Photo gallery of the week: 29 June BMedSc(Hons) information night

Dr Justin Hamilton, CCS Honours coordinator, and Prof Stephen Jane, HOS CCS, speaking at CCS's recent BMedSc(Hons) event. CCS is co-hosting a further Honours information night on 16 August, for all intending Honours students from the BBiomed, BSc and BBiotech undergraduate streams. Intending graduate research students are also invited to attend as the range of research projects spans the medical research continuum from basic to translational and clinical applications.

• Photo gallery of the 29 June BMedSc(Hons) information night now up: Link
• Deadline for BMedSc(Hons) applications: 9 August 2016
• 16 Aug AMREP (CCS, SPHPM, Burnet, Baker IDI) Honours and Graduate Research information night taking RSVPs: Link to information; Link to Register

Forthcoming CCS events: Seminars, public events, general notices

Maria Selvadurai will be presenting on 2 Aug at
her PhD Confirmation of Candidature seminar.

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 next week 1-5 Aug 2016: 

Mon	►	1-Aug	13:00	PhD Pre-submission seminar: Ms CK Yao
Tue	►	2-Aug	11:00	PhD Mid-candidature Review Seminar: Ms Shauna French
	►	2-Aug	11:30	PhD Confirmation of Candidature Seminar: Ms Maria Selvadurai
	►	2-Aug	12:15	PhD Pre-submission Seminar: Ms Marina Iacovou
Wed	►	3-Aug	10:30	PhD Confirmation Seminar: Ms Heather Alison Gilbert
	►	3-Aug	11:30	Immunology Seminar Series: Jodie Abramovitch
Thu	►	4-Aug	12:00	Cutting Edge Journal Club: Ashlee Burt

Forthcoming events

• 11 Aug 2016 CCS 3MT thesis heat
• 16 Aug 2016 Honours CCS information night
• 12 Oct 2016 CCS Public Lecture: Innovative systems for improving trauma injury treatment

Recent CCS publications: Week ending 29 July 2016

A/Prof Kate Hoy (left) with a colleague and research participant

Recent publications for Central Clinical School affiliated authors in ACBD, Immunology, Infectious Diseases, MAPrc and MSHC:

Chung SW, Rogasch NC, Hoy KE, Fitzgerald PB. Measuring brain stimulation induced changes in cortical properties using TMS-EEG. Brain Stimul. 2015 Nov-Dec;8(6):1010-20. doi: 10.1016/j.brs.2015.07.029. Epub 2015 Jul 17.

‘Summer loving’ survey attracts international attention

Image: 'Summer Feet'

by Anne Crawford

The temperature rises, the rosé flows freely, the barbeque and party invitations are plentiful and online dating spikes. Summer is the season when we’re out and about more and - anecdotally - having more flings.

Melbourne Sexual Health Centre researchers investigated whether sexual activity was in fact seasonally different and if there was a correlation with sexually transmitted infections (STI).

Gonorrhoea spike linked with policing of sex workers

by Anne Crawford

A study has linked an epidemic of gonorrhoea in South Australia with increased policing of female sex workers when carrying condoms was used as evidence for convictions.

The study was overseen by Professor Kit Fairley of the Central Clinical School and head of the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre, and researched by doctoral student Bin Li, supported by Dr Eric Chow and others.

‘Retraining’ the immune system of patients with allergies

L-R: Allergy lab colleagures Dr Sara Prickett, Prof Robyn O'Hehir
and Emeritus Prof Jenny Rolland

Professor Robyn O'Hehir gives an overview of her research into immune system components involved in reducing allergic response.

Turning off the T cells in allergy

An aberrant allergic (IgE) response to a usually harmless stimulus (allergen) is orchestrated by a population of white blood cells known as helper T cells.  By reining in the activities of these T cells, it is possible to reduce the severity of the allergy.

Congratulations to Dr Astrid Voskamp on the completion of her PhD!

L to R: Promoter: Professor Maria Yazdanbakhsh, Leiden University

Co-promoter: Dr Sara Prickett, Monash University
Candidate: Dr Astrid Voskamp
Promoter: Professor Robyn O'Hehir, Alfred Health/Monash University
Examiner: Professor Christian Taube, Leiden University

Congratulations to Dr Astrid Voskamp, past member of Prof Robyn O'Hehir's & Prof Jenny Rolland's Allergy lab, who has recently successfully completed her PhD in the Netherlands. She did all of her lab work in the Allergy lab. Astrid achieved 12 publications in her seven years with the Allergy group.

Astrid was awarded her PhD through Leiden University, The Netherlands, June 2016 (Defense date: 16th June), for her thesis, titled "Clinical Allergy: Basophils, T cells and Therapeutic Design". The research was conducted at Monash University (Department of Immunology & Pathology; Allergy lab) and Alfred Health (Department of AIRMed).

Media mentions: Diabetes, obesity, diet and immune system health

25/07/2016 Professor Paul Zimmet, Department of Medicine:

“The way the global data on diabetes has been collected has been inconsistent and not of the standard needed for public health planning to address what is now one of the largest chronic disease epidemics in human history. Over 12 per cent of global health expenditure is directed to diabetes treatment."
Link: http://www.australiaplus.com/international/study-and-innovation/impact-of-global-diabetes-vastly-underestimated/7647894

20/07/2016 Professor Wendy Brown, Department of Surgery:
“The best thing you can do in life is just to never put that weight on because once you have that fat there the body is always going to want to replenish the stores.”
Link: http://health.thewest.com.au/news/3010/wrestling-with-weight-problems
“They don’t have to have perfect weight loss,” Wendy Brown, director of Monash University’s Centre for Obesity Research and Education, said. “They don’t have to get to an ideal body weight to have substantial benefits. We know that people can get some really good health benefits just by losing 10 per cent of their body weight, that might be only 10kg for some people.”
Link:  http://health.thewest.com.au/news/3015/fighting-weight
 

26/07/2016 and 02/08/2016 Department of Gastroenterology on prebiotic fibre diet research:
Encore screening of two part ABC Catalyst show first screened August 2014.
New research has linked the Western diet to asthma, autism, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, emphysema, cancer, and the list goes on. The reason a healthy diet could be even more important than previously thought is because food affects the bacteria deep inside our guts. Unbeknownst to most of us, we each carry about 1.5 kg of bacteria – that’s trillions of tiny microbes that contribute 100 times as many genes as our genomes do. In the last ten years, a technological revolution means scientists are now beginning to discover just how crucial these microscopic creatures are to our overall health...and what they’re learning is shaking the very foundations of medicine and nutrition. See full transcript
Link: http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/4506661.htm

Perspective: Taking the long view: universities and their unique research role

Associate Professor Michael Biercuk writes in his Conversation article on the goal and function of universities to undertake research for long term public good:

" 

Businesses today are, by and large, focused on the short-term, and therefore are largely unable to consider investing in projects that might take a decade or more to realise a commercial outcome. They exist to generate profits for their leaders and shareholders, which requires constant revenue and profit growth today.

Universities, by contrast, exist only to engage in the generation and dissemination of knowledge. Relating to research, successful university programs therefore bring three main differentiating value propositions:

• the ability to work on problems for the public good, with little or no commercial gain, but potentially large social value
• consideration of problems that might be of great commercial value in the long-term, but require dedicated research on timescales that are unacceptable to commercial entities
• investment in critical capital-intensive infrastructure needed especially for technical fields. "

theconversation.com/taking-the-long-view-universities-and-their-unique-research-role-36647