CCS publications update: July 1 to July 21 2017

Dr Warwick Nesbitt with an Honours student, Emma Akers.
Warwick is last author on a paper describing a potentially
clinically useful, rapid and high throughput-screening tool
for von Willebrand's disease (VWD)

Recent publications for Central Clinical School affiliated authors in the following departments. Note, browse down this entry for pubs listing. Linked headings are to the departments' home pages.

• Allergy, Immunology and Respiratory Medicine (AIRMed)
• Australian Centre for Blood Diseases (ACBD) 
• Diabetes
• Gastroenterology
• Immunology and Pathology
• Infectious Diseases
• Monash Alfred Psychiatry research centre (MAPrc) 
• Medicine
• Melbourne Sexual Health Centre
• Surgery 

Sexual partners: getting the terminology right

Accuracy of terminology matters in
assessing sexual risk

by Anne Crawford

Public health strategies targeting men who have sex with men (MSM) may be ineffective because the terminology describing sexual partners used in risk assessments by clinicians is not accurate, a study by Monash University researchers at the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre suggests.

The researchers raised the issue of the definition and classification of partner terminology in MSM in two recent studies focusing on what are called 'fuckbuddies' – defined as regular sexual partners with whom men have ongoing sexual contact, generally in the absence of romantic attachment.

Finding raises hopes for drug to reverse diabetes complications

Dr Phil Kantharidis, heads a
research group working on
diabetic complications

by Anne Crawford

Curiosity, lateral thinking, a visiting post-doctoral researcher in the right place at the right time and some scientific detective work have led to a finding that has researchers in the Department of Diabetes excited.

The lethal-7 (let-7) family of small molecules is well known for the role it plays in modulating inflammatory responses, its members linked to many different diseases including cancer, liver and lung fibrosis and cardiovascular disease.

After previous work that identified a role for let-7 micro RNAs (miRNA) in kidney disease, Department of Diabetes Senior Research Fellow Dr Phillip Kantharidis wondered if let-7 played a role in diabetes complications.

Congratulations to Mathew Snelson on winning the Faculty 3MT competition People's Choice Vote

Having won the 2017 CCS 3MT competition and the People's Choice Vote, Matthew Snelson, a PhD student from the Department of Diabetes went on to the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Science 3MT Finals and won second place and was the winner of the People's Choice Vote. Matthew is looking at the effects of a modern, fast-food diet on the development of chronic kidney disease. See Matt's video and other CCS participants' in our Youtube playlist.

Congratulations to Prof Jennifer Wilkinson-Berka on JDRF Research Grant

Prof Wilkinson-Berka (on the right) and
her team received a three-year JDRF
Research Grant

Congratulations to Professor Jennifer Wilkinson-Berka, head of the Retinopathy Laboratory, Department of Diabetes, who has been awarded a three-year JDRF Research Grant.

The grant will enable Prof Wilkinson-Berka and her team including clinicians from Centre for Eye Research Australia (CERA),  to work on a translational project on T cells and diabetic retinopathy.

Congratulation to Durga Mithraprabu on James & Elsie Borrowman Grant

Dr Durga Mitraprabhu has been awarded
a five-year grant from the James & Elsie
Borrowman Research Trust

Congratulations to Dr Durga Mithraprabu, who has been awarded funding for five years from the James and Elsie Borrowman Research Trust (2017-2021). Dr Mithraprabhu, from the Myeloma Research Group, Australian Centre for Blood Diseases received the grant for her project, "Investigating cell-free DNA as a non-invasive diagnostic modality for myeloma". The project will address the need for newer strategies to enable comprehensive mutational characterisation and therapeutic monitoring of multiple myeloma (MM).

Announcing the inaugural Department of Immunology Image of the Year Award

The Department of Immunology and Pathology is proud to announce its inaugural "Image of the Year" award! 

The winning image will be used in Departmental promotional material. All images are eligible: microscope, biochemical, graphical, abstract, transformed, surreal but must be your intellectual property.

Submit your images by email to Kate (kate.york@monash.edu) by 31 August for your chance to win $250. Minimum resolution required is 300dpi.