Congratulations to GIN Hub Round 2 pitch winners Idrish Ali and Evelyn Tsantikos

Drs Idrish Ali and Evelyn Tsantikos won The Pitch

The Gastroenterology-Immunology-Neuroscience (GIN) Hub news update for 13 July, compiled by Alana Auden

Congratulations Drs Idrish Ali and Evelyn Tsantikos for being awarded funding in Round 2 of The Pitch for their project "Role of granulocyte-colony-stimulating factor signalling in epilepsy". 

This collaborative project between Idrish (O’Brien group - Neuroscience) and Evelyn (Hibbs group - Immunology) beat some stiff competition in the GIN Hub seed funding scheme. We look forward to seeing what exciting EMCR collaborative projects are submitted in Round 3, which is already open and closes on Wednesday 10 August. Further details on how to apply for The Pitch can be found here. 

Day of Immunology 2022

The Monash team at the 2022 Day of Immunology. L-R back row Nirmal
Bhatt, Flavia Gomez, Kathy Hsin, Gemma Hartley, Maria Demaria.
Front row: Katrina Kan, Jesse Mulder and Jurie Tashkandi

By Dr Maria Demaria, Lecturer, Department of Immunology and Pathology, Central Clinical School

The International Day of Immunology is celebrated every year on 29 April. The Australian and New Zealand Society for Immunology (ASI) organises a number of events to coincide with this day. In Victoria and Tasmania, our events included a public lecture, research institute discovery tours, science in the pub, and secondary school student workshops and careers sessions. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this is the first year since 2019 that many of these events have been held. 

Travel Grants Open 25th March!

Applications for Round 1, 2019, open 25th March and close 5th April!

Travel dates: 1/1/2019 - 31/12/2019

Did you know that CCS staff can apply for a maximum of $3000 for an international conference and $1000 for a national conference? A co-contribution from their Department is also required ($750 international and $250 domestic).

Drs Jessica Borger and Evelyn Tsantikos with their presentation awards. 

School travel grants provide support for research staff to present their research at both national and international conferences. Support is also provided to visit research organisations, to undertake activities such as specialised training, dissemination of results with collaborators and establishing
new research collaborations.

Evelyn Tsantikos and Jessica Borger, both from the school's Immunology and Pathology Department were awarded travel grants last year.

Photo of the week: Drs Akram Zamani and Evelyn Tsantikos win seed grant funding!

Congratulations to Dr Akram Zamani (left) and Dr Evelyn Tsantikos (right), who are recipients of the AMREP 2018 Collaborative Seed grant award for their research project, "A new player in microglial activation driving inflammation and pathology in traumatic brain injury [TBI]."

TBI is a complex and poorly-understood pathology with long-term consequences, affecting the lives of children and young people well into adulthood. Identifying disease pathways that can provide scope for improved treatments is of utmost necessity and importance. This study will focus on how microglia - cells which provide the first and main form of active immune defence - act in the normal brain, and the researchers will then examine howthese cells respond to a brain injury.

Dr Zamani is a Postdoctoral Research fellow in Dr Bridgette Semple's Pediatric Neurotrauma Group, Department of Neuroscience; and Dr Tsantikos is a Research Officer in Associate Professor Margaret Hibb's Leukocyte Signalling Laboratory, which studies signalling pathways that play a role in immune system development, function and disease. Find out more about the AMREP collaborative seed grants: www.monash.edu/medicine/ccs/research/emcr/seed-grants

Photo of the week: 2018 EMCR@Alfred Symposium

L-R: Dr Rosanne Freak-Poli (SPHPM), Dr Jodie Abramovitch (Department of Immunology and Pathology) and
360biolabs Best EMCR Speaker award winner, Dr Evelyn Tsantikos (Department of Immunology and Pathology)

The biennial AMREP (now known as Alfred Research Alliance) EMCR symposium was held on Friday 5 October 2018. The symposium focused on the professional development of future leaders in medical research.

Dr Evelyn Tsantikos, of the Department of Immunology and Pathology, was this year's winner of the 360biolabs Best EMCR Speaker award. Christina Ekegren (SPHPM) won the runner Up Best EMCR Speaker award.

Other winners of one of the AMREP EMCR Committee's Biomedical best paper awards from the day include: 

• Cheng Xue Qin (Baker)
• Melanie Ziegler (Baker)
• Yung-Chih Chen (Baker)

Gallery: https://photos.app.goo.gl/PrJUcrKsVcBQgDzS7

See more about EMCR at: www.monash.edu/medicine/ccs/research/emcr

Immunology 'Cutting Edge' seminar series: Gut microbiota drive autoimmune arthritis

Dr Evelyn Tsantikos, Research Officer
in A/Prof Margaret Hibbs' group

Dr Evelyn Tsantikos will present the Immunity paper: "Gut Microbiota Drive Autoimmune Arthritis by Promoting Differentiation and Migration of Peyer’s Patch T Follicular Helper Cells". Reference: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27096318

Recent studies have shown that alterations in gut microbiota (dysbiosis) can lead to many autoimmune diseases, including diseases with clear association to the gut, notably inflammatory bowel disease. However, the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which microbiota in the gut influence systemic autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) remain largely unknown.