(Formerly known as Central Clinical School)
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| Professor Anne Holland |
All welcome, register here.
Details
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| Dr Rhys Brady is first author on the paper |
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| Liquid biopsies for diagnosis and management of plasma cell disorders such as Multiple Myeloma are promising. See study. Image of MM patient provided by Prof Andrew Spencer.
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RNA therapeutics are a disruptive technology with the potential to actualize personalized medicine. Most RNA does not encode sequences for protein synthesis (mRNA; e.g. for vaccines). These other functions can be harnessed to selectively modulate protein expression by silencing, binding as aptamers and altering mRNA splicing. As an example, we are developing an oligonucleotide that modulates the alternate splicing of the Receptor for Advanced Glycation End-products (RAGE), a key therapeutic target in Alzheimer’s disease.
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| L-R: Dr Anna Kalff and Daniel So, recent PhD graduates |
Anna Kalff's thesis is titled, "Multiple myeloma strategies to predict outcomes in the era of novel anti-myeloma therapies". She was supervised by Professor Andrew Spencer and Dr Tiffany Khong in the Australian Centre for Blood Diseases.
Daniel So's thesis is titled, "Translating functional characteristics of dietary fibre to clinical value in patients with irritable bowel syndrome". He was supervised by Associate Professor Jane Muir, Dr CK Yao and Professor Peter Gibson in the Department of Gastroenterology.
See more below about their work.
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| Blood donors wanted for Australian Centre for Blood Diseases research. Contact Nikki.Kara@monash.edu |
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| Dr Shobi Sivathamboo |
Her presentation entry was titled 'Short-term heart rate variability (HRV) predicts SUDEP' which she presented with her team members and collaborators Professor Terence O'Brien, Head of CCS, Leader of Epilepsy and Neuropharmacology Research Group, Department of Neuroscience (Monash University), and Professors Orrin Devinsky and Daniel Friedman from New York University Langone Health (see screenshot).
The team found that short-term heart-rate variability, which is a non-invasive and readily obtained marker of autonomic function, predicted SUDEP. Heart rate variability is a validated biomarker for sudden cardiac death in cardiovascular disease populations. Shobi commented that 'our team's entry went really well but we don't know how much we will receive just yet.'
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| Zoom screenshot of finalists competing in the 2021 SUDEP Challenge. |
All finalists will now await to hear which of them were successful and how much of the US$1M prize money they will be awarded. The Epilepsy Foundation SUDEP Institute challenge aims to predict sudden death in epilepsy or seizures that compromise cardiac or respiratory function in people with epilepsy. These predictors will drive human SUDEP interventions. Since the severity and frequency of seizures is currently the leading risk factor for SUDEP, a biomarker that can predict seizures, especially convulsive seizures that compromise cardiac or respiratory function, will be included in the challenge.
Dr Sivathamboo was also successful in one of the challenge's earlier milestones in which her team received US$10,000.
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Richelle Mychasiuk has been recognised for her outstanding research with promotion to Professor |
It is with great pleasure that we can inform you that Richelle Mychasiuk has been promoted to Full Professor (Level E) in the Department of Neuroscience, Central Clinical School, Monash University.
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Dr Michelle Ananda-Rajah has been nominated for a Research Australia award |
Dr Michelle Ananda-Rajah from Central Clinical School has been nominated by Prof Geoff Webb, Monash University & A/Prof Sharon Chenn, ICPMR, Westmead Hospital for her work on invasive fungal infections (IFIs), which are rare, neglected diseases that target people with low immunity such as cancer patients and people undergoing organ transplants.
Dr Ananda-Rajah and her team are using artificial intelligence software that uses existing radiology images and notes from the hospital to detect and manage IFIs. see below for detail about the project.
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| Dr Nicole Garcia, now a plastic surgery registrar at PeterMac |
Little is known about the mechanism by which skin grafting accelerates wound healing. Dr Garcia writes, "We investigated this using an autologous full-thickness and a synthetic graft in a novel mouse model.
Jacques is a PhD student in Central Clinical School's Department of Diabetes, and is supervised by Dr Carlos Rosado and Professor Merlin Thomas. Jacques was also runner up in this year's CCS 3MT heat.
