12th CCS Graduate Research Symposium success!

Winners of the CCS graduate research symposium. L-R: Ms Rosie Latimer, Mr Rishabh Sharma, Professor Helmut Butzkeuven (judge), Ms April Raftery, Ms Alexandra Dimitropolous, Mr Martin Ezeani, Ms Erica Plummer, Mr Will O'Brien, Dr Robb Wesselingh, Professor Nicola Harris

Central Clinical School held its 12th CCS GR Symposium on Monday 7 October 2019. The day's presentations and fun sessions were respectively informative and entertaining. Congratulations to our winners! (See below). For detail of presenters and sessions, see the program booklet or web page.

Monash researchers develop new gene therapy tool

Dr Hannah Pearce, first author, and
A/Prof Christoph Hagemeyer, last author

by Anne Crawford

Gene therapy – the insertion of genes into cells to treat disease – holds great potential for conditions such as cardiovascular disease and cancers. Yet efficient and safe delivery of the genes to the right cells remains a significant, longstanding challenge.

Associate Professor Christoph Hagemeyer from the Australian Centre for Blood Diseases (ACBD) has led a team that has developed a way of improving targeted gene transfer.

Body clock linked to healthy ticker

Article reproduced courtesy Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering

While many innovations improve our health, our tech-heavy lifestyles can have unintended side effects. Academy Fellow Professor Paul Zimmet AO has suggested that modern disruption of our “body clocks” may increase rates of heart disease, diabetes and depression.

He calls this “Circadian Syndrome” and is spearheading a joint initiative from Monash University, Tel Aviv University and Imperial College, London to have the term recognised internationally.

CCS's most recent publications feed

See Central Clinical School's most recent publications via the RSS feed below. This feed is also embedded in the school's publications web page. For all of our publications, see the Monash University CCS research output page which displays all validated publications.

Welcome to Professor Anne Holland and her group!

Professor Anne Holland

Welcome to Professor Anne Holland and her group! They have commenced as members of the Department of Allergy, Immunology and Respiratory Medicine on 7 October.

Anne is a stellar physiotherapy researcher working on non-pharmacological treatments for chronic lung disease, for which she is internationally recognised as a leader in the field. Her research interests will complement a number of groups within Central Clinical School’s Departments of Immunology & Pathology and Medicine as well as other groups across the university and other research organisations. Anne is a highly strategic co-appointment with Alfred Health’s Department of Allied Health as our joint Professor of Physiotherapy. She brings a number of competitive grants from La Trobe University.

Monash CCS researcher Professor Jenny Hoy honoured by Academy Fellowship

Professor Jennifer Hoy, new AAHMS Fellow

This week, the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (AAHMS) has elected five Fellows from Monash Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, in recognition of their distinguished achievements and contributions to health and medical science.

Congratulations to CCS's Professor Jennifer Hoy, whose body of work has been recognised with her election as Fellow to the Academy.

Neurologist A/Prof Anne Abbott wins Tall Poppy Science Award

A/Prof Anne Abbott

Congratulations to Associate Professor Anne Abbott, who has received a 2019 Victorian Tall Poppy Science Award from the Australian Institute of Policy and Science, awarded on 10 October 2019.

A/Prof Abbott is a neurologist in Central Clinical School's Department of Neuroscience. She has been at the forefront of medical research regarding how to best prevent stroke, particularly associated with carotid arterial disease.

Congratulations to Lizzie Thomas, our most recently completed CCS PhD student!

Lizzie Thomas, PhD
Twitter: @lizzie_thomasAU

Congratulations to Lizzie Thomas, who has been awarded her Translational Research PhD! Lizzie's thesis topic is "Cognition across the schizotypy-schizophrenia continuum and the role of the glutamatergic system". Lizzie was investigating the influence of genes in the glutamatergic pathway on cognitive deficits in schizophrenia. Her supervisors were Dr Caroline Gurvich (Monash Alfred Psychiatry research centre), Professor Susan Rossell (Swinburne University) and Dr Kiymet Bozaoglu (Murdoch Children's Research Institute).

Congratulations to all our 2019 PhD graduates!

So far this year we've had 19 PhD completions, a great effort by our students and their mentors. See below for our 2019 awardees.  For all completions, see CCS web page: www.monash.edu/medicine/ccs/education/hdr-completions.

L-R: Jay Hocking, Eileen Merriman, Maria Selvadurai

Australian Centre for Blood Diseases

• Mr Jay Hocking, Investigating MEK inhibition in the treatment of multiple myeloma
• Dr Eileen Merriman, Isolated distal vein Deep Vein Thrombosis: Diagnosis and management strategies
• Ms Maria Selvadurai, Examining PI3KC2alpha as an anti-thrombotic drug target