Trailblazing women immunologists of Australia and New Zealand

L–R: Professor Katharina Gaus, Professor Barbara Heslop, Professor Margaret Baird, Miss Dora Lush,

Dr Margaret Holmes and Miss F Eleanor Williams MBE ARRC. The authors were unable to obtain
photos of Dr Lucy M Bryce CBE and Dr Hildred Butler. Image: Immunol Cell Biol.

Dr Jess Borger,  Catriona Nguyen-Robertson and Dr James Harris, have published an essay on trailblazing women immunologists of Australia and New Zealand.

See their lively, informative essay in the journal Immunology and Cell Biology, where they have pulled together previously scattered or difficult to locate information to showcase the achievements of these outstanding female immunologists.

Borger JG, Nguyen-Robertson CV, Harris J. Trailblazing women immunologists of Australia and New Zealand. Immunol Cell Biol. 2021 Apr;99(4):338-343. doi: 10.1111/imcb.12454. PMID: 33860547.

Researchers find a way to mend broken hearts

Prof Sam El-Osta's group has published research on how to
reverse damage caused in broken-heart syndrome. See study

A Monash University study has uncovered for the first time a way to prevent and reverse damage caused by broken-heart syndrome, also known as Takotsubo cardiomyopathy.

Using mouse models, the pre-clinical study published in the acclaimed journal Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy, has shown the cardioprotective benefit of a drug called Suberanilohydroxamic acid, or SAHA, dramatically improved cardiac health and reversed the broken-heart. The landmark study used SAHA to target genes and is a world first for Takotsubo cardiomyopathy.

Does adding an emergency medicine pharmacist improve acute stroke care?

Acute stroke callout team care is more rapid when an emergency pharmacist ia included: study.
Image: NTRI

Does adding an emergency medicine pharmacist improve acute stroke care? The answer is Yes, by an average of 12 minutes. A well known saying in the field of neurology is ‘time is brain’ and for this particular study it couldn’t be more true, as every minute a stroke sufferer isn't treated, more damage takes place.

Researchers from the Pharmacy Department (Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences), the Department of Neuroscience (Central Clinical School) and Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine (School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine) have found that by adding an emergency pharmacist to the acute stroke call-out team provided an improvement in the average time to administer treatment (thrombolysis with alteplase, or recombinant tissue plasminogen activator rtPA) to a patient by 12 minutes.

Multiple Sclerosis and immunisation

Vaccination for people with MS needs to be planned: MJA.
Image: Shutterstock

The immunisation status of patients newly diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) must not be overlooked when beginning treatment with immunomodulatory or immunosuppressive disease-modifying therapies (DMTs), according to the authors of a Perspective published 19 April by the Medical Journal of Australia.

“Determining immunisation status when commencing DMTs is key, as is an individualised approach to risk–benefit assessment when considering vaccinations,” wrote the authors, led by Dr Cassie Nesbitt, a neurologist at Alfred Health in Melbourne.

Central Clinical School recent publications 13-19 April 2021

The Monash Trauma group have published a paper on concussion in
amateur AFL players. Men get hurt worse than women; and both sexes
show disruption to their brains' white matter 2 weeks later. See study.

Recent publications featuring research as notified by PubMed during 13-19 April 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.

• Anaesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine
• Gastroenterology
• Immunology and Pathology
• Infectious Diseases
• Medicine (including Alfred and Peninsula)
• Melbourne Sexual Health Centre
• Psychiatry
• Neuroscience
• Psychiatry
  
• Surgery (including National Trauma Research Institute)

Central Clinical School recent publications: 6-12 April 2021

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is used only for
extremely compromised patients. The Alfred trauma registry has
recorded 11 patients over 10 years. Study

Recent publications featuring research as notified by PubMed during 6-12 April 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.

• Anaesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine
• Gastroenterology
• Immunology and Pathology
• Infectious Diseases
• Medicine (including Alfred and Peninsula)
• Melbourne Sexual Health Centre
• Psychiatry
• Neuroscience
• Psychiatry
  
• Surgery (including National Trauma Research Institute)