Featured post

SCS research and awards news

For all our research and awards news, please visit our news page.

Monday 20 February 2017

3MT presentation - Ruth Walker

                                                                Ruth Walker presents her research on the effects of weight gain during pregancy.

Victorian low and middle income households experiencing food insecurity

Sue Kleve
It is not only very low-income families in Australia who experience food insecurity but low to middle-income families as well, according to latest research at Monash University.

Published in the Australian Journal of Primary Health, the study led by Sue Kleve from the Monash Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food reveals food insecurity exists in low to middle income Victorian households.  

“Food insecurity is the limited or uncertain availability of individuals’ and households’ physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food,” said Accredited Practising Dietitian Ms Kleve, who is also a lecturer and PhD candidate at Monash University.  

“Food insecurity affects health and wellbeing and our study shows that up to five per cent of the Victorian population is affected.”

Using data from the 2006-2009 Victorian Population Health Survey, the research team categorised respondents as food insecure if in the last 12 months they had run out of food and were unable to buy more.

Ms Kleve said the study found that between 4.9 and 5.5 per cent of the total survey population and 3.9 to 4.8 per cent of low to middle income households ($40,000-$80,000 per year) were food insecure.

“It’s concerning that food insecurity exists in households beyond those on a very low income, and for some, this is a weekly or fortnightly experience. Food insecurity is associated with negative health outcomes, including obesity, chronic disease, mental illness and social isolation in adults. However there is also the effect on children including poor general health and behavioural and academic issues.”

Ms Kleve said that food insecurity in low to middle income households was associated with limited help from friends, home ownership status, inability to raise money in an emergency and cost of some foods.


 “This research highlights that there are some low to middle income Australians who do not have enough nutritious food to eat. There is a need for a range of responses to improve people’s access to nutritious food,” Ms Kleve said.

School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health (SCS) researcher receives Young Investigator Award

Dr David Scott
Department of Medicine postdoctoral research fellow Dr David Scott has received the prestigious 2017 ESCEO-AgNovos Healthcare Young Investigator Award, and will be presented with his prize at the World Congress on Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis and Musculoskeletal Diseases (WCO) next month in Florence, Italy.

A partnership of the WCO, the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) and the European Society for Clinical and Economic Aspects of Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis and Musculoskeletal Diseases (ESCEO), the annual Congress is the world’s leading clinical conference on bone, joint and muscle health.

At the conference, Dr Scott will present his latest research on sarcopenic obesity.
"We have previously demonstrated that older adults with sarcopenia (low muscle mass and strength), combined with obesity, have increased fracture risk but surprisingly this was not explained by greater falls rates,” said Dr Scott.

Dr Scott’s current research is exploring whether the relationship is explained by weaker bones.
“Indeed, we have found that sarcopenic obese older adults have low bone density and quality, and this appears to be related to their low relative muscle mass and also higher amounts of fat infiltration within their muscles."

Dr Scott said the next steps are to seek funding to trial a multi-component exercise program for sarcopenic obese older adults, including a range of activities designed to reduce fat mass, while improving muscle mass and function, as well as and bone quality.


Call for entries for Day of Immunology photography exhibition


2016 L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Fellowships - applications now OPEN

Four fellowships will be awarded to outstanding early career post-doctoral female scientists.
Field(s) of research funded:  Variety of fields including life sciences, clinical and health sciences, material sciences, physical sciences, mathematics or engineering.
Funder closing date:  Monday 3 April 2017.
Funding available:  Each fellowship will be awarded $25,000.
Funder information:  www.formwomeninscience.com.au
Submit application to:  Applications can be submitted through www.forwomeninscience.com.au under the “Apply” tab.
Application form at:  The application form (available from 20 February) and more information about the L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Australian & New Zealand program can be found at www.forwomeninscience.com.au.
Eligibility:  Candidates must be within five years of completing their PhD and an Australian or New Zealand citizen or permanent resident.


Further information is available at https://www.forwomeninscience.com.au/

CID Weekly Seminar Series Tuesday 21 Feb

CID Weekly Seminar Series Tuesday 21 February 2017: Mrs Champa Nataraja (Postgraduate student milestone review seminar)

12:00 - 12:30pm, Tuesday 21 February 
Seminar Room 1, TRF Building

Mrs Champa Nataraja
Postgraduate student, Milestone Review - confirmation

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a clinically diverse autoimmune disease characterized by the loss of tolerance to nuclear self-antigens and autoantibody production, and type 1 Interferon play a critical role in SLE pathogenesis. The majority of patients with SLE are typically treated with Glucocorticoids (GCs) due to their broad anti-inflammatory effect but result in significant metabolic adverse effects that contribute to increased morbidity and mortality in SLE.There is a critical need for alternative therapies to glucocorticoids that can exert similar anti-inflammatory effects, such as inhibition of type I interferon production, but without causing the metabolic adverse effects of GC. GILZ (Glucocorticoid-induced leucine zipper), a GC-inducible protein, may represent such an alternative. Thus, I aim to determine that GILZ regulates type 1 IFN production and is metabolically inert distinct from GCs. This work will validate GILZ as a therapeutic target in SLE and potentially lead to a therapy reducing dependence on GC in SLE treatment.

