Dr Lodge wins prestigious Career Investigator Award

Congratulations to Dr Margot Lodge, a geriatrician and PhD student at Central Clinical School's Peninsula Clinical School, who has won the prestigious Australian and New Zealand Society for Geriatric Medicine (ANZSGM) Career Investigator Award.  

Dr Lodge presented part of her PhD work on improving perioperative care systems in older people (POPS) at the Australia and New Zealand Society for Geriatric Medicine (ANZGSM) Annual Scientific Meeting in Brisbane.

“This research forms part of a mixed-methods approach to closing the implementation gap in the perioperative care of older people and improving the outcomes of older people undergoing surgery,” Dr Lodge said.

“Implementation science is an exciting next step to improving outcomes for older people undergoing surgery and as a clinician-researcher I look forward to advancing this approach.”

IDAHOBIT: The International Day Against LGBTQIA+ Discrimination!

By Zhoujie Ding and Lenka Vodstrcil, Co-Chairs of the CCS Gender, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Committee

Pride Week coincides with the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT). Acknowledged worldwide since 2004, this day of global awareness takes place each year on 17 May, a significant date in the ongoing fight for equality. At Monash, we honour IDAHOBIT within Pride Week (15-19 May).

As part of the event, an in-person Pronoun Pro Training for Monash staff and students at the Alfred Precinct was organised by the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine Diversity & Inclusion committee. This interactive training session was led by Natalie Charlotte Sist from the Respectful Communities Team at Monash. 

The Pitch: Round 1 winner, applications open for Round 2

Congratulations to Dr Julia Boehme (Immunology), Erskine Chu (Neuroscience) and Marissa Sgro (Neuroscience) for being awarded funding in Round 1 of The Pitch for their project Exploring the Brain-Bladder-Immune Axis.

Around 69 million people sustain a traumatic brain injury (TBI) each year, representing a significant economical and healthcare burden. Brain injuries increase susceptibility to infections, with urinary tract infections (UTIs) among the most common bacterial infections after TBI.

US funding support to open the doors on neonatal traumatic brain injury research

Dr Sabrina Salberg, a post-doctoral research fellow in the Department of Neuroscience, has received a Young Investigator research grant (US$35,000) from the Society for Pediatric Pathology (USA) – one of the first for Monash University and an Australian university. The award was announced at the society’s spring meeting held on 22 March in Baltimore.

Dr Salberg completed her PhD degree only last year, with her thesis entitled, “Pain in the developing brain: Early life adversities that affect the development of chronic pain in adolescence.” Her project found that early life neglect and high fat-high sugar diet consumption increased chronic pain sensitivity following traumatic brain injury (TBI) and surgery in a sex-dependent manner. Dr Salberg said, “Interestingly, females demonstrated more pain behaviourally, while males demonstrated more significant effects at the molecular level.”

GEDI committee statement on World Autism Awareness Day

April 2 is World Autism Awareness Day. Autism is a developmental condition that affects people throughout their lives and can be characterised by difficulties in social interaction, communication, restricted and repetitive interests and behaviours, and sensory sensitivities. It is estimated that 1 in 70 people and 1 in 100 children are on the autism spectrum (WHO ‘Key facts about Autism’). World Autism Awareness Day is a day of observance that has been sanctioned by the UN “to highlight the need to improve the quality of life of those with autism, so that they can lead full and meaningful lives as an integral part of society.”

Within the Central Clinical School, the GEDI committee acknowledges that people living with Autism or Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are all unique. Some people with Autism may not require any additional support, but for others who do need support, their needs are not identical. We also recognise that many in the school provide care or support to people (including children) with Autism, and appreciate that there are additional appointments or tasks that you attend to in order to provide that care or support.

PhD student receives Gustav Nossal Postgraduate Scholarship Award

Congratulations to Dr Douglas Tjandra for receiving the Gustav Nossal Postgraduate Scholarship Award from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).

Dr Tjandra is undertaking a PhD with Prof Alex Boussioutas and Dr Rita Busuttil in the Gastroenterology Department at the Central Clinical School and Alfred Hospital. His PhD has a dual focus on a condition called gastric intestinal metaplasia (a precursor lesion to gastric cancer) and genetic conditions which predispose to both gastric and colorectal cancers.

He will look at the clinical, molecular, genetic and immunological features which affect the level of risk, and how our healthcare systems can be optimised in screening and follow-up to improve outcomes for patients and reduce associated healthcare burdens.

Student awarded MS Australia scholarship to research a new therapeutic approach to brain repair

PhD student Danica Nheu has received a $105,000 scholarship from MS Australia to complete a three-year research project aimed at slowing disease progression and enabling recovery from disability. 

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is one of the most common neurological diseases, affecting up to 2.8 million people globally. This chronic disease is caused when the body’s own immune system mistakenly attacks the central nervous system. These attacks cause active MS lesions, and the nerve cells themselves can also be damaged, leading to life-long disability.

Dr Steven Petratos’ research team has shown that a specific protein is present within active MS lesions when nerve fibres are damaged. Danica’s project aims to propose a new method to block the protein present in the diseased brain during MS, to halt disease progression and provide recovery from disability.