Amyloidosis clinic wins research grant

The nationally recognised amyloidosis clinic at Westmead Hospital is set to receive a funding boost as Dr Matthew Silsby is named the recipient of the Westmead Charitable Trust Clinician Researcher Grant for 2026.  

Amyloidosis is where a protein, TTR amyloid, misfolds and lodges in the heart and in the nerves.  

While rare with a prevalence of 60 cases per million, the mutation leads to neuropathy or damage to nerves.

Dr Matthew Silsby says it can be hard to determine the underlying cause for a patient experiencing symptoms.

“A patient may experience non-specific symptoms at first such as pins and needles, tingling, feeling faint on standing.”  

“If they see a neurologist who detects neuropathy, it's still a matter of figuring out why that neuropathy has happened, leading to further delay,” Dr Matthew said.

While amyloidosis can be a consequence of aging, there is also a cohort of patients who have a genetic mutation that can be found in family groups, which causes the protein to misfold.  

Matthew says that while there aren’t treatments that can reverse the symptoms, there are medicines that can hold the disease where it’s diagnosed and stop the progression.  

This makes early testing and diagnosis incredibly important.

Dr Silsby says he plans to use the grant towards diagnostic equipment to identify the onset of symptoms.  

“Our clinic is also made-up of asymptomatic people who we're watching very closely for the onset of disease, because as soon as they develop symptoms we want to offer them these new effective treatments,” Dr Matthew said. As the only nationally recognised centre in Australia patients travel as far as interstate to the Westmead clinic which coordinates a range of appointments for patients with amyloidosis.

“It's also fairly unique in that we have haematologists, cardiologists, geneticists, immunologists, renal, neurology, clinical trial nurses… so it's a very large clinic, which is great for the patients who come from far away because they just get all of their appointments done in one day,” Matthew said.  

Matthew says that research conducted at Westmead Hospital has led to identifying effective compounds and therapies for people with TTR amyloidosis.

The grant of $200,000 over two years will be used to provide a range of testing for patients with symptoms and those without.  

“The grant provides a way for patients to be involved in research, to have that testing done and then hopefully demonstrate that it is a useful way to monitor their disease so that in future we could offer it to all patients as a way to diagnose early, get early access to treatment, and then ensure that it's an effective choice for them.”