Photo of the week: Launch of Jeffrey Modell Centre for Primary Immunodeficiencies Melbourne

The Jeffrey Modell Foundation Diagnostic and Research Centre for Primary Immunodeficiencies launch. L-R: Dr Julian Bosco (Alfred Health), Dr Joanne Smart (Royal Children's Hospital), A/Prof Menno van Zelm (Monash University & Alfred Health), Dr Vanessa Bryant (WEHI) and Dr Charlotte Slade (RMH, WEHI).

What's on at CCS 18-22 June 2018

Susan Alberti AC is giving
the Alfred Research Day
keynote address Tues 12 noon  

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:  https://www.monash.edu/medicine/ccs/headlines/events-calendar

What's on at CCS 18-22 June 2018

Mon	18/06/2018	►	12:00	Neuroscience Seminar
		►	16:00	PhD Mid-Candidature Milestone: Iain Abbott
Tue	19/06/2018	►	12:00	Alfred Research Day Keynote address: Susan Alberti AC Note: Alfred Research Week is 18-22 June
		►	12:30	PhD Mid-Candidature Seminar: Rosie Latimer
		►	14:00	PhD Pre-submission Seminar: Ms Beverly Giam
Wed	20/06/2018	►	11:30	Seminar: Dr Dan Andrews
Thur	21/06/2018	►	11:30	Immunology Journal Club: Dr Jess Borger
		►	12:00	Alfred Grand Rounds: Registrar Presentations
		►	14:00	CCS 3MT Competition

Alfred Research Week 18-22 June 2018

176 research posters are entered in the 2018 Alfred Research Week
Poster Display competition. See Abstract booklet

It's Alfred Research Week next week, 18-22 June 2018. A number of events happen across the week, but the main ones are:

1) Research Day (Tuesday), which features this year a Keynote Address by Susan Alberti AC, at 12 noon in the AMREP lecture theatre, followed by the presentation of AMREP research prizes;

2) Research Poster Display
There are 176 entrants this year. Their abstracts are published in a booklet. You will be able to browse the posters in the Alfred corridors.

See more about the week at:
https://www.alfredhealth.org.au/research/research-week/the-Alfred

Recent CCS publications: 8-15 June 2018

A/Prof Nigel Jones's research group, Nigel on left. Nigel has co-
authored a paper investigating the adverse synergy of SSRI
antidepressants with acquired epilepsy. Link

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

Allergy, Immunology and Respiratory Medicine (AIRmed)

Australian Centre for Blood Diseases (ACBD)

Diabetes

Gastroenterology

Immunology and Pathology

Infectious Diseases

Melbourne Sexual Health Centre (MSHC)

Monash Alfred Psychiatry research centre (MAPrc)

Neuroscience

Surgery (including CORE)

Scientists pinpoint key source of shellfish allergy

Oysters on a rock at low tide.
Image: Wikipedia

by Anne Crawford

Shellfish allergy is one of the most serious of all allergies, on a par in terms of severity with the life-threatening reactions experienced by people allergic to peanuts. Yet it is sometimes hard to diagnose and tell which type of shellfish is the problem.

Now, Monash University scientists have made a big step forward in diagnosis for allergies caused by molluscs, an important shellfish group. The scientists from the Allergy Lab (AIRmed and Immunology & Pathology), CCS, characterised for the first time allergens of four commonly eaten Asia-Pacific molluscs: Sydney Rock Oyster, Blue Mussel, Saucer Scallop and Southern Calamari.

Monash surgeon calls for new terrorist attack treatment measures

Professor Jeffrey Rosenfeld during his last military deployment

by Anne Crawford

A leading military surgeon says Australian hospitals should become familiar with US military trauma guidelines to better prepare them for terrorist attacks or other mass casualty events.

Professor Jeffrey Rosenfeld, a senior neurosurgeon at The Alfred Hospital, Professor of Surgery at the Monash University and a Major General in the Australian Defence Force, is also calling for civilians to be trained in haemorrhage control through the ‘HemCon’ course developed by the American College of Surgeons and the Hartford Consensus in the US, recommendations made after a US school shooting in late 2012 in which 20 children were fatally shot.

Public health lessons from the 2016 thunderstorm asthma epidemic

Figure 1 from the article, showing
the meteorological conditions

A multidisciplinary collaboration investigated the world's largest, most catastrophic epidemic thunderstorm asthma event that took place in Melbourne, Australia, on Nov 21, 2016, to inform mechanisms and preventive strategies. 11 of the coauthors are affiliated with Monash University including several from the Department of Allergy, Immunology and Respiratory Medicine,  Central Clinical School.

