Monash tests show promising results for synthetic skin

L-R: Dr Marisa Herson, Dr Shiva Akbarzadeh, Ms Michelle Paul,
Ms Heather Cleland, Director Victorian Adult Burns Service (VABS);
Ms Lipi Shukla. Absent: Dr Perdita Cheshire

by Anne Crawford

Dermal substitution (artificial skin) plays an important role in wound reconstruction after deep burns and injuries, providing a temporary seal to guard against infection and acting as a scaffold for tissue repair. Monash University researchers compared a fully synthetic alternative manufactured in Melbourne to an existing animal-derived product.

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 by AMREP EMCR researchers

Brew BJ, Robertson K, Wright EJ, Churchill M, Crowe S, Cysique L, Deeks S, Garcia-Martinez V, Gelman B, Gray LR, Johnson T, Joseph J, Margolis D, Mankowski J, Rausch D, Spencer B. HIV Eradication Symposium: Will the Brain be Left Behind? Journal of Neurovirology. 2015. Online published online 7 March 2015. Link

Cashin K, Gray LR, Harvey KL, Perez-Bercoff D, Lee GQ, Sterjovski J, Roche M, Demarest JF, Drummond F, Harrigan PR, Churchill MJ, Gorry PR. Reliable genotypic tropism tests for the major HIV-1 subtypes. Scientific Reports. 2015. 25; 5: 8543. Link

Best wishes to PhD graduate Perdita Cheshire on receiving her degree

Congratulations to Dr Perdita Cheshire for receiving her degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Perdita's thesis, "Is dysfunction of the serotonin system responsible for L-DOPA induced dyskinesias in Parkinson's disease?", was accepted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree by the Graduate Research Steering Committee on Tuesday 4 March 2014. Perdita was supervised by Professor Elsdon Storey and A/Professor David Williams who both work in the Van Cleef Roet Centre for Nervous Diseases.

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