Save the date: MHTP Research Week 22-26 August 2016 at Monash Medical Centre

Research Week is an exciting opportunity to acknowledge the achievements and showcase the ground- breaking research being conducted at the MHTP.

The program includes:

• Poster sessions and poster competition
• Internationally renowned speakers, including
• Monash University Chancellor Simon McKeon
• NHMRC CEO Professor Anne Kelso
• Clinical haematologist Professor John Rasko, University of Sydney
• Stem cell scientist and clinician, Associate Professor Jerry Chan, Duke NUS Medical School, Singapore
• Translational Research Symposium with a focus on
• Cancer therapies
• Women’s and Children’s Health (Reproductive, Neonatal, Paediatric)
• The Ritchie Centre Public Forum, chaired by Professor Euan Wallace
• “Stem Cell Therapies – where are we now and where are we going?” (Clinical trials, current and potential treatments)
• The Ritchie Centre Annual Colloquium
• Cell Therapies and Regenerative Medicine (the latest in stem cell research)
• Early Career Researchers workshop

Watch this space for more details and to register
For further information please visit our webpage

State government grant enables better outcomes for stroke patients at Monash

Associate Professor Henry Ma

Stroke care and patient outcomes are set to improve as Monash Stroke receives a Stroke Clinical Registry Initiative Grant to help implement a clinical registry at Monash Health.

Monash Health has recently joined the Australian clinical stroke registry (AuSCR), a nation-wide clinical registry for stroke patients.

“As the second designated endovascular clot retrieval (ECR) site in Melbourne—the Royal Melbourne Hospital is the other—we need to ensure best patient care and outcomes,” said Monash University Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor Henry Ma, who is also the Director of Stroke Unit at Monash Health.

ECR is a highly effective treatment to restore blood flow to the brain in patients affected by ischaemic stroke who meet specific eligibility criteria.

“While intravenous thrombolysis has been used in ischaemic stroke to dissolve blood clots since the late 1990s, recent studies have shown this treatment can’t break down the larger clots that cause the most devastating strokes,” said Associate Professor Ma.

In 2015 five landmark studies of an innovative approach to stroke treatment were published in the New England Journal of Medicine, revealing ECR (in which the large clot blocking a brain vessel is removed through an intra-arterial approach) to be highly successful.

“The AuSCR will benchmark our stroke care outcomes with other hospitals nationally and will incorporate ECR data.”

Professor Ma said it is vital to monitor ECR data given it’s a new therapy and stroke specialists still have a lot to learn.

 “We plan to use a mobile app to collect data in real time, and this grant will help us develop the app and other required logistics and infrastructure.”

Associate Professor Ma and Associate Professor Ronil Chandra are members of the Department of Health and Human Services ECR monitoring committee to ensure good practice and outcomes.

Monash researchers reveal more accurate predictors of stroke mortality

Professor Thanh Phan

Mortality is an important metric for measuring hospital performance in treating patients with a disease.  The usual method of estimating mortality in hospitals is to produce a standardised measure, adjusted for various patient health comorbidities. While this approach is widely used by groups such as Dr Foster Intelligence and Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services, this approach is insufficient for stroke.

Published recently in the Journal of Stroke and Cerebrovascular Disease, researchers in the Stroke and Ageing Research Group at Monash University have revealed the optimal time for measuring stroke severity and the minimum clinical dataset for reliably predicting stroke mortality.

“Of particular significance, the predictors change depending on the time point for measuring mortality,” said study lead author Adjunct Clinical Professor Thanh Phan.

“Our analysis clearly shows that the measure of stroke severity, when incorporated into the model, substantially improves the accuracy of estimated stroke mortality over and above adjustment for comorbidities.”

Professor Thanh said this makes intuitive sense because a person with no comorbidities can have a major stroke and vice-versa. 

“And post-stroke complications and mortality are also greater in patients with severe stroke.”

The research team also found that the measure of stroke severity used for predicting or estimating mortality is best obtained at 24 hours after stroke.

“24 hours is the critical time when neurological deficits have stabilised, and some patients who appear to have mild strokes at onset can progress to be more severe over 24 to 48 hours,” said Professor Thanh.

