Monash Imaging research transforming modern radiology

"The Phantom" is used to measure
the dose of the CTs

Two Monash Imaging doctors were recognised for their leading research at The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists (RANZCR) Annual Scientific Meeting last week.

Head of CT and Thoracic Imaging Clinical Associate Professor Ken Lau and Dr Yin Goh, 5^th year Radiology Registrar at Monash Health won awards for their cutting-edge research presentations at the meeting in Adelaide.

Associate Professor Lau’s poster, 'Imaging techniques in improving image quality of CT angiography: what are the latest?’ received the Wiley-Blackwell best exhibit award.

Clinical Assoc Prof Lau

“I demonstrated the use of the latest and advanced CT technology from different CT manufacturers that is beneficial to the image quality,” said Associate Professor Lau.

“CT technology is rapidly advancing, with a wide spectrum of CT imaging techniques that improve image quality and reduce radiation dose.”

Associate Professor Lau said new CT imaging techniques keep evolving and radiologists are no longer just imaging diagnosticians, but front-line technological experts who are guiding the development and applications of new imaging techniques in appropriate clinical settings.

Dr Yin Goh

Representing radiologists from Victoria and in collaboration with Associate Professor Lau and Dr Sidney Levy, Dr Goh won the Annual Scientific Meeting’s Branch of Origin research competition for her presentation of 'Fine Focal Spot Improves Image Quality in Abdominal CT Imaging'.

Awarded for the most outstanding trainee presentation, Dr Goh received a trophy and $5000 to present her paper at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) in Chicago next year.

“My project strives to improve the image quality of CT scans, such that we can make more accurate diagnoses,” said Dr Goh.

“We found that using a fine focal spot improves the image quality of abdominal CT scans without needing to expose the patient to any extra radiation and as radiologists, we are thrilled to have developed this new imaging technique to further improve patient care.”

“These are outstanding achievements from Associate Professor Lau and Dr Goh and further substantiate Monash University’s and Monash Health’s reputation as Australia's notable clinical imaging research centre,” said Director of Monash Imaging and Head of the Department of Imaging at the School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health (SCS) Professor Stephen Stuckey.

“For Associate Professor Lau they add to an already impressive array of acknowledgements of the high standard of his research to date and for Dr Goh this award is an excellent beginning to her research career.”

“Monash Imaging and the Monash University Department of Imaging are very proud of these achievements,” added Professor Stuckey.

Associate Professor Lau said he was honoured and humbled to receive his award at the Annual Scientific Meeting among so many exceptional posters and presentations.

“This award motivates me to continue exploring the use of advanced CT technology,” said Associate Professor Lau.  “Our research is transforming modern radiology and leading to better patient care.”

Associate Professor Lau thanked Professor Stuckey for enabling and supporting a culture of research in the Department.

Dr Goh said she is extremely grateful for Associate Professor Lau’s continuous guidance, advice and mentoring.

SCS success in latest NHMRC funding announcement

The School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health (SCS) received $6.5 million to lead 11 research projects in this week’s National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) funding announcement.

Announced yesterday, the Minister for Health Susan Ley MP said the funding will support 836 new research grants worth more than $630 million.

“NHMRC funding remains both the most prestigious and most important source of research funding in Australian medical research,” said Head of the School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health Professor Eric Morand.  

“The continued success of SCS researchers highlights the strength of collaborative research at this precinct.”

“We have had success across the multiple domains of our research this year. However, falling national funding success rates mean that many outstanding researchers did not have positive outcomes this year and we need to work together to support those unlucky this year to succeed in future rounds,” added Professor Morand. 

Medical researchers at Monash University attracted a total of $76.9 million dollars in funding from the NHMRC, ranked second in Australia in project grants and third for the total amount funded in this year’s round.

The 114 NHMRC-funded projects range across a number of categories, including public health, clinical medicine and science, and basic science.

