27 Nov 2020

Emerging Leader Award 2020 to A/Prof David Wright

Associate Professor David Wright wins VBIC award
Congratulations to Associate Professor David Wright, who has won the Victorian Biomedical Imaging Capability (VBIC) Emerging Leader Award for 2020. 

A/Prof Wright's award was made by VBIC Chair, Professor Gary Egan and Victoria's Lead Scientist, Dr Amanda Caples. 

See more about the Alfred Research Alliance Monash Biomedical Imaging facilities of which David is the director, at www.monash.edu/medicine/ccs/neuroscience/facilities/imaging


23 Nov 2020

Sustained COVID-19 immunity promising for vaccine effectiveness

The 20 Nov 2020 medRxiv preprint publication co-authors in Associate Professor Menno van Zelm's Immunology/Allergy research team include: L-R: Mrs Simone Reinwald, Ms Gemma Hartley (first author), Dr Craig McKenzie, Professor Robyn O'Hehir AO (author), Associate Professor Menno van Zelm (senior author), Ms Pei Mun Aui (author), Dr Emily Edwards (author), Mrs Neeru Varese (author).

Monash researchers have revealed – for the first time – that people who have been infected with the COVID-19 virus have sustained protection against reinfection for at least eight months.

The research is the strongest evidence for the likelihood that vaccines against the virus, SARS-CoV-2, will work for long periods.

Genomics, digital health and AI to prevent and treat superbugs 

Culture and sensitivity testing of S. aureus
Image: Wikimedia

A Monash University project will harness the power of technology to help diagnose, treat and prevent one of the most pressing worldwide health issues - antimicrobial resistance.

A team of researchers from the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences (MNHS) Department of Infectious Diseases, the Faculty of Information Technology (IT) and The Alfred’s Department of Infectious Diseases have been awarded $3.4M from the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) for the SuperbugAi Flagship project.

Novel technique for improving 3D CT preclinical imaging

CT images of ex vivo mice lungs. A&B. Axial images of a standard CT compared to a high-resolution micro-CT quality image. C. Maximum Intensity Projection (MIP) of the iodine-based contrast inflated lung for bronchial tree visualisation. Image: Karen Alt

Three-dimensional imaging of the mouse lung plays an important role in preclinical research to better understand injury extent and recovery especially of respiratory viruses such as SARS-COV-1 and -2.

17-23 Nov 2020 Central Clinical School publications

Age, sex, menopause and brain structure study.
Human brain mapped with diffusion tensor imaging: The Atlantic
Recent publications featuring research as notified by PubMed during 17-23 November 2020 from Central Clinical School affiliated researchers in the following departments. The below is not a comprehensive list:

  • Allergy, Immunology and Respiratory Medicine
  • Australian Centre for Blood Diseases
  • Diabetes
  • Gastroenterology
  • Medicine - Alfred & Peninsula
  • Melbourne Sexual Health Centre
  • Neuroscience
  • Surgery

Research update: Pregnancy as a Multiple Sclerosis disease modifier

See Dr Vilija Jokubaitis's research seminar highlights video
Dr Vilija Jokubaitis is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Neuroscience, Central Clinical School at Monash University. She is a clinical and translational neuroscientist with a particular interest in pregnancy and Multiple Sclerosis (MS). She published research in September on MS and pregnancy, then gave a seminar, in which she explored how pregnancy affects the progression of MS.The Zoom recording of the seminar has been edited and posted to the CCSMonash Youtube channel.

Congratulations to Janet Towns on her PhD completion!

Dr Janet Towns, PhD
Congratulations to Dr Janet Towns on the conferral of her Doctor of Philosophy degree, 11 November 2020! 

Janet's thesis title is, "Modern Ethical Syphilology: Elucidating Treponema pallidum transmission; and novel strategies for improving early detection of syphilis and other sexually transmitted infections". She was supervised by Professor Kit Fairley, A/Prof Eric Chow, A/Prof Lei Zhang, Professor Marcus Chen (Melbourne Sexual Health Centre) and Professor Stephen Graves (University of Newcastle).