Go to: New Grants | Seminars | Department Newsletter | University News

Departmental News

Honours Information Night - 3 September 2008 - RMH Function Rm, Royal Melbourne Hospital

Science students like doing Honours in Medicine because the projects on offer combine leading edge science with problems directly relevant to human health. Topics in 2009 cover some of the world’s major health areas including ageing, cancer, bone disease, malaria, vaccines and infectious disease, arthritis, inflammation, lung disease, epilepsy and international health.

For more information come to our stand at the Discover Honours information night or meet your potential supervisors at the department information night held at the Royal Melbourne Hospital Function Centre, Wednesday 3 September from 5pm to 7pm.

To download a full list of projects visit the Department Honours page.

2007 Richard Larkins Prize Awarded

Past Honours student Slave Petrovski is the winner of the 2007 Richard Larkins Prize awarded to the Department's highest achieving Bachelor of Science Honours student. Professor Larkins presented the prize to Slave at a ceremony held at the Department in April 2008.

Slavé Petrovski used his unique background in information systems and science to develop and validate a
model that can predict the outcome of drug treatment, specifically anti- epileptic drugs among individual patients.
Significantly, this is the first time such a model has been reported that successfully predicts the outcome of drug treatment for all disease areas making Slavé’s finding one of major international significance for the whole
field of pharmacogenomics, and for the development of clinically useful biomarkers of treatment outcome.
The methodology he developed to identify the predictive genetic markers from over 4000 possibilities also has the potential to identify important genetic determinants of diseases and treatment.

Slavé’s work has formed a major component of a patent application, which has sparked significant interest from international biotechnology and medical diagnostics companies. Slavé was honoured in early April with the prestigious Larkins Prize – an award granted annually to the top achieving honours student within the
Department of Medicine (RMH/WH).

The award was delivered personally by Professor Richard Larkins, who is currently Vice Chancellor of Monash University and who has previously held positions at the University as James Stewart Professor of the Department of Medicine (RMH/WH) and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences

Researcher Travels to Remote Vietnam to Tackle Anaemia

University of Melbourne medical researchers Associate Professor Beverley Biggs and Gerard Casey are set to expand their anaemia control program to include 200,000 more female participants living in some of the most remote areas of Vietnam.

The program, which began in 2005 with 50,000 female participants, will grow by September to involve 250,000 Vietnamese women across Yen Bai Province.

The project has been designed so that treatment distribution and education activities can be incorporated into the work pattern of the local health system from the provincial to the village level.

Researchers and program staff will travel to the remote regions, some only accessible by foot during the wet season, to deliver regular iron supplements, deworming medication and education programs.

They have teamed up with health organisations, village health workers, commune and district heath station staff and women’s union representatives to deliver the program, which targets women of reproductive age and aims to raise awareness and response to a health problem threatening thousands of women and children across Vietnam and other developing countries. The project team is also working closely with the World Health Organisation, Hanoi.

Iron deficiency anaemia, caused by diets low in iron and the parasitic disease Hookworm, affects more than half the female population in Vietnam’s Yen Bai Province and leads to poor health, particularly for child bearing women and their children.

Women with iron deficient diets are often further disadvantaged by Hookworm infection, a disease that causes intestinal bleeding and can double the iron requirements of a child or a menstruating woman.

Program coordinator Gerard Casey says the disease has an insidious impact on entire communities.

“Hookworm not only affects women’s health – the disease exacerbates existing family sanitation and causes dietary and health problems that cycle from generation to generation,” he said.

Babies born from infected mothers are at greater risk of low birth weight and poor cognitive and physical development.

“Raised awareness of the causes, consequences and treatment of hookworm and anaemia will help to break the cycle and give future generations a better chance at health” Casey said.

Results from the program will be used to support recommendations to the Vietnamese Government for a nationwide approach to fighting Anaemia and Hookworm.

Associate Professor Beverly Biggs heads the International and Immigrant Health Research Group in the University of Melbourne’s department of Medicine (RMH/WH). She is also a consultant Infectious Diseases Physician at the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

Gerard Casey is a project manager of the Parasitic Disease Control programme in Vietnam.

