VESKI Inspiring Women Fellowships for 2015 - APPLICATIONS NOW OPEN

VESKI, supported by the Office of the Lead Scientist, is calling for applications for the 2015 Inspiring Women Fellowships. This scheme, funded by the State Government of Victoria, is designed to support female leaders who are planning for, experiencing, or returning from a career break. 

The inspiring women fellowships will provide the opportunity to allow these female leaders to remain competitive in their field; enhancing the current talent pool and affecting cultural change.   

Applications are sought from early to mid-career female researchers in STEM disciplines within a Victorian academic or research institution who are experiencing or anticipating difficulties juggling their career and family or carer commitments, or have other compounding reasons for requiring the support of a fellowship.

During 2015/16 three fellowships will be made available and successful individuals may receive up to AUD150,000 distributed over a period of three years. 

Monash/Newcastle Enabling Fund Applications

A reminder that applications for 2015 Monash-Newcastle Enabling Funds are now open. The application form is attached here. 

Enabling Funding provides travel funds (airfare and accommodation expenses) to enable academics to explore potential collaborations (or further existing collaborations) between Monash University and Newcastle University. The awards are for a maximum of £2500 or AUS$5000 and any investigator within Monash or Newcastle Universities whose area of research is broadly within the Biomedical Sciences is eligible to apply. 

Enabling funding applications must:

Australia-China Science and Research Fund (ACSRF) Young Scientists Exchange Programme (YSEP) 2015

The Australia-China Young Scientists Exchange Programme (YSEP) is a joint initiative funded by the Australian Department of Industry and Science and the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST). It is supported by the Commonwealth of Australia under the Australia-China Science and Research Fund (science and research knowledge exchange).  

The YSEP is a two week long exchange to China designed to offer early or mid-career Australian scientists a platform from which to develop or enhance both scientific and industry linkages with colleagues in China.  Successful applicants will receive a return economy airfare to Beijing, visa fees, accommodation, domestic travel within China, meals and incidentals. 

A group of up to 20 high quality early to mid-career researchers will be selected and must be available to travel to China during 1-13 November 2015.

To be eligible the applicant must:

Avner Pancreatic Cancer Foundation $1.9M Grant Funding Round

Avner Pancreatic Cancer Foundation announces Call for Applications to the 2015 Funding Round.

In its inaugural funding round, Avner Pancreatic Cancer Foundation is making available $1.9M in grant funding in the form of two types of grants:
Accelerator Grants

Grants of up to $500,000 (GST exclusive) per annum are being made available for two to three years duration (a maximum of $1.5M over the next 3 years) to support specific projects and/or infrastructure for research into pancreatic cancer.

The objective of the Avner Pancreatic Cancer Foundation Accelerator Grants is to: Fund high quality projects that can clearly demonstrate support for the Foundation’s vision ‘To break through 40 years of no progress by doubling the number of people who survive pancreatic cancer by 2020’.

‘Woolies on Wheels’ Innovation Grants
The Woolies on Wheels Innovation Grants (x4 available) are in recognition of the efforts of the Woolworths' business leaders who cycled the 2014 ‘Woolies on Wheels’ charity cycle to raise funds in support of Avner Pancreatic Cancer Foundation.

Effects of chest compressions on cardiovascular and cerebral haemodynamics in asphyxiated near-term lambs.

Stuart Hooper et al. published in Paediatric Research.

Read article here.

Long-Term Improvements in Sleep and Respiratory Parameters in Preschool Children Following Treatment of Sleep Disordered Breathing.

Lisa Walter et al. published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.

Read article here.

Quantification of normative ranges and baseline predictors of aortoventricular interface dimensions using multi-detector computed tomographic imaging in patients without aortic valve disease.

Ian Meredith published in the European Journal of Radiology.

Read article here.

Study protocol: evaluation of ‘JenMe’, a commercially-delivered weight management program for adolescents: a randomised controlled trial

Helen Truby et al. published in BMC Public Health.

Read article here.

Are dietetics educators' attitudes to assessment a barrier to expanding placement opportunities? Results of a Delphi study

Claire Palermo et al. published in Nutrition & Dietetics.

Read article here.

Association between serum concentration of 25-hydroxyvitamin D and the risk of hip arthroplasty for osteoarthritis: Result from a prospective cohort study

Peter Ebeling et al. published in Osteoarthritis and Cartilage.

Read article here.

Inhibition of activin A signalling in a mouse model of pre-eclampsia

Euan Wallace et al. published in Placenta.

Read article here.

Longitudinal changes in cerebellar and subcortical volumes in adult-onset Niemann–Pick disease type C patients treated with miglustat

Michael Fahey et al. published in the Journal of Neurology.

Read article here.

MHTP Student Open Day 2015

MHTP Open Day is an opportunity for all researchers to present their projects to prospective Honours, BMedSc, Masters and PhD students.

We are keen to attract as many prospective students as possible to this event.  If you have an opportunity to promote our Open Day at lectures you deliver, here is a powerpoint slide you can show and a flyer you can hand out.