SCS Grant and Fellowship recipients:

Career Development Fellowships

               Dr Connie Wong              

Early Career Fellowships

               Dr Monique Kilkenny       

               Dr Courtney McDonald  

              

Project Grants

               Dr Arun Azad                     

               Dr Greg Tesch                   

               Dr Tanya Davison            

               Dr Connie Wong              

               Prof Richard Kitching      

               Prof Stuart Hooper

TRIP Fellowship

               Assoc Prof Gillian Nixon

NHMRC and ARC Dementia Research Development Fellowships

               Dr Chris Moran

                             

ARC Discovery Project

               Dr Glenn Melvin

Monash Lupus research acknowledged with Distinguished Innovator Award

Professor Morand at the
LRI Forum for Discovery,
TimeLife building, Rockefeller Centre,
New York in October

Lupus patients are to benefit from research at Monash University thanks to an award of US$1 million.

Professor Eric Morand, Head of the School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health and Head of Rheumatology at Monash Health has been awarded a highly competitive Distinguished Innovator Award in Lupus worth US$1 million.

An initiative of the Lupus Research Institute (LRI), the Distinguished Innovator Award is a global program for outstanding scientists to conduct novel research into the fundamental causes of lupus and drive towards a cure.

“Advances across many disciplines have led to novel treatments that aim to suppress the manifestations of lupus, yet few interventions are being developed that seek to reverse or prevent the disease,” said Ms Margaret Dowd, Lupus Research Institute President and CEO.

“LRI Distinguished Innovators will address this gap by pioneering research into the fundamental, causative pathways of lupus.”

“Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE, or lupus) is a serious multisystem autoimmune disease,” said Professor Morand, who is also founder of the lupus clinic at Monash Health—Australia’s largest lupus-specific clinic.

“Patients with lupus, usually young women, can suffer severe illness and in some cases a shortened life expectancy due to the immune system damaging multiple organs.”

Currently the most widely used treatment for lupus is steroids, however, their harmful side effects are often worse than the disease itself.

Professor Morand’s research team is investigating proteins that separate the beneficial and harmful effects of glucocorticoids (also known as steroids).

“We hope to find a safer drug for the 70% of lupus patients who take chronic steroid therapy simply because there is no alternative.”

While an effective treatment for lupus, glucocorticoids can cause severe side effects including organ damage and increased mortality.

“Our research will explore whether a protein we recently discovered, GILZ, is a factor in causing lupus and if it can be used to develop a safer treatment with fewer side effects,” added Professor Morand.

Professor Morand said receiving the LRI award is one of his career highlights and the funding will enable his ambitious research plans to be expedited, building on the work of Dr Sarah Jones, postdoctoral scientist in the Morand group and collaborators including Dr Brendan Russ, University of Melbourne.

“I am thrilled that our profile at Monash University and Monash Health is recognised as a centre for excellence in lupus research.”

“Our work also builds on the founding principles of the Monash Health Translation Precinct (MHTP), relying not only on our first-class research facilities but also on co-location of the laboratories with the Monash Lupus Clinic. 

Stroke and Ageing Research Group Head promoted

Professor Srikanth

Congratulations Professor Velandai Srikanth who received an academic promotion last week.

A specialist senior geriatrician within Neurosciences at Monash Health, Professor Srikanth has extensive clinical expertise in stroke and cognitive disorders.

As an established Clinical Academic, Professor Srikanth has developed and now leads the multifaceted Stroke and Ageing Research (STAR) group in Medicine, Schoolof Clinical Sciences at Monash Health (SCS) within the Monash HealthTranslation Precinct (MHTP). He also leads the stroke sub-theme within Neurosciences/Mental Health in the Academic Health Science Centre, MonashPartners.

Professor Srikanth holds a co-funded fellowship from the NHMRC Career Development program and the Heart Foundation Future Leader Program and is the recipient of eight NHMRC project grants.

An important focus of Professor Srikanth’s current work is unravelling the relationship between metabolic health (diabetes, insulin resistance, glycation) and dementia.

“Diabetes and dementia are both very large public health problems, and the research we are conducting here at the MHTP is at the forefront of efforts aimed at understanding why diabetes increases the risk of dementia,” said Professor Srikanth.

“This will hopefully lead to alternative ways to reduce the burden of dementia in older people.”

Other areas of Professor Srikanth’s research include cerebral small vessel disease and its clinical effects on people, and mechanisms of brain ageing syndromes (dementia, gait disturbances, falls) related to cerebrovascular disease.

Professor Srikanth collaborates actively with basic researchers in the study of immune factors involved in acute stroke, novel health service delivery systems for patients with stroke and TIA, global health in stroke and stroke risk factors in developing countries, involving collaborations with several national and international groups.

