Congratulations to Eleanor Woolveridge

Prof Stephen Jane congratulating

Eleanor Woolveridge on her award

MBBS student Eleanor Woolveridge has received a scholarship from The Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia for her project about the clinical relevance of concentrations of BAFF/APRIL heterotrimers in the serum and urine of patients diagnosed with Primary Sjogrens Syndrome (pSS). pSS is an autoimmune disease, in which lymphocytes get into salivary glands and tear ducts. The scholarship is offered annually for projects associated with pathology, jointly developed by a student and supervisor. Eleanor's supervisors were Prof Fabienne Mackay (Head, Department of Immunonology), Dr Andrew Wei and Dr Fabien Vincent. Well done Eleanor!

Central Clinical School short course: Introduction to Clinical Trials

Our first group of participants

Central Clinical School held a four day short course at the end of July, introducing participants to clinical trials, developing a clinical research question and creating a concise protocol that includes literature review and study design. The short course was the first pilot of units to be offered in the Translational Research PhD from 2015 and was aimed at medical doctors, biomedical scientists, nurses, physiotherapists, clinicians, epidemiologists, psychologists, pharmacists, biochemists and public health researchers.

The course received good feedback from participants. All attendees said that they would recommend the course to a colleague.
Links

• More pilot courses
• more photos.

64th Lindau Nobel Laureates Meeting

The Australian delegation with
Minister Andrew Robb
(Photo: David Fisher)

Central Clinical School's Rebecca Segrave recently attended the 64th Lindau Nobel Laureates Meeting in Germany, along with 37 Nobel laureates in science and 600 early career researchers from all over the world. She is featured in ABC's Science Show which can be viewed here. According to Rebecca, the week was an inspirational one.
"The week has exceeded every expectation that I had. It has been inspirational. I'd seen the motto or the slogan—inspire, educate, connect—but I didn't really identify with it, and all of those things have been true for all of us and I think that is what has made the meeting. We are inspired in a way we never imagined we would be..."

Investigating a cause of failure of bypass grafts and stents

Dr Anthony Dear, ACBD

Neointimal hyperplasia, an injury related vascular response, accounts for the occlusion and failure of up to 50% of bypass grafts and stents used in the treatment of coronary artery and peripheral vascular disease and constitutes a considerable health and economic burden to the community. Recent research conducted in Dr Anthony Dear's lab at the Australian Centre for Blood Diseases in collaboration with Professor Robert Widdop, Monash Department of Pharmacology, suggests that "epigenetic" mechanisms may be involved in the neointimal hyperplasia response.

Twelve-hour reanimation of a human heart following donation after circulatory death

Prof Frank Rosenfeldt
with the prototype rig

Despite increasing use of donation after cardiac death (DCD) and encouraging results for non-cardiac transplants, DCD cardiac transplantation has not been widely adopted for two reasons. The DCD heart sustains warm ischaemic injury during the death process and conventional static cold storage significantly adds to the ischaemic injury. Alfred-Monash researchers have developed a simple system for perfusion of the DCD heart with cold crystalloid solution using gravity-feed that can reduce ischaemic injury and potentially render the heart suitable for transplantation.

Gluten-free diet relieves 'brain fog' in patients with Coeliac disease

Brain fog. Image:
facingcancer.ca

People with coeliac disease often experience 'brain fog' - a feeling of cognitive impairment - in addition to intestinal problems. A new study by Monash researchers shows that following a gluten-free diet can lead to improvements in cognition that correlate with the extent of intestinal healing. Their results suggest that removing gluten from the diet can help coeliac disease sufferers to do better on attention, memory and other mental tasks.

B cell control in the immune system: review article

B cell control mechanisms

Department of Immunology researchers have published an article reviewing the control of B cells by a group of proteins called TNF superfamily proteins. These proteins trigger necessary signals that activate or regulate the various protective functions of B cells in the immune system, and they are important to understand because B cell pathologies including some cancers or autoimmunity can occur when these functions are disrupted.