FOM supports a good cause
The Night of Champions event is part of the Festival of Motorcycling, and the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI) was the charity partner this year.
The event raised $4,225 to help fund vital research and support the PhD candidates of SAHMRI, assisting them to become the future leaders of health and medical research.
Khalia Primer, a University of Adelaide PhD candidate researching the vascular complications of diabetes, will be benefitting from the funds raised by the Night of Champions. “Having access to cutting-edge technology means I can design the best possible experiments to help develop new therapies for diabetic complications”, she said. Khalia is based in the Vascular Research Centre at SAHMRI. Slow to heal wounds are the leading cause of non-traumatic amputations worldwide, and there are currently no therapies available that actively promote good healing. Khalia is developing new therapies that will help blood vessel-building cells survive better in non-healing wounds, so they can deliver oxygen and nutrients to the affected skin tissue more effectively. Her end goal is to develop treatments that can actively stimulate diabetic wound-healing and thus reduce the need for amputations.
Khalia, as well as SAHMRI as a whole, is appreciative of support from events like Night of Champions, which serve as a connection between research and the wider community. “SAHMRI is home to many scientists who are genuine worldexperts in their fields. Being able to share ideas within this community has allowed our research to advance quickly and in exciting new directions”, Khalia commented.