Professor Srikanth is also actively clinically involved in enabling the efficient transition of acute stroke patients to the sub-acute setting, the multidisciplinary management of complex post-stroke complications, and conducting outpatient clinics for stroke, TIA and cognitive disorders.

“Professor Srikanth’s promotion is richly deserved—he was recruited to Monash University by a former Vice Chancellor, Professor Ed Byrne who obviously had an eye for spotting exceptional academic ability,” said Head of Department of Medicine Professor Peter Ebeling AO.

Professor Ebeling said he is very proud of Professor Srikanth and his group’s huge contributions to the success of his Department and the School.

“It is also personally gratifying for me to note the direct health benefits flowing from the research group’s interventions in the developing world in India,” added Professor Ebeling.

Department of Medicine researchers receive awards at ANZBMS

Dr Nguyen, Mr Rodriguez and
Prof Ebeling in Hobart

Congratulations to our Department of Medicine researchers whose research was widely acknowledged at the Australian and New Zealand Bone and Mineral Society (ANZBMS) Annual Scientific Meeting last week in Hobart.

Monash Health Endocrinologist and Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the Hudson Institute of Medical Research Dr Phillip Wong received the prestigious Osteoporosis Australia / Amgen Research Grant.

Dr Wong, who recently completed his PhD at Hudson, has uncovered a potentially important relationship between deferasirox (iron chelator) with kidney stones and osteoporosis through increased hypercalciuria in patients with thalassaemia. 

“The aim of my current research is to determine whether reversing hypercalciuria in people taking deferasirox can lead to a reversal in loss of bone mineral density,” said Dr Wong.

“This grant is a great honour for me and will allow me to devote important time and resources to my research and enable me to be competitive in obtaining peer-reviewed funding over the next 12 to 24 months.”

Dr Hanh Nguyen, Endocrinology Research Fellow and PhD student in the Bone and Muscle Research Group received the Clinical Research Excellence Award for her study, ‘Delay in oestrogen commencement is associated with low spine and hip bone mineral density in Turner Syndrome’.

Turner Syndrome is the most common chromosomal abnormality in females, and is associated with gonadal failure, osteoporosis and fragility fractures. Gonadal failure, resulting in chronic oestrogen deficiency, is a major risk factor for osteoporosis and can be treated with oestrogen therapy.

“Monash Health has the only multidisciplinary Adult Turner Syndrome Clinic in Australia, and our study investigated the prevalence and risk factors for low bone mass in Turner Syndrome patients,” said Dr Nguyen.

“We found that gonadal failure affected close to 90% of patients but that there was a delay in starting oestrogen therapy, associated with lower bone density in the spine and hip.” 

Dr Nguyen’s study has been valuable in identifying the risk factors for osteoporosis in Turner Syndrome.

“We have shown that it is important to ensure timely oestrogen commencement and encourage continuous oestrogen therapy compliance to avoid oestrogen deficiency and thus optimise bone health in this population.” 

Also from the Bone and Muscle Health Research Group, PhD student Alexander Rodriguez received a plenary poster presentation at the Annual Scientific meeting.

“My study showed that in otherwise healthy older Australians, low muscle mass was associated with more calcification in the aorta,” said Mr Rodriguez.

“Aortic calcification is an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease, possibly even more important than blood pressure because calcified arteries may cause a rise in blood pressure and thus precede hypertension.”

Mr Rodriguez said as a junior researcher he was very grateful to have received his award and was pleased to establish two potential collaborations with colleagues interested in his poster at the meeting.

Monash Intensivist honoured through University Fellowship

Assoc Prof Parkin

Monash University alumnus and Honorary Intensivist at Monash Health Associate Professor Geoffrey Parkin was honoured as an exceptional leader through a University Fellowship last week.

The award of Fellowship by the University recognizes distinguished service or achievement in the arts, sciences, professions or civil society for the benefit of the community. This award recognized a long and distinguished career as clinician, teacher and researcher in Intensive Care Medicine.

Undoubtedly the top career highlight has been “working for forty years with the best nurses and doctors you could find” Dr Parkin said.

