Deborah Chris Tamara Lehmann Brennan-Jones Veselinovic D C TV AO, MBBS, MSc PhD MClinAud Honorary Emeritus Fellow Head, Ear Health Clinical Research Officer/PhD student chris.brennan-jones@telethonkids.org.au tamara.veselinovic@telethonkids.org.au ...

• 1. Telethon Kids Institute
• Projects

Diffuse midline gliomas (DMG), including diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas (DIPG), are the most lethal of childhood cancers. Palliative radiotherapy is the only established treatment, with median patient survival of 9 to 11 months. ONC201 is a DRD2 antagonist and ClpP agonist that has shown preclinical and emerging clinical efficacy in DMG.  ...

• 1. Telethon Kids Institute
• Our research
• Reports and Findings
• 2023
• May 2023

Rhinoviruses (RVs) can cause severe wheezing illnesses in young children and patients with asthma. Vaccine development has been hampered by the multitude of RV types with little information about cross-neutralization. We previously showed that neutralizing antibody (nAb) responses to RV-C are detected twofold to threefold more often than those to RV-A throughout childhood. Based on those findings, we hypothesized that RV-C infections are more likely to induce either cross-neutralizing or longer-lasting antibody responses compared with RV-A infections. ...

• 1. Telethon Kids Institute
• Our research
• Reports and Findings
• 2023
• August 2023

Noninvasive measurement of respiratory impedance by oscillometry can be used in young children aged from 3 years and those unable to perform forced respiratory manoeuvres. It can discriminate between healthy children and those with respiratory disease. However, its clinical application is limited by the lack of reference data for African paediatric populations. The aim of the present study was to develop reference equations for oscillometry outcomes in South African children and adolescents. ...

• 1. Telethon Kids Institute
• Our research
• Reports and Findings
• 2023
• April 2023

Molecular profiling of the tumour immune microenvironment (TIME) has enabled the rational choice of immunotherapies in some adult cancers. In contrast, the TIME of paediatric cancers is relatively unexplored. We speculated that a more refined appreciation of the TIME in childhood cancers, rather than a reliance on commonly used biomarkers such as tumour mutation burden (TMB), neoantigen load and PD-L1 expression, is an essential prerequisite for improved immunotherapies in childhood solid cancers. ...

• 1. Telethon Kids Institute
• Our research
• Reports and Findings
• 2023
• April 2023

Reducing carbohydrate (CHO) intake is being used as an approach to manage type 1 diabetes (T1D) in children. This study aimed to investigate the experiences and attitudes of parents of children with T1D who are reducing CHO intake to help manage blood glucose levels. ...

• 1. Telethon Kids Institute
• Our research
• Reports and Findings
• 2023
• March 2023

This qualitative study used in-depth interviews to explore adolescent girls’ perceptions of sexualized images they typically find when using social media. Twenty-four participants aged 14–17 years described sexualized images of females as normalized on social media. The interplay between gendered and social norms that endorsed and rewarded girls for posting sexualized images was seen to influence an expectation for girls to conform with their peers and post such images of themselves. ...

• 1. Telethon Kids Institute
• Our research
• Reports and Findings
• 2023
• April 2023

As both mechanistic and geospatial malaria modeling methods become more integrated into malaria policy decisions, there is increasing demand for strategies that combine these two methods. This paper introduces a novel archetypes-based methodology for generating high-resolution intervention impact maps based on mechanistic model simulations. An example configuration of the framework is described and explored. ...

• 1. Telethon Kids Institute
• Our research
• Reports and Findings
• 2023
• April 2023

We sought research experiences of caregivers and their children were enrolled in the Environmental Determinants of Islet Autoimmunity (ENDIA) study. ...

• 1. Telethon Kids Institute
• Our research
• Reports and Findings
• 2023
• April 2023

The COVID-19 pandemic has seen evidence and advice evolve quickly. Since the start of the pandemic there has been confusion and concern about breastfeeding and COVID-19, and advice for this group has at times been contradictory. The volume of information on social media has exacerbated this. This study aimed to understand breastfeeding-related COVID-19 information sharing on social media during the global and Australian vaccine roll-out. ...

• 1. Telethon Kids Institute
• Our research
• Reports and Findings
• 2023
• April 2023

Schools are increasingly recognized as important settings for mental health promotion, but it is unclear what actions schools should prioritize to promote student mental health and wellbeing. We undertook a policy review of global school-based mental health promotion policy documents from United Nations agencies to understand the frameworks they use and the actions they recommend for schools. ...

• 1. Telethon Kids Institute
• Our research
• Reports and Findings
• 2023
• April 2023

Western Australian laboratory data demonstrated a decrease in human metapneumovirus detections through 2020 associated with SARS-CoV-2-related non-pharmaceutical interventions, followed by a subsequent surge in metropolitan region in mid-2021. We aimed to assess the impact of the surge in hMPV on paediatric hospital admissions and the contribution of changes in testing. ...

• 1. Telethon Kids Institute
• Our research
• Reports and Findings
• 2023
• May 2023