4th Annual NHMRC Research Translation Symposium – 27-28 Oct 2015

4th Annual NHMRC Research Translation Symposium – next week. Online registrations closed Wednesday 21 October;  registrations can be completed on-site at the symposium. The final programme and available abstracts are now online, along with registration details and plenary speaker profiles. The symposium will be held in Sydney on 27-28 October. Further information at www.nhmrc2015.com/.

"What's the fuss" Medical Research Future Fund support campaign

Natasha Stott Despoja is one of the many
spokespeople for the #WTFuss campaign

The Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes (AAMRI) has launched its  'What's the Fuss?' campaign in support of the Federal Government's Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF).

Two Hudson Institute researchers, Professor Alan Trounson and Dr Morag Young, feature in a YouTube video, which you can watch below.

'What's the Fuss?' is a community-led TV and online campaign featuring patients, researchers, and high-profile advocates of medical research. It communicates to the broader community the critical role medical research plays in the health of all Australians, and how the MRFF will further enhance these benefits.

The campaign includes a 30 second TV commercial, online videos, and a website (www.whatsthefuss.org.au) where people can share their own stories of disease/medical research.

30 second advertisment: https://youtu.be/dpFNPPeLk84

Researchers video: https://youtu.be/isN5A-WWTeg

Patients video: https://youtu.be/kX-Xzx0AU3k

Various medical conditions video: https://youtu.be/ue5bRGwq6CE

Hashtag: #WTFuss

Forthcoming CCS events: Seminars, public events, general notices

Sree Malakar (Gastroenterology)
presenting at the 2014 postgraduate
symposium.

Central Clinical School has regular seminar series and postgraduate presentations. All event notices are maintained on the CCS Events calendar.
CCS staff & students can see details of both public and local events (including professional development courses, trade fairs and Graduate Research Student calendars) and deadlines, at the Intranet's Announcements page.

Various departments have their own calendars. See CCS seminar index: www.med.monash.edu.au/cecs/events/seminars.html

What's on for this coming week: 19 - 23 Oct 2015

Mon	►	10/19/2015	12:30	Psychiatry Professorial Grand Round
Tue	►	10/20/2015	13:00	Master of Surgery - Confirmation of Candidature Mr Sean Huang

In the Future

• 18 Nov Postgraduate symposium

Picture of the Week: Monash's amazing trajectory

2015-2016 Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings

By Kim Langfield-Smith

The 2015-2016 Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings were released 1 October 2015. Monash University is now ranked at 73, which is a 10 place improvement on the 2014 ranking.  We remain 5th nationally.

The graph above shows Monash's steady rise, from being ranked 178 in 2010 to 73 in 2015.

Monash has improved across all indicators. Our areas of highest improvement in 2015 are International Outlook (due to a great percentage of international co-authorships), followed closely by Citations and then Industry Income. 

While there have been some methodology changes in this year’s rankings, and for the first time Scopus has been used to source bibliometric data (rather than Thomson Reuter’s Web of Science), the outstanding results point to significant improvements flowing in particular from our improved research performance.

THE also has subject rankings and these will be released gradually over a month from 14 October.

20 Oct Australian & New Zealand Burn Association Scientific Forum

The Australian and New Zealand Burn Association (ANZBA) are holding their 39th annual scientific meeting 20-23 October 2015.

This year the focus of the one day scientific forum (held on 20 October) will be on cellular therapies and skin substitutes in the treatment of burns. The morning session will provide an overview of cell therapies (including those that could impact on burn care) and the 'bench to bedside' journey hurdles. Presenters will be experts in cell culture and tissue engineering.

The afternoon session  will start with a presentation from a representative from the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration, to be followed by a series of clinical investigators describing their own experience in translational laboratory work, and in establishing and running clinical trials in burn related cell derived therapies and dermal substitutes. Ms Heather Cleland and Dr Shiva Akbarzadeh, Department of Surgery, will be amongst the presenters.

The scientific forum is designed to:

• showcase the range of experimental work being performed by ANZBA and other clinicians in the area of burn care
• gain an overview of different strategies being pursued and possible collaborations
• improve understanding of potential hurdles and pitfalls in developing and applying new technologies for clinical treatment

It is hoped that the opportunities for discussion and sharing of experience and knowledge will promote and enhance research in this vital area.

Conference registrants as well as day registrants are welcome to attend and contribute to the forum.

For more information and how to book visit www.anzbaasm.com

'Mental As': the week that was, & what's to come

The media profile for mental health and illness for the 2015 awareness week has been high and the Mental Health Foundation of Australia lists over 100 events in Victoria alone for October. Yet structural reform through government funding and policy is not sufficient to power the twin engines of mental health treatment and care - that is, research into the causes of conditions, and provision of primary health care services. The result is inadequate and fragmented mental health care services for the 1 in 5 adults who will suffer from a mental disorder in any given year.

Photo of the Week: Women’s Mental Health Team (MAPrc)

March 2015 The Women's Mental Health team. L-R: Ms Lucinda Miller, Ms Vivian Monitto, Mr Gayan de Mel, Ms Marija Ugrcic, Dr Shainal Nathoo, Professor Jayashri Kulkarni, Ms Caitlin Bleeker, Ms Heather Gilbert, Dr Jasmin Grigg, Dr Roisin Worsley, Ms Emmy Gavrilidis.

Mental illness has many gender-specific characteristics that clinical practice has historically overlooked. The Women’s Mental Health Team at MAPrc is evaluating several promising new treatment approaches with specific focus on the hormonal (endocrine) system, for mental illnesses in women.

Their world first study looking at how oestrogen can help treat schizophrenia in previously treatment-resistant women has recently been published in Molecular Psychiatry.

There are a number of new treatment trials currently underway for schizophrenia, postmenopausal depression, treatment-resistant depression, and borderline personality disorder.

• Enquiries: Team Leader Emmy Gavrilidis on (03) 9076 6913 or emmy.gavrilidis@monash.edu
• MAPrc Women's Mental Health www.maprc.org.au/womens-mental-health
• Reference: Kulkarni J, Gavrilidis E, Wang W, Worsley R, Fitzgerald PB, Gurvich C, Van Rheenen T, Berk M, Burger H. Estradiol for treatment-resistant schizophrenia: a large-scale randomized-controlled trial in women of child-bearing age. Mol Psychiatry. 2015 Jun;20(6):695-702. doi: 10.1038/mp.2014.33. Epub 2014 Apr 15.