A light lunch is served prior to the seminar at 11:45am in the seminar room foyer, level 2, TRF Building.

Further information, including the link to add the seminar series to your google calendar, is available from CID Weekly Seminar Series website [http://www.med.monash.edu.au/scs/medicine/cid/seminar-series.html]

MHTP Infectious and Inflammatory Diseases Theme Special Seminar: "Antibodies and Change Agents in HIV: Good News for Vaccines" 21 February

  • Presenter: Prof Nancy Haigwood
  • Topic: Antibodies and Change Agents in HIV: Good News for Vaccines
  • Date: Tuesday 21 February 2017
  • Seminar Time: 12:30 - 1:30pm
  • Light lunch: 11:45am in the seminar room foyer, level 2, TRF Building
  • Venue: Seminar Room 1, Level 2, TRF Building, Monash Medical Centre
  • Flyer
  • To book a time to meet with Prof Haigwood: email andrea.johannessen@monash.edu
  • Further information: visit the CID Weekly Seminar Series website
Speaker profile: 
Prof Nancy HaigwoodDirector, Oregon National Primate Research Center (ONPRC), Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), Professor, Pathobiology & Immunology Division, ONPRC, OHSU, Adjunct Professor, Molecular Microbiology & Immunology, School of Medicine, OHSU

For the last 30 years Prof Haigwood has been actively engaged in vaccine discovery and immunotherapy research for in nonhuman primate (NHP) models for HIV/AIDS. Prof Haigwood co-developed one of the first HIV vaccines, gp120 produced in CHO cells, while at Chiron Corporation (now Novartis) and has maintained a continuously funded laboratory that is focused on antibody-based therapies and Envelope-based vaccines to elicit protective antibodies. Since leaving industry in 1997, Prof Haigwood has led numerous and continuing individual and collaborative program grants as Principal Investigator, including serving as PI of a P01 “HIVRAD” vaccine grant to discover novel HIV Envelope immunogens. Expertise in the laboratory extends to DNA-based and viral vaccines, as well as recombinant monomeric and trimeric antigen design and production in 293 cells (and purification) for use in vaccine studies. Prof Haigwood's laboratory has recently shown that potent human neutralizing monoclonal antibodies can change the course of SHIV infection in infant macaques, directly killing newly established infected cells in vivo and preventing the establishment of a permanent viral reservoir.

Gastrointestinal Microbiota: From metagenomic correlation to causative validation and bacteriotherapy design, 22 Feb

12-1pm, Wednesday 22 February, Seminar Room 1, TRF

Presented by Dr Samuel Forster, Research Fellow, Pathogens Group, Wellcome Trust Sanger Centre, Cambridge UK
NHMRC C.J. Martin Fellow, Centre for Innate Immunity and Infectious Disease, Hudson Institute of Medical Research

Sam's work combines microbiology, immunology and computational analysis to understand the functional role and community dynamics of the human microbiota in health and disease.
Understanding how our microbiota is acquired and the forces that cause it to change provides important insights into health and disease. Sam's research seeks to understand the relationship between host state, microbiota community and the susceptibility to diseases including infections by opportunistic pathogens such
as Clostridium difficile and Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

His research is focused on:
 Wide scale 16S profiling and metagenomic sequence based analysis to understand microbiota community structure
 Computational modeling and machine learning based approaches to understand microbiota community dynamics in health and dysbiotic disease
 Analysis of the diversity of host cellular and transcriptional responses using in-vitro and in-vivo models of human microbiota communities

This work ultimately seeks to provide novel bacteriotherapies and identify other therapeutic interventions to improve human health.

Monash Children's Hospital Information Session, 23 February

All staff are invited to the New Monash Children's Hospital Information Session:

     Thursday February 23,  2-3pm
     Monash Medical Centre Lecture Theatre 1

What will I learn?
·         Hear the latest exciting project news from Project Director Kym Forrest
·         Bring along any question that you may have about the new hospital and be part of the Q&A

Research Output Collection (ROC) Guidance for Researchers

In the lead up to the 2018 Excellence in Research Australia (ERA) submission, it is particularly important that all of your research outputs produced over 2011 - 2016 are comprehensively captured in our Monash system (Pure) to inform Monash’s submission. The information is also used to support the 2017 Promotion round, Academic Performance Reporting and is viewable on your researcher profile.

How can you check to see if all of your research outputs have been captured in Pure?

Step 1 – Check if you have any outputs harvested from Scopus that need to be imported

Log onto the Pure system and check to see if Pure has automatically harvested any outputs for you to claim. On the top right hand section of your screen select the ‘Candidates in Scopus’ option under the My personal tasks. 
 
Review each output listed:
·        If you are an author, select the ‘import’ option to add to your profile.
·        If you are not an author, select the ‘reject’ option and it will remove any association to the output.
·        If the system states the output has already been imported from Scopus, please select the ‘reject’ option to avoid duplication of the output record in Pure.
If the ‘Candidate in Scopus’ option does not appear on your screen, then you have no harvested outputs to review.