If you have any questions about Open Day, please contact Lisa Walter or Janet Chang.

Improved outcomes for patients with prostate cancer at Monash Health

Dr Arun Azad

Medical oncologist and researcher Dr Arun Azad is the recipient of a prestigious Victorian Cancer Agency Clinical Research Fellowship, announced last week by Minister for Health, the Hon Jill Hennessy MP.

The highly competitive Fellowship worth $800,000 over four years will enable to Dr Azad to characterise the effects of docetaxel chemotherapy on castration-sensitive prostate cancer.

 “In collaboration with Professor Gail Risbridger in the School of Biomedical Sciences, I will investigate whether docetaxel targets a population of ‘pre-existing’ castration-resistant cells,” said Dr Azad.

“This work may identity novel ways of making docetaxel more effective in castration-sensitive prostate cancer, paving the way for future clinical trials and better patient outcomes.”

An early-career medical oncologist and translational researcher in genitourinary malignancies, Dr Azad led cutting-edge work investigating mechanisms of therapeutic resistance and response in advanced prostate cancer patients through genomic analysis of circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) at the British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver, Canada.

Dr Azad has played an active role in the development of 5 investigator-initiated clinical trials and been the recipient of over $1.5M in competitive funding including a prestigious CJ Martin Fellowship from the NH&MRC. His clinical and research activities have resulted in publications in high-impact journals including Journal of Clinical Oncology, European Urology and Lancet Oncology. He has also been the recipient of 15 competitive prizes and awards including Merit Awards at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Scientific Meeting and Genitourinary Cancers Symposium.

Dr Azad will take up appointments at Monash Health and Monash University’s School of Clinical Sciences (SCS) later this year to focus on pre-clinical and clinical translational research in genitourinary cancers.

"Only two Australian unis make top 100 of Global Nature Index", reported in The Australian

Australia has only two universities in the top 100 of an influential global ranking that measures scientific discoveries, placing it as the 12th in the world.

The Global Nature Index, which measures the number of academic papers published in Nature’s stable of 70 journals, put the University of Queensland as Australia’s highest placed institution at 92 followed by Monash at 100. Six institutions made the top 200.

In its critique of the Australian research system, Nature said despite funding cuts and uncertainty around science policy, scientific publications had increased marginally on 2014.


“This improvement came during a year of uncertainty over science policy, for much of which the country did not have a science minister and government spending on R&D fell to its level as a proportion of total spending since the early 1980s,” Nature said.

Read article here.

ONLINE PROGRAM - Mindfulness for Wellbeing and Peak Performance

Monash Mindfulness Consultants, Dr Richard Chambers and Dr Craig Hassed have been busily working on a FREE online mindfulness program.  It is hosted on an external platform called www.futurelearn.com, which means it is available to everyone, from anywhere in the world!

Details

• FREE online course
• Duration: 6 weeks
• 2 hours pw
• Certificates available
• Begins on 14 September, 2015

Check out the intro video on the website here.

Centre of Inflammatory Diseases (CID) Seminar TODAY: Strategies for Treating Inflammation and Fibrosis in Kidney Disease

Dr David Nikolic Paterson will be presenting:  "Strategies for Treating Inflammation and Fibrosis in Kidney Disease"

12pm  Medicine Seminar Room Located on Level 5, Block E MMC.

Lunch will be provided.  All welcome.

CiiiD Tuesday seminar 23 June: Prof Simon Jones, "IL-6 as a keystone cytokine in inflammation"

Prof Simon Jones from Cardiff University will be speaking at today's CiiiD seminar, 23 June, on "IL-6 as a keystone cytokine in inflammation".  Prof Jones has a Personal Chair at the Cardiff Institute of Infection and Immunity and his research programs incorporate arthritis and peritoneal immunity.

The seminar will commence at 1.05pm in the Level 3 Boardrooms.

Grand Round- Wed 24 June: "Integrated care: A glimpse into medicine’s future"

Presented by Professor Don Campbell, General Medicine  

Wednesday 24^th June, 12.30pm to 1.30pm

Main Lecture Theatre, Monash Medical Centre, Clayton

Polyunsaturated fatty acids and epigenetics: a reciprocal relationship, 29 June

Prof Burdge

29 June, 3-5pm, Lecture theatre, Level 5, The Alfred Centre, 99 Commercial Roa, Prahran.

Prof. Burdge, Editor-in-Chief of the British Journal of Nutrition & the Journal of Nutritional Science, has expressed the goals of his visit to be, “share my group’s work and to meet as many people as possible to see if any links can be generated”. With Prof. Burdge’s spirit of collaboration in mind, other than his seminar, NSA Melbourne will host a lunch on June 28th (venue in Carlton TBA) to allow for more relaxed networking conversations with him. Prof. Burdge is also open to invitations to meet with Melbourne based research groups/present during his visit. If you would like to organize an activity involving Prof. Burdge and your research group or institution during his stay please contact Paul Lewandowski,paul.lewandowski@deakin.edu.au. 

RSVP: By June 25th, to paul.lewandowski@deakin.edu.au