“Critical illness sometimes puts patients, relatives and staff under stress. With knowledge, compassion and teamwork comes therapeutic success. Care is enormously rewarding and we have had much joy.  The award of a Monash Fellowship is essentially a shared acknowledgement of all those contributors.”

Nutrition and Dietetics PhD student receives Sports Medicine Australia Award

Congratulations Rhiannon Snipe who was awarded a Sports Medicine Australia (SMA) research grant last week.

An Accredited Practicing Dietitian and Accredited Sports Dietitian, Rhiannon is currently completing her PhD in the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics.

Rhiannon received the SMA research grant, valued at $2000, for investigating the impact of internal cooling methods during exertional heat stress on preventing gastrointestinal distress and endotoxaemia-related (a form of blood poisoning) causes of heat stroke.

If you participate in ultramarathons or extreme sports, please contact Rhiannon at base.active@monash.edu to volunteer to take part in her research.  Study participants will receive feedback that will help their own performance.

Input sought on 3D bioprinter

A working group that's bringing a fully-funded 3D bioprinter to the Monash Health Translation Precinct's Cell Therapies Platform is seeking input from researchers as it moves to finalise the purchase of the machine.

The 3D bioprinter is part of a $30 million Biomedical Materials Translational Facility (BMTF) partnership between CSIRO and Monash University, established with funding from Australia’s Science and Industry Endowment Fund (SIEF). 

The Hudson Institute and Monash University’s School of Clinical Sciences have contributed $800,000 of in-kind funding support to house the 3D bioprinter within the Cell Therapies Platform of the MHTP Translational Research Facility.
Funding was announced in early 2015. The working group, including Professor Graham Jenkin and Dr George Thouas, is now seeking feedback from researchers on the specific capabilities they may wish to utilise.

The 3D bioprinter may have the capacity to manufacture:- hard tissue components (bone, joints, cartilage, ligament/tendon)- soft tissue components (skin, muscle, nerves, blood vessels, heart valves, corneas etc)- organ models for research - porous scaffolds for cell and drug delivery- tissue biosensors (eg bionic components)- 3D cell expansion systems (for cell therapies)

The bioprinter is one of three technological platforms that will be based at the BMTF, alongside dual modality (MRI/PET) clinical imaging and a specialist facility for the development and manufacture of next generation biocompatible materials.

If you’re interested in using the 3D bioprinter, or want to learn more about its potential capabilities and how they may enhance your translational research, contact george.thouas@hudson.org.au or graham.jenkin@hudson.org.au

TRF relocation update

Staff will start relocating to the Translational Research Facility (TRF) on 23 November.

Before 23 November:

1. All staff who have not yet forwarded their relocation plans and equipment lists (equipment moving and equipment staying) need to do so before the 15th November 2015, so Steve Bouralexis can approve them.

2. This week there will be a couple of seminars with Mark Montgomery from Kent business relocations, who will assist us on the move followed by deliver of packaging crates. All staff involved in the move will need to attend one of these sessions.

3. Staff moving into the TRF will also need to attend mandatory emergency procedure training. Dates will be provided closest to start date, but we are working on starting these on the 16th November.

4. All staff who require third party companies to assist in precision moves need to start locking in times with those companies, they should all now have their PO's.

We will have the man power onsite to move multiple groups at the same time, so if any group/theme has specific needs, let Steve know and he will try and accommodate.

Steve Bouralexis

steve.bouralexis@hudson.org.au

SCS calendar - what's on this week

Did you know that SCS events, lectures, seminars and more are scheduled in the SCS calendar?  You can subscribe to our calendar, ensuring you will receive invitations and never miss another event or meeting.

Just click on any of the scheduled events and you can easily add it to your own calendar.

The SCS calendar is on the front page of SCS eNews: (scsenews.blogspot.com.au). You can also add the SCS calendar to your list of calendars by clicking on the +Google calendar button.