Annual Colloquium Highlights Medicine and Infectious Diseases Research

The Centre for Clinical Research Excellence in Infectious Diseases (CCREID) Annual Colloquium 2006 provided an opportunity for those involved in infectious diseases clinical research to present findings of research projects being conducted through the Centre.  Professor Graham Brown, Director, CCREID, together with Dr Joe Sasadeusz, Clinical Trials Director, CCREID (chair for the day), welcomed members from the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC), CCREID, Professor Joe McCormack, Professor Tania Sorrell, and Professor Steve Wesselingh, participants to the Colloquium, and CCREID PhD/Master students who presented recent findings on their research projects.

Clinical School officially opens

In late August, staff and associates of the RMH/WH celebrated the opening of the new Clinical School and the inauguration of the Lovell Theatre with an official launch attended by relatives and friends of the late Professor Richard Lovell and key members of the medical and university community.

Vice Chancellor of the University of Melbourne, Professor Glyn Davis delivered a keynote address before distinguished guests including CEO of RMH, Dr Peter Brennan, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Professor James Angus and Clinical Dean, Professor Geoff McColl. The Vice Chancellor's address highlighted the long-standing partnership between the Royal Melbourne Hospital and the University of Melbourne and the historical events that brought them together.

Dr Tom Hurley paid homage to the new theatre's namesake and foundation Medicine Professor, Richard Lovell, whose portrait was temporarily displalyed for the occasion. Dr Hurley was full of praise for Lovell who he said established the foundations of a modern university hospital.

Along with the Lovell Theatre, the launch celebrated the official opening of three teaching rooms and a computer lab, where the Clinical School will now be based.

A commemorative plaque is unveilled at the August 2006 opening of the Clinical School.

Driefuss-Penry Award to Professor Terry O'Brien

Professor Terence O'Brien from the Department of Medicine (RMH/WH) is to receive the 2006 Driefuss-Penry Award from the American Academy of Neurology. This prestigious award recognises 'outstanding achievements in Epilepsy Research' undertaken independently in the first ten years post-fellowship. It will be presented to him at the American Academy of Neurology Meeting in San Diego in April this year.

A/Professor O'Brien is pleased at this US recognition of Australian neurological research, the credit for which he believes is as much due to his colleagues at the University of Melbourne and the Royal Melbourne Hospital (RMH) who have supported him so well, and created an environment where internationally recognised research can be carried out. More information on the Driefuss-Penry Award, including a media release, can be found on the American Academy of Neurology website.

Research Medal Win to A/Professor Gary Anderson

Associate Professor Gary Anderson has won the Research Medal of the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand for his outstanding contribution to lung research. The award was presented on Monday 27 March 2006 at the National Conference Centre, Canberra. A/Professor Anderson's major research interests are the mechanisms and treatment of asthma, COPD (chronic obstructive lung disease), and other lung diseases. His main area of research is understanding how disease occurs, by studying basic mechanisms in experimental models and in patients who volunteer for research, and is focused on finding better treatments and ultimately cures for serious lung diseases.

Twins Study Reveals Epilepsy Drugs Linked to Bone Disease

A landmark study of adult twins, by Department of Medicine (RMH/WH) researchers Professor Terry O'Brien, Professor John Wark and Dr Sandra Petty, has confirmed that long-term use of anti-epilepsy drugs (AEDs) is linked with bone disease. Those at greatest risk of bone disease were women aged over 40 years, who experienced 17 per cent reduction in bone mineral density if they had taken AEDs for at least two years. More information can be found at the university's UniNews website.

The Richard Larkins Prize

Nhu-Y Nguyen is the winner of the 2005 Richard Larkins Prize awarded to the Department's Best Bachelor of Science Honours student. Professor Larkins presented the prize to Nhu-Y in a ceremony held at the Department on Thursday 30 March 2006. Nhu-Y's thesis topic was 'Growth factors regulating bone marrow stem cell function' and her supervisors were Dr David Curtis from the Bone Marrow Laboratory at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and Departmental Fellow Professor Stephen Jane.

