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UNSW Medicine Newsletter - 4 June 2008
General News
IT News
Student News
Research News
Library News
Current Events
General News |
Dean's Awards
The Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Professor Peter Smith, has announced the establishment of the Dean’s Awards for Outstanding Achievement and the creation of the Dean’s List.
The Dean’s Awards for Outstanding Achievement will be made to individuals who have excelled in areas of research, teaching, community engagement and leadership. Individuals will be nominated by the Head of School / Unit to the Senior Associate Dean or to the Dean, who will make the decision with regard to the awards. Awards will be acknowledged on the Faculty website and certificates and medals will be presented at the Faculty of Medicine’s Annual Awards Ceremony. Nominations can be made at any time during the year and should be in the form of a written submission providing a copy of the nominee’s curriculum vitae and details of the activity for which the award is to be made.
The Dean’s List is to acknowledge the achievements of young researchers with the potential to become career scientists and to be appointed to the Faculty or a research centre at UNSW. Awards will be made at the undergraduate (ILP and Honours) and postgraduate (MSc, PhD) level. Nominations would normally be made by the supervisor to the Head of School / Unit, who in turn would support the nomination to the Senior Associate Dean or Dean. Successful applicants would be acknowledged on the Faculty website and be presented with a Certificate of Achievement at the Faculty of Medicine Annual Awards Ceremony.
This new initiative is aimed at rewarding, saluting and acknowledging the achievements of our students and staff and will be an integral part of the new Talent Management Program being developed by the Faculty of Medicine.
Biological Resources re-location from Little Bay Update
The re-location from Little Bay is well underway. All animals will be re-located by Friday 6th June after which time all Animal Technicians will transfer to Wallace Wurth. Our office will re-locate on Wednesday 11th June to: Room MG12 Wallace Wurth Phone: 9385 8456.
As there will be some computer down time while the database is transferred on 11th June please do not place any orders on that day.
Until the Little Bay site is finally decommissioned on 30th June, there may be occasions when our office is unattended in which case you will be asked to leave a message and your call will be returned. If the matter is of an urgent nature please call Debra Thompson on 0404 445 472.
New Staff
Jae Greenwood – Senior Animal Technician will be working in our PC2 rooms and will be responsible for all bookings for hood time and procedure rooms. Her email account is in the process of being set up (). In the meantime she can be contacted on 0434 324003
Ben Tuckfield – Animal Technician will be working in our PC1 rooms
Induction
Any researchers and their staff must attend an induction session prior to commencing work in the facility. This can be arranged by contacting either the Biological Resources office or Jae Greenwood, directly.
OH&S Awareness, Laboratory Safety and PC2 training needs also to have been completed. For information concerning these courses please refer to the OH&S website
Adam Janssen will organise a combined OGTR Certified/Animal Laboratory Training, at a date to be advised, in July. Please advise Priscilea Furerri, our Administration Officer by email to if you would like to attend this training
Animal Imaging Laboratory
The Animal Imaging Laboratory will be fully operational by Monday 16th June. Access to this laboratory is restricted to those who have undertaken training on the equipment with Dr Carl Power. He will organise training according to demand and can be contacted via email
An on-line booking system is to be implemented for use of the animal imaging equipment as well as the booking of procedure rooms and hoods, in the near future.
Every attempt has been made it minimise disruption to research during our re-location but due to the breakdown of some equipment there has been some significant interruption to our usual work procedures and exit strategy from Little Bay. While I expect there maybe some issues to be resolved once we are fully operational next week, your patience is appreciated and your comments as to how things might be improved welcome.
Please direct any queries or concerns to Debra Thompson on 0404 445 472.
2008 UNSW International Development Scholarship
Applications are invited from UNSW staff for the 2008 UNSW International Development Scholarship:
The 2008 UNSW International Development Scholarship provides UNSW staff with an opportunity to travel to an international university for the purposes of:
- benchmarking current services and practices
- investigating administrative best practice (e.g., policies, systems, procedures)
- collaborating with international colleagues
The goals of the Scholarship are to:
- provide high-quality development opportunities for UNSW staff members
- develop and strengthen links between UNSW and the other universities
- gain knowledge about teaching and administrative practices at other international universities
There will be 3 scholarships awarded in 2008 with each worth $15,000.