What's on for this week (09-13 Nov)

Tue	10/11/2015	10:00 AM	►	Seminar: The lifecycle of a manuscript: helpful hints for publishing in top-tier journals
		01:00 PM	►	PhD Pre-Submission Seminar - Anita Pinar
Wed	11/11/2015	12:30 PM	►	Grand Rounds:  “AngioNeurotic versus Idiopathic?”
Thu	12/11/2015	08:00 AM	►	Clinical Inertia In The Individualisation Of Care For Patients With Diabetes presented by Dr Paivi Maria Paldanius
		11:30 AM	►	Grand Rounds: Preventing depression in later life: How should we do it?
		04:00 PM	►	Hudson seminar: “MHTP Medical Genomics Forum” -Technologies in Research
Fri	13/11/2015	09:00 AM	►	Monash/Alfred Quality Improvement: Measurable and Immeasurable challenges for the Generalist

Forthcoming events (15-30 Nov)

Tue 17/11/2015 01:00 PM ► CiiiD Seminar Series Fri 20/11/2015 12:15 PM ► PhD Student Showcase Symposium Mon 23/11/2015 02:00 PM ► PhD Mid-candidature Review - Shanti Gurung Tue 24/11/2015 01:00 PM ► CiiiD Seminar Series Wed 25/11/2015 10:15 AM ► SCS morning tea and staff meeting Sat 28/11/2015 08:30 AM ► “Improving Men’s Health – Research Horizons in Andrology"

Grand Rounds: “AngioNeurotic versus Idiopathic?” Wed 11 November

Unit: General Medicine                     

Presenter: Dr Sara Barnes                                     

Topic: “AngioNeurotic versus Idiopathic?”

        

Date: Wednesday 11 November 2015

Time: 12.30pm to 1.30pm

Venue: Main Lecture Theatre, Monash Medical Centre

SCS end of year trivia lunch - Friday December 11

Friday 11 December, 12-3pm  Monash Club, Clayton

Register attendance here. See flyer with details here.

Grand Rounds 12 November: PREVENTING DEPRESSION IN LATER LIFE: HOW SHOULD WE DO IT?

Department of Psychiatry at Monash University, School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health presents Professor Osvaldo Almeida

Thursday 12 November, 11.30-12.30pm, Lecture Theatre 3, MMC Clayton
Light lunch provided.

Osvaldo P. Almeida is the Professor of Geriatric Psychiatry at the University of Western Australia, as well as the Director of Research of the WA Centre for Health & Ageing. He was born and brought up in Brazil, but completed his postgraduate training at the Institute of Psychiatry, University of London, UK. He has been living and working in Australia since 1998. During this time, his research has focused on the identification and modification of risk factors associated with poor mental health outcomes in later life, particularly depression and cognitive decline. To date, he has published over 300 original research papers, as well as numerous book chapters, books, reports and scientific abstracts. His h-index is 62 and his work has received nearly 14000 citations to date.

Centre of Inflammatory Disease (CID) Seminar- TODAY:"TLRs and Quantiferon in TB-an update on a pilot translational study at Monash Health"

The next CID Seminar will be held on Tuesday 10th November from 12:00-13:00 in the Medicine Seminar Room Located on Level 5, Block E MMC.

Dr Sabine De Silva will be presenting:  "TLRs and Quantiferon in TB-an update on a pilot translational study at Monash Health"

Lunch will be provided.  All welcome.

  

"The lifecycle of a manuscript: helpful hints for publishing in top-tier journals" TODAY 10am

Dr Laurie Dempsey

A special seminar on "The lifecycle of a manuscript: helpful hints for publishing in top-tier journals" will be presented by Dr Laurie Dempsey, Senior Editor of the Nature Immunology journal.

Dr Dempsey will be visiting the Hudson Institute next Tuesday 10th November.  Her seminar will be at 10.00am in the Level 3 Boardrooms.  Please see the attached flyer for more information.

In the CiiiD seminar at 1.00pm, Anita Pinar will be presenting her pre-submission seminar on "The role of the inflammasome and IL-1beta in inflammatory disease."  Anita's seminar will also be held in the Level 3 Boardrooms.

Fundraising Lunch and Raffle for Medecins Sans Frontieres this Friday 13 November

Please join us this Friday, 13^th November in the Medicine seminar room for a lunch with delicious treats, drinks, raffle, and socialize while helping to raise money. Lots of prizes are to be won (see below). All proceeds raised at the event will be donated to MSF!

Details:

What:  Raffle and buffet-style lunch (incl. drinks), where attendees can either bring food for sharing or will be asked for a small donation. Raffle tickets can be purchased this week from the SCS reception and will be drawn during the lunch.

