In future editions of the newsletter, we will be highlighting the work of specific research teams.

The National Health and Medical Research Council has released for the first time the average quality ratings of 2013 project applications by institution. Just three institutions generated average quality score of five – SAHMRI was one of these along with the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute and the Macfarlane Burnet Institute took out the top three places in a list.

Click here for further information 

Advertiser article – Wednesday, 11 June 

Trailblazers – Research Centre’s big win for cancer patients

Its time to put the squeeze on science boys club

Dale Watkins from the Cancer Theme recently had his PhD thesis entitled "Defining CP-CML patient subsets associated with poor imatinib uptake and response” accepted with commendations, on April 11th.  Dale’s supervisors during his PhD candidature were Deb White and Tim Hughes and Prof Richard D’Andrea (CCB). Dale is now continuing certain avenues of research from his thesis.

Luke Grundy, post-doctoral researcher in the Centre for Nutrition and Gastrointestinal Diseases, was awarded his PhD from Bond University.

Lisa Schafranek made the national final and the top 10 in Australia for her entry to FameLab.  FameLab is an international science communication competition that gives early-career researchers the chance to talk about their science in plain English – they are only given three minutes to explain their science.

Dr Carmel Collins (Healthy Mothers, Babies and Children theme) was a finalist in the Unsung Hero Awards of South Australian Science.  This award honours a person, at this particular time, who exemplifies the aims and objectives of National Science Week.  Carmel received a special commendation.

Head of the Visceral Pain Group, Stuart Brierley, was re-elected as the South Australian Representative of the Australasian Neuorscience Society (ANS) and was elected as Treasurer and committee member of the Australasian Neurogastroenterology and Motility Association Inc, (ANGMA).

Please note that there have been a number of changes to the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research, specifically in the areas of:

Chapter 2.3 Qualifying or waiving conditions of consent to include guidance on an opt-out approach

References to Ethical Considerations in Quality Assurance and Evaluation Activities

References to 3.6 have been removed as a result of the December 2013 update

Chapter 3.4: Human biospecimens in laboratory based research

Please refer to the NHMRC website for further information.

Wardliparingga was recently awarded funds by the Commonwealth Department of Health to undertake the second phase of research into service standards of care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders with cardiovascular disease across the continuum of care for hypertension, CHF, CHD, ACS, RHD and stroke. The research builds on the ESSENCE standards developed in 2012 and endorsed by the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand. The second phase will develop indicators for measuring performance against the standards and will also develop a resource for assisting implementation of the standards in primary care settings through Medicare Locals/Primary Health Networks.

The Visceral Pain group, in the Centre for Nutrition and Gastrointestinal Diseases, University of Adelaide located on Level 7 of SAHMRI, continued their collaboration with Industry partners Ironwood Pharmaceuticals and Forrest Laboratories into a 5th year. This partnership investigates the pre-clinical and clinical mechanisms of action of linaclotide, a guanylate cyclase-C agonist that reduces pain in Irritable Bowel Syndrome Patients with constipation.

Some recently published papers:

Kapellas K, Maple-Brown LJ, Jamieson LM, Do LG, O’Dea K, Brown A, Cai TY, Anstey NM, Sullivan DR, Wang H, Celermajer DS, Slade GD, Skilton MR. The effect of periodontal therapy on arterial structure and function among Aboriginal Australians: a randomised controlled trial. Hypertension.doi:10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.114.03359. 

Makrides M, Gould JF, Gawlik N, Yelland LN, Anderson PJ, Gibson RA.  Four Year Follow-up of Children Born to Woman in a Randomized Controlled Trial of DHA Supplementation during Pregnancy.  JAMA 2014:311;1802-1804.

Kok CH, Leclercq T, Watkins DB, Saunders V, Wang J, Hughes TP, White DL. Elevated PTPN2 expression is associated with inferior molecular response in de-novo chronic myeloid leukaemia patients. Leukemia. 2014;28(3):702-705.