Applications will be assessed against the following criteria:
- the alignment of the proposal against one of the UNSW Strategic Priorities
- appropriateness of the chosen host university(ies) as a recognised best practice leader in the area of proposed study or research
- the project implementation plan outlining how the knowledge and skills will transferred and implemented to benefit UNSW
How to Apply
To obtain an information booklet and application form, please contact Adrianne Harris or download the booklet and form from: http://www.hr.unsw.edu.au/osds/training/scholarships.html
Applications close on Friday 13 June 2008
Successful applicants will be advised by Friday 27 June 2008
For more information, please contact Adrianne Harris, Organisation and Staff Development Services on extn. 53426 or email a.harris@unsw.edu.au
Post Doctoral Fellow - Centre for Clinical Governance Research in Health
A Post Doctoral Fellow position is available within the Centre for Clinical Governance Research in Health. Fixed term until 30 June 2010
The Centre is an internationally recognised research capability in the Faculty of Medicine. Its core focus is to investigate and provide new knowledge about policy, governance, organisation, work and leadership in the health sector through cross disciplinary research with academic and industry collaborators.
Essential Criteria
- PhD degree in a social science discipline or related area
- Appropriate levels of relevant publications
- Knowledge of EEO/AA and OH&S principles.
For information about this position please contact Professor Jeffrey Braithwaite on telephone (02) 9385 2590 or email:
Full details - Position Description (doc)
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IT News |
Big changes in IT services are planned across UNSW in 2008 and 2009
Overview
The new IT environment (what I am calling “shared services”) will provide each member of the University with a supported email, file, print and service desk facility based on UNSW enterprise infrastructure.
These changes will impact all staff and students.
Services Catalogue
- The exact list of services that will be provided are still being finalised but the impact for current Faculty of Medicine staff and students is likely to include a move to:
- UNSW provided e-Mail service
- UNSW login
- UNSW managed file/print service
- UNSW managed desktop (there will be a range of different styles of desktops – from unmanaged at the operating system level to fully managed. The assets themselves will all be tracked and managed)
- UNSW hosted infrastructure for servers
We will continue to use the UNSW service desk to log calls. Calls will be resolved by both the UNSW service desk and Medicine support.
Timeframe
During 2008 and 2009
Services are currently being designed and Faculties are being involved in this. Some services likely to impact faculty in 2008 – shared services for students Q3/4 , possible staff move to some shared services Q4 2008 to Q1 2009. Medicine not as high priority as some other Faculties or Divisions as most services are functional.
Availability/range of Equipment
A new procurement model is being developed for computer purchases. The aim is to reduce cost per unit for standard machines and to reduce time to buy and approve. Specialised needs will continue to be catered for in conjunction with academic and research staff.
Support Service
Adoption of a base line standard operating environment (SOE) or managed operating environment (MOE) – these terms are being used interchangeably - will enable greater use of common management tools and enable the central service desk staff to provide remote support, i.e. be able to contact your machine and help resolve issues remotely if possible. This whole project is now being called Service Management and Utility Services (SMUS) - no really it is. Please stop giggling.
As far as possible it is intended to incorporate standard desktop computer support for the Faculty into this enterprise approach so that we can deal with the simple calls much much faster.
The need for localised and specialised support, however, is recognised and is being incorporated into the final design of services. Faculties are being involved in these discussions. We are keen to improve the capability of the Faculty teams to deal with Faculty-specific issues.
Specifications for the new service desk include the ability for end-users to be able to carry out self-service tasks and to submit and track their service requests on-line. It is likely that remote support and remote software installations (either via self-service or via support calls) will increase.
Student Impact
Faculty of Medicine students will be impacted and will be provided with new services
- New UNSW logon to all lab computers (instead of generic account) – we are planning a pilot of this soon
- Access to a file share that they will be able to access from any campus PC
- New printing services
- New online email service
Purchase of IT Equipment
We are all required to follow the purchasing protocol established in 2007. This does not currently apply to research funds but, in all cases the Faculty IT Manager should be consulted to help minimise duplication and to ensure costs are appropriate. Basically if the cost is over $500 send me an email and we can talk about it.