The Eric Susman Prize

Department of Medicine (RMH/WH) Fellow, Professor Jonathan Kalman, will be awarded the Eric Susman Prize during the Royal Australasian College of Physicians Congress (RACP) in Cairns on Sunday 7 May 2006. The prize is an annual award by the RACP for the best contribution (must have appeared as a published work in the two-year period preceding the award) by a RACP Fellow to the knowledge of any branch of internal medicine.

Professor Kalman has made an outstanding contribution to cardiovascular research, and is one of the leaders in cardiovascular electrophysiology through animal studies and clinical studies of cardiac rhythm. His major contribution is his research into electrical remodelling of the atrium in a range of conditions, which led to the development of atrial arrhythmias, including congestive cardiac failure, sinus node dysfunction and congenital heart disease.

Professor Kalman had eighteen publications in the two years up to December 2004, many in the most highly cited journals in Cardiology, such as Circulation, The Journal of the American College of Cardiology and the American Journal of Cardiology. This builds on many years of research in cardiac electrophysiology leading to ninety original publications, many of which are regularly referenced as being seminal to the field of understanding of atrial arrhythmias and methods for their correction.

New Grant Wins

Program Grants

• Professor A. Cowman, Professor G.V. Brown, Dr B. Crabb, Dr E. Handman, Dr M. McConville, A/Professor G. McFadden, Dr l .Schofield and Professor T. Speed, for for 'Host parasite interactions: Disease pathogenesis and control' ($12,940,270 over five years)

Project Grants

• Professor Terence O'Brien, A/Professor Margaret Morris, Dr Michael Salzberg, A/Professor Sandra Rees and Dr Dennis Velakoulis, for 'Stress, temporal lobe epilepsy and affective disorder' ($372,625)
• Professor John Wark, Professor Terence O'Brien, Professor Philip Sambrook, Dr Keith Hill, Professor Markus Seibel and Dr Geoff Herkes, for 'AEDs and fracture risk ($459,750)
• A/Professor Stephen Rogerson and Dr Anthony Jaworowski, for 'HIV and immunity to malaria' ($363,750)
• A/Professor Margaret Morris, Professor Terence O'Brien and Dr Christopher Reid, 'Neuropeptide Y and Absence Seizures' ($377,625)
• Associate Professor Richard Osborne, A/Professor Rachelle Buchbinder and Professor Stephen Graves, for 'Impact of patient education and self-management courses on people with arthritis' ($340,500)
• Professor Simon Foote, Professor Terence O'Brien and A/Professor Ross McKinnon, for 'Finding better targets for new epilepsy treatment' ($457,500)
• Dr James Beeson and A/Professor Stephen Rogerson, for 'Immunity to Placental Malaria' ($447,750)
• Dr Heidi Drummer, Dr Pantelis Poumbourios, Dr Gregory Dore, Dr Margaret Hellard and Joseph Torresi, for 'Neutralizing antibody responses in HCV in fected individuals' ($467,750)

Senior Principal Research Fellowship

• Professor John Hamilton ($782,500)

Career Development Award

• Associate Professor Richard Osborne ($436,250)

ARC Discovery Project Grant

• A/Professor Andy Giraud and Dr Louise Judd, with A/Professor Ian van Driel from Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, for 'Reg growth factors in gastric regeneration and disease' ($274,000)

Departmental Seminars

These are held weekly during semesters 1 and 2 on Fridays at 11am to 12 noon in the Seminar Room, 4th Floor Clincial Sciences Building, RMH, Royal Parade (enter through the RMH Private entrance).

Parkville Bone Research Seminars

These are held monthly during semesters 1 and 2 on Fridays at 12noon until 1pm in the Seminar Room, 4th Floor Clincial Sciences Building, RMH, Royal Parade (enter through the RMH Private entrance).

Medicine Matters

To find out the latest happenings at the DoM (RMH/WH), why not download our tri-annual (April, August, December) newsletter Medicine Matters.

Faculty Appointments and Awards

The Department and the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences attracts leading researchers and clinicians from within Australia and around the world. Read about the our new appointments and awards.

Find out What's on at the University

The university offers a host of events ranging from the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences' Dean's Lecture Series to film screenings, concerts, exhibitions and campus tours. Visit the university's events page to find out more.

Keep Up-to-Date with the Latest News

To view media releases and key publications including Uni News, Melbourne Update and Staff News, visit the university's news site.