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2015 - 2019 MHTP PhD Student Symposium

Monash Health Translation Precinct (MHTP) PhD Symposium celebrates the fantastic research of 2nd and 3rd year PhD Students across the MHTP.

Archive

The 2019 MHTP PhD Student Showcase Symposium took place on Thursday 29 August, showcasing the amazing and impactful work of our PhD students. The event was a wonderful opportunity to learn about the significant discoveries that are happening within the Precinct, and to hear from our future research leaders.
There were 38 posters on display and 12 oral presentations, each highlighting the incredible breadth of research projects across MHTP.
Our congratulations to the winners and all of the students who participated.
Oral presentation winners
First prize for best presentation – Mary Mansilla from the Department of Molecular and Trans Science - ‘A placenta-specific protein that is critical for a healthy human placenta’
Second prize for best presentation - Tayla Penny from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology - ‘Multiple doses of umbilical cord blood cells improve long-term perinatal brain injury’
People’s Choice award - Stephanie Cowan from the Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food – ‘Inflaming public interest - using a whole diet approach to Lowe inflammation in chronic disease’
Poster winners
First prize went to Mary Mansilla
Equal second prize went to Ingrid Dudink, Tomalika Ullah, Jennifer Hutchinson & Carrie Ng

2018

The 2018 MHTP Research Symposium was an overwhelming success. More than 220 posters were submitted and displayed throughout Monash Medical Centre, the Monash Children’s Hospital and the Translational Research Facility. For the third consecutive year there were ‘standing room’ only crowds for the keynote speaker. Professor Ian Frazer AC spoke about the history of papillomavirus and the development of a vaccine.

MHTP Research Symposium Poster Competition Winners

Poster Category	Abstract title	Best Poster Prize Winner - $500
Women's Health and Female Reproduction	The Role of PFN1 in Endometrial Cancer	Lisanne George
Public Health & Health Services	Antibiotic prescribing patterns in the paediatric community	Sabrina Yeh
Oncology (supported and sponsored by MPCCC)	DNMT1 depletion by Guadecitabine induces potent anti-T-cell lymphoma activity in vitro andin vivo	Belinda Maher
Nursing and Midwifery	Person-Centredness in a Complex Care Program: Perspectives of Clients and Staff	Julie White
Mental Health and Neurosciences	Do patients with Motor Neurone Disease experience disorders of olfaction?	Chi Hsuan Hu
Inflammatory & Infectious Diseases	Glucocorticoid-Induced Leucine Zipper (GILZ) Represents A Checkpoint Limiting Type 1 Interferon (IFN) Production In SLE	Champa Nataraja
Emergency Medicine, Anaesthetics, Intensive Care and Surgery	Just Say No To the Just In Case Cannula: Does a Multimodal Intervention Reduce Peripheral Intravenous Cannula (PIVC) Associated Health-care Acquired Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemias?	Chhavi Raj Bhatt
Diabetes, Obesity, Men's Health & Reproduction & Endocrinology	Does combined osteopenia/osteoporosis and sarcopenia confer greater risk of fracture than either condition alone in older men? The Concord Health and Ageing in Men Project	David Scott
Child & Neonatal Health	Epidemiology of adenotonsillectomy in Victoria and risk factors for postoperative complications	Aimy Tran
Cardiovascular Disease	Application of the DILEMMA score to improve lesion selection for invasive physiological assessment	Michael Michail
Allied Health and Other	Cultural empathy in physiotherapy students: a pre-test post-test study utilising virtual simulation.	Annika Ward

Translational Research Young Investigators Poster Competition Winners

Poster Category	Abstract title	Best Poster Prize Winner
Inflammatory and Infectious Diseases	Assessment of gut dysfunction in a mouse model of stroke	Kathryn Kumar (1^st prize $500)
Other	Development of assisted reproductive techniques to conserve Australia’s native fish	Nicola Rivers (2^nd prize $200)
Inflammatory and Infectious Diseases	Prospective Validation of the Lupus Low Disease Activity State - a Treatment Target for Systemic Lupus Erythematosus	Dr Vera Golder (3^rd prize $100)

Nicole Free, winner of the Moash Univesrity 3MT final, won best oral presentation at the MHTP PhD student showcase symposium. Dr Jasna Aleksova took out second prize, while Gloria Leung received the People’s Choice award.

2017

2017 MHTP PhD Student Symposium held as part of the MHTP Research Week 10 - 17 November 2017 was an overwhelming success. Nearly 200 posters were submitted and displayed throughout Monash Medical Centre and the Monash Children’s Hospital. The two keynote speakers— Nobel Laureate Professor Peter Doherty AC and Vice-President, Research & Development, CSL Dr Andrea Douglas—drew ‘standing room’ only crowds.

