AMREP Research Report 2009
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The Alfred Medical Research and Education Precinct Research Report 2009 Alfred Health Commercial Road, Melbourne, Victoria 3004, Australia Telephone + 61 3 9076 2000 Facsimile + 61 3 9076 2222 2009 www.alfred.org.au The Alfred Medical Research & Education Precinct The Alfred Medical Research and Education Precinct © Alfred Health 2010 This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part of this publication may be reproduced by any process without prior written permission from Alfred Health. Production team: Liana Friedman, Heather Gallichio, Cherry Yu, Eve Kovesdy Enquiries should be directed to the Research Office, [email protected] Design: abCreative Productions ISSN 1445-8853 Printing: Print Media Group contEnts AMREP in 2009/2010 2 AMREP’s Research Performance 4 AMREP Research Facilities 5 About AMREP Ian Potter Library 8 AMREP − Alfred Medical Research and Education Precinct − was established in 2002 Human Research Ethics Committee 9 as a partnership between Alfred Health, Monash University, Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Animal Ethics Committee 11 Institute and the Macfarlane Burnet Institute for Medical Research and Public Health Translating Research into Clinical Practice 12 (Burnet Institute). La Trobe University and Deakin University joined the partnership in Allergy, Immunology and Respiratory Medicine 14 2005. AMREP is located on the campus of the Alfred Hospital, Melbourne and is one Anaesthesia and Perioperative Medicine 16 of Australia’s leading centres for medical research. Anatomical Pathology 17 Australian Centre for Blood Diseases 18 Located at AMREP Australian Centre for Health Innovation 20 The Alfred Hospital (Alfred Health) Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute 21 Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute Burnet Institute 24 Burnet Institute Burns 27 Monash University School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine Cardiothoracic Surgery 28 Cardiovascular Medicine 29 Monash University Central Clinical School (Departments of Medicine, Surgery and Immunology) Centre for Obesity Research and Education 30 Clinical Pharmacology 31 Australian Centre for Blood Diseases (Monash University) Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology 32 Nucleus Network (including an early phase clinical trials facility) Emergency and Trauma 33 National Trauma Research Institute Endocrinology and Diabetes 34 Australian Centre for Health Innovation Gastroenterology 35 Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre General Surgery 36 La Trobe Alfred Clinical School of Nursing Global Health 37 Immunology 38 Research Priorities Infectious Diseases 40 Cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity Intensive Care 42 Infectious diseases, immunology, allergy and respiratory disease Medical Oncology 43 Trauma, critical care and anaesthesia Medicine 44 Blood diseases Melbourne Sexual Health Centre 45 Mental health and neurosciences National Trauma Research Institute 46 Neurosciences Public health and preventive medicine 47 Neurosurgery 48 Global health Nuclear Medicine 49 Nucleus Network 50 Nursing 51 Nutrition 52 Occupational Therapy 53 Pathology 54 Patient and Family Services 55 Pharmacy 56 Physiotherapy 57 Psychiatry 58 Psychology 60 Public Health and Preventive Medicine 61 Radiation Oncology 62 Rehabilitation, Aged and Community Care 63 Rheumatology 65 Speech Pathology 66 Surgery 67 Women’s Health 68 Internal Grants and Awards 69 Major External Grants 72 Postgraduate Students 87 Publications 95 1 AMREP In 2009/2010 Andrew Way chief Executive, Alfred Health chair, AMREP council AMREP remains one of the nation’s treasures. As this report sets out, Project Grants and 11 Research Fellowships. Associate Professor Josephine significant research output has once again been created from the AMREP Forbes (Baker IDI) was awarded the top-ranked Career Development Award. partners. In my first year as Chair of the AMREP Council I am pleased not Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellowships were introduced to give only to have seen this output sustained in an environment of constraint, but outstanding mid-career researchers incentives to conduct their research in also that so much else has been achieved to support the overall aims of the Australia. In the inaugural funding round for 2009, three AMREP scientists were partnership. The Council has embarked on an ambitious program to transform awarded these prestigious fellowships: Professor Karlheinz Peter and Dr Julie the AMREP partnership into Australia’s leading Academic Health Centre. I set McMullen of Baker IDI, both also receiving NHMRC Research Fellowships; and out below some of that work which includes refreshing our research strategy Dr Amanda Gavin of the Burnet Institute. and