Video of the week: Dr Sara Prickett and peanut allergy

Dr Sara Prickett talks about allergy research and how she got into it (via parasitology!).
Video link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=yowZqNN5K08

In May 2006 the Australian Food Allergy Foundation (AFAF) was created to fund Australian scientific research into food allergies and anaphylaxis. This presentation, part of a series, highlights the world leading Australian research enabled by AFAF grants during our first ten years.

Dr Sara Prickett joined Monash University / Alfred Health as result of a grant from the foundation. Sara joined the allergy team led by Professor Robyn O’Hehir AO and Emeritus Professor Jennifer Rolland, which has created a world-first peanut allergy vaccine. With the vaccine now on the path to commercialisation through Aravax they are confident of a major global breakthrough in the treatment of peanut allergy once clinical trials begin.

For more information please visit www.foodallergy.org.au
To see more about the research:  Allergy lab

Forthcoming events: 5-9 Sep 2016: Seminars, public events, general notices

Timothy Gottschalk at the 2015
CCS postgraduate symposium

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 5-9 Sep 2016:

Wed	►	07/09/2016	11:30	PhD pre-submission seminar : Mr Timothy Gottschalk
	►		15:30	Peter Doherty Institute seminar: Prof Chris Murray
Thu	►	08/09/2016	12:00	Grand Rounds: Prescription drug abuse
Fri	►	09/09/2016	12:00	PhD Confirmation Seminar: Dr Janet Towns

Forthcoming events

• Fri 16 Sep 2016 Bachelor of Medical Science (Honours) oral presentations
• 12 Oct 2016 CCS Public Lecture: Innovative systems for improving trauma care

Recent CCS publications: Week ending 2 Sept 2016

Recent publications for Central Clinical School affiliated authors in the departments of ACBD, AIRmed, Immunology, Infectious Diseases:

Boyd BJ, Galle A, Daglas M, Rosenfeld JV, Medcalf R. Traumatic brain injury opens blood-brain barrier to stealth liposomes via an enhanced permeability and retention (EPR)-like effect. J Drug Target. 2015;23(9):847-53. doi: 10.3109/1061186X.2015.1034280. Epub 2015 Jun 16.
See feature story

Disarming the most dangerous of superbugs

Zebrafish embryos show a 'hot spot' of neutrophils happening when
the specific bacterial metabolic pathway is blocked. Those neutrophils
then eliminate the bacteria very quickly.  Image:
www.pnas.org/content/early/2016/08/08/1523116113

Among the six most deadly antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the world, Acinetobacter baumannii targets the sick and elderly in hospitals. Now, researchers from Monash University have uncovered a way to effectively turn the patient’s immune system into an assassin against this lethal invader.

Led by Professor Anton Peleg, head of the Department of Infectious Diseases in Monash’s Central Clinical School and lab leader in the Biomedicine Discovery Institute, the research team developed a zebrafish model which allows scientists to study real-time interactions between immune cells and the deadly bacteria A. baumannii during infection.

Tiny Trojan horse 'stealth' liposomes deliver drugs direct to brain injury sites

The blood-brain barrier (BBB) allows what is needed to nourish the brain and keeps out potentially dangerous, neurotoxic cells. When a person experiences traumatic brain injury (TBI) the BBB opens for a brief period of up to six hours after injury. Monash researchers have discovered that a small lipid sphere called a liposome - normally excluded from the brain - accumulates in the injured side of the brain during this window.

Opportunities: Grants, EOIs, funding

Grant and funding opportunities as notified from the Monash Research Office and with thanks to the Biomedicine Discovery Institute for compiling linked summaries. Deadline dates provided.

• 08 Sep 2016: Women in STEM & Entrepreneurship (WISE) Programme: Call for EOI 
• 09 Sep 2016: Global Connections Fund: ATSE Bridging Grants
• 14 Sep 2016: Australia-India Strategic Research Fund (AISRF)
• 15 Sep 2016: Proposals for Neutron Scattering and Deuteration at the OPAL Reactor  
• 13 Oct 2016: Economic Research and Social Council: Large Grants competition 2016/17
• 24 Oct 2016: Australia-India Strategic Research Fund Early- to Mid-Career Researcher Fellowships 2016-2017
• 26 Oct 2016: Funding Opportunity: CRC Project Applications Now Open 
• 07 Dec 2016: Gates Cambridge Scholarship for Life Sciences Research

Other grant news:

• CASS Foundation - Changes to submission process

D. S. Rosengarten Surgical Trainee Research Prize 2016 - open for applications

2015's prize winner, Dr Katherine Suter with Mrs Rosengarten

D. S. Rosengarten Surgical Trainee Research Prize 2016 is now open for applications.

• Taking place: Saturday 3 December 2016 at 8am 
• Applications due: Friday 25 November, 2016
• About the D.S. Rosengarten Surgery Prize.
• The photo gallery of the 2015 event.

The prize consisting of a shield and $1000 will be awarded for the best surgical research project performed by an Alfred Hospital surgical trainee.

Perspective: Interpreting trial results - the P value continuum

xkcd: P-values

A recently published NEJM review article by Stuart Pocock and Gregg Stone reflects on how to interpret the primary outcome of a trial. Quote excerpted below:

"A well-designed trial derives its credibility from the inclusion of a prespecified, a priori hypothesis that helps its authors avoid making potentially false positive claims on the basis of an exploratory analysis of the data. Nevertheless, an unreasonable yet widespread practice is the labeling of all randomized trials as either positive or negative on the basis of whether the P value for the primary outcome is less than 0.05. This view is overly simplistic. P values should be interpreted as a continuum wherein the smaller the P value, the greater the strength of the evidence for a real treatment effect."

Reference: www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMra1510064