Poster competition winners

Poster Category	Abstract title	Best Poster Prize Winner - $500
Cardiovascular disease	Age dependent effect on post-stroke infection	Shu Wen Wen
Child and neonatal health	Differential effects of umbilical cord blood cells to reduce neuroinflammation following neonatal hypoxic-ischemic brain injury	Courtney McDonald
Diabetes, obesity, men’s health & reproduction and endocrinology	Sarcopenic Obesity is Associated with Lower Proximal Tibial Cortical Bone Quality, Increased Intermuscular Adipose Tissue and Poor Physical Function in Community-Dwelling Older Adults	David Scott
Emergency medicine, anaesthetics, intensive care and surgery	Determining an optimal skin closure technique for children undergoing elective surgical procedures	Sarthak Tandon
Inflammatory and infectious diseases	The role of dietary fibre on the progression of colitis	Kathryn Kumar
Mental health and neurosciences	Mesenchymal stem cells modulate brain inflammation after LPS administration in preterm fetal sheep	Madison Paton
Nursing and midwifery	Admission temperature of preterm infants – mitigating the effects of increased transportation time and distance to A new NICU	Kate Duthie
Oncology (First State Super corporate sponsor)	Novel Therapeutic Strategies in Thyroid Cancer	Nalian Ibrahim
Public health and health services	Factors associated with stroke patients experiencing severe complications in acute hospitals in New South Wales (Australia)	Tara Purvis
Women’s health and female reproduction	The Effect of Partial Amniotic Carbon Dioxide Insufflation on the Fetus During Fetoscopic Surgery	Benjamin Amberg
Other	The Best Way To Go”; Navigating hospital end of life care research dilemmas”	Felicity Moon

PhD student showcase symposium winners

1^st place: Dr Nitesh Nerlekar (Epicardial Adipose Tissue – The link between inflammation, obesity and coronary artery disease)
2^nd place: Ms Madison Paton (Mesenchymal stem cell therapy for preterm brain injury in fetal sheep)
People’s choice: Ms Brittany Croft (Investigating the role of FGF9 in disorders of sex development)

Best of ECR Oral Presentations winners

1^st place: Mr Dinesh Giritharan (Use of decision support tools for discharge planning in a general medical unit)
2^nd place: Dr Stacy Ellery (Creatine synthesis in fetal growth restriction and preeclampsia: potential implications for placental bioenergetics)

The inaugural MHTP Research Week 21 - 25 November 2016 was an overwhelming success, attended by hundreds of researchers, clinicians, students and staff across the precinct. Keynote speakers Monash University Chancellor Mr Simon McKeon AO and National Health and Medical Research Council CEO Professor Anne Kelso AO attracted standing-room only audiences. Professor Kelso spoke about the impact of medical research on improvements in health care and services, funding pressures on researchers and future changes to the NHMRC.
Oral presentation winners (PhD students)
- 1st Zoe Marks
- 2nd Sarah Meiklejohn
- 3rd Shavi Fernando
Poster prize winners
- Cancer- Dean Popovski
- Cardiovascular- Brian Ko
- Child Health and Neontal Health- Flora Wong
- Diabetes, Obesity, Men’s Health and Endocrinology- David Scott
- Emergency Medicine/Anaesthetics/ICU/Trauma/Surgery- Simon Bell
- Inflammation & Infectious Diseases- Michaela Finsterbusch
- Mental Health & Neurosciences- Thanh Phan
- Nursing and Midwifery- Christine East
- Public Health & Health Services (including Ageing and Allied Health)- Amanda Thrift
- Women’s Health- Harriet Fitzgerald
ECR
- 1st $1,000 - Virginia Deswaerte
- 2nd $300 - Amy Winship
- 3rd $100 - Le Son Tran
The 2015 (inaugural) MHTP PhD Student Symposium held on Friday 20 November at MMC was an overwhelming success.
Chaired by our own students, ten outstanding PhD students from across various academic departments at SCS and Hudson Institute presented their research.
"The quality and diversity of laboratory and clinical research presented by these remarkable PhD students was frankly breathtaking," said Head, School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health Professor Eric Morand, who opened the session together with Professor Bryan Williams.
"We know that the School of Clinical Sciences has the largest cohort of PhD students amongst Monash University's clinical schools and I am now more confident than ever that it is also the best."
First prize for best presentation was awarded to Natalie Bitto while Dr Moya Vandeleur received second prize. The Students' Choice Award went to Lexie Prokopuk.
Professor Rosemary Horne was given a special award in recognition of her exceptional and long service to the PhD program.
"I look forward to this symposium becoming a regular event on the academic calendar and representing an incredible forum for our diverse and talented staff and students to come together and share their research," added Professor Morand.