“Using stroke severity in addition to time-appropriate covariates such as age, gender, and comorbidity will enable more valid comparisons of hospital performance,” said Professor Velandai Srikanth, co-author and Head of the Stroke and Ageing Research Group.

“These results have the capacity to influence how hospital mortality is accurately estimated in patients with stroke.”

An acute stroke specialist and neurologist with clinical and research expertise in stroke thrombolysis, endovascular therapy and the management of transient ischaemic attack (TIA), Professor Phan is former Head of Stroke at Monash Health.

Monash medical student brings home silver

SCS medical student Alanna Rottler and
the Australian Cheerleading team at
the World Championships

Third year School of Clinical Sciences’ medical student Alanna Rottler has brought home a silver medal in the recent World Cheerleading championships in Orlando, Florida.

A relative newcomer to the sport, Alanna starting cheerleading two years ago and has helped the Australian team achieve their best result ever.

“This is the first time that an Australian team has broken inside the top 5, let alone break into the top 2 teams in the world in any division of All Star Cheerleading,” said Alanna.

“This silver medal is huge—not just for our team but also for Australian Cheerleading.”

A gymnast for 12 years, Alanna retired from gymnastics in her final year of high school to concentrate on studies.  

“When I started my medical degree at Monash University, I joined the university cheerleading team before moving to All-Star Cheerleading, the division in which I now compete.”

The World Championships was Alanna’s first international competition.

Alanna said she loves the challenges that cheerleading presents.

“You have to trust your team mates’ abilities as well as your own, and find that last inch of energy at the end of a gruelling routine,” said Alanna.

“And you also have to overcome the mental barrier; some of our manoeuvrers are seriously scary and fear is a constant barrier but the best part of cheerleading by far is the feeling of flying.”

Alanna and her team train upwards of 10 hours a week.  She is very excited to see what happens next for her team and for Australian cheerleading.

Watch Alanna’s terrifying and award winning performance in the US here.

Lupus news: Asia Pacific Lupus Colloboration update

The Asia Pacific Lupus Collaboration in Singapore, April 2016

Professor Eric Morand and researchers from the Lupus & Arthritis Group, School of Clinical Sciences, attended the Asia Pacific Lupus Collaboration (APLC) annual face-to-face meeting last month in Singapore. 

An international alliance, the APLC has established a large international patient cohort, currently the third largest in the world.  With 1671 participants and over 6500 items of data, the APLC is investigating the validation of a new disease target, the Lupus Low Disease Activity State (LLDAS). This study has been in progress for more than three years and is likely to continue for the next five years.

Twelve institutions from nine countries in the Asia-Pacific region (Australia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand) were represented at the meeting last month. 

Human Body display in TRF - we need information about your research group

An interactive digital human body display is being created in the Translational Research Facility (TRF) and we need to upload information about MHTP researchers and research projects.  The display will be fully searchable, allowing all visitors to learn about the research activities at the precinct.

In order to collect the required information, we've created a simple form for you to complete.  It will only take you 5 minutes!!  Thank you to those researchers who have already submitted their details - we are now calling for information about more research projects in order to fully showcase our activities at Monash Health Translation Precinct.

Please click on this link to enter your information and upload a scientific image or photo relating to your work.   Please submit your information by Friday 27 May 2016.  ALL researchers are encouraged to submit information.

We will also display photos of your research group on the human body display.  Our photographer will be available on Wednesday 25th May, Friday 27th May, Tues 31st May and Monday 6th June to take photos of you and your team.  Please book a 10 minute time slot in one of these sessions.  A link to the booking form is here:  http://doodle.com/poll/kv6wdefde9rzxdmy.  These photography sessions will take place in the medicine seminar room, Block E, level 5, MMC.   If these times do not suit or if you have any questions, please email Katherine Greenberg or ph 85722595.

Are you looking for research students? Call for 2017 Hons, Masters and PhD research projects - please complete by FRI 20 MAY

ATTN: School of Clinical Sciences and Hudson Institute potential 2017 research supervisors:

1)   CALL FOR 2017 HONOURS, MASTERS AND PhD PROJECTS:

If you are looking to recruit a research student for 2017, please upload your proposed project(s) to the following searchable online database.  You will need your Monash Uni authcate username and password to login as 'supervisor'.