They write, "Convergent environmental factors triggered a thunderstorm asthma epidemic of unprecedented magnitude, tempo, and geographical range and severity on Nov 21, 2016, creating a new benchmark for emergency and health service escalation. Asian or Indian ethnicity and current doctor-diagnosed asthma portended life-threatening exacerbations such as those requiring admission to an ICU. Overall, the findings provide important public health lessons applicable to future event forecasting, health care response coordination, protection of at-risk populations, and medical management of epidemic thunderstorm asthma."

Donald Cockroft writes in a published comment in the same issue, "An unusual observation was the high prevalence of Asian or Indian ethnicity among the patients, including six of the ten deaths." Melbourne's population is one quarter Asian and Indian ethnicity, yet they were almost two fifths (39%) of those presenting to emergency.

Congratulations to Saeed Alrashdi on his PhD completion!



L-R: Dr Devi Deliyanti, Mr Saeed Alrashdi
and Professor Jenny Wilkinson-Berka.
Jenny and Devi were Saeed's PhD supervisors.

Congratulations to Saeed Alrashdi on his successful completion of his PhD! Saeed's thesis is titled, "The pathogenic effects of Endothelin-2 in the retina: Interactions with angiotensin II and aldosterone".

Saeed was supervised by Professor Jenny Wilkinson-Berka and Dr Devi Deliyanti, formerly in the Department of Immunology and Pathology, and more recently in the Department of Diabetes. Jenny's research group has been working on diabetic retinopathy for a number of years.

 

Saeed's most recent publications are:

• Endothelin-2 Injures the Blood-Retinal Barrier and Macroglial Müller Cells: Interactions with Angiotensin II, Aldosterone, and NADPH Oxidase. (March 2018)
• Nrf2 Activation Is a Potential Therapeutic Approach to Attenuate Diabetic Retinopathy. (Feb 2018)

Congratulations to Andrew Guy on his PhD completion!

Andrew Guy presenting at a
CCS 3MT heat

Congratulations to Andrew Guy on his PhD completion! Andrew's thesis is titled, "Computational approaches for examining the impact of protein structure and dynamics on malaria immunity." Andrew's main supervisor was Dr Paul Ramsland (50%), and co-supervised by Prof James Beeson and Dr Jack Richards, all of the Burnet Institute.

Andrew has had a number of first author publications during his doctoral work:

• Structural patterns of selection and diversity for Plasmodium vivax antigens DBP and AMA1. (May 2018)
• Proteome-wide mapping of immune features onto Plasmodium protein three-dimensional structures. (March 2018)
• Insights into the Immunological Properties of Intrinsically Disordered Malaria Proteins Using Proteome Scale Predictions. (Oct 2015)

Congratulations to Professors Kit Fairley and John Wilson for Queen's Birthday Honours!

Prof Christopher Fairley, AO

Prof John Wilson, AM

Congratulations to Professors Christopher ('Kit') Fairley and John Wilson for their Queen's Birthday honours!

Prof Fairley was awarded an Order of Australia (AO) for distinguished service to community health, particularly in the area of infectious and sexually transmitted diseases, as a clinician, researcher and administrator, and to medical education.

Prof Fairley is the Director of the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre within the Central Clinical School, and has a long and extensive track record of publications on the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, and the care and treatment of people suffering from those diseases. See more publications.

Prof Wilson was recognised as a Member in the General Division of the Order of Australia (AM) for significant service to medicine, and to medical research, in the field of respiratory disease, and to professional organisations. Prof Wilson is a respiratory physician and joint head of Alfred Health's Cystic Fibrosis Clinic.

AMREP student journal club kicks off

Dr Jay Jha chairing a session at the 2017 AMREP EMCR
retreat. Jay is an early career researcher in CCS's Diabetes 
department.

The Alfred Precinct of Monash University has started a Journal Club series that will be run solely for students (Honours, Masters and PhD). Its purpose is to enable students to gain confidence and experience in presenting papers in a journal club setting, as well as bringing students around the AMREP campus together for both social and collaborative interaction.   While many departments in this Precinct do already run a Journal Club, this one is aimed solely at students, to help train them in presenting in a non-intimidating setting, amongst their peers.

Each presentation will be chaired by an Early/Mid Career Researcher to provide feedback and also aid with any questions that are raised about the presented paper.