When: Friday, 13^th November, 12-2pm

Where: Medicine Seminar Room, Block E, Level 5 (close to SCS reception)

Prices: $8 lunch incl. drinks (or bring and eat free, in which case please contact: Michaela.finsterbusch@monash.edu)

$2 for 1 or $5 for 3 raffle tickets (get tickets at SCS reception, Block E, level 5 or from Michaela Finsterbusch)

Raffle Prizes:

Hudson seminar Thurs 12 November “MHTP Medical Genomics Forum” -Technologies in Research

Speaker Dr Nold

Thursday 12 November, 4-5pm, Lecture Theatre 1, MMC
Hosted by Ms Vivien Vasic, MHTP Medical Genomics Facility

Flyer with details here.

Clinical Inertia In The Individualisation Of Care For Patients With Diabetes - 12 Nov

Presented by Dr Paivi Maria Paldanius

Thursday 12 November, 8 - 9am
Lecture Theatre 2, Monash Medical Centre

Dr. Päivi Maria Paldánius is Director, Global Medical Affairs Diabetes and Metabolism at Novartis Pharma AG, Switzerland. She graduated from a unique research-oriented medicine programme (MMS) piloted at Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden, and has also completed Nordplus scholar studies in neuropharmacology at the Helsinki University and more recently, clinical paediatric graduate school studies as a part of her PhD studies at the Children’s Hospital, Helsinki University Central Hospital. She joined Novartis in 2006 and has been contributing to the clinical programmes within diabetes and metabolism as Regional European Medical Adviser, later as Global Principle Medical Scientific Expert and after year 2013 as Director, Global Medical Affairs Diabetes and Metabolism. Today she is the medical lead of the VERIFY study and has designed, implemented and published unique clinical studies and clinical programmes such as the INTERVAL study addressing the individualised targets in elderly persons with T2DM or the Time2DoMore programme addressing the barriers to optimised diabetes care and perceptions and reasons behind clinical inertia.

In parallel with her pharmaceutical career Päivi Paldánius is also a member of an academic research group at Children’s Hospital, Helsinki University Central Hospital. Her academic research interests have always focused on endocrinology, especially targeting mechanisms behind imbalances in bone metabolism and glucose tolerance in a cohort of young adults born prematurely with very low birth weight. 

SCS Researchers - Joint Hudson-SCS Grant Review process for 2016: NHMRC and ARC grant applications

All researchers are invited to be part of the Joint Hudson-SCS Grant Review process, which reviews NHMRC and ARC grant applications.  Through this process you will receive advice on the strategic direction of your grant and identifying reviewers to assist with grantsmanship.  Please note that participation for SCS researchers in this peer review process is now compulsory.
Sessions to review early grant proposals have been shown to be particularly useful for new grant proposals and those that are to be substantially rewritten.  At each meeting applicants are asked to speak about their proposed grant for approximately 5 minutes, clearly addressing the selection criteria. This is then followed by 15 minutes of discussion and feedback.  All postdoctoral researchers are encouraged to attend.

To participate in this process, please send the following to jinleng.graham@monash.edu:


- By Monday 16 November, 2015 - No. of grants, proposed CIs, granting body and preferred Panel - This will be used to allocate meetings and spokespersons.


- By Monday 23 November, 2015 - Completed NHMRC or ARC proforma (attached) and track records for each CI.

Meetings to review Grant Proposals will run from 30 November to 18 December, 2015. You must be available to attend these meetings.
Note that the Ritchie Centre runs a separate review process.  Those going through this process do not have to participate in the above process but may choose to do so, particularly if their grant crosses over into themes other than reproduction.

Please do not hesitate to contact Jin Graham (857 22650) if you have any queries.

Reminder: students to register for inaugural PhD Student Symposium, 20 November

Please join us for the inaugural PhD Student Symposium showcasing the best of SCS-Hudson 2nd/3rd year PhD students from different disciplines in 15 minute talks. 

Friday 20 November, 12.15 - 5.00pm, Lecture Theatre 1, MMC

Register your attendance here.   Enquiries to: PhD.scs@monash.edu

Note: All SCS/Hudson PhD students are expected to attend.  See here for further information.

PhD Mid-Candidature Review - Kanokwan Srirattana

Title: Manipulating the mitochondrial genome to generate more economically viable livestock.