Information overload or Information vacuum
Well you may be thinking that you have been hearing about this for a long time or perhaps this is the very first time you are hearing about any of this. Information on these projects has been pretty slow and inconsistent as we started and it continues to vary wildly between the two extremes. Information updates can be found on the following websites and I would encourage you to have a quick look.
As always, I am happy to take your calls or emails.
MCSU Staff update
As you may know we have been struggling in the past weeks to respond to your calls as quickly as we would like. We have appreciated your understanding in this. In a couple of weeks we should be back up to our full numbers and have filled 2 positions with full-time staff.
See you in the hallways.
Luc and the Medicine Computing Support Unit
Luc Betbeder
IT Manager
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Student News |
BSc (Medicine) Honours Seminars
Research supervisors and post docs are invited to attend the seminars on 27 & 30 June.
Schedule & details may be found at: http://www.med.unsw.edu.au/medweb.nsf/page/BScMedHonSeminars
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Research News |
Why come to NSi before you publish?
Your research has finally paid off as your team has come up with a significant finding, data set, model etc. Naturally your thoughts turn to publication – do I present at the upcoming conference or submit to the leading journal? Have you stopped to consider what benefits might eventuate from talking to NewSouth Innovations?
Why should I bother? What’s in it for me and my team?
NSi’s primary function is to manage and commercialise intellectual property generated at UNSW, however our objective is not to file patent applications for the sake of filing patent applications. This is especially true since many life science inventions don’t require patenting to be commercialised. Instead, NSi engages investigators to seek out inventions with commercial potential and works to put those inventions into the hands of commercial partners. Ultimately, successful commercialisation leads to revenues flowing back to UNSW and to the investigators themselves, while at the same time allowing the public that funded the invention to one day benefit from the technology.
There are other direct benefits. NSi has an experienced team of Business Development Managers, Business (market) Analysts, and patent experts that work directly with investigators to explore an invention’s market and patent potential. In addition to providing the framework for NSi’s decision to commercialise, this combined analysis can identify opportunities for future research and companies willing to sponsor additional studies.
When should I contact NSi?
The ideal time to disclose an invention to NSi is immediately after it has been reduced to practice but before it has been published or publicly presented; i.e. as soon as the invention is in hand and before writing the scientific manuscript. This will allow sufficient time for NSi to fully evaluate the invention’s commercial potential and to develop and implement a management strategy that maximizes value. NSi is occasionally contacted only days or even hours prior to a publication, and in these instances our hands may be tied if there is insufficient time to act.
Why patent?
According to IP Australia, a patent is a right granted for any device, substance, method or process which is new, inventive and useful. It is legally enforceable and gives the owner the exclusive right to commercially exploit the invention for the life of the patent (in the case of standard patents up to 20 years). In return, patent applicants must share their know-how by providing a full description of how their invention works. This information becomes public and can provide the basis for further research by others. Given long product development times and/or high cost to bring some products to market, companies may need patent protection to justify their investment into an opportunity.
If I do publish can NSi still file a patent?
If you demonstrate, sell or discuss your invention in public before filing a patent application, you can lose the opportunity to patent it. Discussions with UNSW colleagues don’t normally pose an issue, but talks with business partners or outside advisers regarding an invention should be on a confidential basis. NSi Business Development Managers are very experienced in this area and are happy to provide advice and will put written agreements in place if warranted.
NSi is here to serve you
There are a variety of reasons to commercialise an invention, but any commercialisation effort requires a dedication of significant time and resources. NSi has an experienced life science team that stands ready to lead that effort and help translate your bench research into a product on the market.
For more information on how NSi can help you: http://www.nsinnovations.com.au/unswstaff/index.html
Pfizer Australia Research Fellowships
Pfizer Australia Research Fellowships awards Fellowships each year to outstanding biomedical scientists wishing to establish a research career in Australia.
Expressions of interest should be directed to Professor Denis Wakefield no later than 30 June and the external application deadline is 28 July 2008.
Each Fellowship allows the successful applicant to continue their program of research at an Australian university or research institution, by providing a 5-year grant covering salary, travel and other establishment costs.
Each Fellowship is valued at up to AUD$1million.
As an indicative guide, the grant offers support to the individual at the level of Senior Lecturer, or occasionally, Reader salary range, with remaining funds used for other research related costs.
