Congratulations to Vilija Jokubaitis on being in JAMA Neurology's 2020 top 3 for altmetrics

Dr Vilija Jokubaitis's paper in her Monash University
researcher profile displaying the altmetric 'donut' which
gives granular detail about readers' demographics

Congratulations to Dr Vilija Jokubaitis (senior author) and Dr Ai-Lan Nguyen (first author) on their paper on pregnancy and onset of MS for being listed in the top 3 Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Neurology publications for 2020, based on Altmetric scores!

So what does 'altmetric' mean?  The Altmetric website says, "Altmetrics are metrics and qualitative data that are complementary to traditional, citation-based metrics. They can include (but are not limited to) peer reviews on Faculty of 1000, citations on Wikipedia and in public policy documents, discussions on research blogs, mainstream media coverage, bookmarks on reference managers like Mendeley, and mentions on social networks such as Twitter."

Syphilis prevention priority for NHMRC Partnership funding

Associate Professor Marcus Chen

Ten new medical research projects are being funded $11.3 million through the National Health and Medical Research Council’s Partnership Project scheme. This funding has helped to secure an additional $15.6 million co-investment in cash and in kind support from 80 partner agencies including hospitals, state governments, services and patient representative bodies.

Associate Professor Marcus Chen, of the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre within Central Clinical School, has been awarded $1.2M for his Partnership project, “Novel strategies for improving syphilis testing and control”. He is the only Monash University researcher to have been awarded a grant in this round.

Aftershock: Meet researcher Meng Law

See full story at The Aftershock (7 min read)

The Aftershock series features Professor Meng Law, radiologist and much more besides. It's easy to find out about Prof Law's extensive professional commitments and achievements, but not so easy to understand how the non-medical aspects of his life influence his research directions and insights. Prof Law shares with The Aftershock his background, influences and current sources of creative thinking.

See more: www.theaftershock.org/news/meet-our-researchers-meng-law/

Deluge of DNA changes drives progression of fatal melanomas

Professor Mark Shackleton is senior author on a paper showing
dramatic changes in the DNA during progression of melanoma cells

Reproduced courtesy Alfred Health

Melbourne researchers have revealed how melanoma cells are flooded with DNA changes as this skin cancer progresses from early, treatable stages through to fatal end-stage disease.

Using genomics, the team tracked DNA changes occurring in melanoma sample donated by patients as their disease progressed, right through to the time the patient died. This revealed dramatic and chaotic genetic changes that accumulated in the melanoma cells as the cancers progressed, providing clues to potential new approaches to treating this disease.

Surprising finding following infection after paediatric brain injury

Mr Rishabh Sharma, first author on the study

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major cause of disability in young children, yet the factors contributing to poor outcomes in this population are not well understood. What most people don’t know is that patients who experience a TBI are highly susceptible to infections originating in hospitals, and are mostly acquired within the first week of hospitalization. Such infections may modify the pathobiology and recovery of TBI.

Mr Rishabh Sharma is a 3rd year PhD student supervised by Dr Bridgette Semple, A/Prof. Sandy Shultz and Dr. Pablo Casillas-Espinosa in the Department of Neuroscience at the Central Clinical School. He wanted to understand whether an additional challenge to the immune system (i.e. mimicking an infection) after paediatric TBI altered the acute outcomes in a pre-clinical mouse model.

Screening warning over stubborn STI

Expanding screening could build resistance to antibiotics: Study

New research from the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre has revealed that screening asymptomatic patients for Mycoplasma genitalium (MG) could be counterproductive to controlling the infection in men who have sex with men.

Sexual health physician and Monash University Associate Professor Jason Ong said the study, conducted with international experts in MG research, showed that expanding screening from the current recommendation of only testing MG among symptomatic men who have sex with men, could build resistance to antibiotics.

Neurological effects of COVID-19 just as likely to impact young people

Dr Robb Wesselingh is co-author on the review of neurological
complications of COVID-19. BMJ Neurology

Adapted from Alfred Health 18 March 2021

A review published in BMJ Neurology Open describes how the neurological effects of COVID-19 could remain present months after the virus has been shed.

Alfred Health Neurologist and Monash University PhD student Dr Robb Wesselingh said there was evidence for neurological effects of the virus such as stroke, brain fog and persistent headaches being just as likely to impact young people as they are the elderly.