Curtin University’s Associate Professor Anthony Kicic is one of four innovators to share in nearly $2 million for projects harnessing generative artificial intelligence applications to drive improvements in healthcare.
Medical research minister Stephen Dawson congratulated the recipients of the Innovation Challenge – Generative Artificial Intelligence Applications stage 2 program, supported by the State Government’s Future Health Medical Research and Innovation (FHRI) Fund.
“I congratulate these grant recipients in the artificial intelligence sphere. This funding will support our health and medical innovators to take their ideas from exciting concepts to the real-world, with real-world benefits,” said Dawson.
A/professor Kicic will use $500,000 to further his work linking artificial intelligence and antibiotic-resistant ‘superbugs’- bacterial infections such as ‘golden staph’ (staphylococcus) – to find effective treatments.
As part of this, he is examining bacteriophages (‘phages’), viruses that infect and replicate only in bacterial cells. Phages infect specific bacteria – essentially ‘eating’ the bacteria. In certain cases, phages may provide an alternative to the use of antibiotics.
A/professor Kicic is developing a platform – PHAEDRA (Phage bacteriA genomE Diagnostics Recognition via Artificial Intelligence) to run simulations to quickly find phages expected to be effective against a person’s particular bacterial infection.
This would save waiting up to five days for laboratory work – revolutionary when timeliness is crucial to save a patient’s life.
The Innovation Challenge – Generative Artificial Intelligence Applications program provides grants to researchers to find solutions to challenges in health and medical research, innovation, healthcare service delivery and medical education and training.
In stage 1, successful applicants conducted feasibility studies on their concepts. Stage 2 funding allows the successful innovators to develop and put their solutions into practice.
Since the FHRI Fund was established in 2020, approximately $215 million in grants has been awarded to more than 650 recipients, to support health and medical research and innovation in WA.
Over the next four years a further $277 million is available to invest in more programs and initiatives.
Below is the full list of Stage 2 recipients:
| Recipient | Responsible entity | Project | Funding |
| Professor Girish Dwivedi | The University of Western Australia | Synergistic explainable AI and generative models to improve ECG diagnostic accuracy and confidence in diagnosis | $481,105 |
| A/Professor Anthony Kicic | Curtin University | Using in-silico generative artificial intelligence modelling to predict bacteriophage activity against specific AMR bacteria | $500,000 |
| Dr Brennen Mills | Edith Cowan University | AI-driven virtual character simulation for aggression and violence de-escalation training in virtual reality | $499,660 |
| Dr Guanjin Wang | Murdoch University | Co-designed interpretable generative AI solution to improve critical service of perinatal mental health assessment for Aboriginal families | $474,161 |
