A Melbourne university has been awarded a large slice of the federal government's $500 million medical research boost.
Monash University will receive almost $76 million to support medical research as part of a $526 million-plus national pool, funding 682 grants across the country.
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt will visit the university on Wednesday to announce the funds, which include grants for cardiovascular disease research and to study deadly fungal infections.
The university's professor Sophia Zoungas and her team will lead a trial to find out if cholesterol-lowering drugs can reduce cardiovascular events in older adults without known vascular disease or diabetes.
The $5.8 million grant will be used to continue a research trial started in 2015 into whether statins can help people aged 70 or above reduce cholesterol to help them live longer.
About 40 per cent of Australians, aged 65 or older, take the drugs to reduce cholesterol, prevent heart attacks and strokes in people with a history of cardiovascular disease.
Monash researcher Associate Professor Ana Traven was also awarded $1.2 million to fight deadly fungal infections.
Up to 56 per cent of patients infected with superbug Candida albicans while in the intensive care unit die in Australia within a week of the infection taking hold, due lack of appropriate diagnosis and treatment options.
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