Goat’s milk moisturizer induces goat’s cheese allergic reaction

Image: Jinx!

"Food is meant to be eaten, not rubbed into inflamed skin," says Professor Robyn O'Hehir. A woman has experienced a life-threatening allergic reaction after eating goat’s cheese, which Alfred-based researchers say was triggered through repeated use of a moisturiser containing goat's milk. The case study, published this week in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice, pinpoints goat’s milk as the offending ingredient, and highlights the argument for skin care preparations to be bland and to avoid "agents capable of sensitisation, especially foods."

What the Rubber Hand Illusion can tell us about Body Dysmorphic Disorder

Image: Vanderbilt
University

Evidence from past research suggests that behaviours and characteristics related to body dissatisfaction may be associated with greater instability of perceptual body image, possibly due to problems in the integration of body-related multisensory information. A MAPrc team investigated whether people with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), a condition characterised by body image disturbances, demonstrated enhanced susceptibility to the rubber hand illusion (RHI), which arises as a result of multisensory (i.e. touch and vision) integration processes when a rubber hand and the participant's hidden real hand are stimulated in synchrony.

Sharon Lewin on the Lancet seminar paper overviewing HIV infection

Prof Sharon Lewin video

Prof Gary Maartens, Prof Connie Celum and Prof Sharon Lewin, Department of Infectious Diseases, have published a seminar article in The Lancet, "HIV infection: epidemiology, pathogenesis, treatment, and prevention". Sharon gives an overview of the article, including her own area of pathogenesis, covering recent developments in immune activation and vaccine development. "No-one clears HIV spontaneously", she says, which is a very unusual feature for a virus. Treatments are now investigating latency, or how to 'wake up' dormant virus hidden within cells. #HIV also causes low level inflammation from immune activation, which contributes to chronic disease development. See The Lancet abstract. Also see 24/06/2014 Monash story.

Recent publications: Medicine, surgery, anaesthesia, cancer, neuroscience

Dworkin S, Simkin J, Darido C, Partridge DD, Georgy SR, Caddy J, Wilanowski T, Lieschke GJ, Doggett K, Heath JK, Jane SM. Grainyhead-like 3 regulation of endothelin-1 in the pharyngeal endoderm is critical for growth and development of the craniofacial skeleton. Mech Dev. 2014 Jun 7. pii: S0925-4773(14)00029-X. doi: 10.1016/j.mod.2014.05.005. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 24915580.

Lewis PM, Smielewski P, Rosenfeld JV, Pickard JD, Czosnyka M. A Continuous Correlation Between Intracranial Pressure and Cerebral Blood Flow Velocity Reflects Cerebral Autoregulation Impairment During Intracranial Pressure Plateau Waves. Neurocrit Care. 2014 May 28. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 24865272 full text.

Myles PS. Antifibrinolytics, aspirin and cardiac surgery: evidence, guidelines and implications for current research. Anaesth Intensive Care. 2014 May;42(3):293-7. PubMed PMID: 24847551

Myles PS. Untangling the triple low: causal inference in anesthesia research. Anesthesiology. 2014 Jul;121(1):1-3. doi: 10.1097/ALN.0000000000000282. PubMed PMID: 24936917

Oehme D, Goldschlager T, Ghosh P, Jenkin G, Rosenfeld JV. Concern over the use of recombinant bone morphogenetic protein in spinal fusion surgery: are stem cells an alternative? ANZ J Surg. 2014 May;84(5):302-3. PubMed PMID: 24877230

Szmulewicz DJ, McLean CA, Rodriguez ML, Chancellor AM, Mossman S, Lamont D, Roberts L, Storey E, Halmagyi GM. Dorsal root ganglionopathy is responsible for the sensory impairment in CANVAS. Neurology. 2014 Apr 22;82(16):1410-5. doi: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000000352. Epub 2014 Mar 28. PubMed PMID: 24682971

Tremblay CS, Curtis DJ. The clonal evolution of leukemic stem cells in T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Curr Opin Hematol. 2014 Jul;21(4):320-5. doi: 10.1097/MOH.0000000000000058. PubMed PMID: 24857886

Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove MAPrc's new Patron

Sir Peter Cosgrove
Image: News Corp

His Excellency General the Honourable Sir Peter Cosgrove AK MC (Retd) has accepted the role of Patron of Monash Alfred Psychiatry research centre. This is a great honour and we are fortunate to have His Excellency as our Patron. He takes on the mantle of Patron from the previous Governor-general, Ms Quentin Bryce, who launched MAPrc at its new premises in October 2013. For reference, MAPrc began in 1994, so this year is its 20th anniversary. See launch video.

Congratulations to Brenda Button on her award of a 2014 Churchill Fellowship

Congratulations to Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor Brenda Button on her award of a 2014 Churchill Fellowship. This is a wonderful honour and tribute to Brenda’s excellence as an exceptional, innovative and committed physiotherapist. Brenda’s project is to “Gain expertise in life supportive treatment for patients bridged to lung transplant on external mechanical oxygenation (ECMO)”. Brenda joins an elite Churchill Fellowship group from AIRmed as previous recipients include Associate Professors Anne Holland and Bronwyn Levvey.

Dr Michael Roche recognised by NHMRC in 2014 Excellence Awards

Dr Michael Roche.
Image: Burnet Institute

Dr Michael Roche is a Postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Infectious Diseases at Monash University and the Burnet Institute where he is working to better understand the earliest steps of the HIV life cycle. His PhD focused on how the virus became resistant to a new antiviral drug, and his research earned him the prestigious Mollie Holman Medal from Monash University. The NHMRC has recognised Michael as a top researcher in the 2014 announcements of the Excellence Awards.