BGRF honours humble giant of neuroscience, Professor Elsdon Storey AM

L-R: Dr Anna Collins and Professor Elsdon Storey AM received
awards from the Bethlehem Griffiths Research Foundation.
Photo: Elizabeth Clancy

The 2022 Bethlehem Griffiths Research Foundation medal has been awarded to Professor Elsdon Storey AM, a giant of neuroscience and an international research visionary and clinician, at a ceremony last week.  The many dignitaries and colleagues present had one thing in common, a deep respect for a humble but deeply gifted man who led with integrity, compassion and intellectual rigour.

Research highlight: Professor Elsdon Storey's neuroscience projects

Ms Volga Tarlac & Prof Elsdon Storey

Professor Elsdon Storey’s research involvement spans a broad spectrum of neuroscience, from the laboratory to large clinical trials.  His laboratory work, conducted with the assistance of Ms Volga Tarlac, covers neurotransmitter and receptor analysis in mice bred to develop ataxia (incoordination), in a search for rational symptomatic treatments for patients with ataxias.

Slowing down age-related hearing loss

By Dr Jodie Abramovitch

Loss of hearing associated with age is a leading cause of disability amongst older people. Low level inflammation may damage blood vessels within the ear, leading to hearing loss. Furthermore, hearing loss may be associated with blood vessel damage within the eye, as well as loss of cognitive function. This suggests that there may be a common underlying inflammatory cause for each of these age-related conditions.

Can aspirin reduce age-related
hearing loss? 

Aspirin is a commonly used anti-inflammatory medication. It has a known role in helping treat blood vessel diseases and can inhibit the formation of blood clots.

Monash researchers from the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine (SPHPM) are involved in a new study called ASPREE-HEARING. This study will assess the effect of aspirin on hearing levels in patients aged 70 years and older who are involved in the ASPirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly (ASPREE) clinical trial.

Serotonergic markers in Parkinson's disease and levodopa-induced dyskinesias

Video of Prof Elsdon Storey describing his centre's research
including Parkinson's Disorder

Effective treatment for Parkinson's Disorder (PD) patients remains elusive. While Levadopa (l-dopa) is the most widely used antiparkinsonian medication, it also can induce dyskinesias, or movement disorders. This is the largest ever study to examine pathological changes in a post-mortem PD cohort specifically separated according their dyskinetic phenotype, thereby allowing a direct correlation of biochemical markers with l-dopa–induced dyskinesias (LID) incidence and severity. 

Reference: Cheshire P, Ayton S, Bertram KL, Ling H, Li A, McLean C, Halliday GM, O'Sullivan SS, Revesz T, Finkelstein DL, Storey E, Williams DR. Serotonergic markers in Parkinson's disease and levodopa-induced dyskinesias. Mov Disord. 2015 May;30(6):796-804. doi: 10.1002/mds.26144

Recent publications: Medicine, surgery, anaesthesia, cancer, neuroscience

Dworkin S, Simkin J, Darido C, Partridge DD, Georgy SR, Caddy J, Wilanowski T, Lieschke GJ, Doggett K, Heath JK, Jane SM. Grainyhead-like 3 regulation of endothelin-1 in the pharyngeal endoderm is critical for growth and development of the craniofacial skeleton. Mech Dev. 2014 Jun 7. pii: S0925-4773(14)00029-X. doi: 10.1016/j.mod.2014.05.005. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 24915580.

Lewis PM, Smielewski P, Rosenfeld JV, Pickard JD, Czosnyka M. A Continuous Correlation Between Intracranial Pressure and Cerebral Blood Flow Velocity Reflects Cerebral Autoregulation Impairment During Intracranial Pressure Plateau Waves. Neurocrit Care. 2014 May 28. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 24865272 full text.

Myles PS. Antifibrinolytics, aspirin and cardiac surgery: evidence, guidelines and implications for current research. Anaesth Intensive Care. 2014 May;42(3):293-7. PubMed PMID: 24847551

Myles PS. Untangling the triple low: causal inference in anesthesia research. Anesthesiology. 2014 Jul;121(1):1-3. doi: 10.1097/ALN.0000000000000282. PubMed PMID: 24936917

Oehme D, Goldschlager T, Ghosh P, Jenkin G, Rosenfeld JV. Concern over the use of recombinant bone morphogenetic protein in spinal fusion surgery: are stem cells an alternative? ANZ J Surg. 2014 May;84(5):302-3. PubMed PMID: 24877230

Szmulewicz DJ, McLean CA, Rodriguez ML, Chancellor AM, Mossman S, Lamont D, Roberts L, Storey E, Halmagyi GM. Dorsal root ganglionopathy is responsible for the sensory impairment in CANVAS. Neurology. 2014 Apr 22;82(16):1410-5. doi: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000000352. Epub 2014 Mar 28. PubMed PMID: 24682971

Tremblay CS, Curtis DJ. The clonal evolution of leukemic stem cells in T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Curr Opin Hematol. 2014 Jul;21(4):320-5. doi: 10.1097/MOH.0000000000000058. PubMed PMID: 24857886

Perdita Cheshire: her PhD research is puzzling out Parkinson's Disease

Perdita is a Research Assistant in the Burns Unit at the Alfred Hospital, and she has just completed her PhD in the Van Cleef Roet Centre for Nervous Diseases on Parkinson's Disease and how patients react with some of the treatments for the disease. Her supervisors were Associate Professor David Williams and Professor Elsdon Storey. To read more about Perdita go to: http://www.med.monash.edu.au/cecs/education/profiles/cheshire.html

Video: Elsdon Storey on neurodegenerative diseases research

Professor Elsdon Storey is Director of the Van Cleef/Roet Centre for Nervous Diseases, in the Department of Medicine at Central Clinical School, and Head of Neurology at the Alfred Hospital, at the Alfred Medical Research and Education Precinct. The Centre's research focuses on neurodegenerative disorders affecting coordination, movement, balance and cognitive function particularly using animal models. Diseases such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's 5:43, and ataxias are investigated. Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aA6Srh_DSz8

Investigating Alzheimer's disease

PhD student Judy Allen-Graham completed her thesis in 2012, titled ‘Inhibition of APP and APLP2 using siRNA to investigate protein function and Alzheimer's disease’, on functional redundancy between the Alzheimer’s protein APP and its homologue APLP2. APP, the amyloid precursor protein of Alzheimer’s disease, and its homologue APLP2 are found in a segmental distribution on the surface of neurites in cortical neurons in primary culture.