The Fellowships are designed to support a specific research program to be conducted by the applicant, primarily within an Australian research centre.
To be eligible to apply for a Fellowship, applicants should have a research-based doctoral degree in a scientific or medically related discipline, together with recognized post-doctoral achievements. A commitment to the establishment of a research career in Australia should be demonstrated by appropriate acknowledgement and support from a University or recognized local research institute. Ideally the applicant should have less then 10 year's post doctoral experience.
Key Dates
Applications received: 28 July 2008
Shortlist for assessment: 20 August 2008
Evaluation Reports: 24 September 2008
Shortlist for Interview: 13 October 2008
Presentations and Interviews: 24 and 25 November 2008
Further Information http://www.pfizer.com.au/ResearchFellowships/
Successful ARC Linkage Project Grants
UNSW has been very successful in the recent round of ARC funding for linkage project grants for 2008. Of the 43 applications from UNSW 22 were successful, with a total funding of $11.41M.
Two successful applications from the Faculty of Medicine were awarded to research teams from the National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research, and the Centre for Immunology at St Vincent’s.
The NCHECR team, lead by Dr David Regan and including Associate Professor Matthew Law, Professor Andrew Grulich and Professor John Kaldor working in collaboration with investigators from other academic institutions, was awarded a grant for the project “Planning female and male vaccination and cervical screening strategies to achieve optimal prevention of HPV-related disease”. This was funded for four years and will be conducted in collaboration with CSL Limited and Victorian Cytology Service. The results of this research will help inform the development of public health policy on the most cost-effective utilisation of resources for preventing cervical, anogenital and head and neck cancers, and genital warts, in women and men, caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV). Recent research by Dr Regan and colleagues underpins the current Australian HPV vaccination schedule, which vaccinates 12-year old females with a catch-up campaign for females aged 13-26. Men are not currently routinely vaccinated against HPV. This research will assess the cost-effectiveness of alternative vaccination and cervical-screening strategies.
A 3 year project grant was awarded by the ARC to Professor PM Curmi, Professor SN Breit and Dr C P Marquis for a project entitled “Structural and pharmaceutical studies on a novel human protein, MIC-1”. Pioneering research conducted by Prof Breit and his colleagues has demonstrated that the MIC-1 protein is responsible for cachexia, a wasting disorder seen in a quarter of all patients with malignancy. There is presently no effective treatment for such cachexia. It has also been demonstrated that the MIC-1 protein may also play a role in obesity. It is proposed the antibodies that neutralise the circulating MIC-1 protein may provide treatment to control cachexia associated with malignancy and recombinant MIC-1 protein may be a therapeutic for patients with severe obesity.
Denis Wakefield
Associate Dean (Research)
The St George Medical Research Foundation
The St George Medical Research Foundation was established in 2007 as an independent, fully tax-deductible charity. Its purpose is to promote scientific medical research undertaken in connection with St George Hospital - at the bench, in the clinic and in the community. Grants may be offered for set-up funding for new investigators, bridging funds to support expert groups between grants, major enhancements for research groups, grants-in-aid for pilot studies and support for masters and doctoral students.
The Foundation has secured backing from a number of major St George institutions, now represented on the Foundation Board. The St George Bank has been central to the Foundation’s development, funding the appointment of a full-time CEO, as well as providing or facilitating many key resources. The St George and Sutherland Leader, the St George Leagues Club and the St George Public and Private Hospitals each offer the Foundation special resources and contact with an important spectrum of the local community.
Board membership:
| Chair | John Edmonds | Conjoint Professor, UNSW |
| Deputy Chair | Kate Moore | A/Prof, Director of Urogynaecology |
| Hon Secretary | Greg Davis | Snr Lecturer, Director of Obstetrics |
| Hon Treasurer | George Skowronski | A/Prof, Intensive Care |
| Chair, SAC | Ian Cook | Professor, Director of Gastroenterology |
| Deputy Chair, SAC | Beng Chong | Professor of Medicine, UNSW |
| Members | Cherie Burton | MLA, Member for Kogarah |
| Tracey Burton | CEO, St George Private |
| Peter Christopher | GM, St George & Sutherland Leader
Editor-in-Chief, Fairfax Community Press |
| John Kearsley | Professor, Director of Cancer Care |
| Richard Morris | Director of Anaesthesia |
| Danny Robinson | GM, St George Leagues Club |
| Sue Shilbury | Exec Director, St George Hospital |
| Brett Wright | Group Executive, HR, St George Bank |
The Board has appointed a Scientific Advisory Committee to assess grant applications and to advise the Board on research fund disbursement.
