Congratulations to MRFF grant awardees Michele Callisaya and Patrick Kwan

Congratulations to Central Clinical School's Associate Professor Michele Callisaya and Professor Patrick Kwan on their MRFF grants! See the missions and our projects below.

Participants sought: How does epilepsy affect control of blood pressure?

How does Vagal Nerve Stimulation reduce epileptic seizures?

The Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute is seeking participants for a research study to compare how epilepsy affects the control of blood pressure. We want to find out how Vagal Nerve Stimulation (VNS), an effective treatment for drug- resistant epilepsy, works to reduce seizures and to reduce the elevated cardiovascular risk associated with epilepsy.

Who can participate? 

Magnetic Particle Imaging wins award

Jurie Tashkandi won best oral presentation award in Prato

Congratulations to Ms Jurie Tashkandi, PhD student supervised by Dr Karen Alt in the NanoTheranostics lab, who won the best oral presentation award at the international 'Antibody Technology and Therapeutics' Conference in Prato, Italy in September 2022.

The title of her presentation was "Magnetic Particle Imaging using Trastuzumab Targeted Nanoparticles for Cancer Imaging".

RUOK? day 8 September

There was a good turnout for the CCS RUOK? day

Central Clinical School's 8 September RUOK? day event was well attended with over 75 people coming along from diverse backgrounds, including staff and students from most departments. They enjoyed a bit of a chat and warm drink with a few brave souls going for a walk around Fawkner Park in the drizzly and windy afternoon.

Find out more:

• monash.edu/ruokday#aboutruok?day
• ruok.org.au
• Counselling services for Monash staff and students
• See the hashtag #RUOKDay on social media

Congratulations to Dr Emily Edwards on AIFA grant award

Dr Emily Edwards has won a $30,000 grant from AIFA for
research on Primary Immunodeficiencies and SARS-CoV-2

Congratulations to Dr Emily Edwards on winning the Allergy and Immunology Foundation of Australasia (AIFA) Primary Immunodeficiencies (PID) Clinical Research Grant of $30,000 (supported by CSL Behring) this year. Emily is an active advocate for PID as AusPIPS Vice President.

Dr Edwards' grant is titled, "Antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 in immunoglobulin products and their capacity to augment immunity in immunodeficient patients", and she leads a team including researchers from Alfred Health, Monash University and the Burnet Institute, with collaboration from the patient organisation AusPIPs and the Australian Red Cross Lifeblood. 

A way forward to reliably triage acute stroke for rapid management

Time to treatment after stroke is criticallly important to
reduce the chance of brain damage. A 'proof-of-concept'
study has developed a technique to distinguish between
two main types of stroke which will enable more effective
and accurate clinical decision-making about treatment.

by Dr Loretta Piccenna

Time to treatment after a stroke is critically important to reduce the chance of brain damage.

Acute stroke is caused by either a sudden bleed (or haemorrhage) or a decrease in blood supply due to a blockage of an artery to the brain (ischaemia). These two distinct types of stroke require completely separate treatment pathways.

Graduate research students' win for sexual health research

L-R: Dr Ei Aung and Ms Palak Gupta

Congratulations to two of our graduate research students, Dr Ei Aung and Ms Palak Gupta, who won the best presentation at the 2022 Joint Australasian HIV&AIDS + Sexual Health Conferences last week.

Both students are in the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre. Their primary supervisor is Associate Professor Eric Chow. Ei is also co-supervised by Kit Fairley, Jason Ong, Tiffany Phillips and Marcus Chen.