The SCS and Hudson Communications offices will prepare an on-line and hardcopy booklet using projects listed in the database.

All staff are asked to update and/or submit research project offerings via the Faculty MNHS project database - click on:  https://studentresearchprojects.med.monash.edu.au/project-search?field_school_value=59

1.       Go to “Supervisor login” listed on the top tab and type in your Monash username and authcate. 

2.       Go to “CREATE ENTRY” to enter project details and ensure to SAVE each entry. 

3.       Under the compulsory “School” field, please select  School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health

4.       Under SCS Department, please select relevant department.  Hudson researchers please select Molecular Translational Science (Hudson Institute), Deptartment of Obstetrics and Gynaecology or Department of Paediatrics.

5.       Please select the primary research theme for your project

6.       Please select a secondary research theme if relevant

To edit projects that have previously been entered in 2015 and 2016 go to tab “MY ENTRIES” and select your project.  Under “OFFER STATUS”, you can select:

• Offered (to make the project current)
• Archived (if you wish the project to remain visible to the public in site searches but is not offered)
• To un-publish the project, you will need to uncheck the “PUBLISHED” box.  These projects will still be in the database but not be visible to the public.  At any point you can re-publish the project at any time.

Note that the database is public and currently accessible from the front page of the SCS website (http://www.med.monash.edu.au/scs/  under EDUCATION click on “Available research projects”) 

Deadline for submission of projects for printing:  Friday 20^th May 2016. 

2)   PROSPECTIVE STUDENT INFORMATION SESSIONS:

To support the promotion of MHTP Research, the following student information sessions are being organised for future BMedSc (Hons), Honours and PhD students.

Having all projects advertised well in advance of these events will assist with course enquiries:

-              Bachelor of Medical Science (Honours) information night:       Monday 16^th May 2016, 6-8pm,  Central One Foyer and Lecture Theatre, Clayton campus.

-              MHTP BMedSci (Hons) information night:   Tuesday 12^th July 2016, 5.30pm at Seminar rooms 1 and 2, TRF at Monash Health Translation Precinct.

                 MHTP Graduate Research Expo (for prospective Hons and PhD students) August 9^th 2016 , 5.30pm at Seminar rooms 1 and 2, TRF at Monash Health Translation Precinct.

If you have any questions, please contact Katherine Greenberg (ph 85722595 or Katherine.greenberg@monash.edu or Vithya Premkumar (vithya.premkumar@monash.edu)

Grand Round Presentation - Mock Coronial Inquest- 18/05/2016

Law Week Mock Coronial Inquest

Presenter: His Honour Ian Gray, former State Coroner.

Date: Wednesday 18 May 2016

Time: 12.30pm to 2.00pm

Venue: Main Lecture Theatre, Monash Medical Centre, Clayton.

Monash Health, together with the Victorian Managed Insurance Authority and the Victoria Law Foundation, is hosting a mock Coronial Inquest as part of Law Week 2016.

The mock Inquest will give you the opportunity to experience a simulated hearing in the Coroners Court in relation to a fictional patient fatality. The mock Inquest will be presided over by His Honour Ian Gray, former State Coroner. Light refreshments will be provided.

All welcome. Please RSVP to mhmockcoronialinquest.rsvpify.com by Friday 13 May.

"The assembly of bacterial surface structures", 19 May

This week's Hudson seminar will be on Thursday 19 May, 12-1pm, Lecture Theatre 1, MMC

The speaker will be Prof Trevor Lithgow, ARC Australian Laureate Fellow at Monash University's Biomedicine Discovery Institute and Department of Microbiology.

Light refreshments to follow presentation outside the Lecture Theatre.

Trevor Lithgow is an ARC Australian Laureate Fellow in the Biomedicine Discovery Institute at Monash University. Current work in the Lithgow lab, using Escherichia coli as a model system, is focused on the mechanisms of outer membrane biogenesis in bacteria. He is the author of more than 100 research articles, including papers in Nature and Science.

