liver lab and who also works at RPA’s Drug Health Services has given an in-depth interview about her work on heavy drinking and liver cirrhosis in the online magazine femail.com.au.

Dr Devanshi and her colleagues are soon to start testing the genes of hundreds of Sydney-siders and thousands of others across six countries with the support of the grant from the US National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The US government is investing $2.5 million in a Sydney-based study to determine the role of genetics in alcoholic liver disease. The study, should lead to better diagnosis and treatment of the condition – a silent epidemic that costs $3.8 billion a year in Australia alone.

To read the full interview, please click here.

Read more about Dr Devanshi Seth’s work and how the US Government is backing this new study.

Progress in hepatitis C treatment is astonishing

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Professor Geoff McCaughan, head of Centenary’s liver program.

Professor Geoff McCaughan, head of Centenary’s liver program.

Prof Geoff McCaughan has an editorial in today’s Medical Journal of Australia saying that hepatitis C therapy is undergoing radical and rapid change. He predicts that within five years we will have short-duration anti-hepatitis C therapy with minimal side-effects and cure rates above 90%.

The burden of hepatitis C (HCV) associated liver failure and liver cancer is rising so these new drugs are just in time.

Continue reading →