International Women's Day 2022 is 8 March

The Central Clinical School's Gender Equity Diversity and Inclusion Committee has profiled our women researchers on many and varied topics as a special focus for International Women's Day 2022 - look out for our special issue on Tuesday 8 March!

See more about IWD2022: www.internationalwomensday.com/

Welcome to Professor Constantine (Con) Tam

Professor Constantine (Con) Tam

Welcome to Professor Con Tam, who has started with Central Clinical School on 28 February 2022. 

Professors Harshal Nandurkar, Terry O'Brien and Steve Jane write:

It is a pleasure to announce the recruitment of Professor Constantine (Con) Tam to join Alfred Health and Central Clinical School as Head of the Lymphoma Service.

Neuroscience supports early career researchers with new initiative

Dr Juliana Silva (left) and Dr Ana Antonic-Baker (right)

by Dr Loretta Piccenna

Congratulations to Dr Juliana Silva and Dr Ana Antonic-Baker in Central Clinical School's (CCS) Department of Neuroscience who have each received a seed grant worth $25,000 to pursue new collaborations and research projects.

The Department of Neuroscience launched their inaugural “Find a Friend” initiative late in 2021 to provide funding for two Early Career Researchers or late stage (final year) PhD students to undertake a small (pilot) research project over 12 months.

Oesophageal cancer a rare but deadly disease

Suzanne Neate (The Aftershock CEO) and Prof Wendy Brown

As rare diseases have been in the spotlight this week with Rare Disease Day on 28 Feb, we are revisiting a feature last year on the support offered by The Aftershock for work by the CCS’s Associate Professor James Lee into thyroid cancer, then Professor Meng Law’s group investigating the deadly brain cancer glioblastoma, and Professor Wendy Brown's work on oesophageal cancer. 

See the story

Experiences of Health Workers in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Experiences of Health Workers in the COVID-19
Pandemic was published 22 Feb 2022. See more

Associate Professor Natasha Smallwood has co-authored a book, Experiences of Health Workers in the COVID-19 Pandemic, together with three other Australian researchers, Associate Professor Marie Bismark (University of Melbourne), Professor Karen Willis (Victoria University) and Dr Sophie Lewis (University of Sydney).

The publisher, Routledge, describes the book:

Experiences of Health Workers in the COVID-19 Pandemic shares the stories of frontline health workers—told in their own words—during the second wave of COVID-19 in Australia. The book records the complex emotions healthcare workers experienced as the pandemic unfolded, and the challenges they faced in caring for themselves, their families, and their patients. The book shares their insights on what we can learn from the pandemic to strengthen our health system and prepare for future crises.

Congratulations to our recently completed PhD students!

Dr Bridgette Semple with recent PhD graduate
Rishabh Sharma, in the Department of Neuroscience

Congratulations to our four graduate research students, Mr Rishabh Sharma, Dr Bradley Gardiner, Ms Anna Beale and Mr Martin Ndubuisi Ezeani on their PhD completions on 17 February 2022!

Mr Rishabh Sharma in the Department of Neuroscience was supervised by Dr Bridgette Semple, Dr Pablo Casillas-Espinosa, and A/Prof Sandy Shultz. His thesis is titled, Systemic Inflammation after Paediatric Traumatic Brain Injury: Consequences for Acute and Chronic Outcomes.

Congratulations to Professor Orla Morrissey on prestigious appointment

Congratulations to Professor Orla Morrissey, who has been selected by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) Executive Committee and the Standard and Practice Guideline Committee (SPGC) Leadership of IDSA as Vice-Chair of the IDSA Aspergillosis Guideline Panel. 

 As Vice-Chair, Orla will play a lead role in crafting the updated Aspergillosis Clinical Practice Guidelines. The Aspergillosis guidelines were first published in 2008 and updated in 2016. These guidelines are internationally recognised and regularly used by clinicians the world over. The guidelines have been cited 1862 times since 2016. 