leadership, identifying our contribution to education of healthcare professionals, not only in their clinical roles but also uniquely in their research roles, and creating a stronger infrastructure. Promotion of Research The Research Poster Display is a highlight of Alfred Week, held annually in October, and showcases research carried out across AMREP. Prizes were AMREP strategy Development awarded for the best of the 182 posters displayed in 2009; details of the A strategy event was held in February 2010 to discuss the future development winners and their posters are in the back section of this report. Thanks are of AMREP, including the vision and research themes. We are now focusing this extended to our prize sponsors, as well as the many AMREP staff who work on clarifying our major five research themes and how they are integrated judged the poster prizes. with our four main underpinning platforms. The group also considered several alternative models for the future of our partnership with varying levels of At the award ceremony, Monash University Vice-Chancellor, Professor Ed Byrne, delivered a stimulating keynote address entitled ‘Monash and The integration of the partner institutions. A project officer has been appointed Alfred – the Next 10 Years’, and followed with presentation of the 2009 to consult with a wide range of stakeholders and report back to the steering AMREP Research Prize to Professor Susan Davis (Women’s Health Program, committee with a plan. We would hope to conclude this work during 2010. Monash University). This annual prize is awarded to the AMREP first or senior author whose original research paper was published in the previous Research Performance year in the journal with the highest impact factor. Professor Davis’s article AMREP’s research performance continued to show impressive growth in entitled ‘Testosterone for low libido in postmenopausal women not taking 2009. Revenue from external research funding increased from $83 million in estrogen’ was published in the New England Journal of Medicine 2008 to nearly $91 million. Of this, $43.8 million was funding received from (impact factor: 50.017). the NHMRC and US National Institutes of Health (NIH). The number of journal articles published by AMREP staff rose from 1,051 in 2008 to 1,106 in 2009. AMREP Honours scholarships Further details are provided on page 4 of this report. The AMREP Honours Scholarships scheme was devised to attract outstanding Science and Biomedical Science students to undertake their Honours year at AMREP. The scholarship recipients for 2010 were Lauren Giuffrida (Monash Funding and Award success Department of Immunology) and Elisha Horat (Burnet Institute). Photographs AMREP researchers continued their success in attracting major competitive of Lauren and Elisha are on page 8 of this report. research grants and prestigious awards. These are some of the highlights. Professor Murray Esler of Baker IDI was awarded the Victoria Prize, the State’s top science prize, in 2009 for pioneering new ways of treating heart failure, stress and blood pressure. The NIH awarded $US50 million for the ASPirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly (ASPREE) trial to determine whether the potential benefits of low dose aspirin outweigh the risks specifically for people aged 70 and over. ASPREE is the largest international trial ever sponsored by the NIH and will be conducted in the US and Australia. Principal investigator of the Australian component is Professor John McNeil, Head of the Monash University School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine. AMREP researchers were successful in gaining almost $36 million in new direct NHMRC grant funding starting in 2010. Major highlights were an Australia Fellowship awarded to Professor Shaun Jackson (Australian Centre for Blood Diseases), a $5.4 million Program Grant to Professor Henry Krum (Monash Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine), 28 new Professor Shaun Jackson (Australian Centre for Blood Diseases) was one of ten recipients of a 2010 NHMRC Australia Fellowship. 2 AMREP in 2009/2010 The Alfred Centre (left). Burnet Tower and Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute (right). the AMREP council Putting the ‘E’ in AMREP The AMREP Council has a major governance role in providing the Whilst concentrating on research has brought considerable success as I have infrastructure and environment in which research at AMREP can flourish. outlined above, much of this would not have been possible had individual Meetings are held every two months. researchers not learnt how to develop research proposals or plan and undertake research. Together with mapping our educational activity across Alfred Health The Council comprises two representatives from each of the four original and Monash University, AMREP has started to reprofile and prioritise the often AMREP