Photo of the week: Immunology symposium

L-R: Professor Fabienne Mackay, HOD, Department of Immunology; Dr Irina Caminschi, Laboratory Head, Dendritic cell biology and Immunotherapy, Burnet Institute; Professor Jacques Banchereau, The Jackson Laboratory (JAX), USA; Professor Virginia Pascual, Baylor Institute for Immunology Research, USA; Professor Paul Hertzog, Monash Institute of Medical Research; Dr Mireille Lahoud, Laboratory head, Dendritic Cell Receptors, Burnet Institute; Associate Professor Mark Wright, Laboratory Head, Leucocyte Membrane Protein Laboratory, Department of Immunology; Dr Meredith O’Keefe, Head, Dendritic Cell Research Lab, Burnet Institute; Professor Ken Shortman, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute

The Monash University Department of Immunology and Burnet Institute hosted a symposium on 24 November 2014 featuring two international guest speakers, Dr Virgina Pascual and Dr Jacques Banchereau. It was very well attended. See:

• Immunology symposium photo gallery
• more CCS photo galleries on the CCS Google plus page
• CCS photo gallery index on the CCS Intranet

Education highlights: 20th International Symposium on Hepatitis C virus (HCV) and related viruses

Approximately 420 international researchers attended the 20th International Symposium on Hepatitis C Virus and Related Viruses in Melbourne, Australia, from October 6–10, 2013. Since the discovery of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in 1989, significant advances have been made in our understanding of the molecular biology and host response to this significant pathogen, many of which have been presented at this symposium. Infectious diseases and immunology researchers have published a summary of the highlights, gaps in knowledge and 'Where to now?' ideas from the meeting in the journal Gastroenterology. Read more DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1053/j.gastro.2014.05.022

Media mentions

24/11/2014 Professor Jayashri Kulkarni, MAPrc, received a "Contribution to Community by an Individual" award in the 2014 Melbourne Awards.   Jayashri was recognised as a world leading pioneer and a passionate advocate for women’s mental health, who has delivered a range of reforms including the establishment of MAPrc; development of a world-first treatment approach for women with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression; and establishment of a national register for managing pregnant women needing antipsychotic medications. Herald Sun

Congratulations to PhD student Peter Tsirikis and to Prof Magdalena Plebanski

PhD student Peter Tsirikis

Congratulations to joint PhD student in the Departments of Chemical Engineering and Immunology, Peter Tsirikis, who recently received the 2015 Endeavour Australia Cheung Kong Research Fellowship. Peter is jointly supervised by Prof Magdalena Plebanski (Department of Immunology) and A/Prof Cordelia Selomulya (Department of Chemical Engineering). Read more

Professor Magdalena Plebanski and A/Prof Cordelia Selomulya, have won an ARC grant for their research on biodegradable nanoparticles. Read more

Photo of the week: Visiting immunologist Virginia Pascual

Dr Virginia Pascual, Baylor Institute of
Immunology Research, USA

The Monash Department of Immunology and the Burnet Institute are hosting an afternoon symposium, "Dendritic Cells, Interferon and Vaccines", on 24 November 2014. All welcome.
Two international speakers will be attending, Dr Virginia Pascual (pictured) and Dr Jacques Banchereau.

• Weblink for detail and RSVP
• Follow @ImmunologyMU for symposium updates 
• Download flier
• See more CCS photos on the CCSMonash Google+ photo galleries or indexed at CCS Intranet Photo gallery.

Immunology/Burnet symposium: Dendritic cells, interferon and vaccines - 24 Nov 2014

The Monash Department of Immunology and the Burnet Institute are hosting an afternoon symposium, "Dendritic Cells, Interferon and Vaccines", on 24 November 2014. Two international speakers will be attending, Dr Virginia Pascual and Dr Jacques Banchereau. The event is free, all welcome - please RSVP for catering.

• Weblink for detail and RSVP
• Follow @ImmunologyMU for symposium updates 
• Download flier

Congratulations to Fabienne Mackay, Eric Chow and Jeffrey Rosenfeld

The AMREP Research Prize 2014 for the article describing original basic research published in the journal with the highest impact factor in 2013 was awarded to Professor Fabienne Mackay (Department of Immunology, Monash University). The prize was one of a suite awarded for work presented during the Alfred Research Week 27-31 October 2014. See more.

Dr Eric Chow's poster won the Burnet Prize for Infectious Diseases Research from  those submitted for the Alfred Research Week. The poster was entitled ‘Ongoing decline in genital warts among young heterosexuals seven years after the Australian Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination programme’.  See more.

Professor Jeffrey V. Rosenfeld is the new Director of the Monash Institute of Medical Engineering. See more

Award for best paper by the Australasian Gene Therapy Society

The Australasian Gene Therapy Society have awarded "Best Paper" for 2014 to Associate Professor Frank Alderuccio's paper, first authored by his PhD student Jie-Yu Chung (pictured). The paper is titled "Gene therapy delivery of Myelin Oligodendrocyte Glycoprotein (MOG) via hematopoietic stem cell transfer induces MOG-specific B cell deletion" and was published in the Journal of Immunology. Reference

Prof Fabienne Mackay talks about restoration of immune function in leukaemia patients

Prof Fabienne Mackay:
Video on CLL research

Professor Fabienne Mackay talks about her team's ground breaking research published in the prestigious journal, Leukemia in April of this year. Immune defects in patients with #leukaemia prevent them from fighting the cancer. Their study looked particularly at Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia (CLL) patients, as they tend to die from infection, rather than the cancer itself. They found that rare, but critical, cells to fight CLL can be restored. She says, "The best feature ever made to fight cancer is the immune system."

