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

Recent publications

Churchill MJ, Cowley DJ, Wesselingh SL, Gorry PR, Gray LR (2014). HIV-1 transcriptional regulation in the central nervous system and implications for HIV cure research. Journal of Neurovirology 2014. Accepted

Freeman R#, Niego B#, Croucher DR, Pedersen LO, Medcalf RL. t-PA, but not desmoteplase, induces a plasmin-dependent opening of a blood-brain barrier model under normoxic and ischaemic conditions. Brain Res. 1565:63-73, 2014. #Denotes equal 1st author.

Niego B, Medcalf RL. Plasmin-dependent modulation of the blood-brain barrier: a major consideration during t-PA-induced thrombolysis? J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 4 June 2014, Epub ahead of print.

Van Rheenen TE, & Rossell SL. An investigation of the component processes involved in verbal declarative memory function in bipolar disorder; utility of the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society 20, 1-9, 2014.

EMCR Times #13 published

The Early and Mid Career Researchers produce a newsletter, and Issue 13 is now out. It features recent publications, recent prizes and awards, a farewell to Damien Saulep-Easton in his work role to take up a role at Melbourne University, though he continues with his PhD under Fabienne Mackay's supervision. For this and previous issues see www.med.monash.edu.au/cecs/ecr/news.html

Media mentions

24/07/2014 Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor Steven Ellen, MAPrc, spoke about the rise in HIV infection in the context of the current AIDS conference in Melbourne.

4BC

23/07/2014 Professor Jeffrey Rosenfeld, Head of the Department of Surgery, Alfred Hospital, on a lecture about being a brain surgeon.

Only Melbourne

http://www.onlymelbourne.com.au/being-a-brain-surgeon-what-is-it-like#.U87zj5SSwW0

23/07/2014 Emma Halmos, Department of Gastroenterology, commented on the low-FODMAP diet.  She mentioned that the functional significance and health implications might lead to caution about reducing FODMAP intake in the longer term.

6 Minutes, Gastroenterology Update

http://www.6minutes.com.au/news/latest-news/healthy-people-should-avoid-low-fodmap-diet

23/07/2014 Dr Kim Murphy and Dr Fabien Vincent, both in the Department of Immunology, discuss exercise and its impact on the immune system.
http://theconversation.com/sick-of-exercise-heres-how-training-can-lower-immunity-29390

22/07/2014 Professor Sharon Lewin, Head of the Department of Infectious Diseases, commented on the case of recurrence of HIV in a toddler, who was thought to have been cured of the virus.  She said that it was a surprising and disappointing result, not only for the child herself, but also that we've been reminded about how difficult it will be to find a cure or a way for people to safely stop treatment. Radio National
22/07/2014 Professor Lewin suggested that it is possible to cure HIV but we need to proceed with caution. The Conversation
23/07/2014 Professor Lewin commented on the AIDS 2014 conference.

Channel 7 Melbourne, Channel 7 Adelaide, Channel 7 Sydney, Prime 7 Wagga Wagga, Southern Cross Tasmania.

25/07/2014 Professor Lewin updated on the International AIDS Conference.

774 ABC Melbourne and syndicated to 164 regional radio stations

28/07/2014 One of the most effective treatments for digestive problems such as IBS is following a diet called FODMAP, an acronym for the various carbohydrates that produce gas in the large intestine. Woman's Day (NZ Edition), p.54