Dantas de Araujo A, Mehdi Mobli M, Castro J, Harrington AM, Vetter I, Dekan Z, Muttenthaler M, Wan JJ, Lewis R.J, King G.F, Brierley S.M  & Alewood P.F. Selenoether oxytocin analogues have analgesic properties in a mouse model of chronic abdominal pain. Nature Communications. 2014 Jan 30;5:3165. doi: 10.1038/ncomms4165.

Scholarship Program 2015 (closing date: 12 September 2014)

For futher information, click here.

• Collaboration and Exchange Awards (closing date: 12 September 2014)
• Focus Grant (closing date: 1 October 2014)
• Partnership Engagement Grants (closing date: 13 October 2014)

For further information, click here.

Open to early and mid-career researchers to present their protein-related work at a symposium for the chance to be awarded the $1500 APG Early Bird Award for research related travel. (closing date: 22 September 2014)

For further information, click here.

Abbvie Student Poster Competition  (closing date: Friday 29 August 2014)

Student Volunteer Program  (closing date: Friday 29 August 2014)

Industry Excellence Awards  (closing date: 26 September 2014)

Research Grants 2015 (closing date: 15 October 2014)

For further information, click here.

 Les Brookes Travel Fellowship (closing date: 26 September 2014)

Jenny and Graham Lang Collaboration Travel Grant (closing date: 26 September 2014)

For further information, click here.

Fellowships (closing date: 31 October 2014)

http://www.asbmb.org.au/awards.html

JDRF Australian Type 1 Diabetes Clinical Research Network - Request for Application (closing date: 24 October 2014)

For further information, click here.

Expression of interest (closing date: 30 September 2014)

For further information, click here.

Research Grants 2014 (closing date: 19 September 2014)

For further information, click here.

Demential Research Team Grants (closing date: 8 October 2014)

For further information, click here.

29th August
Immunisation practice and policy development in Australia: optimising protection against life-threatening infections in children
A/Professor Helen Marshall, University of Adelaide

5th September
Novel approaches to drug development for prostate cancer
A/Prof Lisa Butler, University of Adelaide

A new fortnightly seminar series facilitated by the School of Population Health, University of South Australia

SAHMRI Grand Rounds aims to bring together researchers across all SAHMRI themes for the purpose of supporting in-depth discussion of empirical health and medical research to enhance the scientific quality of future research and assist the translation of results to achieve public health benefits.

Topic:  Testing the activitystat hypothesis
Presenter:  Professor Tim Olds
School of Health Sciences, University of South Australia
Date:  Monday 1st September 2014
Venue:  SAHMRI Auditorium, Level 3

Topic Overview:  The activitystat hypothesis proposes that when physical activity or energy expenditure is increased or decreased in one domain there will be a compensatory change in another domain to maintain an overall, stable level of physical activity or energy expenditure.

SA NT DataLink Panel discussion: Using sensitive data sensitively
27 August, 12.30 – 3.00pm
SAHMRI Auditorium
RSVP: SANTDataLink@unisa.edu.au or phone Kyleann Badcock 08 8302 1604

Stem Cells: the potential, the reality and the dangers
Professor Weissman
Thursday 28 August, 6pm
SAHMRI Auditorium

Wardliparingga - inaugural SA Aboriginal Health Research Showcase
2nd and 3rd September
SAHMRI auditorium
https://www.sahmri.com/participate/events/south-australian-aboriginal-health-research-showcase

SAHMRI/FOODplus Public Event
“Food Allergies in Early Life”
Wed 3 Sept, 6:00pm – 7:30pm
Marion Cultural Centre, Diagonal Road, Oaklands Park
Speakers: A/Prof Michael Gold, Prof Maria Makrides and Ms Merryn Netting.  Register at www.foodallergiesinearlylife.eventbrite.com

The Future of Medical Research
25 – 26 September, Sydney
http://www.informa.com.au/conferences/health-care-conference/the-future-of-medical-research

Adelaide Protein Group meeting
October 15th
SAHRMI Auditorium
Keynote speaker Prof Steve Wesseleingh.

