Video(s) of the week: 2019 Translational Research symposium

Prof Alan Mackay-Sim (47:58 min)	A/Prof C. Hagemeyer (20:40 min)	Prof Gail Risbridger (34:28 min)	Dr Joshua Ooi (22:36 min)
Dr Kirsten Palmer (20:27 min)	Dr Kelly Wyres (20:23 min)	A/Prof Suzanne Miller (20:31 min)

The Central Clinical School hosted Monash University's 5th translational research (TR) symposium this year. If you didn't make it, you can now see our speakers in action. See more about the 2019 symposium at

• www.monash.edu/medicine/ccs/events/2019-TR-symposium
• See links for programs, photo galleries, videos for previous TR symposia: www.monash.edu/medicine/ccs/translational/annual-symposium

What has depression got to do with diabetes?

The MDD pathway is complex and multi-

factorial. Image: Tom Karagiannis

by Anne Crawford

Investigating the causes of depression might seem an unusual area for CCS's Department of Diabetes epigenomic medicine group, but that’s exactly what scientists there are doing – and in an ambitious way.

Researchers led by Dr Tom Karagiannis have conducted an interdisciplinary review of the breadth of biological pathways that can lead to Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). MDD is the most severe form of depression; patients experience chronic sadness and hopelessness, find it hard to go about their normal life and can think suicidal thoughts. One in five people is estimated to experience it at least once in their lifetime. Women are twice as likely to have MDD although the suicide rate is higher in men. 

Stay current with our school's cutting-edge research!

Keep up-to-date with our school's cutting-edge medical research!

We have created RSS feeds of our most recent validated publications on our school's publications web pages. 'Validated' means they are actually counted as Monash University's, so not every publication on which our researchers are authors will show in these feeds. See web page links below:

Congratulations to Prof Mark Cooper on Diabetes grant!

Professor Mark Cooper giving CCS's
2017 public lecture. See video

Congratulations to Professor Mark Cooper, Head of Central Clinical School's Department of Diabetes, on his successful grant award from Diabetes Australia Research Program (DARP)! The grant of $60,000 is for one year, to investigate the mechanisms underlying the action of lowering glucose in type 2 diabetes (T2D) in a particular class of drugs known as Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists.

These type of drugs improve cardiovascular (heart) and renal (kidney) outcomes, but it's not clear how or why given that there are no GLP-1 receptors in these organs. Prof Cooper is planning to test his hypothesis that specific hormone activity within cells is causing the protective effects.

Monash Micro Imaging Image Competition: closing date 10 Dec 2019

Monash Micro Imaging (MMI) has just opened its annual Image Competition for the 2019 round. Entries are invited from all optical imaging instruments and modalities (brightfield, fluorescence, confocal or other), and may be an original, processed or rendered image, or a movie/animation. There are as usual cash prizes for top 3 selected entries, and the top 13 images will appear in the 2020 MMI Calendar.

Details

• Closing date: Tuesday 10 December 2019
• Rules: See attached pdf, or download (Google drive link).
• Submissions: via this Google form (or follow the link in the flyer).

Participants sought: Healthy female participants wanted for pressure headache study

Pressure headaches more frequently trouble
overweight women. Image: ©Thinkstock

We are looking for healthy women to participate in a study investigating pressure around the brain. It's known as "Idiopathic [unknown reason] Intracranial [inside the skull] Hypertension [pressure]", and it mainly affects overweight women of child-bearing age. We would like to find out whether or not memory and thinking processes are affected in this condition.

We're looking for healthy body mass index (BMI) matched control participants to undergo cognitive testing.