Photo of the week: 2018 BMedSc(Hons) students

2018 CCS BMedSc(Hons) group.  L-R back row: Crystal Gao, Karin Professor Jandeleit-Dahm (BMedSc(Hons) co-coordinator), Vivien Lai, David Liu, Callum Narita, Louay Baroun-Agob, Sai Ponnaganti, Sameer Sharma, Nishat Siddique, Jessica Paynter, Angie Shiqi Xiang, Prof Merlin Thomas (BMedSc(Hons) co-coordinator). L-R: front row: Andrew Hurley, Dunya Tomic, Henry Pan Yen-Cheng, Shourye Dwivedi, Christopher Hardy, Pamodi Dinendra.
Visit the BMedSc(Hons) webpage for more information about the course

What's On at CCS 26 Feb - 2 Mar 2018

Mitchell Moon presents Tue 27 Feb
PhD mid-candidature review

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 Feb - 02 Mar 2018

Mon	26/02/2018	►	12:00	Neuroscience seminar series: Professor Michael O'Sullivan
Tue	27/02/2018	►	09:00	AMREP- Free student counselling service
		►	11:00	PhD Mid-Candidature review: Mitchell Moon
		►	12:30	PhD Mid Candidature review: Shane Nanayakkara
Wed	28/02/2018	►	09:00	AMREP- Free student counselling service
		►	11:30	PhD Mid Candidature review: Angela Nguyen
Thur	01/03/2018	►	11:30	Cutting Edge Journal Club: Evelyn Tsantikos
		►	12:00	Alfred Grand Rounds: Dr Cathy Corbett, Dr Mark Shulman and Dr Matthew Richardson

Exploring the brave new world of the epigenome

Professor Sam El-Osta's (second from right, back row) research group

by Anne Crawford

When it comes to the epigenome, there is a fine line between clarity and confusion—walk that line and you will discover another fascinating level of transcription control.

So begins a review of the current state-of-play of studies into epigenetics in diabetic complications led by Professor Sam El-Osta from Monash University’s Department of Diabetes. The paper, which focusses particularly on the complication diabetic nephropathy (kidney disease), appeared on the cover of last month’s edition of ‘Diabetologia’.

Media mention: Short Chain Fatty Acids, Francine Marques and Paul Gill

Researchers PhD student Paul Gill (Monash University)
and Dr Francine Marques (Baker Institute). Image: The Age

The Age published a story on research performed at Baker Institute by Dr Francine Marques (Twitter handle @FZMarques) that has shown that products of fermentation of dietary fibres by the gut microbiota (short-chain fatty acids, SCFAs) protect mice from developing hypertension (the initial paper was published at the beginning of 2017). Francine is now hoping to translate these findings into humans and has begun to examine if there is a link between short-chain fatty acids and blood pressure in humans with hypertension.

 

As part of Paul Gill's PhD, he has been measuring SCFAs from Francine's patient samples. Paul has also been measuring SCFAs in many fermented foods and beverages. Some of the foods that he found to be high in SCFAs were vinegars, kombucha, pickled foods, kimchi and soft cheeses (which have been marketed to have 'health benefits', many of which are completely unsubstantiated).

Paul says, "We are now using this information to formulate a 'high SCFA diet', that we think could have therapeutic value in conditions such as hypertension, but also immune disease." And, watch this space, Paul is currently designing a dietary intervention study (hopefully launching by April-May) in order to investigate this - so we'll be calling out for recruits!

 

Age story link: https://www.theage.com.au/national/a-make-or-break-moment-for-what-may-be-a-new-miracle-molecule-20180216-p4z0ky.html

Participants sought: Are you interested in brain science and what happens after a head injury?

Volunteers wanted with NO history of
head injury for study.

 

Traumatic brain injury Are you interested in brain science and what happens after a head injury?

PhD student Hannah Coyle's project is investigating traumatic brain injury, and involves using a non-invasive type of brain stimulation to learn more about changes post concussion and during recovery.

We need volunteers who have NO history of head injury to act as a comparison group. Participation will involve visiting our research centre in Prahran for three research sessions over a 6 month period.

Sessions take approximately 3 hours each.You will be compensated for your time and travel costs. Together we will complete an interview, do some thinking tasks, take a recording of your brain waves and give you a short session of non-invasive brain stimulation.

If you think this sounds interesting and would like to know more please contact Ms Hannah Coyle on 9076 9823 or at hannah.coyle@monash.edu