Winning
the fight against fat
Deakin University’s pre-eminent place in the fight against obesity has been re-confirmed by the awarding of a $2 million National Health and Medical Research Council grant to a team led by Dr Kylie Ball.
The research will investigate the causes of the increased risk of obesity among socio-economically disadvantage women and children.
“This is a very exciting development for our team and for Deakin University,” said Dr Ball, a Senior Research Fellow from the Centre for Physical Activity and Nutrition Research at Deakin.
“It will also focus on women and children who appear ‘resilient’ to obesity and explore the possibility of applying what we learn from those people to others.
“Equally importantly, we want to be able to provide evidence to help with the creation of policies and programs that prevent obesity among people from socio-economically disadvantaged groups.
“I would like to thank the NHMRC for giving us this grant and to congratulate all the team members who contributed to our application.”
The other members of the team are Professors David Crawford, Graeme Hugo, and Louise Baur, Associate Professor Gia Mishra and Drs Anna Timperio and Jo Salmon.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), Professor David Stokes said: "It is fantastic to see Deakin University's continued growth and strength in this area.
"It is particularly exciting to see one of our younger researchers leading such an eminent team at the cutting edge of this field".
The grant – for $1,945,741, will be used to finance five years of research.
Dr Ball has been involved in a number of studies into obesity during her time at Deakin. Her work on the effectiveness of Obesity Call Centres was featured in an earlier edition of this newsletter. You can read that story here: www.deakin.edu.au/research/stories/ball/index.php