26 April Symposium for Professor Hatem Salem AM - lifetime bloodresearcher

The Australian Centre for Blood Diseases is celebrating the lifetime achievements of Professor Hatem Salem AM with a one-day symposium/festschrift on Friday 26 April reflecting on the significant contributions of Prof Salem, who retired at the end of 2012 as Head of ACBD. All welcome.  See more details for the Festschrift. Online RSVP. Enquiries to lyn.wright@monash.edu or cindy.haidar@monash.edu.  Keynote speakers will include distinguished Australian scientists and medical researchers.

29 April Day of Immunology Public Lecture

When immune cells go bad! Autoimmune problems, allergy and cancer. Free public lecture hosted by Day of Immunology Melbourne

• Date & time: Monday 29 April 2013, 5:30pm-8:00pm
• Venue: Melbourne Brain Centre (Kenneth Myer Building) Cnr Royal Parade & Genetics Lane, The University of Melbourne, Parkville VIC 3010

Mollie Holman Doctoral Medal for Dr Michael Roche

Dr Michael Roche has been awarded the 2012 Mollie Holman Doctoral Medal by the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences. Michael completed his PhD thesis last year in CCS's Department of Medicine, supervised by Associate Professors Paul Gorry and Melissa Churchill, Heads respectively of the Burnet Institute's Laboratories, HIV Molecular Pathogenesis and HIV in the CNS. His thesis title is: "HIV-1 Envelope protein determinants of viral tropism and antiviral drug resistance."

Young Investigator Award for Dr Hao Lu - 'waking up' resting HIV

Dr Hao Lu (Dept of Infectious Diseases) received the Young Investigator Award at the Conference for Retrovirology and Opportunistic Infections 2013. See his poster abstract, Mechanism of HIV Latency and Reactivation. He is working on how histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi) stimulate latent, or resting, HIV to become active. Histones are proteins which structure DNA. HDACs are enzymes which allow histones to wrap DNA more tightly.

Dr Jessica Mountford's PhD teases out enzyme role in arterial thrombosis

Dr Jessica Mountford (ACBD), was awarded her PhD in December 2012 and has taken a postdoctoral research position at the University of Western Australia. Her thesis was "Defining the role of class II Phosphoinositide 3-Kinases in platelet function". Platelets are the principal blood cell responsible for the development of arterial thrombosis. Jessica's thesis investigates the signalling pathways of an intracellular enzyme, Class II PI3K, involved in cell signalling events.

beyondblue Award 2013 for Dr Rebecca Segrave's research on theneurobiology of depression

Dr Rebecca Segrave (MAPrc) was recently awarded a beyondblue Victorian Centre of Excellence in Depression and Anxiety's ECR Award 2013 ($97,598). Her research involves the combined application of neuroscience (such as EEG and fMRI), brain stimulation (such as DBS and tDCS) and neuropsychological techniques to better understand the biological psychiatry of major depression and develop improved treatment options for this condition.

Dr Lachlan Gray wins awards for his research on how HIV affects thebrain

Dr Lachlan Gray (Dept of Infectious Diseases) won the Ian Potter Foundation Travel Grant 2012 ($2000) and the Geoffrey Connard Travel Fellowship 2012 ($2600). Lachlan also won the first prize ($250) in the 24th Alfred Week Research Poster Display, held at Alfred Hospital, Melbourne in October 2012. His research interests focus on understanding HIV brain infection and its role in the development of HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders.