MAWA Trust

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Enquiries to sharyn.watson@mawa-trust.org.au or phone 02 62551834

MAWA'S AIM & EXPERTISE

The aim of the Medical Advances Without Animals Trust (MAWA) is to advance medical science to improve human health and therapeutic outcomes without using animals or animal products. MAWA is an Australian organisation and a registered charity with its administrative base in Canberra. MAWA’s Board and Advisory Panel include senior scientists, academics and medical consultants. MAWA works with the scientific research community in Australian universities and medical research institutions, and has a partnership with The Australian National University (ANU).

HOW MAWA OPERATES

MAWA operates as an independent medical research and educational trust fund to facilitate the development and utilisation of non-animal based experimental methods to replace the use of animals in medical research. It is expected that by funding replacement research and training scientists in alternative techniques, the reliance on the use of animals and animal products will be reduced. The Trust provides research and equipment grants, fellowships, scholarships, bursaries and sponsorships to scientists and scholars throughout Australia in a competitive award process, and funds a range of other initiatives to further MAWA’s goals.

ANU/MAWA PARTNERSHIP

The MAWA Trust has formed a partnership with The Australian National University (ANU) to establish The Australian Centre for Alternatives to Animal Research (ACAAR). The Centre will provide a focal point for alternatives research, act as a knowledge and technical resource, and develop and implement strategies to facilitate a broad adoption of replacement methods. As a first step MAWA awarded funds to the ANU for two Fellowships and the appointment of an Associate Professor in Alternatives to provide scientific leadership in replacement research.

ANU/MAWA PROGRAM

The ANU based research program began with the establishment of an alternatives bioinformatics research group in The John Curtin School of Medical Research (JCSMR), Australia’s national medical research institution, and by supporting computational biophysics research projects in the ANU’s highly regarded Research School of Biology. The ANU has also been awarded research grants, scholarships and bursaries for other replacement projects and for recipients and scholars to travel to overseas institutions for training. MAWA is very grateful for the strong support and valuable guidance it has received from senior academics and executives at the ANU.

An example from MAWA’s Research Portfolio: MAWA Research Grant recipient Prof Shin-Ho Chung’s ANU Biophysics Group.
Utilizing modern high performance supercomputers, and by applying state-of-the-art computational tools, it has now become possible to rapidly design and screen potential pharmaceutical agents without the use of animals.

Many small molecules and peptides found in nature are promising scaffolds for novel therapeutic agents for the treatment of various disorders such as autoimmune diseases and neuropathic pain. Carbon nanotubes that are designed to mimic some of the functions carried out by biological molecules, offer exciting opportunities for devising highly sensitive detectors of specific molecules in biology, demonstrating that medical advances can be made using computer simulations without relying on animal experimentation.

FOR AN OVERVIEW OF MAWA’S WORK

The MAWA Trust Brochure	MAWA's Funding Initiatives
MAWA's 2019-2021 Awards	MAWA's Scientific Policies

DONATIONS SO THAT MAWA CAN EXPAND
ITS WORK ARE MOST WELCOME
ALL DONATIONS ARE TAX DEDUCTIBLE

THE MAWA TRUST

MAWA Board: Ms Elizabeth Ahlston; Prof Toby Allen; Prof Cris dos Remedios; Prof Kieran Fallon; Dr Jason Grossman; Mr Raymond Kidd
Prof Debbie Marriott; Dr Eliza Milliken; Dr Andre Peterson; The Hon Kevin Rozzoli AM; A/Prof Garry Scroop; Ms Sharyn Watson
MAWA ANU Fellows: Dr Rong Chen; Dr Michael Thomas; Dr Stephen Fairweather; Dr Amanda Buyan MAWA ANU JCSMR Fellow: Dr Bhim Rai
MAWA UMelb Fellow: Dr Andre Peterson MAWA UMelb CERA Fellow: Dr Raymond Wong MAWA USyd Fellow: Dr Belal Chami
MAWA WEHI Fellow: Dr Margaret Lee MAWA Florey Fellow: Dr Ben Rollo MAWA Victor Chang Fellow: Dr Charles Cox
MAWA UniSA Fellow: Dr Mariana Oksdath Mansilla MAWA WSU Fellow: Dr Rachel Shparberg
MAWA SAHMRI Fellow: Dr Zarina Greenberg MAWA Griffith Fellow: Dr Antony McNamee