Taking a lateral approach to curing sleep apnea

Sleeping on your side helps reduce apnea events. Image: Getty

by Anne Crawford

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common yet serious disorder in which obstruction of the throat (upper airway) causes breathing to repeatedly stop and start, resulting in fragmented sleep, sleep deprivation, daytime tiredness and leaving OSA patients liable to a number of health risks.

Curiously, although obesity is the strongest risk factor for developing OSA, weight loss – while it can improve the severity of OSA – rarely cures it.

2013 AMREP Postgraduate Symposium winners

L-R: Prof Jenny Wilkinson-Berka, Jie-Yu Chung, Jodie Abramovitch, Marina Iacovou, Kieran Cashin, Louise Rowntree, Katharina Bohm

There were 13 oral presenters and 14 poster presenters from across the AMREP precinct at the 20 November postgraduate symposium hosted by CCS, providing stiff competition for prizes. Winners were:
Oral presentations
1st - Kieran Cashin (Burnet); Runner-up - Louise Rowntree (Immunology); Audience vote - Marina Iacovou (Gastroenterology)
Poster presentations
1st - Jie-Yu Chung (Immunology); Runner-up - Jodie Abramovitch (Immunology); Audience vote - Katharina Borm (Burnet)
Question prize - Melanie Voevodin
"No-Bell prize" - Dr Charbel Darido
See program detail and more at 2013 HDR symposium.

AMREP Early Career Researcher retreat a success

The Early Career Researcher (ECR) committee at the Alfred Medical Research and Education Precinct are very active in promoting the development and welfare of ECRs including PhD students as well as postdocs. They held their third annual retreat 26-27 September 2013, attended by approximately 100 ECRs from the AMREP precinct, which includes two Monash Schools, the Burnet and the BakerIDI Institutes. For more about the ECR, see www.med.monash.edu/cecs/ecr.

15 August Central Clinical School Student information Night

For intending Honours and Bachelor of Medical Science students, see Central Clinical School 2014 Honours Handbook (3.8 mb) for the projects on offer for 2014.Information night details
Date: Thursday, 15 August 2013
Time: 6.00 - 8.00 pm, including lab tours
Venue: AMREP Lecture Theatre. See Map RSVP: CLICK HERE
Contact: Laisa Tigarea, CCS Student Services Officer, email hdr.ccs@monash.edu

2013 Three Minute Thesis (3MT) CCS heat will be big

11 PhD students from Central Clinical School will be competing in the 2013 3MT CCS heat on 17 July. The challenge is to present the topic, typically technical and complex in basic medical research, in three minutes or under, in a way that is engaging and accessible to a wider audience.