Photo of the week: Visualisation as you've never seen it before!

Professor Paul Bonnington demonstrating Monash's CAVE2(TM) facility, Monash's Immersive Visualisation Platform at the Clayton campus. CAVE stands for CAVE Assisted Virtual Environment. CAVE2 is a trademark of the University of Illinois Board of Trustees. The backdrop image is of neural pathways in 3D. See more:

• About the facility: http://monash.edu/mivp
• CAVE2(TM) photo gallery (Imagery courtesy of UIC EVL, CALIT2 UCSD, Australian Synchrotron, KAUST, and Monash University)
• CAVE2 video (2:26 mins)
• More CCS photo galleries on Google plus
• CCS photo gallery index on the CCS Intranet

Photo of the week: FODMAP food and raising money for brain cancer research

The Department of Gastroenterology has an extensive testing program to ascertain FODMAP levels of various foods. The foodstuffs which have a long shelf life, e.g. spices, condiments, powders etc, once tested are now being given away and a gold coin donation is invited to raise money for the "Cure Brain Cancer Foundation". One of their colleagues, a young and beautiful woman called Amanda Banfield, died earlier this year of an aggressive brain tumour, so this is in memory of her. Without research, we will never know the causes, hence treatment, of brain cancers.
The food can be taken from Level 6, Alfred Centre. Enquiries to:  Ms Phip Settle x30526

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

Photo of the week

2014 CCS HDR Symposium winners with Prof Robyn O'Hehir (Centre)

Central Clinical School postgraduate students held a very successful symposium on 19 November 2014, the seventh annual symposium since the series inception. There was an outstanding line up of both oral and poster presenters. Comic relief was provided by getting supervisors to jump through the hoops of "Explain my graph" (in which a supervisor had to speak to graphs in a subject area not their own) and the "No-Bell" prize competition (in which supervisors had to answer tricky questions in very non-technical language).
See more:

•  Photo gallery
• Twitter hashtags #2014CCSPG and #CCS2014PG for more.
• Photo gallery (All CCS photos)

Read more

Photo of the week

The annual ANZ Society for Cell Development and Biology was hosted by the Victorian chapter, held at the Alfred campus on 5 November 2014. Convenors were Dr Sebastian Dworkin, (Central Clinical School), Dr Jan Kaslin (ARMI), and Dr Louise Cheng (Peter Mac), ably assisted by Bonnie Dopheide (CCS). See more:

• Conference outline and program
• Photo gallery (short list, captioning not yet complete)

Photo of the week: Governor-General visits MAPrc

L-R: Lady Cosgrove, Sir Peter Cosgrove and Prof Jayashri
Kulkarni (Director of MAPrc)

The new Governor-General, Sir Peter Cosgrove, is also newly Patron of the Monash Alfred Psychiatry research centre. He and his wife, Lady Cosgrove, visited MAPrc in September for a tour of the centre and to meet the researchers. He takes on the role from the previous Governor-General, Dame Quentin Bryce. See:

• Photo gallery
• CCS Monash's Google+ page for more photo albums. 
• Indexed photo album list in CCS intranet

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.

Photo of the week: Dr Justin Hamilton's group

The Platelet & Megakaryocyte Cell Biology Lab, Australian Centre for Blood Diseases

L-R: Ms Claire Petitjean (Research Assistant), Mr Hammid Qayum (Honours student), Dr Jane Arthur, Dr Justin Hamilton (group leader), Ms Natasha Setiabakti (Honours student), Ms Joyce Zheng, Ms Shauna French (PhD student).  Absent - Jonathan McCafferty
See more: 

• Photo gallery
• about the Hamilton group, which is working on understanding platelet activation mechanisms in order to rationalise the development of novel anti-platelet agents for the prevention of arterial thrombosis.
• CCS photo galleries at CCS Google+ photos or indexed in the CCS Intranet Photo galleries.

Photo of the week: Surgery workshop

Surgery is a physical skill requiring detailed
knowledge of actual anatomy. Photo: Caius Martin

The Monash University Surgical Interest Group (MUSIG) held a clinical workshop at The Alfred last week, with over 100 people in attendance. The event provided attendees with the opportunity to learn practical skills from some great surgeons. The workshop featured stations which taught gloving and gowning, suturing, hand-tying, chest drains and cricothyroidotomy.

• See more photos from the event
• CCS Google+ galleries

Photo of the week: 2014 EMCR@AMREP conference

Infectious Diseases PhD student, Janet Gare, presenting at the 17 Sept Early-Mid Career Researcher conference, on how HIV-1 subtype C continues to dominate the HIV epidemic in Papua New Guinea. The conference was a success with 32 poster presentations and 24 oral presentations, attended by about 160 people. Adam Bandt (Greens MP) and Lindy Burns (Radio 774 ABC Evenings presenter) were guest speakers. See more:

• 17 Sept 2014 EMCR@AMREP photo gallery
• Conference program (1MB, pdf)
• Twitter conversation #EMCR_AMREP
• EMCR web pages

Photo of the week: AXM launch today

The AXM development team
L-R Ms Fiona Foley, Mr Marcus Leonard
& A/Prof Rob Selzer

Pictured are Ms Fiona Foley (AXM Project Manager), Mr Marcus Leonard (IT developer) and Associate Professor Rob Selzer (Project Lead). They have developed an interactive learning system, unique to Monash, which is now available for the University’s third year medical students. The Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences (FMNHS) developed AXM (Augmented eXperience Modules) to help students rapidly update their knowledge on a range of medical and surgical conditions. AXM was funded and supported by the Faculty. The official launch is this afternoon. See links:

• Photo gallery 
• Video upload 
• AXM web page
• Media release

Photo of the week: 2014 De Castella Run for Mental Health

Runners, young and old, warming up

The 31 August annual De Castella Run for Mental Health, organised by the Monash Alfred Psychiatry research centre, was a great success. They had their highest ever number of participants and funds raised, respectively 2,000 and $80,000 (approximately). The funds will go towards a postgraduate scholarship and research. See more at:

• 2014 Run photo gallery
• Blog story
• See CCS Monash's Google+ page for more photo albums.
• For an indexed list of our photo albums, see CCS Intranet/Photo galleries (Monash authcate access)

Photo of the week

Aislin Meehan, CCS PhD student with her sister

Aislin Meehan (left), PhD student in the Department of Medicine, Central Clinical School, with her sister currently doing an undergraduate degree, at the 14 August 2014 AMREP #Honours information night. See more about the night and Honours at CCS:

• Honours at CCS
• Information night photo gallery
• Information night video playlist
• See CCS Monash's Google+ page for more photo albums.
• For an indexed list of our photo albums, see CCS Intranet/Photo galleries (Monash authcate access)

Photo of the week

How effective are mass media for highlighting your work? The graph at left shows visit rates for the Department of Gastroenterology's new prebiotic diet web pages. People are interested in food and in themselves, so research on food and how it can contribute to good health has an intuitive appeal.

However, any promotion of your work, regardless of subject matter, whether to the public or to its relevant specialist interest group will result in a viewing spike. See 'Social media for scientists' presentation.

See CCS Monash's Google+ page for more photo albums. 

Photo of the week: Australia India collaboration

Assistant Professor Amit Gupta, Professor Mark Fitzgerald,
Dr Lakshmi Prasad Govindaraju (Alfred Visiting Fellow, India),
and Professor Russell Gruen

Improved trauma systems are a part of the solution to the global injury epidemic and have been very successful in Victoria. Can they work to reduce the 5 million trauma deaths elsewhere in the world? India is tackling an injury problem of epidemic proportions. The Australia-India Trauma Systems Collaboration (AITSC) is a collaboration of clinicians and researchers, academic partners, and governments. It aims to develop and test some innovative pre-hospital, hospital, and post-hospital interventions that could improve care of the injured in India and Australia. 

• See full story
• See Photo gallery
• CCS Monash's Google+ page for more photo albums 

Photo of the week: Sara Mokhtar wins the CCS 3MT thesis heat

Sara Mokhtar presenting

Central Clinical School held its annual 3 Minute Thesis competition on August 12 with five participants presenting their research in under three minutes. Sara Mokhtar won the competition with her accessible description of her research, on amyloid beta protein phosphorylation of CRMP-2 and its regulation of neuritic dystrophy in Alzheimer's disease. Sara used the elegant and accurate analogy of a barren tree in Autumn to describe the brain of a patient suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Sara will now go on to compete in the Faculty 3MT competition which will be held 22 August. Well done Sara!

• CCS 3MT 2014 photo gallery  
• See more information about the 22 Aug Faculty event. 
• CCS Monash's Google+ page for more photo albums

Photo of the week: Prebiotic food

Vegetables high in prebiotic fibre

The Department of Gastroenterology is undertaking research into the impact of increasing what's called 'prebiotic' fibre in your diet. Prebiotics are fibre compounds that provide a substrate for  beneficial bacteria that colonize the large bowel, and thereby stimulate the growth and activity of these bacteria, which may benefit not only digestion and absorption of minerals, but also immune system function. ABC Catalyst are doing a special two part program called 'Gut reaction', being broadcast Thursday 14 and 21 August 2014. See more:

• http://www.med.monash.edu.au/cecs/gastro/prebiotic/
• Photo gallery of prebiotic foods and dishes
• CCS Monash's Google+ page for more photo albums

Photo of the week

At Monash Open Day, Sunday 3 August, at the halls of residence. The Clayton campus looked (and sounded) idyllic, with emerald green lawns and landscaped native gardens shrieking with rosellas. The organisation was superlative, and it was wonderful to have friendly, helpful ambassadors everywhere. For more photos of the open day and other Monash activities, see Monash Facebook page. Our own CCS student information night is coming up, 14 August.
See more CCS photos at:

• CCS Monash's Google+ page for more photo albums

Photo of the week: Professor Frank Rosenfeldt

Prof Frank Rosenfeldt with a patient

Professor Frank Rosenfeldt, Department of Surgery, heads a team of four researchers working on a new project to enable the production of a device to perfuse transplant donor hearts. They have received a $1.5M government grant to develop a device which will reduce the damage to hearts produced by ice storage, enable them to be resuscitated and keep donor hearts viable for longer over long distances in Australia and even New Zealand. 

• Read more
• Rosenfeldt heart box photo gallery
• CCS Monash's Google+ page for more photo albums

Photo of the week

Prof Jenny Hoy giving the public lecture

The 2014 CCS public lecture by Prof Jenny Hoy was held Thursday 10 July. We've now got a photo gallery up, showing our visitors and guests, the community support from the Victorian AIDS Council and Living Positive Victoria, the Burnet Institute and the Alfred's Education Resource Centre on STIs. See link below.

You can follow AIDS 2014 updates on Twitter, by following:
@AIDS_conference with the hashtag #AIDS2014.

• 10 July 2014 CCS public lecture photo gallery
• CCS Monash's Google+ page for more photo albums.