SoMS Newsletter - December 2005

---

Staff

Promotion to Lecturer
Congratulations to Patrick De Permentier on his promotion to Lecturer with the Department of Anatomy which takes effect on 1 January 2006.

Professor Mike Hill
It is with considerable sadness that I inform you that Mike Hill will be leaving the School of Medical Sciences next year. For personal reasons, Mike is relocating to the United States to take an academic post in Missouri. Fortunately Mike will continue to have close links with the school as his research team will continue to function in the Department of Physiology and Mike will be making frequent trips back to the school to interact with his friends and colleagues. I would like to take this opportunity to thank him for his contributions to the school and to wish him all the best in the future.

Dr Hala Zreiqat
Dr Hala Zreiqat will be leaving the School after 13 years of service to take up a position as Senior Lecturer at Sydney University in the New Year. Dr Zreiqat began working at SoMS as a Research Officer and after completing her PhD, was the recipient of several NHMRC grants, including her recent Career Development Award fellowship. The staff and students of the Bone and Biomaterials Laboratory will be joining Dr Zreiqat at her new location. We wish her and her team all the very best in the future.

Advertising for New Staff
From January 2006 recruitment advertising for positions within the School will be limited to a short advertisement in the relevant publications and on the UNSW HR website. Position Descriptions (PDs) for vacancies will be available on the new SoMS website as PDF documents. Desirable criteria will no longer be included in PDs. Please contact Wendy Wartho (ext 53469) for assistance in drafting PDs and completing HR10 forms.

---

Events

Museum Launch
On Monday 5th December, SoMS hosted a launch of its newly renovated and relocated Museum of Human Disease. Leaders and workers from the School’s four major research groups attended and supported the event with postgraduate and postdoctoral students answering questions about their current work. The occasion also marked the launch of the “Gutsy Stuff” exhibition which explores a number of questions about the ills and spills of our digestive system. The Museum and the School were privileged to have UNSW’s Chancellor, David Gonski and the ABC’s Robyn Williams present to offer inspiring words about the positive contributions of Museums, their volunteers and their special exhibitions. The Museum was officially launched by NSW Health Minister John Hatzistergos. Congratulations to all involved on a very successful and memorable event.

Australasian Heads of Pathology Meeting
On Wednesday 7th December, Professor Denis Wakefield convened a meeting of Australasian Academic Heads of Pathology at The Royal Australasian College of Pathology in Surry Hills. The meeting was intended to address the most pressing issues faced by Pathology Departments in Australasian Universities, including visibility of the discipline in integrated medical curricula, assessment issues, the changing roles of Pathology Museums (discussions led by Professor Rakesh Kumar, Dr Gary Velan and Professor Denis Wakefield respectively). Attendees included Dr Debra Graves, CEO of the Royal Australasian College of Pathology, as well as representatives of Academic Pathology Departments from New Zealand and all states of Australia. Outcomes of this highly successful day included resolutions regarding increased engagement in the design of medical curricula, enhanced collaboration between Pathology Departments and improved sharing of resources.

SoMS Co-Hosts Human Biology Conference
Between 6 – 8 December, SoMS successfully co-hosted the Australian Society for Human Biology (ASHB) annual conference. Delegates from across Australia, New Zealand and South Africa attended, with a big turnout of students. The ASHB meetings are renowned for their breadth of topics, and this year was no exception. Highlights included: recent developments in ancient DNA, the genetic landscape of tissues, papers about the health of ancient Pacific islanders and ancient Japanese, health of contemporary Fly-in/Fly-out mine workers, genotypes associated with Apert syndrome, clothing and thermal adaptations of Aboriginal Australians, the anatomy and relationships of the little people from Flores (Homo floresiensis), and teaching children about biology and evolution.

---

Research

Century Club Plaque
A plaque will shortly be erected in the Foyer naming members of the Century Club. This Club has been developed by the Research Committee as a way of honouring researchers with more than 100 publications.