Date: 24th November 2015
Time: 9.45am
Venue: Hudson meeting room, Level 2
Supervisors: Prof Justin St. John and Dr Matthew McKenzie
SAC/Panel chair: Dr Craig Harrison
Independent assessors: A/Prof David Walker and A/Prof Peter Temple-Smith

PhD Mid-Candidature Review - Rahana Abdul Rahman

Title: Future promising treatments for preterm pre-eclampsia

Date: 24th November 2015
Time: 9.00 - 10.30 am
Venue: Board rooms level 3 Hudson Institute of Medical Research
Supervisors:  Prof. Euan Wallace, Dr Rebecca Lim, Dr Padma Murthi
Panel chair: A/Prof Eva Dimitriadis

PhD Mid-candidature Review - Shanti Gurung

Title: Use of small molecules to improve culture expansion of eMSC for clinical use

Supervisors: A/Prof Caroline Gargett and Prof Jerome Werkmeister
Panel chair: Prof Graham Jenkin
Independent assessors: Dr Rebecca Lim and A/Prof Pritinder Kaur

Date/time:	Mon 23 Nov 2015 14:00 – 15:00
Venue:	Level 3 boardrooms, Hudson Institute 27-31 Wright Street Clayton

Information Pack Moodle 2.9 Upgrade

Sent on behalf of Dr George Kotsana, Academic Director, Information Technology

There will be an upgrade to Moodle in the first week of December.  The Moodle 2.9 upgrade will commence at 11 PM, AEDT on Friday 4th December and complete at  8:00 AM Monday 7 December. Monash Moodle will NOT be available for use during this time.

New Moodle 2.9 features:

• Notable improvements to navigation and the interface to give Moodle a more professional and streamlined appearance.
• Support for working with large classes continues to improve in groups and groupings.
• A new capability to subscribe or unsubscribe to a single discussion in a forum.
• Quizzes are no longer limited to a single structure or behaviour and now include options such conditional questions, and internal sections that can have randomised and sequential questions in the same quiz.
• “Natural weighting” promises to make using and managing Grades much easier by using input boxes to edit weightings it calculates the percentage contributions of each assessable item in much more intuitively.

Current Moodle learning topics have been updated to reflect the additional functionality and changes. These are available on the Moodle Learning Topics page.

What should I do to prepare for the upgrade?

Introducing Campus Travel, Monash University preferred travel agent

The University would like its staff to use its preferred travel agents for all your travel bookings, listed below:

Campus Travel
Phone: 1300 767 092 Email: monash@campustravel.com.au

Voyager
Phone: 1300 887 732 Email: monash@voyagertravel.com.au

Campus Travel & Voyager
Bookings for international travel made through Campus Travel or Voyager must be made by telephone or email.

Please note that corporate credit cards cannot be used to book travel.  Campus Travel and Voyager will charge the cost of your booking to your cost centre/fund.  The easiest way to book your travel with Campus Travel or Voyager is to email your request to them - you do not have to go through Concur Travel Management.

Free Qantas Frequent Flyer membership is offered via this link:
https://www.qantas.com.au/fflyer/do/dyns/joinffp?code=FAMILYFREE

Campus Travel flier here.  Campus Travel mobile app information here.
Research poster here.

Cord blood mononuclear cells prevent neuronal apoptosis in response to perinatal asphyxia in the newborn lamb

Suzie Miller et al. published in The Journal of Physiology.

Read article here.

Social factors ameliorate psychiatric disorders in community-based asylum seekers independent of visa status

Suresh Sundram et al. published in Psychiatry Research.

Read article here.

Unravelling the links between the initiation of ventilation and brain injury in preterm infants

Samantha Barton et al. published in Frontiers in Pediatrics.

Read article here.

Targeting IL-17 and IL-23 in Immune Mediated Renal Disease

Jo Ghali et al. published in Current Medicinal Chemistry.

Read article here.

Atlas of the Global Burden of Stroke (1990-2013): The GBD 2013 Study

Amanda Thrift et al. published in Neuroepidemiology.

Read article here.

Remission in SLE: closing in on the target

Eric Morand et al. published in Annals of the Rheumatic Disease.

Read article here.

The role of multiparametric flow cytometry in the detection of minimal residual disease in acute leukaemia

George Grigoriadis et al. published in Pathology.

Read article here.