Photo of the week: CCS's 2016 graduate research students

2016 PhD students
(L-R) Dr Steven Petratos (Course Convenor), Ms Mahtab Parvaresh (Immunology), Ms Emily King (BakerIDI), Ms Antonia Paramitha (ACBD), Mr Steven Ngo (ACBD), Ms Maria Selvadurai (ACBD), Mr Mitchell Moon (ACBD), Ms Sin-Ki Ng (MAPrc), Dr Shane Nanayakkara (BakerIDI), Mr Speros Thomas (Medicine), Ms Angela Nguyen (Immunology), Mr John Drummond (ACBD), Ms Hannah Coyle (MAPrc), Dr Shara Ket (MSHC), Dr Iain Abbott (Infectious Diseases), Ms Jacqueline Riddiford (MAPrc), Mr Paul Gill (Gastroenterology), Ms Ya-Lan Ying (BakerIDI), Prof Rob Medcalf (Postgraduate Coordinator)
Web: www.med.monash.edu.au/cecs/education/hdr-students.html

Forthcoming CCS events: Seminars, public events, general notices

Dean Talia

Central Clinical School has regular seminar series and postgraduate presentations. All event notices are maintained on the CCS Events calendar.

CCS staff & students can see details of both public and local events (including professional development courses, trade fairs and Graduate Research Student calendars) and deadlines, at the Intranet's Announcements page.

Various departments have their own calendars. See CCS seminar index: www.med.monash.edu.au/cecs/events/seminars.html

What's on for this coming week: 28 Mar - 7 Apr 2016

Thu ► 21-Mar 12:00 Cutting Edge Journal Club -  Dean Talia Thu ► 7-Apr 10:00 Monash Technology Research Platform display ► 7-Apr 12:00 Cutting Edge Journal Club - Tim Patten

CCS Public Lecture: Innovative systems for improving trauma care 12 Oct 2016

The Alfred trauma team taking a patient.
Prof Mark Fitzgerald is to the right

2016 Central Clinical School Public Lecture:  Innovative systems for improving trauma care

Injury causes 5.8 million deaths per year with 90% in low- and middle-income countries. It also causes a significant amount of disability and economic loss. Much of this burden could be decreased by improvements in the care of the injured (trauma care).

Professor Mark Fitzgerald will give an overview of trauma system research and development, how we’re using it here, and how we’re helping other countries, both in the developed and developing world, to either build or improve their own systems of trauma care.

Details:

• Date: Wednesday, 12 October 2016
• Time: 6.00 pm for 6.30 pm start. Lecture for 45 minutes followed by Q&A session.
• Venue: AMREP Lecture Theatre, adjacent to the BakerIDI Institute at 75 Commercial Road, Melbourne 3004, 200 metres east of the main Alfred Hospital entrance. See map.
• Cost: Free
• RSVP: CLICK HERE. Please RSVP by Friday 7 October 2016 for catering purposes
• Enquiries: Julia.Veitch@monash.edu ph +61 3 9903 0026 or mob 0438 856 481; 
• Weblink: med.monash.edu.au/cecs/events/2016-public-lecture-fitzgerald.html

MIME Affinity Meetings: MHTP 20 April; Alfred 28 April 2016

MIME Affinity Meetings provide an opportunity for clinician researchers at our hospital sites to connect to researchers with enabling expertise in the areas of engineering, IT, design, science and biomedicine, etc. The meetings aim to foster new collaborative connections for clinicians and researchers interested in developing leading edge medical technologies.

In April 2016, MIME will be facilitating two Affinity Meetings (20 & 28 April) which have been scheduled to coincide with Phase 1 of the MIME seed funding process, - i.e. the Call to Clinicians to nominate areas of significant unmet clinical need that could potentially be addressed by engineering or IT innovation.

Recent CCS publications: Week ending 25 March 2016

Heather Gilbert, MAPrc Women's Mental Health team,
taking blood pressure.

Recent publications with Central Clinical School affiliated authors:

Camuñas Palacín A, Grigg J, Gilbert H, Worsley R, Gavrilidis E, Kulkarni J. Safety of atypical antipsychotic drugs during pregnancy.  Psiquiatria Biologica. 2016 Jan (online). 
doi: 10.1016/j.psiq.2016.02.001

Choong JW, Ou R, Lim YW, Rosenfeldt FL. Cold Crystalloid Perfusion Provides Cardiac Preservation Superior to Cold Storage for Donation After Circulatory Death. Transplantation. 2016 Mar; 100:546-53.
doi: 10.1097/TP.0000000000000926.

Congratulations to Dept of Gastroenterology's 3rd Rome Foundation award in a row!

