Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people’s data: looking at the facts through a different lens

Indigenous data sovereignty and governance raises its own special issues:

Nature Medicine correspondence on the Australian TBI National Data

project from NTRI authors and others. Image: Danielle Mate

A traumatic brain injury project led by Monash University, guided by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander researchers and traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients, is creating a first for data collection, analysis and reporting.

by Anne Crawford

The Monash-led Australian Traumatic Brain Injury National Data (ATBIND) Project has for a year worked towards generating an overall epidemiological profile for moderate to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) and developing national clinical quality indicators. Incorporating Indigenous knowledges and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander engagement is a central and revolutionary part of this registry-based project. 

Meeting of the minds: Visiting international neurotrauma award fosters female ECRs

L-R: Ms Tabitha Green and Assistant Professor Rachel Rowe
accepting their award

by Associate Professor Bridgette Semple

Ms Tabitha Green from the University of Colorado Boulder has been awarded the competitive WiNTR-VISA Award (Women in Neurotrauma Research - Visiting International Scholar Award), announced last week at the US National Neurotrauma Society's annual conference in Atlanta, Georgia.

Researcher finds ‘gold standard’ test for MS wanting

Dr Meaghan Clough researches cognitive speed in early MS

by Anne Crawford

For seven years, researcher Dr Meaghan Clough frequently observed Multiple Sclerosis (MS) patients performing well on the standard test used to measure cognitive function then talk to her about cognitive problems they were facing. She wondered about the discrepancy.

“On further investigation I would realise that actually they did have a cognitive deficit,” Dr Clough said. 

Working memory (WM) and attention deficits are a common – and disturbing – symptom of MS.

‘Nothing about us, without us’: Professor Paul Lawton on First Nations Australians and kidney disease

NAIDOC week (July 3 to 10) celebrates the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. 

We are delighted that Professor Paul Lawton (Director of Renal Medicine) is presenting the CCS seminar on Fri 8 July as part of NAIDOC week. Other speakers will include the Panuku patient preceptor team. See below for more detail about the seminar.

CGRSC x MGA Student Careers Expo on 4 August: Save the date!

CGRSC x MGA Careers Expo

Save the date! The Central Clinical School (CCS) graduate research student committee (CGRSC) in collaboration with Monash Graduate Association (MGA) representatives have been organising a Students Careers Expo. The event will be run across an entire afternoon with speakers for all different facets of science. Register here

Diabetes researcher wins prestigious international award

Congratulations to Professor Karin Jandeleit-Dahm on being honoured with a 2022 Hagedorn award. 

The award, presented at the meeting of the German Diabetes Society in Berlin in late May, recognises diabetic research internationally. It comes with a prize of 25,000 euros ($A38,000), co-funded by Novo Nordisk. 

Professor Jandeleit-Dahm, Deputy Head of the Diabetes Department and who leads Monash’s research program into diabetes and kidney disease, holds the Leibniz Chair for Diabetes Research at the University of Dusseldorf, Germany.

New diabetic kidney disease target raises hopes

Professor Karin Jandeleit-Dahm and Dr Jay Chandra Jha

by Anne Crawford

Monash University scientists are developing what could be a promising new therapeutic target to combat diabetic kidney disease. 

The Central Clinical School researchers led by Professor Karin Jandeleit-Dahm and Dr Jay Chandra Jha, together with an international collaboration, recently revealed details of the predominantly pathological role of the pro-oxidant enzyme NOX5 in diabetic complications, particularly diabetic kidney disease (DKD), and are working on small molecule inhibitors to target it.