Postgraduate Reviews
The guidelines for our postgraduate review process have been clarified to provide students, supervisors and panel members with clearer specifications for each review. Based on our current review procedures, the new guidelines aim to ensure consistency between panels and clarify outcomes for each stage. The guidelines include details of what to submit in advance of the meeting, what materials to bring to the review and the issues that will be discussed. Implementation will start next year, with newly enrolled students.

Vacation Scholarships
We are pleased to advise that the following students have been awarded SOMS Vacation Scholarships: Tristan Hardy (working with Nick Hawkins on colorectal cancer), Judy Chen-Li Kuo (in Peter Barry’s lab working on structure-function studies of ligand-gated ion channels), Catherine Lam (with Patsie Polly on nuclear receptors in the liver), Neillan Nandapalan (in Phil Waite’s lab on cellular therapies in spinal cord injury) and Sara Wu (with Wendy Jessup on molecular regulation of membrane cholesterol export pumps). Congratulations to all and we hope they enjoy their research experience.

---

Grants and Awards

SoMS Awards Ceremony
SoMS staff turned out in force to support and recognise the achievements of their colleagues at the Annual Awards Ceremony held at 2pm on Thursday 15 December in the Athol Lykke Theatre. Professor Phil Waite presented certificates, commemorative awards and bottles of port were handed out to winners of Research awards including Citation Classics, Century Club Members and the latest Paper of the Month. For a full list of award recipients in each Category, please visit the Research Rewards page on the new website.

The following staff were awarded certificates in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the development of teaching and administration within the school:

PATHOLOGYPHYSIOLOGY & PHARMACOLOGYANATOMYADMINTECHNICALFinally, a number of special awards were made to SoMS staff for their unique professional and personal qualities!:Ramaciotti Funding for Dr Mansfield
Dr Kylie Mansfield has been awarded almost $30,000 in funding from the prestigious Ramaciotti Foundation for her research on incontinence. The work focuses on how the drugs that have been used to treat incontinence for the past 30 years work. Dr Mansfield says the existing drugs have many side effects. It is hoped that the research could ultimately change the focus of drug development, which could lead to fewer side effects for sufferers.

Grant to Boost Spinal Injury Research
Professor Elizabeth Burcher's team of medical researchers has been awarded a grant for a quarter of a million dollars to investigate the problem of bladder dysfunction amongst spinal cord injury patients. The grant was one of several awarded by the State Minister for Science and Medical Research, Frank Sartor. Please visit the SoMS website for more information.

MEPSA Student Investigator Award
Cristan Herbert, PhD student in the Department of Pathology, was one of the winners of a student investigator award at the 2005 meeting of the Mutagenesis & Experimental Pathology Society of Australasia, held in Adelaide at the end of November.

---

OHS

Laboratory Areas
The OHS Coordinator has been working with many of the Schools Lab Managers and "Controllers" of lab areas to implement BioSafety and Dangerous Goods updates. If you are the person identified as controlling a Lab (on the yellow lab door sign) and haven’t yet spoken to our OHS Coordinator, please email Michelle so she can help you comply with the new changes.

Christmas Shutdown
During UNSW Shutdown (24 December and 3 January) no access will be allowed to the Wallace Wurth Building unless special permission is obtained IN ADVANCE from Prof. Denis Wakefield.

Standard Operating Procedures
Standard Operating Procedures (SOP's) will gradually become available on the School's OHS Website in 2006. If you have SOP’s you’d like to get approved by the OHS Committee, please forward them by e-mail to Charles Harvey & Michelle Price, who will start this process for you.

---

New SoMS Website

The new SoMS website was launched on Wednesday 14 December with updated design, navigation and content. The website address is the same - http://medicalsciences.med.unsw.edu.au. However you may need to update your browser bookmarks/favourites once you have visited the new site. Please send any suggestions or feedback about the new website to Miriam DeLacy.