Together with colleagues from Adelaide University (A/Prof Lyndsey Collins-Praino, Dr Alexandra Whittaker, Ines Semendric, Olivia Haller and Dr Rebecca George), Dr David Hobbs, A/Prof Kenneth Pope and Bek O’Loughlin were successful with a Channel 7 Children’s Research Foundation grant entitled “Can cognitive function be improved in childhood cancer survivors with the use of a custom cognitive gaming suite?”. 

The aim of this project will be to work with children with a condition known as Cancer-related Cognitive Impairment or CRCI. CRCI is known to negatively impact cancer survivors, specifically in areas such as memory recall, decision-making, mental wellbeing, and everyday functions including social skills. Children are particularly vulnerable to these changes as their brains are still developing. This project will assess the presentation and impact of CRCI in childhood cancer survivors and evaluate whether a targeted custom Serious Gaming system (called ‘NeuroOrb’) can improve cognitive function and quality of life. If successful, this tool could be employed to improve rehabilitation outcomes for childhood cancer survivors with CRCI, an area of significant unmet need. This grant will directly support Bek’s PhD project here at Flinders University.

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Prof Karen Reynolds, Dr David Hobbs, and Dr Robbie Trott, along with colleagues from UniSA the RAH and Fourier Intelligence, were successful late last year with a MRFF grant entitled “The feasibility and potential of a novel robotic gait bioprosthesis for people with severe gait impairment post-stroke”. This grant will fund the further development of a promising new device to improve the recovery of mobility after stroke. The device potentially solves the two major mobility impairments post-stroke – firstly, weakness or paresis, and secondly, coordination where the stroke-affected brain cannot coordinate an appropriately timed, sequenced and graded flow of motion of the affected leg.

The Team will take their prototype hand-sensor (to generate internal motor commands) and couple it with a commercially available exoskeleton (providing limb strength) to confirm interoperability in vitro. They will then test feasibility, safety, neurophysiology and preliminary efficacy in vivo – firstly with people without and then with stroke – in a stage-gated process of increasingly complex tasks.