Lithgow received his PhD from La Trobe University in 1992. As a postdoctoral fellow with Gottfried Schatz at the University of Basel he helped discover components of the protein translocase in the outer mitochondrial membrane (TOM complex) and characterize the function of receptor domains in discriminating and driving protein transport into mitochondria. He lectured in Biochemistry at La Trobe University for four years and lectured in Molecular Biology at the University of Melbourne for ten years. He came to Monash in 2008 as an ARC Federation Fellow to establish an inter-departmental research program in Host-Pathogen Molecular Biology and an NHMRC Program in Cellular Microbiology.

In recognition of his scientific accomplishments Lithgow was awarded as one of the ten HFSP Outstanding Research Fellows in 1999, awarded the Roche Medal from the Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 2004 and the David Syme Research Prize in 2005. Professor Lithgow was made a Federation Fellow of the Australian Research Council in 2008, an Australian Laureate Fellow in 2014, awarded the distinguished alumni award by La Trobe University in 2009, and was elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Sciences in 2010.

MHTP technical seminar: Seeing is Believing: Visualising your Research, 31 May

Tuesday 31st May 10:30-11:30am

TRF Building, Level 2, Seminar Room 2

Presenter: Dr. Kirstin Elgass, PhD and Dr. Sarah Creed, PhD

Manager and Optical Microscopy Specialists

Monash Micro Imaging – MMC

You’ve seen the outcome of your research on graphs but have you actually watched it as it happens? Micro imaging gives you the power to visualise what is happening inside cells, tissues or even whole animals. This seminar will outline how you can view your research in a whole new light using imaging techniques. From basic confocal microscopy through to advanced techniques such as super resolution and light-sheet imaging, learn how these different techniques can enhance your research outcomes.

Enquiries: Vivien.Vasic@hudson.org.au

2016 Students of Brain Research (SOBR) Professional Development Dinner - LAST WEEK TO BUY TICKETS

The Students of Brain Research (SOBR) Professional Development Dinner with the theme ​"Beyond the Lab: Rebranding your Science" is NEXT WEEK (Wednesday 25 May​)​​,  with ticket sales closing ​on ​21 May. 

Don't miss out on a fantastic opportunity to learn how to make others care about your research as much as you do! Led by Victorian Lead Scientist Leonie Walsh and consumer psychologist and Gruen Transfer regular Adam Ferrier, with the fantastic Dr. Andi Horvath as MC for the night. 

You will also have access to a diverse range of VIPs from Victorian research institutes and industry - a great chance to practise your networking skills and maybe find a new collaboration! 

Tickets are selling fast, make sure you and your fellow brain research friends don't miss out! ​   Please refer to the attached flyer for further details.​

Ticket sales close  Saturday​  21 May - bit.ly/SOBR2016

Animal Ethics Information – next session Monday 18 July 2016

Monash University requires that:

•    All new research staff and students using live animals complete the

information session “Animal Use in Research and Teaching”.

•    Researchers, Teachers and students must have attended or enrolled

in the next available session to be named on an animal ethics application.

Date: Monday 18 July 2016

Time: 10am – 12:30pm

Venue: Lecture Theatre S1, 16 Rainforest Walk, Clayton Campus

Register on-line -

http://intranet.monash.edu.au/researchadmin/animal/moreinfo/training.html

Georgina Sweet Awards for Women in Quantitative Biomedical Science

On behalf of Professor Leann Tilley, ARC Georgina Sweet Laureate Fellow and Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in the Bio21 Molecular Science and Biotechnology Institute, The University of Melbourne, we are pleased to advise you of two new awards that have been established this year for female researchers in quantitative biomedical science:

• Georgina Sweet Award for Women in Quantitative Biomedical Science: Up to two awards of $25,000 will be made each year to female researchers who demonstrate excellence in the area of quantitative biomedical science.  Closing date for applications for this year’s awards is 31 July 2016.

• Georgina Sweet Travel Support for a Female Keynote Speaker in Quantitative Biomedical Science: Up to three awards of $3,000 are available each year to support attendance of a female keynote speaker at an Australian quantitative biomedical science conference.  Applications are open at any time until awards have been allocated for the year.  

Both awards have been created as part of Professor Tilley’s Laureate Fellowship commitment to foster, support and promote female researchers in quantitative biomedical sciences.  Applications are open to researchers within Australia.