Visual Snow Syndrome research challenges: Rare Disease Day feature

L-R: A/Prof Jo Fielding says of Visual Snow that "it is very difficult,
if not impossible to diagnose"; and patient advocate Patricia says VSS
is "quite challenging". See video (1:57 mins)

Part of our special series for Rare Disease Day featuring patient advocates and CCS researchers 

The Department of Neuroscience’s Associate Professor Joanne Fielding is involved in research on Visual Snow Syndrome (VSS), a neurological condition primarily affecting the processing of sensory information. Even though it is thought to affect up to 2% of people, it is not widely recognised or diagnosed correctly by the medical community. 

Brain disease patients to benefit from CCS-led study: Rare Disease Day feature

L-R: Patient advocate Amanda and CCS researcher Dr Mastura

Monif talk about the experience of living with the illness and the

challenges of research into the disease. See video (2:19 mins).

Part of our special series for Rare Disease Day featuring patient advocates and CCS researchers 

The Department of Neuroscience’s Dr Mastura Monif is involved in research about Autoimmune Encephalitis, which affects 5-15 in 100,000 people. Autoimmune Encephalitis is a type of brain inflammation caused when the immune system mistakenly attacks healthy brain cells.  

Awareness day brings rare diseases out of the shadows

CCS researchers have teamed up with patient advocates to give

insight into living with the illness and the research challenges

to understand the disease for improved diagnosis and treatment.

See video playlist or see below for links to specific videos.

Today, 28 February, the Central Clinical School’s Community and Research Engagement (CCS CaRE) program is participating in a global Rare Disease Day, to raise awareness of rare diseases and showcase some of the research that goes into rare diseases now being undertaken across the school.

Zeroing in on improved brain cancer diagnosis and treatment: Rare Disease Day feature

See Prof Meng Law and Dr Mastura Monif explain their research

into improved diagnostic techniques and potential treatments

for brain cancer: Video (3:39 mins)

Part of our special series for Rare Disease Day featuring CCS researchers 

Dr Mastura Monif and Professor Meng Law explain how their complementary approaches are refining and improving the diagnosis and treatment of brain tumours. See the video and read their stories below.

CaRE in action: patients key to blood cancer lobbying success: Rare Disease Day feature

L-R: Patient advocate Ken and researcher Professor Andrew
Perkins talk about the experience of living with the illness and
the challenges of research into the disease. Video (2:19 mins)

Part of our special series for Rare Disease Day featuring patient advocates and CCS researchers  

Clinician-scientist Professor Andrew Perkins, who heads the Blood Cancer Genomics team at the ACBD, has for 12 years researched myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs). MPNs are a diverse group of chronic blood cancers. Myelofibrosis (MF) is at the severe end of the spectrum. 

Brain imaging reveals insights into movement disorder: Rare Disease Day feature

L-R: Patient advocate Marcus and CCS researcher Dr Ian Harding
talk about the experience of living with the illness and the
challenges of research into the disease. Video (2:09 mins)

Part of our special series for Rare Disease Day featuring patient advocates and CCS researchers 

Friedreich ataxia (FA) is a debilitating genetic disorder that causes progressive damage to the nervous system and heart. Defined by problems with gait, balance and motor coordination, speech and swallowing, its symptoms generally start in childhood or adolescence and progressively worsen, causing increasing difficulty with basic daily activities and self-care, and ultimately leading to premature death 20 to 30 years after first symptoms. It affects 2-4 people per 100 000.

Dr Ian Harding and his team in the CCS’s Department of Neuroscience have recently made some exciting advances in knowledge using a variety of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) brain imaging techniques.

Scientist seeks clues on ‘missing’ parts of immune system: Rare Disease Day feature

L-R: Patient advocate Nadine and CCS researcher Dr Emily
Edwards talk about the experience of living with the illness and the
challenges of research into the disease. See video (2:05 mins)

Part of our special series for Rare Disease Day featuring patient advocates and CCS researchers

Dr Emily Edwards, a Research Fellow with the Monash Department of Immunology and Pathology at The Alfred precinct, is working to uncover the DNA errors or genetic variants that cause Primary Immunodeficiency (PID), a rare inherited condition where part of the immune system is missing or not functioning as it should.