What's On at UWA

Inaugural Meeting of the WA Flow Group. Presentations by: Dr Senta Walton (Pathology & Laboratory Medicine UWA) "CD4+ T cells during MCMV infections'; Fiona Robins (Pathwest, Haematology) "CS&T application settings in diagnostic flow"; Dr Matt Linden (CMCA, UWA) "Flourish for panel design" Please RSVP for catering purposes.

Matthew earned his PhD in Haematology from UWA in 2003. After postdoctoral and junior faculty research roles in the USA and an academic role at RMIT University's School of Medical Sciences, Matthew has recently returned to UWA to head up the CMCA flow cytometry technique group and continue research on platelets with three related research themes. (1) Overcoming antiplatelet therapy resistance: After seminal work unravelling mechanisms and clinical significance of this phenomenon, Matthew’s research now focuses on performing clinical trials which inform the clinical management of this condition, particularly in the context of type 2 diabetes. (2) Platelet activation, inflammation and atherogenesis: While the role of platelets in the late stage thrombotic complications of heart disease is well characterised, the role of platelet activation in mediating the early inflammatory processes which drive atherogenesis is an emerging area. Matthew has contributed to important discoveries on how platelets mediate inflammation, including GPIIb-IIIa dependent release of CD40L, and cell-cell interactions with inflammatory cells to mediate phenotype. (3) Novel and emerging antiplatelet therapies: Through broad collaborations, Matthew continues to explore potential novel therapeutic targets and characterise antiplatelet potential of novel and emerging strategies. These include targeting platelet adenosine A2 and serotonin 5HT2A receptors, flavonols as selective inhibitors of platelet dense granule exocytosis, and characterisation of the effects of exercise and nutrition on platelet function. All Welcome - Refreshments Available

The “21st century microscope” will not be a single instrument; rather it will be an orchestration of specialised imaging technologies, data storage facilities, and specialised data processing engines. This presentation will detail two complimentary national projects that are creating an integrated computer environment for researchers who work with imaging data. The Multi-modal Australian ScienceS Imaging and Visualisation Environment (MASSIVE – www.massive.org.au) is a specialised high performance computing (HPC) facility for computational imaging and visualisation. This facility provides the hardware, software and expertise to drive research in the biomedical science, materials research, engineering, and geoscience communities, and it stimulates advanced imaging research that will be exploited across a range of imaging modalities, including synchrotron x-ray and infrared imaging, functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging, x-ray computer tomography (CT), electron microscopy and optical microscopy. MASSIVE is a unique Australian facility with a focus on fast data processing, including processing data “in-experiment”, large-scale visualisation, and analysis of large-cohort and longitudinal research studies. The facility runs an instrument integration project to allow researchers to more easily process instrument data, and provides a remote desktop environment for researchers to use desktop tools to process, analyse and visualize their data. A major undertaking under the MASSIVE program, is the NeCTAR-funded Characterisation Virtual Laboratory (CVL), a project that is developing software infrastructure on the cloud to provide easier access to the tools and techniques that researchers use to process, analyse and visualise imaging data. The CVL is developing three exemplar platforms for multi-modal or large-scale imaging in neuroscience, structural biology, and energy materials. This presentation will describe MASSIVE and the CVL, highlight research that is being conducted using these environments, and describe how researchers can access them. Wojtek James Goscinski is the coordinator of the Multimodal Australian ScienceS Imaging and Visualisation Environment (MASSIVE), a specialist Australian high performance computing facility for imaging and visualization, and he is the External Collaborations Manager at the Monash e-Research Centre a role in which he promotes effective and creative applications of technology in research.

Image contrast arises in conventional X-ray radiography due the differential absorption of X-rays throughout the sample. Many objects of interest, for example, soft biological tissue, possess weak absorption contrast. Furthermore, by definition, absorption contrast is directly correlated with the radiation dose received by the sample. X-ray phase imaging was developed, initially using synchrotron radiation, in order to overcome the limitation of weak absorption contrast. This technique develops contrast based upon the difference in X-ray propagation times through a sample, which, in general, results in greater contrast than absorption based imaging. In this seminar I will discuss how X-ray phase imaging can be performed using conventional X-ray sources such as those used in clinics and give examples from a variety of fields including mammography, non-destructive testing, security screening and small animal imaging.

Polymer brushes (or tethered polymers), first attracted attention in the 1950s when it was found that grafting polymer molecules to colloidal particles was a very effectiver way to prevent flocculation. The repulsive force between brushes arises ultimately from the high osmotic pressure inside the brushes. Subsequently it was found that polymer brushes could be useful in other applications such as new adhesive materials, protein-resistant biosurfaces, surfactants, responsive biointerfaces, controlled drug-delivery/release systems and thin film sensors. In this talk I will introduce the fundamentals of macromolecules tethered to surfaces in the brush regime and the thermodynamic/kinetic constraints associated with grafting polymers. Following this, I will propose the use of poly (glycidy methacrylate) (PGMA) as an anchoring platform to overcome some of the aforementioned limitations. Finally, I will talk about some of the recent developments/applications using this anchoring platform in colloidal state for drug delivery and multimodal imaging.

