Launch of ACBD’s Community Engagement Program

PhD Student, Ms Charlene Lam and consumer partner Ken Young. 
See his story, "Sequencing MPNs could change my life" 

On behalf of the Community and Researcher Engagement (CARE) Committee at the Australian Centre for Blood Diseases (ACBD), we are proud to announce the launch of our Community Engagement program. 

This program aims to connect dedicated researchers at the ACBD with community members (often called consumers) who have experienced a blood disorder or cancer. Consumers will be partnered with researchers or a research group, bringing their valuable lived experiences to the team and contributing to our shared goal of turning new discoveries into better patient outcomes. 

Starving cancer cells to death

Stem cell biology research group with various co-authors on the study
L-R: Ms Jacqueline Boyle, Professor David Curtis, Ms Shokoufeh
Abdollahi, Mr Feng Yan, Dr Cedric Tremblay, Mr Andrej Terzic,
Ms Jesslyn Saw, Dr Christina Makhlouf. See explainer video 1:15 min

One of the major issues with patients fighting leukemia or cancer in general is relapse, although chemotherapy helps to get rid of most cancer cells. But these cells come back.

Dr Cedric Tremblay in the Australian Centre for Blood Diseases at Monash University is first author on a recently published Nature Communications study on a novel approach to weakening, then killing, cancer cells. 

MS team improved patient care under pandemic conditions

Multiple Sclerosis Neuroimmunology Clinic members. L-R: Robb Wesselingh,
Kelly Glekas, Anneke van der Walt, Mastura Monif, Helmut Butzkueven,
Louise Rath, Olga Skibina, Janene Richards, Cassie Nesbitt

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system that attacks the myelin sheath covering nerves. It can be detected on MRI scans as lesions present in the brain and spinal cord. It is a disease that is chronic, so treatment is required on an ongoing basis to prevent relapses or flares. 

During 2020's COVID-19 lockdowns this proved to be a challenge, but one which the Monash-Alfred Health Multiple Sclerosis Neuroimmunology (MSNI) Clinic team met.

9-15 March 2021 Central Clinical School recent publications

2020 Bachelor of Medical Science (Honours) student Jessica Garzarella

with her Monash supervisor, Professor Karin Jandeleit-Dahm,
are co-authors of a review discussing  how oxidative stress and
inflammation cause and perpetuate the renal and cardiovascular
complications of diabetes.

Recent publications featuring research as notified by PubMed during 1-11 Jan and 9-15 March 2021 from Central Clinical School affiliated researchers in the following departments. The below is not a comprehensive list. Most recent validated publications for the school and departments can be seen on their publications pages, linked to from the headings below. Otherwise, read down the entry for recent notifications.

• Anaesthesia and Perioperative Medicine
• Gastroenterology
• Immunology and Pathology
• Infectious Diseases
• Medicine (including AIRmed)
• Melbourne Sexual Health Centre
• Monash Alfred Psychiatry research centre
• Neuroscience
• Peninsula Clinical School
• Psychiatry
  
• Surgery (including National Trauma Research Institute)

New Department of Psychiatry - Central web site up and running

Dept site: www.monash.edu/medicine/ccs/psychiatry/home

The Department of Psychiatry within the Central Clinical School now has a brand new website.

With over 100 staff and students, the department's research programs cover all major sub-specialty fields of psychiatry across the lifespan with a focus on developing and implementing new and innovative treatments.

Neuroscience student Pia Campagna on RRR's a-gogo Sunday 21 March!

Pia Campagna, PhD student, describes her TRM experience
in the Bioinformatics pathway. See video

Neuroscience PhD student Pia has been selected to be one of 20 PhD students to present their work on Einstein a-gogo on TripleR 102.7FM with Dr Shane Huntington this Sunday between 11am-1pm. All invited to listen in! See Pia talk about her TRM bioinformatics subject in a recent video. You can also follow her on Twitter, @PiaCampagna.

Aftershock: Wendy Brown, surgeon, talks about her work and her patients

Professor Wendy Brown in theatre

The Aftershock team write, "We're joined by Professor Wendy Brown, Director of Surgery at The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne. We go behind the masks and gloves, and get into Wendy's operating theatre regime, and the connection she makes with her patients."

Wendy Brown says, displaying characteristic empathy, "You've got to be always vigilant and always think, this is the most important operation I'm ever going to do, because, for this person, it is the most important operation you're going to do."

Listen to the Aftershock Wendy Brown podcast.

Congratulations to our five recently completed graduate research students!

L-R: Britt Christensen, Iain Abbott, Muthukumar Mohan and Rowan Miller

Congratulations to Mr Muthukumar Mohan, Dr Rowan Miller, Dr Britt Christensen and Dr Iain  Abbott on the recent conferral of their PhD degrees, and to Ms Harmeet Bhullar on her Master of Surgery completion! Muthu and Rowan were awarded their degrees on 24 February, Harmeet received hers on 9 March and Britt and Iain received theirs on 10 March.

Robyn O'Hehir medal for 2020's top Honours student

L-R: Prof David Tarlinton, Head of Department, Prof Robyn O'Hehir AO,
Mr Rory Doolan, prize winner, and Prof Nicola Harris.

Rory Doolan, who undertook Honours in Nicola Harris's lab within the Department of Immunology and Pathology was recently awarded the Robyn O'Hehir Honours Dux medal for being the top Honours student in 2020 at CCS out of a cohort of 42 students. 

Rory’s thesis was ‘Investigating the response of airway epithelial cells to damage - Use of the Helminth model of Nippostrongylus brasiliensis.’  Rory was supervised by Professor Nicola Harris, Dr Tiffany Smith and Dr Gillian Coakley.