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| Register for the 10 August book launch for The Chloroformist |
Christine Ball is an anaesthetist at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, co-manages a Master of Medicine (Perioperative) at Monash University, and is the 2020–2024 Wood Library-Museum Laureate of the History of Anesthesiology. She has been an honorary curator at the Geoffrey Kaye Museum of Anaesthetic History for thirty years and is the author of many works in this field.
See more and register: www.anzca.edu.au/events-courses/events/non-clinical-events/book-launch-the-chloroformist
It’s been a gruelling year of virtual events and zoom meetings, but we’re hopeful that the 2021 Symposium will be an event where our graduate research students can present their PhD or Masters work to peers in person. Submit your abstract by 30 July.
Fresh Science 2021 is open for nominations from early career researchers. Nominate by 29 July here.
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When you search 'Meaghan Clough' on Google, which is the main search engine people use (hands up who uses Bing? Anyone?), her Monash profile is the top entry, thanks to Monash University's powerful Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). Your Monash Pure profile is the single most important tool you have for being found easily, followed only by Google Scholar, as Google of course optimises its own platforms. Any questions about Monash SEO, please contact Julia Veitch, julia.veitch@monash.edu |
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| Note from Julia - heatmaps of web pages show that people's faces are a visual magnet on a page - adding your photo helps people to engage with the content. Facebook unsurprisingly works on this principle.... |
Step 3: Make your profile public
Your profile is private if you’ve just created it. You can change your profile visibility by clicking the pencil icon next to your name and checking “Make my profile public” in the window that appears. If, at any time, you want to revert your profile to private again, you can do so by clicking the pencil icon next to your name.
Bonus: Add co-authors
While your profile is technically complete, you’ll want to take advantage of Google Scholar’s built-in co-authorship network. Adding co-authors is a good way to let others know you’re now on Google Scholar, and will be useful if you want to set up automatic alerts that can help you stay on top of new research in your field.
To add a suggested co-author, find the “Co-authors” section on the right-hand section of your profile just underneath the “Cited bar” bar graph. Click “EDIT” to the right of “Co-authors.” In the window that appears, you can search for your co-authors. If they have a Google scholar profile, you can select the plus sign next to their name to add them to your co-author list. After you’ve selected the plus sign, you will need to then click on the blue check mark at the top of the window.
Hope you find this helpful. Feel free to reach out with any questions or comments
Cheers,
Meaghan & Miles
(CCS-EMCR representatives)
meaghan.clough@monash.edu
miles.andrews@monash.edu
As Australia grapples with another COVID crisis, we’re once again placed on high alert. What started as a breach from hotel quarantine in NSW has now spread to five other jurisdictions, with most places increasing their level of restrictions in response.
Some, like South Australia, have only reduced household visitor caps and outdoor gathering limits. Others, like Queensland, have introduced stay-at-home orders to ensure the outbreak gets under control.
How do we measure if people are following the orders, and, perhaps more importantly, whether they’re having any effect? See Monash Lens full story
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| Professor Paul Fitzgerald is on five publications this week, on different aspects of brain stimulation and its therapeutic or diagnostic use e.g. the paper on biomarkers for schizophrenia. |
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| Natasha Davidson |
Natasha is looking for fluent Farsi, Tamil, Burmese or Karen speakers to provide 15-20 hours of interview interpretation for her project exploring the sexual and reproductive health service access by women from refugee backgrounds. Given the sensitive nature of the project, female interpreters would be strongly preferred. Please contact natasha.davidson@monash.edu if you have the skills and interest. All contact details below.
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| The CCS GEDI committee has created visual resources for NAIDOC's "Heal Country!" theme. See more images under 'Initiatives' at their web page |
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| In meeting the vast, complex challenge of combating a rapidly spreading and mutating virus across the globe, regulatory authorities followed at least 51 different ways of bringing vaccine to market: Allergy editorial |
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| Professor Sam El-Osta is part of a Danish- Australian collaboration investigating diabetic complications. See full story |
“Our goal is to understand the burden, natural history and propensity of the Danish population, with or at risk of diabetes, to develop complications,” they say. “We want to outline the clinical, metabolic and epigenetic correlates of diseases in order ultimately to predict, treat and prevent diabetic kidney disease.” An important associated goal of the group is to find those patients with diabetic kidney disease who need more aggressive treatment.