SAC Membership:
| Chair | Ian Cook | Professor, Director of Gastroenterology |
| Deputy Chair | Beng Chong | Professor of Medicine, UNSW |
| Members | Maria Craig | Snr Lecturer, Paediatrics |
| Michael Grimm | A/Prof, Head of Clinical School, SGH |
| Marissa Lassere | A/Prof, Rheumatology |
| Winston Liauw | Snr Staff Specialist, Oncology |
| Deedee Murrell | A/Prof, Dermatology |
| John Myburgh | Professor of Critical Care |
| Thomas Nau | A/Prof & Director of Trauma Services |
| Yao Wang | A/Prof, Principal Scientific Officer |
| Foundation CEO: | David Tipler | |
At the Foundation’s launch to the local community on St George’s Day, 23rd April 2008 more than $200,000, a start-up fund, had been raised from the medical staff of St George Hospital.
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Library News |
New Library Anatomy database
The Library is providing trial access to the Primal Pictures database from 28/05/08 - 17/06/08.
- Over 5,000 3D anatomical structures, clinical slides, dissections, animations and much more (derived from real human data)
- 20 learning and teaching modules covering basic human anatomy and focusing on one or more areas of the body
- Study guide, test bank, and an optional test management system to build custom quizzes for students
- Modules that feature three-dimensional animations that show function, biomechanics, and surgical procedures
- Clinical videos and textual descriptions by some of the leading specialists in their fields supplement the animations and the models.
- Images are not simple drawings- they’re derived from real medical scan and dissection data interpreted by a team of staff anatomists, and constructed using advanced imaging by an in-house team of graphics specialists.
Access via Sirius, http://sfx.nun.unsw.edu.au/V/?func=find-db-1-locate&mode=locate&format=001&F-IDN=NSW03615
The Library would welcome your feedback on this trial resource. Please fill in our feedback form via: http://info.library.unsw.edu.au/web/resources/evaluationform.html
Please do not hesitate to contact Kate Dunn, Outreach Librarian (kate.dunn@unsw.edu.au, 9385 8241) if you have any queries regarding this.
University Library Update
Issue: University Library Update 5 (PDF)
Contents -
- Document Supply - Changes to Process
- ResearcherID.com
- Film & Video Service
- Course materials - reminder for staff
- Some interesting statistics for April 2008
- Product information
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Current Events |
New Format for Dean's Lectures for 2008
The Dean's Lectures for 2008 will now be in a forum style and include some of our most distinguished and senior health personnel as well as our internal UNSW research leaders.
The Dean's Lecture for the 23rd July has a working title "Pandemics and emerging infections - panic and paranoia or potential threat?"
The invited participants will be Professor Raina McIntyre, Associate Professor Mary-Louise McLaws and Professor John Horvarth.
Further details will be available soon.
Success of recent BrainFood event
Success of the recent UNSW BrainFood event, "A Future Free of HIV - the Scientific and Social Implications of Making it Happen", that the Faculty was instrumental in putting together, has attracted interest from a major sponsor to provide support for the event in the future.
The video has also been picked up by ABC TV and will be going to air on ABC 2 on Thursday June 12 at 5.35pm and again on June 13 at 8am. The week after that it will be on the newly launched ABC Fora website.
Participants are surveyed at each event. For your interest here are the results -
- Survey results (PDF - restricted to UNSW Medicine - login Staff ID and UniPass)
All Upcoming Events
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Keep in touch with faculty news and events on our website. If you have an upcoming event or story please submit it for display.
http://www.med.unsw.edu.au/medweb.nsf/page/News+and+Events (Staff ID and UniPass required to submit)
If you have any research in press, which would be of interest to a general audience, please contact Susi Hamilton in the Media unit at UNSW on 9385 1583 or
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