Congratulations to A/Prof Michelle Giles, Dr Fabien Vincent and Dr Lachlan Gray

Lancet letter by Young Physician Leaders Michelle Giles and Fabien Vincent

2013 YPL workshop

Associate Professor Michelle Giles (Department of Infectious Diseases and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology) and Dr Fabien Vincent (Rheumatologist and PhD student, Department of Immunology) have published a Correspondence letter in The Lancet, entitled: "Leadership training by the InterAcademy Medical Panel: what has it achieved in three years of the Young Physician Leaders Programme?" Both early career researchers were among the 19 selected Young Physician Leaders (YPL) participants in the world to attend the IAMP YPL Programme, representing Monash at the World Health Summit in 2013 in Berlin. See article link.

Congratulations to Dr Lachlan Gray, featured on 'Science' careers website

Dr Lachlan Gray was recently interviewed for an article in Science Careers, part of the journal Science, on his research interests and future prospects. Lachlan is a senior postdoctoral fellow at the Burnet Institute in Melbourne whose area of study is HIV. While it is no longer the death sentence it was when it was first discovered 3 decades ago, HIV is proving extremely difficult to eradicate. Lachlan is one of a small number of scientists worldwide trying to shed light on how HIV spreads to the brain, where it can cause neurocognitive disorders and establish viral reservoirs that make it resistant to the available drugs. See link for detail.

Research highlights: B cell control, 'brain fog' in coeliacs and conserving donor hearts for transplant

B cell control in the immune system: review article

B cell control mechanisms

Department of Immunology researchers have published an article reviewing the control of B cells by a group of proteins called TNF superfamily proteins. These proteins trigger necessary signals that activate or regulate the various protective functions of B cells in the immune system, and they are important to understand because B cell pathologies including some cancers or autoimmunity can occur when these functions are disrupted.

Donate to lupus research

Professor Fabienne Mackay

Professor Fabienne Mackay leads a research team dedicated to the development of new therapies to treat lupus. Professor Mackay's work has been instrumental in the development of a new treatment called belimumab. This is the first new treatment for lupus in over 50 years. While this is an advance in medicine it is only effective in a subset of patients. There is still a large number of patients awaiting an effective treatment. The team includes Dr Fabien Vincent, a rheumatologist whose research is aimed at understanding why lupus develops differently in different groups of people.

• See more.
• Direct link to Lupus donation page.
• Twitter: @FabienneMackay @FabOzy

Photo of the week: 2014 Day of Immunology

PhD student Erika Duan at the Day of

Immunology GTAC high school expo

Every year, various Melbourne research institutes and universities collaborate in offering activities as part of the International Day of Immunology. This year, four PhD students based at the Department of Immunology at Monash volunteered to demonstrate lab techniques at the event hosted by the Gene Technology Access Centre for high school students. Many thanks to Jodie Abramovitch, Erika Duan (pictured), Tim Gottschalk and Maria Demaria.
2014 Day of Immunology gallery link
For other Central Clinical School photo galleries, see:

• CCS Intranet or Google+ Page

See a selection of CCS images using Pinterest. Please view and/or follow at http://pinterest.com/CCSMonash/central-clinical-school-monash-university/

Research highlights

Is baby health affected by taking antipsychotic medications during pregnancy?

There is a great need for safety and efficacy information about the use of antipsychotic medications in pregnancy. A Monash Alfred Psychiatry research centre (MAPrc) team have published research in PLOSOne based on data from the National Register of Antipsychotic Medications in Pregnancy, which they established in 2005. Live, healthy babies are the most common outcome following the use of antipsychotic medication in pregnancy, but the MAPrc research concludes that clinicians should be particularly mindful of neonatal problems such as respiratory distress. Reference: PLOS ONE DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0094788

40,000 km closer to understanding cancer: AICR funded research

Chris Gruar in Asia

A young Australian man, who has ridden 40,000 km around the world on a bike to raise funds for international cancer research, cycled into Melbourne on Tuesday 6 May to meet scientists at some of Melbourne’s top research institutions. See video featuring Monash researchers Professors Stephen Jane, Jamie Rossjohn, Tony Tiganos and Fabienne Mackay talking about research funded by the Association for International Cancer Research (AICR).

Read more »

Faculty of 1000 selects Department of Immunology Leukemia article

Post publication peer

review acknowledgement

Department of Immunology research on chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) has been recommended by the Faculty of 1000 as being of special significance in its field. The reviewer, Dr Philippe Saas, writes,  "these data may explain the vulnerability of CLL patients to viral infections and provide therapeutic approaches (Flt3L plus CpG ODN or anti-TNF plus anti-TGF-beta antibodies) to restore PDC number and PDC capacity to produce type I IFN in peripheral lymphoid tissues." References: