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

Congratulations to Yu Kataoka (Jimmy) (Heart Health Theme) who submitted two abstracts to the recent European Society of Cardiology Congress.  Both abstracts were accepted as poster presentations and received top poster score honours.

Dale Watkins and Lisa Schafranek attended their graduation ceremonies this month at the University of Adelaide to receive their doctorates.  Professor Deb White was their supervisor and was also part of the Academic Processional.

Dale Watkins was the Leukaemia Foundation’s Blue Lantern Ambassador for the Light the Night fundraising event held on Wednesday 17 September.

The SAHMRI/University of Adelaide ‘Food Allergies in Early Life’ public event was a great success with over 170 people in attendance. Guests took advantage of the unique opportunity to hear from some of Australia's finest practitioners and researchers to have their questions on food allergies in early life answered. Doing a wonderful job as MC for the event was Amanda Blair (broadcaster, columnist & speaker) who kept our 3 great speakers and panellists Michael Gold (Food allergies: What are they? Why do they occur?), Maria Makrides (Maternal diet in pregnancy & childhood allergies) and Merryn Netting (Managing food allergies at home), busy the whole evening.

Dr Jacquie Gould (Healthy Mothers, Babies and Children Theme) is a Semi Finalist for the 2014 Young Investigator Awards and will be presenting on some of the outcomes of the DOMInO Trial “RCT of maternal omega-3 long-chain PUFA supplementation during pregnancy and early childhood development of attention, working memory and inhibitory control” which was published in American Journal of Clinical Nutrition earlier this year.

Young RL - Media article contributor (interview), The Saturday Paper ‘Artificial sweeteners may be fuelling rather than fighting weight loss’ 

In future editions of the newsletter, we will feature news and information of relevance to our research teams.

In future editions of the newsletter, we will feature news regarding recently awarded grants.

Some recently published papers:

Marshall NR, Hassiotis S, King B, Rozaklis T, Trim PJ, Duplock SK, Winner LK, Beard H, Snel MF, Jolly RD, Hopwood JJ, Hemsley KM.  Delivery of rhSGSH for prevention of neurodegenerative changes in MPS IIIA: comparison of different CSF-delivery methods.  (2014)  Experimental Neurology  In press.

Muhlhausler BS, Gibson RA, Yelland LN, Makrides M.  Heterogeneity in cord blood DHA concentrations: towards an explanation.  Prostaglandins Leukot Essent Fatty Acids 2014;91:135–140

Canuto K, McDermott R, Cargo M. 2014 Participant views on participating in a pragmatic randomised controlled trial: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women’s Fitness Program. International Journal for Equity in Health 13(1):77.

Stegman B, Puri R, Cho L, Shao M, Ballantyne CM, Barter PJ, Chapman MJ, Erbel R, Libby P, Raichlen JS, Uno K, Kataoka Y, Nissen SE, Nicholls SJ. 2014 High-Intensity Statin Therapy Alters the Natural History of Diabetic Coronary Atherosclerosis: Insights From SATURN. Diabetes Care 2014 Sept 4 [Epub ahead of print]

Hughes, P.A., Moretta, M., Lim, A., Grasby, D.J., Bird, D., Brierley, S.M., Liebregts, T., Adam, B., Ashley Blackshaw, L., Holtmann, G., Bampton, P., Hoffmann, P., Andrews, J.M., Zola, H., Krumbiegel, D. (2014) Immune derived opioidergic inhibition of viscerosensory afferents is decreased in Irritable Bowel Syndrome patients, Brain, Behavior, and Immunity

Premier’s Research and Industry Fund programs are open as of Monday 15 September 2014.

Collaboration Pathways program
Catalyst Research Grants
Innovation Voucher program

NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence – Improving Health Services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children (ISAC)

This is a call for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people who are studying and/or working in Aboriginal health and need funding to:

• Finish their certificate, diploma or degree
• Top up their PhD or Masters stipend/living allowance
• Go on a course or a conference
• Do on the job training
• Support a research project / pilot / proof of concept project (seed funding)

A call is open for Expressions of Interest until the 29 September 2014.

To receive a copy of the Expression of Interest application form, please contact Estelle.Dawes@uwa.edu.au  or by phone at 08 9340 7507 to assist with the application.

Applications open 1 September and close 17 October 2014

4 X Alzheimer’s Australia Dementia Research Foundation Half-Funded Postgraduate Scholarships are offered to students undertaking a research PhD in an area relevant to an aspect of dementia. Scholarships will be awarded for three years, with a value of up to $15,000 per year (matched 1:1 by the recipient's Institution), plus $2,500 per year for research related expenses.

Awards for researchers and educators in biosciences and medicine
Australia-Harvard Fellowships are aimed at innovators who are normally based at Harvard and have a persuasive plan to collaborate with Australia’s best bioscience researchers and educators. The award also supports Australian researchers who wish to follow-up joint initiatives at Harvard.

Applications are now open and close on October 3, 2014.

HeartKids Australia is seeking applications from Australian researchers for project funding of between $20,000 and $50,000 under their Grants-in-Aid program.

Application packages can be obtained from the HeartKids Australia office by calling (02) 9460 7450 or by emailing jann.kingston@heartkids.org.au

Applications close on Monday 22 September 2014. 

Bupa Health Foundation is now seeking nominations for its Emerging Health Researcher of the Year Award 2014.

Nominations can be made online via the Bupa Health Foundation website.

GSK is calling for Australian and New Zealand researchers to submit consumer healthcare ideas to their Consumer Healthcare Open Innovation website. If successful, entrants receive the support to commercialise their idea. The program supports scientists, innovators, researchers and start-up technology companies to commercialise their health-related ideas. The focus is in the areas of nutrition, wellness, oral health or skin health.
 

Presented by Prof Bogda Koczwara
Wednesday 24 September 2014, The Hilton Adelaide, SA
12:45pm – 2:00pm (No cost, lunch provided, registration essential)

Title: Problematising binary understandings of disability: Towards a more holistic bio-social theorising model of disability and technologies of the body.

Presenter: Associate Professor Denise Wood, Research Fellow, School of Communication, International Studies and Languages

Date: Monday 29 September 2014

Time: 1:00pm – 2:00pm

Venue: SAHMRI Auditorium – Level 3

Presentation Summary:
Associate Professor Wood’s presentation will address findings from research in Second Life with people who identify as disabled. This research has provided insights into how people with disabilities use technologies as both assistive devices, but also identify with technologies as extensions to the self and a form of embodiment. The research has also revealed that many people who the medical profession regard as disabled do not consider their biological traits as impairments, nor do they identify with the social model, which argues that society is the cause of disability (not a biological aspect of the individual). Instead, they identify as members of a particular minority group. For example many people who are deaf, describe themselves as members of a linguistic minority; people with high functioning autism often refer to themselves as members of a neurodiverse community. The research has informed contemporary notions of disability.

There will be no SAHMRI Grand Rounds session on Monday 13 October. The next session will be on Monday 27 October 2014.

Thursday 2 October – 6 pm, The Science Exchange 55 Exchange Place, Adelaide
Guest Speaker – Prof Alex Brown
RSVP September 30 | ian.johnson@unisa.edu.au

The inaugural SA Vaccinology Update is a conference partnership between the Robinson Research Institute, SA Health, SAHMRI and the Women's & Children's Health Network.  The event has a special focus on maternal immunisation in 2014 and has attracted an exciting range of local, interstate and internationally recognised speakers to discuss important issues in maternal, infant and childhood immunisation and present that latest research and policy updates.

Tuesday 21 October, 1:30pm – 9:00pm
South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI) Auditorium, North Terrace, Adelaide
Registration: $75 per person (including conference dinner)
Registrations close 15 October.
To register for the conference, or for further information including provisional program and speakers visit the website. 

Saturday 18 Oct, 8.45am - 5.00pm, Education Development Centre, Hindmarsh
Conference website and registration 

Brisbane, 24 October 2014
The theme for TRX14 is "Value Found in Translation" and the event will be held at the Translational Research Institute (TRI). TRX14 will aim to enhance trans-disciplinary collaborations across human disease research, drug and diagnostic discovery and development, IT and bioinformatics.

Canberra, 3 and 4 December 2014
Registration for the 2014 ARC/NHMRC Research Administrators' Seminar is now open.

Australian Neurogastroenterology & Motility Association (ANGMA) Annual Meeting will be hosted at SAHMRI, March 27-29, 2015.  Page AJ, Brierley SM and Young RL are local organisers for this event. More details will be posted at: http://www.angma.org.au/.

Don't forget to register for the inaugural EMBL Australia PhD Symposium ‘Research in Life Sciences: from in vitro to in vivo’! There is less than a month to register and submit your abstract (closing October 3).

Hosted by the University of NSW, Sydney on 3-5 December 2014, the symposium will bring together leading Australian and international speakers focusing on innovative science and the future of medical research.

The symposium is organised by PhD students for PhD students and aims to provide an exciting experience for young scientists embarking on careers in research. This symposium will focus on the use of new technologies and techniques to conceptually and practically model disease for the development of novel therapeutics.

For more information and to register visit the website or contact via email.

SA Health Human Research Ethics Committee
Proposals due: No October Meeting

RAH Human Research Ethics Committee
Proposals due: 8 October

QEH Human Research Ethics Committee
Proposals due: 15 October

WCH Human Research Ethics Committee
Proposals due: 8 October

Southern Adelaide Clinical Human Research Ethics Committee
Proposals due: 10 October

University of Adelaide HREC
Proposals due: 11 November

University of South Australia HREC
Proposals due: 30 September

Flinders University Social and Behavioural Research Ethics Committee HREC
Proposals due: 20 October

Aboriginal Health Research Ethics Committee
Proposals due: 23 October

Meeting date - 30 October, 2014 - applications must be received by 16 October, 2014

Meeting date - 11 December, 2014 - applications must be received by 27 November, 2014

For further information about the Committee, please visit the SAHMRI website.

A/Professor Geraint Rogers is now the Chair of the SAHMRI Institutional Biosafety Committee.

Scheduled Committee Meetings for 2014

• Thursday, 6 November - 4:30pm - 6:00pm

Please contact the SAHMRI BC Executive Officer for further information.

Bioresources, our North Terrace rodent facility, has begin operations and presently has over 50 different mouse colonies in the facility. We are currently rederiving colonies by early embryo transfer and embryo cryopreserving colonies for researchers. Many groups within SAHMRI have already commenced research work in the facility.

The Albira PET/SPECT preclinical imaging system is currently being installed in Bioresources.  Marianne Keller from PIRL Gilles Plains has recently been appointed the North Terrace Preclinical Imaging Facility Manager.  This facility includes the Albira PET/SPECT, The Perkin Elmer IVIS Spectrum (bioluminescence) which is operational, the Skyscan 1176 microCT, soon to be installed and the Bruker ICON MR, installation due in October.

If you have liquid nitrogen samples at your previous sites, now is the time to organise transfer of these samples to SAHMRI.  We have a loan transfer tank from Thermo Fisher and will need to return this, so please contact Tina Schultz ASAP if you have samples you need to transfer to SAHMRI.

The consumables store was opened at the start of September and is being used by both SAHMRI staff and partners.  If you have any feedback, please speak to your issue tracker lab rep and they can add comments via the tracker.

The general core equipment (ultracentrifuge, gel docs, real time PCR etc) is available for all researchers to use.  You MUST receive training from the nominated caretaker of each instrument prior to use.  We are currently implementing a training record book and procedure for this and will communicate this once finalised.  To organise training on any of these instruments, please see the caretaker listing on the SAHMRI website.

If you are looking for a piece of equipment that is not part of the SAHMRI general core equipment, there is a list of group-owned equipment, also available on our website.  This list indicates equipment that groups have agreed to make available to other research groups for occasional use.  The list can be viewed on the SAHMRI website.

The Flow and Laser Scanning Cytometry Facility, LDRU Mass Spectrometry Facility and Confocal Microscopy Facility web pages are now functional.  These can be viewed at the SAHMRI website.
 

Does your research require a fast and effective means of obtaining data on the health or opinions of South Australians by South Australians at a reasonable cost?

Population Research and Outcome Studies, at the University of Adelaide undertakes the Health Monitor Survey 2 to 3 times per year. 

The Health Monitor Survey has the potential to generate information that is useful across a wide variety of applications. Some key uses of the survey are:

• Information which explains population perspectives, attitudes, values and behaviours associated with issues under investigation;
• Information on knowledge, attitudes and behaviours;
• Information on perceptions towards and acceptability of services and programs or organisations;
• Information allowing the segmentation of problems and related issues;
• Information which identifies target groups for interventions and campaigns;
• Information of the acceptability and uptake of new initiatives and programs;
• Provision of prevalence or incidence data;
• Monitoring changes in health problems and disease trends;
• Data to test hypotheses;
• Information on the aetiology of specific health problems; and
• Evaluation of interventions and programs.

The Health Monitor Survey is a user pays telephone survey system that has been in operation since 1999 and is administered by Population Research and Outcome Studies, Discipline of Medicine at the University of Adelaide.
Health Monitor is an "omnibus-type" service available to government and non-government organisations to obtain data on a range of health issues within South Australia (SA).  Some researcher prefer using the Health Monitor as an alternative to the Health Omnibus Survey, as it has a much quicker turnaround and is more affordable.  

We are presently recruiting subscribers for the October/November Health Monitor.  You can submit one or two questions …or twenty!

If you are interested in submitting some questions for this survey, please speak to Simon Fullerton on 8313 1199 or simon.fullerton@adelaide.edu.au