The Institute for Mental and Physical Health and Clinical Translation (IMPACT) hit the ground running in 2021, navigating its way through the second of year of the pandemic to solidify its position as world-leaders in medical research and demonstrating the impact that its research makes in the real world.
Our seven themes bring together world-class researchers, early and mid-career scientists and postgraduate students to solve complex mental and physical health problems.
In our 2021 Annual Report you can read about the important work to come out of each theme, plus researcher profiles, theme highlights and our aspirations for 2022. 
2021 marked the second full year of operation for the Institute for Mental and Physical Health and Clinical Translation (IMPACT) and the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic. As they did in 2020, IMPACT’s researchers faced the continuing challenges and disruptions with a strength of character and commitment to research that speaks to their talent and expertise and contributed important new insights to our knowledge of the virus and how to treat it.
– Alfred Deakin Professor Julie Owens – Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research, Deakin University
In the report, read about the Clinical Interventions theme’s Community and Research Network (CARN) and how it continues to provide an essential opportunity for TRIALS researchers to connect directly with those who have mental and physical health conditions to gain a greater understanding of their experiences.
The report also explores how the Food and Mood Centre’s work is playing a key part in informing a national policy roadmap that prioritises the physical health of people living with mental illness for all levels of government.
Also highlighted is the important work of the Infection, Immunity and Cancer theme’s Host-Pathogen Interaction group and its research on the biological pathways that are essential to the survival of malaria parasites and using that knowledge to identify potential new anti-malaria drug targets.
The Mental Health and Neuroscience theme provides an update on the $12 million Mental Health Australia General Clinical Trials Network (MAGNET) – a bid to drive prevention, detection, diagnosis, treatment and recovery in mental health, and provide the resources to run ambitious and diverse clinical trials.
The report delves deeper into the work being done in the Molecular Medicine theme on the benefits of exercise and how that can be used to treat muscle-wasting diseases.
The Novel Treatment Discovery theme reveals its progress on its research on using blood as a reliable source when searching for Alzheimer’s disease relevant biomarkers.
And lastly the report explores how the Population Health theme developed a decision aid tool for rural emergency departments that aims to bolster the confidence and competence of ED staff to respond to and manage mental health-related presentations.
Read all this and more in the 2021 IMPACT Annual Report. Find the report right here.
