Department of Medicine 3MT competition success

Dr Ai-Ming Wong

The School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health (SCS) congratulates all 3MT participants who competed in the Department of Medicine heats last Friday.

Dr Ai-Ming Wong took out first place in the Department of Medicine 3MT round, followed by Raymond Shim and Lachlan McMillan in second and third places.

Dr Wong, a Monash Health specialist in respiratory medicine and sleep disorders, is in the second year of her PhD at Monash University.

In her winning 3MT performance, Dr Wong presented her research which aims to enable prediction of which patients with obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) will respond to upper airway surgery.

“Currently only one in four patients respond to surgery and there is no easily available clinical assessment or tool to identify who they are,” Dr Wong said.

“In my PhD, I’m measuring the underlying physiology causing OSA for a particular individual, and seeing if that can help us understand and predict which patients will respond to surgery, and which of them don't.”

Ray Shim

Meanwhile, second place winner Ray Shim is trying to understand why infections are so common after brain injury.

“It's becoming more apparent that there is a change to the immune system following brain injury, and in the case of stroke, infections are a leading cause of death in patients,” Ray said.  

“So far in my PhD, I've found there are less patrolling immune cells, which are also unable to combat bacteria that are encountered by the body following brain injury. As a consequence, the body becomes more susceptible to infection.”

In third place and in just three minutes, PhD candidate Lachlan McMillan presented his research which is investigating how physical activity and exercise can positively contribute to bone health.

Lachlan McMillan

“We know that the most effective exercise to increase bone health is activity that involves weight-bearing and force, such as hopping and jumping but until recently we haven't been able to say, just how much is enough,” Lachlan said.

“To guide our research we have developed a wearable device that is capable of measuring the forces experienced by the skeleton during exercise, and we hope to use this device to further our research.”

Lachlan said condensing up to three years of research into three minutes was an extremely challenging exercise, however, it's taught him the value of filtering out important information and communicating it in a succinct but also creative manner.

Place winners in the Department competitions proceed to the 3MT School finals on 4 July.   Details HERE.

Bone geometry is correlated with arterial stiffness in overweight older adults with vitamin D insufficiency

Alexander Rodriguez et al. published in Endocrine Abstracts.

Calf muscle density is independently associated with physical function in overweight and obese older adults

David Scott et al. published in the Journal of Musculoskeletal & neuronal interactions.

Read article here.

Associations of components of sarcopenic obesity with bone health and balance in older adults

David Scott et al. published in Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics.

Read article here.

PhD milestone review, Lachlan McMillan, 13 December

All staff and students are invited to attend Lachlan McMillan's PhD milestone review.

13 December, 10am, Medicine seminar room, MMC

Title: May The Force Be With You: Driving Osteogenesis for Improved Bone Health

Synopsis : Physical activity and exercise may be beneficial for bone health, we aim to understand how various forms of activity can benefit bone health, and the role that physical activity trackers play in this relationship

Supervisors: Prof Peter Ebeling, Dr David Scott, Dr Ayse Zengin

Prescribing Physical Activity for the Prevention and Treatment of Osteoporosis in Older Adults

Lachlan McMillan et al. published in Healthcare.

Read article here.

SCS PhD student Lachlan McMillan selected to attend Stanford SPARK workshop

Lachlan McMillan

School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health PhD student Lachlan McMillan has received a competitive grant to attend the prestigious Stanford SPARK Biomedical Innovation and Entrepreneurship Course in Tokyo this August.

Established ten years ago and a unique partnership between university and industry, the Stanford SPARK program aims to advance new biomedical research discoveries into promising new treatments for patients.

Lachlan’s PhD is focused on improving bone health in older adults.

“There is currently a crisis in the treatment of osteoporosis, with prescription and adherence to pharmacological regimes at an all-time low,” Lachlan said.

“As such it's imperative we understand how else to best influence bones, in the goal of preventing or attenuating the development of osteoporosis.”

Lachlan is developing a wearable device that will accurately and objectively quantify activity which is most beneficial for bones, i.e. weight-bearing activity such as jumping or hopping.

“We ultimately hope to deploy our device to research institutions around the world who are investigating the effect of physical activity on a range of outcomes, delivering a commercial result.”

Some of the benefits Lachlan hopes to gain from the SPARK program include a much greater understanding of innovation and development in medical technology in fields outside his area of research.

“I hope that I'll get a better understanding of the key medical problems currently being addressed, and how the process works,” Lachlan said.

“I also expect that networking with researchers and medical innovation experts from all over the world will provide me with a unique opportunity to learn from people with varied backgrounds, hopefully leading to future cross-institutional collaborations.”

Monash PhD student shows flair at Entrepreneurship Challenge

Lachlan McMillan in Canberra

Monash PhD student Lachlan McMillan took home 2^nd place in the prestigious Australian-French Entrepreneurship Challenge in Canberra last week.

Held at the Australian National University, the Australian-French Entrepreneurship Challenge is based on the ‘24 hours for Entrepreneurship’ challenge: a flagship event run in France since 2011 by the French National Association for Research and Technology and Novancia Business School. Teams work non-stop for 24 hours to develop a novel scientific business idea and pitch to a board of directors.

“My team developed a medical diagnostic device to be used by patients presenting to general practitioners with a nondescript, common cold,” said Lachlan, a PhD student in the Department of Medicine at the School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health.

“The device takes a sample from the patient, and conducts rapid differential diagnosis in order to specify either a bacterial or viral infection, and more specifically which pathogen is likely present.”

Lachlan said the device may allow for more accurate prescription of antibiotics commonly used to combat common colds, and may attenuate the development of antibiotic resistance in bacteria commonly implicated in common colds.

“This competition allowed me to make significant professional contacts early on in my PhD, which may prove fruitful not only during the remainder of the degree, but perhaps for employment opportunity later in life,” said Lachlan.

The Australian-French Entrepreneurship Challenge was attended by current PhD students from around Australia, along with recently conferred PhD candidates from France.

The event was brought to Australia by the Novancia Business School and ANRT ( l'Association nationale de la recherche et de la technologie), France's foremost collaborative research and development association. 

Lachlan is currently undertaking his PhD investigating the role of wearable technology for the monitoring of bone health. As a part of his research, Lachlan is developing a novel wearable device that can detect forces experienced by bones.

Watch a video about the event here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAONnqC_7DY