13 Aug 2015 EMCR@AMREP Mentoring Program

Prof Marylis Guillemin

In 2015, the Early & Mid Career Researcher group at AMREP will be calling for new mentees to get involved in this exciting and rewarding program. We are offering an introductory seminar to provide some insights and hear about participants' (both mentors and mentees) experiences, including peer mentoring. Details:

• Topic: An introduction to mentoring
• Presenter: Professor Marilys Guillemin
• Time & date: 2-3 pm, Thursday 13 August 2015
• Venue: Lecture Theatre, Level 5, Alfred Centre
• All welcome. Refreshments provided
• See more: www.med.monash.edu.au/cecs/ecr/mentoring.html

Early Career Fellowship in Asthma Research: Deadline 7 August

Varying degrees of airway closure in asthma

Asthma Australia with the support of Hudsons Coffee is offering an Early Career Fellowship in Asthma Research. http://asthmaaustralia.org.au/Apply_for_research_grants.aspx  
This opportunity is only open to:  
- Financial member/associate members of the Thoracic Society of Australia & New Zealand;
- Researchers who have completed their highest qualification within the last 5 years; AND
 - Those who have not yet been the recipient of a major nationally competitive research grant. Applications close on Friday 7 August 2015.  Only one application from each School will be accepted. 

Crowdfunding boost for burns victims: Your vote counts!

Dr Shiva Akbarzadeh's Thinkable.org entry - Please vote!

You can help medical research at Monash win a cash prize by voting for it in the Thinkable 'Inspire Australia' competition.

New skin substitutes tailor-made for severe burns victims could become a reality through the work of a group of scientists led by Dr Shiva Akbarzadeh, and a boost from crowdfunding site, Thinkable.

Dr Akbarzadeh, a skin biologist at The Alfred hospital and Monash University, researches growing artificial skin in the laboratory using patients’ own cells that can be applied instead of skin grafts.

“The gold standard for treating deep burns is skin grafts,” Dr Akbarzadeh said. “That is difficult when a patient has massive burns and not enough donor sites, as happens in extensive burns.”

Dr Akbarzadeh’s Skin Tissue Culture Laboratory has developed techniques to create composite skin in the laboratory that is close to native skin.

“Our goal is to enable surgeons to replace both dermal and epidermal layers of damaged skin with tissue engineered skin in a single procedure. This will speed up wound healing and reduce the risk of infection.

“We are collaborating with material engineers at Monash to develop novel dermal matrices which are made from natural dermal components and would enhance epidermisation both in laboratory incubators and on patients.”

The work of Dr Akbarzadeh and her team could come to full fruition with the help of the Australian Academy of Science’s Australian Early to Mid-Career Researcher Forum which has launched the Inspire Australia Video Research Competition on research crowdfunding and engagement platform, Thinkable.

With close to $15,000 in the community prize pool so far, Dr Azbarkadeh’s lab, as well as other research teams in the Thinkable community, stand to gain a share, according to their overall votes received, all going towards general funding to advance their work.

To support the work of Dr Azbarkadeh and her team, visit their Thinkable ‘Tissue engineering for burns treatment’ video page to vote and contribute. Voting ends 30 July 2015.
To find out more about how Thinkable works, visit the Thinkable.org website.

Forthcoming CCS events: Seminars, public events, general notices

Louise Rowntree presenting
at the 2013 PG symposium

Central Clinical School has regular seminar series and postgraduate presentations. All event notices are maintained on the CCS Events calendar.

CCS staff & students can see details of both public and local events (including professional development courses, trade fairs and Graduate Research Student calendars) and deadlines, at the Intranet's Announcements page.

Various Departments have their own calendars, see CCS seminar index: www.med.monash.edu.au/cecs/events/seminars.html

What's on for this week: 20 Jul- 24 Jul 2015

Mon Jul 20	12:30 PM	►	Psychiatry Professorial Grand Round
Wed Jul 22	11:30 AM	►	PhD Pre-Submission review - Ms Louise Rowntree

In the Future 4 Aug CCS 3MT thesis heat 13 Aug CCS student information night 30 Aug De Castella Run 30 Sep Translational Research symposium: Alfred Medicine 50th anniversary 9 Oct CCS Public Lecture: Prof Jayashri Kulkarni on women's mental health

Focus on Translational Research: Professor Hatem Salem

Prof Hatem Salem at his Festschrift
in 2013

Hatem Salem is currently an Emeritus Professor at Monash University as well as a senior Counsellor of the International Society of Thrombosis and Haemostasis. Prior to this, Professor Salem was the Head of both the Department of Clinical Haematology at Monash University and Clinical Haematology at the Alfred Hospital. He will be speaking at the forthcoming 30 Sept Translational Research symposium hosted by Central Clinical School. See detail below.

30 Aug 2015 de Castella Run to Mend Minds: Run, Sponsor, Donate - it all helps!

MAPrc wants your involvement! Run, donate, join in with the de Castella Run for Mental Health 2015 (Sunday 30 August), in the following ways:

1. Register as a runner
2. Fundraise by creating a fundraising account
3. Sponsor a runner
4. Donate to MAPrc

Funds raised will go towards the mental health research at the Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre (MAPrc).Your efforts will help the team of clinicians, researchers and post graduate students to help mend minds as they conduct a series of high quality clinical research projects under the direct supervision of MAPrc Director, Professor Jayashri Kulkarni.

Access to health care critical to STI control for Indigenous youth

Image: Creative Commons

Two papers by Williams et al. and Scott et al. describe the sexual risks and health-seeking behaviour of young Indigenous Australians. Their sexual risks and health-seeking behaviours are similar to the general Australian population, yet their risk of past sexually transmissible infections (STIs) is higher. These findings are consistent with previous findings and suggest that access to health care, and not sexual risk, remain critical to STI control in remote Indigenous communities.

 Reference: Fairley, C.K., Chow, E.P.F., Hocking, J.S. Early presentation of symptomatic individuals is critical in controlling sexually transmissible infections. Sexual Health, 12(3) pp.181 - 182.