Application guidelines and forms for both awards are available at http://mdhs.unimelb.edu.au/research/georgina-sweet-awards/_nocache .

For queries about the awards, please contact Ms Shannon Kenny (shannon.kenny@unimelb.edu.au).

Opportunity to apply for funded places at the Commonwealth Science Conference 2017, 13-16 June

Please find attached details of an open call for outstanding early career and established scientists from across the Commonwealth to apply for a limited number of funded places at the 2017 Commonwealth Science Conference, co-organised by The Royal Society and the National Research Foundation Singapore. The Commonwealth Science Conference will take place in Singapore from 13-16 June 2017.

Further details of the conference and how to apply are provided in the attached flyer here. If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact csc2017@royalsociety.org

Young Scientist Forum on Cell Death and Survival, 9 September at WEHI

Program and registration here: http://ysfcds.wix.com/ysfcds

Registrations still available - Bridging the Gap: How to engage with Industry Workshop 19 May at MHTP

Looking for alternative sources of funding? Watermark Intellectual Asset Management and the VIIN Industry Alliance are proud to present comprehensive 2-hour workshops discussing how to bridge the gap between scientific researchers and industry. Learn about intellectual property, licensing, freedom-to-operate and how to successfully pitch your project to industry.

Clayton Workshop 

Thursday 19 May, 9:30am - 11:30am, 
TRF Level 2 Seminar Room 1 & 2, MHTP


Speaker details >
Registration is free. The workshop will be followed by a Q+A Panel and refreshments.
Register now >

Download a flyer >

Lodge of Australia Felix No.1 (Freemasons Victoria) - Cancer Research Grants for students

The Lodge of Australia Felix No. 1 is part of Freemasons Victoria and offers two Cancer Research Grants of $750 each for the current funding period.   The submission deadline is Friday ​1 J​ul​y ​2016 (9pm).

The Cancer Research Grants are to be used to cover travel costs and registration fees of postgraduate students (Honours, Master or Ph.D.) for presenting a poster at a scientific conference in Australia. The scientific content of the poster needs to address cancer research.

​Please find attached a promotional flyer and a copy of the application form here.

For further information please contact the Secretary of the Lodge of Australia Felix No. 1, Graham Dines (gdines@bigpond.net.au).

FOCUS series for PhD students: 30-31 May

The library will offer a set of FOCUS series workshops for Graduate Research Students in FMNHS on 30 and 31 May 2016. 

These sessions will be held at the Hargrave-Andrew Library at the Clayton campus.

Students undertaking the Biomedical Sciences or Psychology sub-faculties PhD coursework programs may take these workshops for credit towards their PhD - register in GRAMS.

Flyer with details attached here.

Monash University Graduate Research Scholarships

Applications for the next round of Monash University scholarships-only or scholarship and research degrees close on 31 May
http://www.monash.edu/graduate-research/future-students/apply

All supervisors approached by a prospective student seeking supervision must complete the Faculty MN&HS Quality Check Toolkit before accepting a prospective student.  Supervisors are required to complete the Quality Check to ensure they know the candidate, understand their motivation for entering a PhD, and are confident the student is most likely to make a good contribution to their research program.

Applications to undertake a PhD in the SCS will only be authorized after the supervisor has completed the required 3 steps.

Contact Rachael.Unwin@monash.edu for a copy of the Quality toolkit.

FMNHS Dean's Awards for Excellence 2016 - Applications Close 20 May

This is a reminder to advise that applications are still open for the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences Dean's Awards for Excellence 2016.

Nominations are now open for the following categories:

• Dean's Award for Excellence in Research 

• Dean's Award for Research Impact (Economic and Social Impact)

• Dean's Award for Excellence in Education 

• Dean's Award for Excellence in Education (Honours supervision)

• Dean's Award for Excellence in Administration

• Dean's Diversity and Inclusion Award 

For further information please see the link below:

http://www.med.monash.edu.au/intranet/staff/awards/

The closing date for nominations is Friday 20 May 2016.  Please submit your application to dunja.licina@monash.edu

If you have any questions about the scheme, please contact Dunja Licina on 990 55169.