Dr Bernadette Fitzgibbon awarded BGRF Young Researcher of the Year

Dr Bernadette Fitzgibbon

A researcher conducting pioneering work into the neurobiology of pain perception has received the Bethlehem Griffiths Research Foundation (BGRF) Young Researcher of the Year award. Dr Bernadette Fitzgibbon, an NHMRC Fellow based in the Psychiatric Neurotechnology team at the Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre (MAPrc), will also receive $5,000 for research related travel. Established in 1993, the BGRF funds vital research into life threatening, progressive neurological disorders including Multiple Sclerosis, Motor Neuron Disease, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson's Disease as well as stroke and palliative care. See 30/7/14 Monash story.

Dr Steven Petratos's multiple sclerosis research awarded NMSS Alliance grant

Congratulations to Dr Steven Petratos, Department of Medicine, who has been awarded an Alliance grant for €75,000 from the National Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Society via the International Progressive MS Alliance. The award is for research on Progressive MS titled, “Limiting axonal degeneration in a model of multiple sclerosis.”

Congratulations to Rohimah Mohamud on completion of her thesis!

Congratulations to Rohimah Mohamud on completing her PhD! Her thesis was entitled, "Investigation of a novel subset of TNFR2 expressing regulatory T cell in lung diseases". Rohimah was based in the Department of Immunology, and was supervised by Professor Magdalena Plebanski. Her associate supervisors were Prof Robyn O'Hehir (Head of Department of Allergy, Immunology and Respiratory medicine), Prof Jennifer Rolland and Dr Charles Hardy. Well done Rohimah!

$1.5M grant for project to make more heart transplants possible

L-R: Dr Rouchong Ou, Mr Jonathan
Nevile & Prof Frank Rosenfeldt.
Absent: Dr John Woodard

Professor Frank Rosenfeldt heads a team of four researchers working on a new project to enable the production of a device to perfuse transplant donor hearts. The project, based at the Alfred and Monash University, has received a $1.5M government grant to develop a device which will reduce the damage produced by ice storage and enable hearts to be resuscitated and used as human transplants. Once produced, this device will make it possible to keep donor hearts viable over long distances in Australia and even from New Zealand.  

Congratulations to Miriel Ho on completing her PhD!

Congratulations to Miriel Ho on recently completing her PhD. Miriel was based at the Australian Centre for Blood Diseases and she was researching the relationship between bone and bone marrow interface with haematopoiesis. Her supervisors were Professor Hatem Salem and Professor Robert Medcalf.

Click here to view Miriel's student profile. 

Congratulations to Dr Lachlan Gray, featured on 'Science' careers website

Dr Lachlan Gray was recently interviewed for an article in Science Careers, part of the journal Science, on his research areas and future prospects. Lachlan is a senior postdoctoral fellow at the Burnet Institute in Melbourne whose area of study is HIV. While it is no longer the death sentence it was when it was first discovered 3 decades ago, HIV is proving extremely difficult to eradicate. Lachlan is one of a small number of scientists worldwide trying to shed light on how HIV spreads to the brain, where it can cause neurocognitive disorders and establish viral reservoirs that make it resistant to the available drugs. See link for detail.

Congratulations to Glen Westall for becoming Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor

Congratulations to A/Prof Glen Westall for recently receiving the new title of Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor to his name. A/Prof Westall specialises in lung transplantation and his contributions to the field of lung transplantation have been recognized by invitations to lecture at the last five International Society of Heart and Lung Transplant Meetings. A/Prof Westall has also written a number of invited editorials in the field of lung transplantation.