AusBiotech 2014 National Conference
29 - 31 Oct 2014, Gold Coast
www.ausbiotechnc.org

3rd Annual NHMRC Symposium on Research Translation
12 – 13 November, Melbourne
http://nhmrc2014.com/index.html

2014 Australian Health and Medical Research Congress (AHMRC)
16-19 November, Melbourne
http://www.ahmrcongress.org.au/

Australasian Society for Psychiatric Research (ASPR) Conference
3-5 December
Adelaide Oval, Adelaide
www.aspr2014.com.au

12th Behavioural Research in Cancer Control Conference
12 – 15 May 2015, Sydney
http://canact.cmail2.com/t/r-l-mlhydz-irjlllurlt-h/

A Student Committee has been established at SAHMRI and welcomes any feedback regarding ways in which students can be supported while working within the building.

Please provide feedback via email to the Research Office.

SA Health Human Research Ethics Committee
Proposals due: 22nd September

RAH Human Research Ethics Committee
Proposals due: 10th September

QEH Human Research Ethics Committee
Proposals due: 17th September

WCH Human Research Ethics Committee
Proposals due: 10th September

Southern Adelaide Clinical Human Research Ethics Committee
Proposals due: 12th September

University of Adelaide HREC
Proposals due: 23rd September

University of South Australia HREC
Proposals due: 2nd September

Flinders University Social and Behavioural Research Ethics CommitteeHREC
Proposals due: 22nd September

The next Animal Ethics Committee meeting will be held on Thursday 18th September.

Applications must be received by 4th September to be considered at this meeting.

Please refer to the AEC website for further information regarding submission requirements.

SAHMRI's Biosafety Committee (SAHMRI BC) primary objective is protection of personnel, the general public, and the environment. To meet this goal, SAHMRI BC imposes requirements for safe laboratory and biological safety practices; reviews and approves policies, procedures, training, programs and facilities pursuant to the safe use of biological agents, other biological materials, and toxins.

Scheduled Committee Meetings for 2014
Thursday, 4 September - 3:30pm - 5:00pm
Thursday, 6 November - 4:30pm - 6:00pm

For further information, click here.

It has been very busy at PIRL recently with visitors from the University of Massachusetts (Boston) and the University of Auckland working on the Huntington Disease projects.

Tim Kuchel and Sam Herzog will be presenting at the Australian and New Zealand Laboratory Animal Association (ANZLAA) Conference in Canberra in September. Tim’s talk is entitled “Large animal models of neurodegenerative diseases”, while Sam will be talking about “The need for alpacas at our research facility”.

A private donor has provided funding for sequencing and single cell PCR equipment totaling $1.08 Million. He has committed a further $877K for a high-end sequencer (HiSeq). All of this equipment will be part of the new Genomics Facility.

The Histology Laboratory is now open! You can find it on Level 0. Please check the website (https://www.sahmri.com/research-support/research-facilities-and-equipment/research-services/histology) for pricing and further details. We are also working up new staining protocols weekly, so please come chat with us if you are interested in special stains.

Stratocore PPMS for Equipment and Services Management is in its final stages of set-up (interfacing with Finance software and IT). Anticipated date late August - early September 2014.

There is now a Confocal Microscope in the Institute. Please contact Makoto Kamei (LDRU Makoto.kamei@sahmri.com) for further information regarding the microscope.

The Cytometry Facility Fellow (Randall Grose) arrived from Chicago on 14 July (returned Adelaide Scientist) and is establishing the Flow Core Service, which includes flow cytometry (already active), cell sorting and laser scanning cytometry.

The NHMRC is currently inviting feedback on the Draft Statement on Consumer Involvement in Health and Medical Research.  If you would like to provide comment on this document, please visit the NHMRC website