Menieres Research Fund Inc.

Our people at the Fund are saddened to hear of the passing of Dr. George Wilson.  As a Meniere's Disease sufferer himself, he played a pivotal role in establishing one of the original support groups out of which came the impetus to establish our Fund.  He will be sadly missed by all who knew him.  His obituary can be found here

The Fund is pleased to welcome Yasuhiro Chihara (‘Yas’) and his family of Kameda Medical Centre of Tokyo University to join our research team.

Dr Brown's update following his attendance at the 6^th International Symposium on Ménière’s Disease and Other Inner Ear Disorders in Kyoto, Japan and his visit to Dr Manzari’s ENT clinic in Cassino, Italy.  Go here for details...

Professors Bill Gibson and Michael Halmagyi will join Dr Miriam Welgampola, Associate Professors Alessandro Zagami and John Carey and Mr Michael Todd to investigate “Sound and Vibration-Evoked Vestibular Potentials in the Differential Diagnosis of Common Vestibulopathy.”

Funding for this reaserch has been granted through the National Health and Medical Research Council for 3 years to the value of $252,524.  Whilst this is not a specific Menieres Research Fund project, it is hoped this investigation will provide some very interesting and important data on Meniere’s Disease.

The Fund is pleased to announce its research programme for the next 3 years.  The “to-do list” includes the recruitment of 2 additional researchers at the Meniere’s Research Laboratory to assist in the programme to identify ways an inner ear fluid called endolymph is specifically regulated in mammals and humans.  The current thinking is that a breakdown in the regulation of endolymph occurs at a cellular level which leads to bloating of the inner ear balance organs resulting in the symptoms experienced by person with Meniere’s Disease. The breakdown may be of a genetic, viral or other origin.  With an exact knowledge of how endolymph regulation functions, it may be possible to design therapeutic interventions to restore normal endolymph regulation in persons with Meniere’s disease and eliminate the symptoms.  Developing such a cure likely requires mathematical modelling of cellular transport mechanisms and the design and implementation of drug perfusion experiments in animals before any trials in humans.

The Fund's President, Mr Bruce Kirkpatrick was recently awarded an Order of Australia medal for his dedication and efforts raising funds to discover the cause and cure of Meniere's Disease.