Two ARMI researchers awarded ARC Future Fellowships 

Future Fellowships awarded for ageing and tissue repair research 

ARMI Group Leaders Professor Nir Eynon and Professor Mikaël Martino have been awarded Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellowships to pursue their research in ageing and tissue repair. 

Future Fellowships provide four years of support to outstanding mid-career researchers who are undertaking research in areas of national and international benefit. More than 290 researchers were awarded fellowships this year. 

Unlocking the role of nerves in healing and regeneration 

Professor Martino received his Future Fellowship for a project titled Nociceptor–immune regulation of tissue repair and regeneration, which will investigate how sensory nerves influence the body’s ability to heal after injury. He said his team had recently uncovered a completely new healing process. “We discovered that sensory nerves actively grow into damaged tissues and communicate with immune cells to drive repair and regeneration,” he said.  

Professor Martino said his fellowship would support work to define how nerves enter injured tissues, identify the detailed signals that guide recovery, and test whether the same mechanism is at play in the heart after injury. “We anticipate this work will transform our understanding of how the nervous and immune systems work together to heal the body,” he said. 

Mapping the molecular networks of ageing 

Professor Eynon received his Future Fellowship for a project titled How our cells age: discovering the molecular networks that control ageing, which seeks to uncover how and why ageing-related changes occur by identifying key molecular switches that drive decline across multiple tissues in the human body. He said the project would generate new knowledge of how ageing is controlled at the molecular level by using big data, advanced computational modelling and molecular analyses. “By discovering key ageing-related molecules and understanding their roles across tissues we will create the world’s first open-access web tool, called AgeMap, to map molecular ageing networks,” he said. “These outcomes will transform our understanding of fundamental biological processes across the human lifespan.” 

Supporting the next generation of regenerative medicine research  

For Professor Martino and Professor Eynon, their fellowships will allow them to pursue ambitious questions in regenerative biology that might otherwise have been difficult to sustain within shorter funding cycles. 

The funding will bring additional benefits. Early-career researchers, PhD candidates and technical specialists working within and alongside the Martino and Eynon laboratories will have the opportunity to build their skills and careers in regenerative medicine, and both researchers will be able to deepen existing international and industry collaborations, reinforcing Australia’s standing as a world-leading centre for regenerative biology research. 

ARMI’s Director of Research, Professor Peter Currie said the awarding of two fellowships underscored the calibre of research underway at the institute and its growing reputation as a global hub for regenerative biology. 

“This recognition reflects not only the strength of Professor Martino and Professor Eynon’s individual research programs, but their leadership, dedication to impact, and shared vision for the future of regenerative science,” he said.