What's On at UWA

*Advanced methods in exposure assessment and epidemiology *Methods for combining exposure assessments and epidemiological models for use in risk assessment and risk prediction *Use of molecular markers in the identification of occupational and environmental risk factors *Heat stress and acclimatisation of workers, development of a biomarker of acclimatisation status *Risk assessment in environmental health decision making *Lessons learned from the Western Australian experience of mesothelioma

The Australian Synchrotron Imaging and Medical Beamline opened for general users on 7 November. The new facility provides researchers with substantially enhanced capabilities over conventional techniques, and beamtime will become increasingly available during 2013.

CMCA is hosting an information seminar presented by Prof Rob Lewis from Monash University which will explain how researchers can utilise the new capabilities of this beamline in their research.

Who should attend? This seminar is for researchers in biomedical and preclinical research. Potential applications include research into cancer, degenerative diseases, regenerative medicine, in-vivo biological and physiological processes as well as material sciences.

The IM beamline offers: -Microbeam radiation therapy, including dosimetry with user-controlled beam energy and spatial distribution -Rapid-acquisition 3D imaging for small samples -Large-scale 2D imaging using different contrast modality (including the superior detail for soft tissue imaging provided by phase contrast).

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.

This unique educational seminar will provide an update on the best clinical practice for community management of consumers with complex and/or chronic musculoskeletal disease, including musculoskeletal pain, in Western Australia.

The aim of this course is to introduce you to basic statistics. It will cover descriptive statistics (means and standard deviations); data exploration; basic categorical data analysis; simple linear regression and basic analysis of variance (ANOVA).

Subsidised rates are available for UWA Graduate Research Students.

Please register online.

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

Dr. Gavin Turbett, the principle scientist of the state of Forensic Biology laboratory, will be giving a talk titled: “Forensic Biology and DNA profiling in Western Australia”

You are invited to join us mark the 100th anniversary of the first meeting of the University of Western Australia’s Convocation.

The First meeting was held on March 4th 1913 in St George’s Hall, Hay St near the corner of Irwin Street. The historic façade including the portico, steps and tall white columns were restored when the new Perth District Court was constructed behind it at 500 Hay Street. To celebrate the Centenary of this meeting, a photo-shoot of 100 'graduates' will take place on the steps of the façade at 10am on Monday March 4th 2013.

The UWA Historical Society would be delighted if you could join us.

If you have academic robes, please bring them. If not please come anyway, as having just a few robed members will provide the ‘flavour’. Balloons for a joint release will be provided.

Monday March 4th is a public Holiday (Labour Day). There should be nearby street parking available and there is a public parking station across the road at King’s Hotel.

The UWA Centum will be there

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.

Laila Abudulai, a PhD candidate of the School of PaLM, will be giving her PhD update titled: “Impaired memory B cell immunoglobulin isotype switching as a cause of decreased phagocytosis-enhancing antibody responses in patients with HIV infection”

Dr. Dino Tan, a research officer for the Lung Institute of Western Australia (LIWA), will be giving a talk titled: "The role of T-cell co-inhibitory receptors in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)"

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.

Assoc/Prof. Matthew Linden, from the Centre for Microscopy, Characterisation and Analysis (CMCA), will be presenting a talk titled: "Highly Multiparametric Analysis with Mass Cytometry"

Dr Giglia will present her research titled 'Alcohol consumption and cigarette smoking of Australian women; changes with pregnancy and lactation'. In March 2009 the recommendations from her research were included in the revised NHMRC; 'Australian Alcohol Guidelines to Reduce Health Risks from Drinking Alcohol'.

Unfortunately this event has been cancelled.

Due to unforeseen circumstances the presenter is no longer available to deliver this course.

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This course aims to provide you with an introduction to the facilities available in MS Excel from a statistical point of view. As well as an introduction to Excel, spreadsheet functions and graphics, it concentrates on performing basic statistical methods, producing charts and tables, and discusses the limitations of Excel when it comes to more complex statistical analysis.

Discount fees are available to UWA Postgraduate Research Students.

Book your financial advice appointment on campus at the University of Western Australia with a Unisuper Financial Advisor.Whichever type of advice you choose, your first appointment with UniSuper Advice is complimentary. If you wish to proceed, a fixed quote will be provided at the conclusion of the meeting.Contact Unisuper to make an Appointment

This event is open to both new and more seasoned staff who would like to gain a wider perspective on the joys and challenges of supervision from an Education perspective.

Topics include: Supervising at a distance/Supervising international students; and Balancing the fine line between supervision and intervention.

BYO lunch, tea and coffee will be provided.

Professor Engle’s research combines clinical, genetic, and molecular biological approaches to the study of strabismus (commonly referred to as 'misaligned eyes' or 'squint') and ocular motor neuron and axon development. As a paediatric neurologist, her research has focused primarily on a set of disorders referred to as the congenital cranial dysinnervation disorders. These are incomitant forms of strabismus in which primary gaze may be aberrant and one or both eyes are unable to move into one or multiple fields of gaze. These disorders can cause significant visual impairment and can be cosmetically disfiguring. Professor Engle's Lecture will discuss recent advances in causes, genetic diagnosis and treatments for these disorders.

LIWA invites you to a free seminar on: "Liver progenitor cells: friend or foe" by Prof George Yeoh, Head, Liver Disease and Carcinogenesis, Centre for Medical Research, UWA Associate Dean (Research), Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, UWA. A light lunch will be served from 12.00pm with a 12.30pm – 1.30pm presentation.

Jennifer has recently submitted her PhD in epidemiology investigating the role of sleep as a risk factor for breast cancer. She has previously worked with the cancer epidemiology group at the WA Institute for Medical Research on studies of non-melanoma skin cancer, prostate cancer and bowel cancer.