Research highlights: investigating why bypass grafts & stents fail

Dr Anthony Dear, ACBD

Neointimal hyperplasia, an injury related vascular response, accounts for the occlusion and failure of up to 50% of bypass grafts and stents used in the treatment of coronary artery and peripheral vascular disease and constitutes a considerable health and economic burden to the community. Recent research conducted in Dr Anthony Dear's lab at the Australian Centre for Blood Diseases in collaboration with Professor Robert Widdop, Monash Department of Pharmacology, suggests that ;"epigenetic" mechanisms may be involved in the neointimal hyperplasia response.

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Media mentions

28/07/2014 Professor Sharon Lewin, Head of the Department of Infectious Diseases, comments on why anti-HIV drugs stop the virus from replicating in the body. Weekend West Perth

29/07/2014 Professor Lewin discussed the AIDS2014 conference.  She explained that this year's theme, "Stepping up the Pace", comes at a "critical time" in the global response to HIV. Australian Jewish News
 

28/07/2014 Professor Peter Gibson, Head of the Department of Gastroenterology, commented on  health concerns of a grain free diet. 

Radio National

31/07/2014 A Monash University study saw patients claiming to have Non-Coeliac Gluten Sensitivity followed diets that contained different levels of gluten. AFR
http://healthydebate.ca/2014/07/topic/non-celiac-gluten-sensitivity

29/07/2014 Professor Jayashri Kulkarni, MAPrc, discussed why the shooting down of MH17 has had such a profound effect in Australia, making many afraid to book tickets abroad.
ABC North West WA

29/07/2014 Associate Professor Michele Levinson (pictured), Cabrini-Monash University Department of Medicine, and research fellow Amber Mills, comments on a controversial proposal to end cardiopulmonary resuscitation as the “universal default” for hospital inpatients and replace it with an opt-in system.
Medical Journal of Australia https://www.mja.com.au/insight/2014/27/opt-cpr-dispute

Staff news

Please welcome Madeline Wills to MAPrc!  Maddy is volunteering through Deakin University Bachelor of Psychology . She is working alongside Emmy Gavrilidis  assisting with admin and clinical work.  Maddy is studying Bachelor of Psychology aiming for clinical or research psychology.

She is interested in major clinical psychological disorders, trauma and grief.  Maddy is from Australia and she enjoys studying, gym, reading and travel.

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

HDR seminars and major CCS events

All event notices are maintained on the CCS Events calendars (including local events such as professional development and trade fairs and HDR calendars). For a consolidated view, details of events and to see all events and deadlines, see Announcements. Various Departments have their own calendars, see CCS seminar index: www.med.monash.edu.au/cecs/events/seminars.html

What's on for this week

Tue Jul 29	11:00 AM	►	PhD pre-submission review - Mr Michael Cangkrama
	11:30 AM	►	PhD Mid-candidature review seminar - Ms Maria Daglas
	3:30 PM	►	Mid-candidature review seminar - Ms Gulcan Sarila
Wed Jul 30	12:30 PM	►	PhD Pre-submission review - Mr Damien Saulep-Easton
	1:00 PM	►	Australia-India Trauma Systems Collaboration Roundtable

Forthcoming events

Mon Aug 4	12:30 PM	►	Psychiatry Professorial Grand Round
Fri Aug 8	1:30 PM	►	HDR Milestone Review - Ms Tanya Millard

 

More about the Australia-India Trauma Systems Collaboration (AITSC)

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? Indian delegates are visiting the Alfred this week for a roundtable discussion, Wed 30 July, 1.00-5.30 pm. All welcome. For catering purposes, please RSVP to Madonna Fahey (madonna.fahey@monash.edu or phone 9076 8872). See more. 

Major CCS events

2014 CCS 3MT competition

2013 CCS 3MT winners

Central Clinical School HDR students regularly compete in the "Three Minute Thesis" competition (3MT), offered in every Australian university. The CCS 3 Minute Thesis Competition is an opportunity for HDR students to convey the relevance and importance of their research in just 3 minutes.  2014 CCS 3MT will be held on Tuesday 12 August 10-11am at Lecture theatre, Level 5, Alfred Centre.  Please come along and support the participants.  All welcome.   CLICK HERE to RSVP.  Please visit the CCS 3MT competition page for participants' profiles and other information. 

14 August 2014 AMREP student information night

Please see: 2015 CCS Postgraduate and Honours project index booklet (806 kb pdf) for the projects on offer for 2015.

• Time: 6-8pm
• Venue: AMREP lecture theatre, 80 Commercial Road, Melbourne 3004
• Enquiries: hdr.ccs@monash.edu ph +61 3 9903 0027
• To RSVP: CLICK HERE

Congratulations

Dr Charbel Darido, Department of Medicine, has been awarded a CCS Travel Grant Round 1 for 2014 for the amount of $3000, to attend the Cold Spring Harbor Conference in NYC on PTEN Pathways and Targets.

Dr Lachlan Gray, Department of Infectious Diseases, was recently awarded a Scholarship to attend the International AIDS Society (IAS) "Towards an HIV Cure" Symposium, which will be held in conjunction with the 2014 International AIDS Conference, being held in Melbourne in July 2014. Value $1,600USD. Lachlan Gray was also recently interviewed for an article in Science Careers, part of the journal Science. See his interview.

Dr Fabien Vincent, Department of Immunology, has been nominated to attend the 2014 InterAcademy Medical Panel (IAMP) Young Physician Leaders (YPL) programme. He also attended the 2013 IAMP YPL.

Dr Tamsyn Van Rheenen, Monash Alfred Psychiatry research centre, has been awarded a travel award to present her research at the International Cognitive Neuroscience Conference, to be held in Brisbane in late July 2014.

Research explainers: How training lowers immunity; HIV cure - still a way to go

Drs Fabien Vincent and Kim Murphy, Department of Immunology, explain how intense or prolonged exercise can lower immunity, but it's a short term effect, and can easily be counteracted with proper diet and hygiene.
https://theconversation.com/sick-of-exercise-heres-how-training-can-lower-immunity-29390

Professor Sharon Lewin, Department of Infectious Diseases, explains that "what weʼve learnt over the last few years is that both a sterilising and functional cure [for HIV] are indeed possible, and may be something we could eventually achieve." But the 'sterilising' cure, or elimination of all the HIV infected cells is "very, very difficult". The 'functional' cure is treating the disease like cancer in remission - there, but keeping a very low profile.
http://theconversation.com/we-need-a-cure-for-hiv-but-theres-still-a-long-way-to-go-29330