Photo of the week: The heat is on for our CCS 3MT speakers!

2016's CCS Three Minute Thesis contestants: L-R Erica Kim (Medicine), Caroline Tuck (Gastroenterology), Jessica Anania (Burnet), Aron Hill (MAPrc), Liriye Kurtovic (Burnet), Riya Palchaudhuri (Burnet), Paddy Dempsey (Baker, and winner, see his video), Marina Iacovou (Gastroenterology), Elizabeth Thomas (MAPrc).

This year's heat is next Tuesday, 27 June 2017. All welcome!

2017 CCS 3MT competition details - see details of this year's contestants

• Date: Tuesday 27 June 2017
• Time: 2.00 - 3.00 pm
• Venue: Lecture Theatre, Level 5, Alfred Centre
• No RSVP required, all welcome.

What's on at CCS 26-30 June 2017

Mr Saeed Alrashdi gives his PhD
pre-submission talk on 27 June

Central Clinical School (CCS) has regular seminar series and postgraduate presentations. Event notices are posted on the CCS Events calendar.

CCS staff and 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 CCS intranet's Announcements page

See CCS seminar index: www.med.monash.edu.au/cecs/events/seminars.html

What's on at CCS 26-30 June 2017

Tue	27/06/2017	►	09:00	PhD Pre-submission seminar: Mr Saeed Alrashdi
		►	10:00	Department of Diabetes student journal club
		►	14:00	CCS 3MT heat - all welcome!
Wed	28/06/2017	►	11:30	Immunology Seminar: Pat Reading (Peter Doherty)
Thur	29/06/2017	►	11:30	Cutting Edge Journal Club: Tim Gottschalk
		►	12:00	The Alfred Grand Round: Prof Leon Bach

Save the date

• Thu 13/07/2017: AMREP Bachelor of Medical Science (Honours) information evening
• Mon 31/07/2017: Translational Research symposium: RSVP

Translational Research Symposium Speaker Spotlight - Prof Helen Dewey

Professor Helen Dewey

Monash University's 3rd annual Translational Research Symposium is being hosted by its three metropolitan clinical schools on 31 July 2017. The symposium will host a diverse group of medical researchers presenting their work into translational research. RSVP here.

Professor Helen Dewey is the Director of Neurosciences at Eastern Health Clinical School.

CCS publications update: 17-23 June 2017

The Alfred-Monash AIRmed group

have published a paper on controlling

inflammation after lung transplant

Recent publications for Central Clinical School affiliated authors in the following departments. Note, browse down this entry for pubs listing. Linked headings are to the departments' home pages.

• Allergy, Immunology and Respiratory Medicine (AIRMed) 
• Anaesthesia and Perioperative Medicine (APOM)
• Australian Centre for Blood Diseases (ACBD)
• Diabetes
• Gastroenterology
• Infectious Diseases
• Medicine
• Melbourne Sexual Health Centre (MSHC)
• Monash Alfred Psychiatry research centre (MAPrc)
• Surgery  

Study probes complementary and alternative medicine use for bowel disease

Dr Raffi Luber, co-
author on a study of
IBD & CAM therapy

by Anne Crawford

Physicians treating patients for inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are occasionally asked about the use of complementary and alternative medicines (CAMs) but often have limited knowledge of the therapies and can be quick to dismiss their efficacy.

A study by researchers in the Department of Gastroenterology at the Alfred Hospital has reviewed the available evidence for the most commonly used and discussed CAMs so informed advice can be offered to patients wanting to know about them.

New blood test a boon to clot research

PhD student Hannah Pearce with Dr Thomas
Bonnard, first author on the paper describing
a new test for measuring thrombolytic activity

by Anne Crawford

Monash University researchers have developed a novel blood assay that is proving highly effective in researching thrombosis (blood clotting) and which could potentially become a valuable tool in clinical translation.

Heart attack and stroke – leading causes of death and disability in Australia – are mostly caused by thrombosis. Researchers around the world are striving to improve anti-thrombotic treatments that counter the life-threatening blood clots without the associated side-effect of excessive bleeding.

Welcome to Professor Terry O'Brien, new joint Head of Departments of Neuroscience & Medicine

Professor Terry O'Brien, new Head of
Neurosciences and Medicine at CCS

Welcome to Professor Terence (Terry) O’Brien, who takes on several roles at the Alfred Campus in the Central Clinical School and at the Alfred as of October 2017:

• Van Cleef Roet Professor of Medicine (Neurology)
• Head, Departments of Neuroscience and Medicine
• Deputy Head, Central Clinical School, Monash University 
• Director of Neurology, Alfred Health

The specialist areas of the neurosciences department will be investigation of neurological, neuroscience, neurobehavioural, pharmacological and imaging with respect to cognition and various brain disorders including epilepsy, neuroinflammation, neurodegenerative diseases, brain tumours, stroke and traumatic brain injury. See more about the Department of Neuroscience's research areas from their Bachelor of Medical Science (Honours) projects on offer.

For more information contact Ms Mary Ljubanovic, Terry's EA:
Email: Mary.Ljubanovic@monash.edu, ph +61 3 99030304

Welcome to CCS's new Student Services staff!

Ms Mary Ljubanovic

Ms Lindy Friswell

Welcome to CCS's new Student Services staff, Ms Mary Ljubanovic and Ms Lindy Friswell!

Mary Ljubanovic comes to us from the University of Melbourne, and though full time, has a joint role as Senior Student Services Officer and EA to our incoming Head of Neurosciences, Professor Terry O'Brien.


Lindy Friswell is the Student Services Officer (SSO), appointed 0.8. Lindy is supporting Mary with her SSO role. Lindy's days of work are Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri.

Their joint areas of responsibility are administration of Honours, BMedSc(Honours) and postgraduate cohorts, and associated recruitment and marketing activities which include the organisation of recruitment events.

As the two roles overlap, please email all enquiries to the role account, CCS.HDR@monash.edu.

Welcome to Dr Nick Wong!

Dr Nick Wong, new bioinformatics
platform contact

Welcome to Dr Nick Wong, who has recently joined the Central Clinical School/Monash Bioinformatics Platform.

Nick completed his PhD in 2006 with Professor K. H. Andy Choo on DNA methylation of Neocentromeres. His expertise is in DNA methylation profiling (Illumina Infinium, Bisulfite Sequencing, MBD enrichment) on challenging samples; RNA analysis on challenging samples (including RNA-Seq); End-to-end experience for most NGS workflows (sample, library preparation, sequencing, bioinformatic analysis).