Step 2 – After you have completed the first step, you may still have missing outputs

To review a list of all your research outputs in Pure, click on Research Output from either the left navigation menu or in your My research tab.

​​ 
You can scroll down and view your outputs on the screen and check for completeness.  Or you can print or save the list of outputs by selecting the ‘Download list’ option at the bottom of the page.

If you would like to submit outputs which do not appear on your list, please forward the output details and a PDF copy or a link/doi for each output to the Research Outputs Collection Service (ROCS) team at adm-rocs-medicine@monash.edu. Alternatively, you can submit a copy of your CV highlighting the outputs to be entered to the ROCS team and they will input any missing outputs in the Pure system (please include links/doi/copies of the outputs as applicable).

Further information on research outputs can be found here. Alternatively, if you have any questions or would like any further information please contact Sian Wright on Sian.Wright@monash.edu or Annie Kelly in Ann.Kelly@monash.edu.


Cafe Nesso has extended opening hours

Cafe Nesso in the TRF has extended their opening hours and are now trading from 6.30am to 5.30pm.

Staff OHS training

OHS training opportunity 23 February 2017

  •  10.00am-1.00pm: Student Project Safety (Risk Management) - compulsory for students (once only)
  • 2.00pm-4.00pm: Biosafety level 1 (Microbiologicals) - for clinical and lab researchers
  • 4.00pm-5.30pm: Biosafety level 2 (OGTR / AQIS)
Venue: TRF building seminar reoom 1, Monash Medical Centre

Registration and further information is hereStudents - please register via your student authcate account (not a staff account). Places are limited so please register as soon as possible.

Is my OHS training up to date? 
You can check your training portfolio in ESS via My Monash Training Qualifications. 

What training do I need to do?
Please refer to the OHS training guide or email clare.westhorpe@monash.edu

Healthy volunteers needed for blood donations

We are looking for healthy volunteers to donate blood for an ongoing project. We usually take between 10 - 60mL of blood. Your blood will be used in in vitro assays testing recombinant proteins or in flow cytometry to look for certain protein markers. We do not keep any DNA or perform any sort of cloning. 
ALL results will be confidential under Hudson/Monash University agreement. 

Below is a list of requirements in order to qualify:
- be 'healthy/well' (if you have a cold or cough, you will not qualify)
- you must NOT have any underlying medical condition
- you have NOT taken any paracetamol or anti-inflammatory medications (panadol, neurofen, antihistamine such as hayfever sprays/tablets etc) 24-48 hours prior to donating 
- you must NOT be on any medications (the pill, vitamins and supplements are all ok)

We will generally email or text you 24 to 48hours before hand to let you know the time and date. 
We are located on Level 1 of the Hudson Building (office and labs right near Stores)

PLEASE NOTE: You are volunteering your time and blood and therefore you always have the option of saying 'No' if we contact you and you are unavailable or don't feel like it or for whatever reason. 

If you would like to donate or have any questions, please email your name, email address and mobile number to devi.ngo@hudson.org.au

All donors will receive a coffee voucher to be used at Nesso as a thank you


Could this anti-ageing supplement help prevent diabetes?

Associate Professor Barbora de Courten in The Age.

Read article HERE.

Midterm Safety and Efficacy of ABSORB Bioresorbable Vascular Scaffold Versus Everolimus-Eluting Metallic Stent: An Updated Meta-Analysis

Jim Cameron et al. published in JACC Cardiovascular Interventions.

Read article here.

The Femoral Neck Mechanoresponse to Hip Extensors Exercise: A Case Study

Peter Ebeling et al. published in the Journal of Osteoporosis.

Read article here.

Bell's palsy in children: Current treatment patterns in Australia and New Zealand. A PREDICT study

John Cheek et al. published in the Journal of Paediatric Child Health.

Read article here.

Testing a systematic approach to identify and prioritise barriers to successful implementation of a complex healthcare intervention.

Dominique Cadilhac et al. published in BMC Medical Research Methodology.

Read article here.

Placental Vitamin D-Binding Protein Expression in Human Idiopathic Fetal Growth Restriction

Padma Murthi et al. published in the Journal of Pregnancy.

Read article here.

Fifteen minute consultation: A structured approach to the management of children and adolescents with medically unstable anorexia nervosa

Jacinta Coleman et al. published in ADC Education & Practice.

Read article here.

Opposing roles of B lymphocyte subsets in atherosclerosis

Ban-Hock Toh, Peter Tipping et al. published in Autoimmunity.

Read article here.

Increased Anxiety-like Phenotype in Female Guinea Pigs Following Reduced Neurosteroid Exposure In Utero

David Walker et al. published in the International Journal of Developmental Neuroscience.

Read article here.

Leydig cell hyperplasia in children: Case series and review

Nicole Mennie, Chris Kimber et al. published in the Journal of Pediatric Urology.

Read article here.

Homodimerization attenuates the anti-inflammatory activity of interleukin-37

Claudia Nold-Petry et al. published in Science Immunology.

Read article here.