Find out more about the ageing brain and dementia: Video of this year's public lecture

See the video of this year's public lecture by Prof Srikanth
on dementia and the ageing brain: Youtube 58:28mins

Central Clinical School (CCS), Monash University's annual public lecture in 2022 was presented by Professor Velandai Srikanth, Director of the National Centre for Healthy Ageing, Director of Research, Peninsula Health and Professor of Medicine at CCS. 

Professor Srikanth explores why the brain ages and what causes dementia. Importantly, he asks, what can we do about it? 

The video of the presentation is now published:

Tracking the pathway to immunity, one cell at a time

Plasma B-cell making antibody: Shutterstock

Why do some vaccines create long-lived responses and others don't? Monash immunology researchers Dr Marcus Robinson and Professor David Tarlinton are leading a team which is teasing out some answers.

Vaccines work their magic by effectively creating immune cells that are long-lived, often for over decades. These immune cells create both a protective barrier that can prevent or minimize re-infection and a memory that allows us to recognize an old invader like a virus and to kill it before it causes disease. The antibody making the barrier in our blood is itself made by long-lived plasma cells. While the importance of these cells has always been known, how and when they are generated following a vaccination has remained a mystery.

See faculty story

Pause for thought: Taking the lead in women’s mental health

Whether it’s debilitating periods or depression during menopause, women with mental health problems are told to grin and bear it as their crushing emotions are “simply nature taking its course”.

But what we now know, and science has told us, is that many women of all ages are living with mental illnesses that may be related to female hormones and/or other unique parts of their biology.

See Monash Lens story featuring Professor Jayashri Kulkarni, published 20 October.

Welcome to Professor Johannes Kern

Professor Johannes Kern, new joint appointment for Monash
University and Alfred Health

From Professor Terry O'Brien and Associate Professor Douglas Gin

We are delighted to announce the appointment of Professor Johannes Kern (MD, PhD, ICDP-UEMS (Dermpath), FEBDV, FACD) to the joint clinical academic appointment between Alfred Health and Monash University as Professor and Deputy Director, Dermatology. He is also Vice President and Board Director of the Skin Health Institute.

Congratulations to Krystal Bergin, Christopher Groombridge, Sarah Janssens and Andrew Ma on their PhD completions

L-R: Krystal Bergin, Christopher Groombridge, Sarah Janssens and Andrew Ma

Congratulations to our recently completed graduate research students Krystal Bergin, Christopher Groombridge, Sarah Janssens and Andrew Ma! See below for their thesis topics, departments and supervisors.

Krystal Bergin (Australian Centre for Blood Diseases)

Thesis title: Patterns of Care and Novel Therapeutics for Multiple Myeloma

Supervisors: Professor Andrew Spencer, Associate Professor Erica Wood

Christopher Groombridge (Department of Surgery)

Thesis title: Clinician performance during resuscitation: stress, decision-making and life-saving interventions

Supervisors: Professor Mark Fitzgerald, Dr Yen Kim

Sarah Janssens (Department of Anaesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine)

Thesis title: Shared leadership in healthcare emergency teams

Supervisors: Dr Stuart Duncan Marshall, Professor Robert Simon

Andrew Ma (Department of Neuroscience)

Thesis title: Evaluating the Progression of Parkinson's Disease with Dynamic 4D Laryngeal CT

Supervisors: Professor Dominic Thyagarajan, Associate Professor Kenneth Lau

Community access cutting edge research at the CCS

Community representatives were very engaged with the presentation

Community and Researcher Engagement, Myeloproliferative Neoplasms, 2022

by Dr Juliana de Castro, CaRE committee member

The Community and Researcher Engagement (CaRE) program from the Central Clinical School at Monash University hosted a hybrid seminar called ‘Myeloproliferative Neoplasms – Towards Precision Medicine’ at the Betty & John Laidlaw Education & Innovation Hub on Thursday, 13 October 2022.

Monash part of global study investigating how vagus nerve stimulation controls epilepsy

Monash University is part of a global consortium to study why
stimulating the vagus nerve is effective for controlling epilepsy

The Vagus nerve is one of the most important cranial nerves in the body – conveying information to and from the brain to most visceral organs. It is responsible for the control of diverse homeostatic processes essential for life, including cardiovascular function and gut motility. 

Since the early 90’s electrical stimulation of the human vagus nerve, via surgically implanted electrodes wrapped around the nerve, has been established as an important treatment for selected patients with drug-resistant epilepsy. How it works is poorly understood, but Monash University has joined forces with a global consortium funded USD$21M to find out more.

See faculty story