Food low in FODMAPS have been shown
to reduce IBS symptoms

The Rome Foundation Board has selected a paper by Monash Department of Gastroenterology researchers for the third year in a row. The paper, entitled “A diet low in FODMAPs reduces symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome”, receives the Rome Foundation Ken Heaton Award for the Paper Most Cited on Functional Gastrointestinal and Motility Disorders, and a cash prize in the amount of USD$1000. Congratulations to the team! The Rome Foundation will acknowledge the accomplishment at their annual Rome Foundation reception on May 21, 2016.

VCA project grant awarded to Monash blood researchers

Image: www.thrombocyte.com/causes-of-multiple-myeloma-cancer/

VCA project grants have been announced and a consortium of Victorian based blood researchers have received funding for a collaborative project, "Augmented immune targeting of a myeloma-specific tumour antigen".

The investigators are Associate Professor Jake Shortt (Lead Applicant, SCS Monash Health), Prof Andrew Spencer (ACBD, CCS/Alfred), A/Prof John Reynolds, Prof Ricky Johnstone, Dr Hang Quach, Dr George Grigoriadis, Dr Anna Kalff, Dr Tiffany Khong, Dr Patricia Walker, and A/Prof David Powell.

The group will receive funding of $1,974,342 over 36 months for their research into immune system treatment of myeloma, an incurable cancer of the bone marrow plasma cell.

Recent advances have been made using treatments that stimulate the immune system to remove these cancerous plasma cells. The consortium has developed a treatment called MDX1097 that recognizes and binds only to cancerous plasma cells. Cells coated with MDX1097 then become visible to the immune system. Thalidomide is very useful in myeloma as it kills cancerous plasma cells while also stimulating the immune system. They will combine a thalidomide derivative with MDX1097 in a clinical trial for Victorian myeloma patients.

Link: victoriancanceragency.org.au/index.php/funding-outcomes/2015-funded-projects

Congratulations to Sara Mokhtar on her PhD completion!

Sara Mokhtar won the CCS 3MT thesis heat
in 2014. See video

Congratulations to Sara Mokhtar, who has fulfilled the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Her thesis is titled: "The amyloid-beta-dependent phosphorylation of CRMP-2 and its contribution in Alzheimer's disease". Sara was supervised by Dr Steven Petratos (Medicine CCS) and Professor Richard Boyd (ARMI).

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia in the elderly. AD causes loss of memory, cognition, language and emotional stability and has currently no known cure. The aim of Sara's project was to find a novel target to stop the progression of the disease in order protect our aged population. It is well known that AD is caused by the accumulation of a normal protein in the brain called beta amyloid (Aβ).

Congratulations Liz Gardiner on ANU Associate Professorship

A/Prof to be Liz Gardiner and fellow researcher & collaborator,
A/Prof Rob Andrews.

Congratulations to Dr Liz Gardiner, who has accepted an Associate Professorial appointment at the John Curtin School of Medical Research at ANU in Canberra. She plans to relocate to Canberra in March. The School and particularly the Australian Centre for Blood Diseases (ACBD) have greatly appreciated Liz's contribution to academic life here since 2008 and wish her every success for her career in ANU.

Liz was pivotal in setting up ACBD's bleeding disorder investigation platform, making it one of the few sites in the world where detailed platelet functional analysis could be performed.

30 Mar deadline: Fresh Science and $50,000 stem cell prizes

Both Fresh Science and the $50,000 Metcalf Prizes for Stem Cell Research have been extended to Wednesday 30 March.

Still thinking about nominating? We're giving you the Easter break to complete your nominations - get it in by Wednesday, 30 March.

16 April 2016 Monash Medical Orchestra - The Chamber of Music concert

A chamber music group of MMO at CCS's Translational
Research Symposium, Sept 2015

It is with great pleasure that the Monash Medical Orchestra invites you to our first concert of the year, The Chamber of Music! We would love to share this concert with you, which features various solo and group performances of vocal as well as instrumental pieces.

• Date: Saturday April 16th
• Time: 5pmVenue: The Armadale Uniting Church, 86A Kooyong Road, Armadale
• Tickets: $15 (purchase at the door or online at https://mumus.iwannaticket.com.au/event/mumus-presents-the-chamber-of-music-monash-medical-orchestras-charity-chamber-concert-MTA4MDc)

11 April deadline for FMNHS Gender Equity Travel Support Grants applications

The 2016 Monash Faculty of Medicine Nursing and Health Sciences Gender Equity Travel Support grants are open for applications and will close on Monday 11 April, 2016.

Application guidelines and application forms can be accessed on our Diversity and Inclusion Intranet site :

• www.med.monash.edu.au/diversity-inclusion/

Guidelines

• www.med.monash.edu.au/med/diversity-inclusion/docs/gender-equity-travel-support-grant-guidelines2016.pdf