World first study of infant and newborn airways microbiome throws light on origins of asthma

Professor Ben Marsland

A world first study of the bacteria living in the lower respiratory tract of “healthy” newborns and young babies has shown that bacterial communities form within the first 2 months post-natally, and that these bacteria interact with the immune system in ways that could potentially influence its development.

The study, led by Professor Ben Marsland, a veski Innovation Fellow in the Department of Immunology and Pathology at Central Clinical School, Monash University, is published today in the journal Cell Host and Microbe.

Funding boost to make Melbourne a leading hub for HIV cure research

Dr James McMahon

Eight Melbourne research teams have received grants totalling $646,000 from the Melbourne HIV Cure Consortium (MHCC), a collaborative research effort aiming to accelerate efforts to find a cure for HIV.

The recipients include Dr James McMahon, Head of The Alfred’s Department of Infectious Diseases Clinical Research Unit, who received a grant to expand a clinical trial to find rare infected cells in people on HIV treatment using a radioactive label followed by an MRI.

Successful ARC grant for Australia's first Magnetic Particle Imaging facility

"What you see is what you've got". In MPI (far left), SPIO tracers
are bright, not dark, and can be accurately quantified.
Main advantages of MPI over other imaging modalities:
(A) no background signal similar to PET but without the use of radiation,
(B) no tissue signal attenuation as seen with fluorescence imaging, and
(C) no image artefacts as seen in MRI. Image derived from Zheng et al

In the most recent round of Australian Research Council (ARC) grants Monash University was the most successful institution in Victoria.

Professor Terry O'Brien, Head of the Department of Neuroscience and Associate Professor Christoph Hagemeyer, head of the NanoBiotechnology Laboratory at the Australian Centre for Blood Diseases at the Central Clinical School are Chief Investigators on an $898,450 LEIF grant to establish the first Magnetic Particle Imaging (MPI) facility in Australia. The lead investigator is Professor Gary Egan, Director of  Monash Biomedical Imaging.

Repairing a brain damaged by Multiple Sclerosis

Dr Steven Petratos at a Red Lab Coat 
Day, raising awareness of MS research

Congratulations to Dr Steven Petratos, who has won a Bethlehem Griffiths Research Foundation grant of $48,956 for his proposal, "Developing a novel drug for progressive MS". Dr Petratos has a research group in the Department of Neuroscience, Central Clinical School, working on targeting molecules involved in brain and spinal cord damage caused by Multiple sclerosis (MS).

Prof Merlin Thomas wins 2019 Millennium Research Award for Type 2 Diabetes research

Professor Merlin Thomas

Professor Merlin Thomas has been awarded the prestigious Diabetes Australia Research Program (DARP) 2019 Millennium Research Award - Type 2 Diabetes. Prof Thomas's research group is in the Department of Diabetes, Central Clinical School, Monash University.

The award will support research into a new inhibitor which could help prevent and treat diabetes-related complications including heart attack, stroke or limb amputation. 

Congratulations to Alex Huang on his PhD award!

Congratulations to Dr Alex Huang (pictured), who has completed his PhD thesis! It is entitled, "Investigations of  novel treatment strategies in atherosclerosis and thrombosis". Alex is a cardiologist at Alfred Health.

Alex was supervised by Professors Karlheinz Peter (Baker Institute) and Alex Bobik (Baker and School of Clinical Sciences, Monash).

Diabetes in the news: Paul Zimmet interview with Channel News Asia

Channel News Asia interview with Prof
Paul Zimmet.

Professor Paul Zimmet, Department of Diabetes at Central Clinical School, presented at the Singapore Ministerial Conference on Diabetes, held 26-27 November 2018, and was interviewed about the global epidemic of diabetes by Channel News Asia. In the interview Prof Zimmet answered the following questions:

• How serious is the diabetes situation worldwide?
• What are the implications of that on the way we're managing diabetes?
• We understand that by 2030, insulin will be beyond the reach of 41 million of the adults with type 2 diabetes who will need it worldwide. How critical is that problem, and how can we address that?
• Back to the roots of diabetes - we understand that genes might play a role in causing diabetes but lifestyle choices are important as well. What are your thoughts - which factor matters more? And what can we do to lower our risk of getting diabetes?