SIMS is one of the most powerful characterization techniques for materials, chemistry, physics, and biology because of its unique capabilities to provide trace sensitivity (ppm to sub-ppb range) and excellent depth (as good as 1 nm) and lateral resolution (< 1 µm for ion microscopes and 30 nm for ion microprobes). In particular, it has become an indispensable characterization technique in the fields of marine and biological science which require analytical techniques capable of probing small areas and detecting impurities at low concentrations. A succinct review on the basic principles of SIMS, will be given, followed by a description of the current status on the SIMS technique. The principles of SIMS data acquisition will be illustrated as well as an evaluation of procedures to achieve useful information on the elemental, isotopic, and molecular composition of the respective samples. Some most intriguing results of SIMS studies in marine and biological science will be reviewed (including studies of diatom and otolith samples) and a comparison of SIMS with other micro-analytical techniques - such as AES, XPS, EPMA, TOF-SIMS, laser ablation ICP-MS, SNMS, PIXE and RBS will be made.

LIWA invites you to a free seminar on: "A microscope in a needle: New technologies to image disease" by A/Professor Robert McLaughlin, Optical+Biomedical Engineering Lab, The University of Western Australia. A light lunch will be served from 12.00pm with a 12.30pm – 1.30pm presentation.

Bring your biomarkers to life with simultaneous multianalyte detection. This seminar will showcase the use of cytometric bead assays to provide very highly multiplexed simultaneous analysis. A much more efficient approach than multiple ELISAs.

At the CMCA, we have instrumentation which will allow you to perform these multiplexed analyses.

Light refreshments provided.

MRI is an incredibly versatile imaging modality stemming from the wide range of approaches that can be applied to generate image contrast. While qualitative imaging is common in clinical MRI, increasingly quantitative methods capable of measuring molecular tissue properties are being exploited. In this seminar I will present an overview of my research focussing on the application of quantitative MRI approaches to measure and map the distribution of; 1) iron, fat and fibrosis in the body and 2) magnetic nanoparticles to enable cell tracking and biodistribution studies of therapeutic agents.

Please join us for this meeting of WA Flow, a Western Australian flow cytometry interest group. There will be presentations of applications, protocols, results, information and general discussion of current flow cytometry.

Three presentations: Dr Coral-Ann Almeida (IIID, Murdoch University) "Single cell sorts of CD8 T cell clones for HIV research", Kerryn Stoner and Rom Krueger (Pathwest, Royal Perth Hospital) "Minimal Residual Disease detection by Flow Cytometry in AML", and Irma Larma (WA Institute for Medical Research) "Back to Basics - Cell sorting: Principal and applications".

All welcome - refreshments provided.

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) based techniques have revolutionized chemical characterization of materials and non-invasive in-vivo diagnostics, with pioneers garnering Nobel Prizes in Chemistry for NMR spectroscopy, and in Medicine for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). This seminar will begin with an overview of my experience in MR. Examples will be included from solid-state NMR spectroscopy, micro-MRI (hydrogen fuel cells, rheo-NMR), small animal MRI, and human MRI. In the latter portion of the seminar I will present some recent and interesting developments from the literature that aim to achieve novel MRI contrast linked to underlying micro-structure or biochemistry.

Dr Daniel Procissi, visiting from Chicago's Northwestern University, will be presenting a series of preclinical MRI experiments which he has conducted in different areas ranging from neurology and oncology to hybrid modality imaging (PET-MRI). This overview of imaging research will be discussed within a conceptual framework aimed at identifying the practical, technical and scientific issues that one needs to address when attempting to establish MR imaging as a reliable, reproducible and quantitative tool for biomedical and biological research.

The rules and details of UWA's Three Minute Thesis Competition will be described, and guidance will be given on how to present a talk suitable for this event. Doctoral and Masters Researchers, ECRs and academics within 7 years of PhD completion are eligible to compete.

Associate Professor Mylne will describe a system that he established which allows the monitoring of the physical position of a gene within a nucleus by confocal microscopy. He will illustrate its use to monitor the dynamic changes in gene position for one particular Arabidopsis gene as it gets silenced by low temperature. The system allows monitoring a single gene's position in live whole plants.

Assoc. Prof. Mylne (PhD, Botany) worked at the John Innes Centre (2001-2005), using molecular genetics to study proteins that accelerate flowering in response to prolonged cold (vernalization). In 2006 he moved to the Division of Chemistry & Structural Biology at The Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB, UQ) where he held a QEII Fellowship (2008-2012) and was the inaugural John S. Mattick Fellow (2010-2012). In 2013 he joined the faculty at The University of Western Australia and took up an ARC Future Fellowship in the School of Chemistry & Biochemistry and The ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology. His research interests are protein evolution and the molecular mechanisms underlying the biosynthesis of bioactive peptides.

Please join us for this meeting of WA Flow, a Western Australian flow cytometry interest group. There will be presentation of applications, protocols, results, information and general discussion of current flow cytometry.

The August meeting will be held in the Macdonald Lecture Theatre, Princess Margaret Hospital.

There will be some great research, clinical and core facility presentations: Ben Wylie "Dendritic cell subsets and CD4 T cell immunity in Melanoma"; Tracie Easter and Monica Kemp "Flow cytometry - a tool for immune deficiency testing: two paediatric case studies"; and Dr Bree Foley (topic to be confirmed).

All welcome, refreshments provided. Please RSVP for catering purposes.

How to get there: Use entrance 4 or Roberts Road, right next to the pedestrian crossing traffic lights (i.e. opposite ICHR and Perth Modern School). The lecture theatre is on the right of the entrance foyer. Light refreshments will be served in the foyer.

Come and find out about our undergraduate and postgraduate courses, career options, scholarship opportunities, our valuable research, community programs and facilities.

There's also residential college tours, hands-on activities, live music, entertainment, and plenty of fun activities for the whole family as we celebrate our 100th birthday.

W.A. has an economy that is highly dependent on mining and minerals processing. The state, which covers the western third of the Australian continent, has a population of only 2.3 million people (10% of Australia’s total), but is responsible for 46% of Australia’s total exports and 58% of mineral and energy exports. In 2012, there were 975 operating mines and 169 processing plants with more than 50 minerals mined in commercial quantities [1]. Over the last five years, demand from China, Korea and South East Asia has resulted in an state economy with an average annual growth of 4.4% and 15% business investment growth [2]. These mining operations may have many problems. Many of the ores may be unpredictably more difficult or costly to process or handle. As natural samples they can be complicated, they have multiple phases, with variations in particle size, substitution, order and morphology or contain trace phases that often have effects greater than their proportion in the materials would suggest. Until recently, many of these materials would have been examined only on the basis of their chemistry, usually by XRF or ICP-OES. The evolution of better and more flexible diffractometers, especially faster detectors and more robust analysis programs, has greatly reduced the instrument time and analyst time required and subsequently the cost of obtaining good XRD data. Mining and mineral processing companies that would have previously only analysed tens of samples by XRD, if any, can now analyse hundreds or even thousands of samples. Several past and potential future problems will be discussed where lab-based diffraction or synchrotron diffraction are a significant contributor to understanding the problem and providing solutions [1] Government of Western Australia, Dept of Mines and Petroleum. (2012) Western Australian Mineral and Petroleum Statistics Digest, 2011-2012. [2] Government of Western Australia, Dept of State Development. (2013) Western Australia – Economic Profile, January 2013

Please join us for this meeting of WA Flow, a Western Australian flow cytometry interest group. There will be presentations of applications, protocols, results, information and general discussion of current flow cytometry.

Dr Gary Cowin was awarded a BSc (HONS), majoring in synthetic organic chemistry, from the University of New England followed by a PhD investigating renal metabolism from the University of Queensland. Dr Gary Cowin is the Facility Fellow for the Queensland Node of the National Imaging Facility (NIF) as part of the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Scheme (NCRIS), based at the Centre for Advanced Imaging, University of Queensland. He is an MR physicist undertaking development and implementation of research programs on a range of research (Bruker) and clinical (Siemens) MRI systems and multimodality imaging, MRI/PET/CT, for plant, animal and human research. Specific areas of research include prostate, liver, spinal cord and development of simultaneous MRI/PET imaging. The MRI/PET system is the World's first commercial prototype that enables simultaneous acquisition of MRI and PET images for preclinical research. This MRI/PET system is a flagship instrument of the National Imaging Facility.

WA Flow is back for 2014, with our first meeting kicking off on Tuesday 4th March at 5 pm in the Seminar Room G24 at the Perkins Institute for Medical Research. The first meeting of the year will be a report back from delegates of the 36th Australasian Cytometry Society (formerly the Australasian Flow Cytometry Group) Meeting which took place in Wellington, NZ in December. Presenters will report on the exciting new developments in Research, Clinical and Core Technology streams of the conference. We are also developing an exciting program of WA Flow events for the rest of the year!

The WA Flow group is an open group and is a collaboration of all the research institutions and clinical flow laboratories in Western Australia. BD have kindly offered to support the WA Flow Group meetings and will be providing light refreshments and catering for our meetings (hopefully this will entice you to come and network at the post-meeting refreshments!). We meet on the first Tuesday, every second month. All CMCA flow users should attend.