Bulletin #0106
Funding for multiple sclerosis to boost research capacity Funding success and new fellowships have started the year on a positive note for the MS Research Flagship. In the latest round of Australian Research Council’s highly competitive grants, Menzies is able to build on its extensive neuroscience research with a $428,000 grant to understand the link between changes to insulating brain cells and learning. In the brain, nerve cells transmit electrical signals more quickly and reliably when they are insulated.
Associate Professor Kaylene Young, Dr Carlie Cullen and Dr Nick Blackburn will be looking at the signals that direct insulating cells to adapt and support life-long learning. The project is focused on how to solve the challenge of becoming more forgetful as we get older, which almost all of us will face. People can also suffer from conditions where the brain can deteriorate at
any age and this project will give us clues on how we can counteract that happening. Three researchers have also received grants from MS Australia’s biggest ever funding round. Professor Ingrid van der Mei and Associate Professor
The project is focused on how to solve the challenge of becoming more forgetful as we get older
Kaylene Young have both received fellowships of $650,000 to continue their work leading teams within the MS Flagship progressing the clinical care, self-care and treatment of people living with MS and aiming to understand the development of the disease. Dr Kalina Makowiecki and Associate Professor Kaylene Young have been awarded more than $428,000 for a project to understand how nerve cell communication changes to identify treatments that halt disease progression. Support: From left, Dr Nick Blackburn, Dr Kalina Makowiecki and Professor Ingrid van der Mei.
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Director’s message In March, it was wonderful to gain a sense of normality since the COVID-19 pandemic changed our lives and have an in-person event for our annual Menzies Excellence Awards.
It always gives me a boost to see the many young, up-and-coming researchers who are recognised in these awards
While we were still wearing masks as you will see in the photos, we gathered together to recognise our 10 best papers published last year, the best of the best paper, as well as a research impact prize and recognition for academic mentoring and professional staff. It always gives me a boost to see the many young, up-andcoming researchers who are recognised in these awards, and the encouragement given from the rest of the Menzies
community to their peers. I know Menzies is in good hands for the years to come, and on that note I announce I will be retiring from the role of Director at the end of this year. Menzies holds a special place in the Tasmanian community, and I have thoroughly enjoyed meeting our many donors and supporters during my time in this role. I will still be seen around the corridors of the Medical Science Precinct as I continue with some of my own research in an honorary capacity. A recruitment process
will be starting soon to find my replacement. I know you will welcome the new Director with the same warmth you have shown me during my tenure and we look forward to introducing the new Director in a future Bulletin. Kind regards,
Distinguished Professor Alison Venn Director
Menzies will be increasingly contacting our supporters via email. If you would like to provide Menzies with your current email address, please email Menzies.Advancement@utas.edu.au or phone 6226 7707 as soon as possible. Thank you.
Study provides insights into the safety of stopping low-doses of aspirin A new analysis of the ASPREE (ASPirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly) clinical trial, led by Professor Mark Nelson from Menzies and published recently in the Annals of Internal Medicine, found there was no clear harm or benefit to aspirin discontinuation in healthy elderly people. The ASPREE clinical trial was a large-scale trial of lowdose aspirin, led by Monash University in Australia. ASPREE involved more than 19,000 older community members in Australia and the United States without cardiovascular disease,
The aim of the new analysis was to investigate the effect of aspirin cessation through comparing clinical outcomes between those assigned to placebo and those assigned to aspirin
dementia or disability. The main finding of ASPREE, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2018, was that aspirin did not improve disability-free survival over a five-year period. As the majority of ASPREE participants had not reported prior use of aspirin at the time of trial enrolment, these
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Menzies Bulletin
results were interpreted as only relevant to people beginning to take aspirin and not for those who started aspirin before the age of 70. There remained uncertainty as to the safety of stopping aspirin. The aim of the new analysis was to investigate the effect of aspirin cessation through comparing clinical outcomes
between those assigned to placebo (i.e., aspirin cessation) and those assigned to aspirin (i.e., aspirin continuation). Over five years they found that participants who stopped taking aspirin experienced increased rates of all-cause mortality, incident dementia, persistent physical disability, and cardiovascular events, but this was not statistically significant. There was also no substantial increased risk for major haemorrhage or cancer with continued aspirin use. The absence of an effect on haemorrhage may relate to self-selection for tolerance among aspirin users.
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research
Global implications for pioneering treatment in premature baby study Professor Peter Dargaville’s lifesaving work with premature infants has again come to the forefront in the findings of the OPTIMIST-A trial, a multicentre clinical trial of premature infants with respiratory distress syndrome. The study was led by Professor Dargaville at Menzies and conducted in 33 neonatal intensive care units in 11 countries. Four hundred and eightyfive premature babies around the world were enrolled in this study in the first hours of life. The trial then examined the
effect of delivery of surfactant by the novel Hobart method, developed by Professor Dargaville and his team at the Royal Hobart Hospital. The method involves the placement of a narrow tube (a catheter) in the windpipe to deliver surfactant, which then disperses deeply into
the lung aided by spontaneous breathing. The aim was to improve upon the current standard of care, seeking to limit the development of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), a chronic disease of the lung that can have lasting effects on the lives of preterm infants. The main findings of the study were that, while the rate of survival was not different in the statistical analysis, the likelihood of developing BPD was reduced from 45 per cent to 37 per cent. Further, babies receiving minimally-invasive surfactant therapy were half as likely
to need to be mechanically ventilated with a breathing tube in the windpipe in the first three days and the need for oxygen therapy at home was reduced by one-third. Whether this healthier start to life can have a lasting impact is being examined in a follow-up study in which parents of infants involved in the trial are completing an online questionnaire asking about their child’s health and well-being in the first two years after the early birth. The Hobart method has gained traction in many neonatal intensive care units across the globe.
Transported: A night of active transport research and storytelling Active and public transport play a crucial yet underappreciated role in improving physical activity rates and health outcomes in Tasmania. Even short walks to and from bus stops enable people to stay physically active, dramatically cutting their risk of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, type-2 diabetes and cancer. However, active transport is often talked about as just another way to save money or cut traffic, without considering its vital role in maintaining our health and wellbeing. The Health by Stealth research team at Menzies – in collaboration with Metro Tasmania, the Tasmanian Government Department of Health, and the Local Government Association of Tasmania – have been exploring Tasmanians’ transport behaviours and attitudes. They found that many people are unaware of the
Event: Dr Kim Jose speaks at Transported, a night of storytelling and research.
health benefits of incidental physical activity while using active transport. To bring this hidden health benefit to public attention, Health by Stealth decided to do something slightly unusual: they initiated a storytelling competition. Tasmanians of all ages shared their best active transport stories. Their fiveminute, spoken-word stories illustrated why they love to bike, walk or ride. Award-winning author Sam George-Allen was invited to
host a storytelling workshop for shortlisted storytellers and MC a night of storytelling and research, suitably called Transported. Dr Kim Jose opened the evening to a full house at Waterside Pavilion in Hobart, launching their report Transport for an Active Tasmania. Then, the seven storytellers, including two primary school children, told stories that were variably hilarious, touching, nostalgic and inspiring. The stories were wide in scope, ranging from mountain-
biking mishaps to romance and family life aboard a Metro bus; from big-hearted generosity to a stranger to adrenaline-pumping abandon on a daily commute. Lord Mayor, Councillor Anna Reynolds, handed out the major prize to Kitty Krupp for her moving tale of her memories of a tall handsome man disembarking a Metro Bus who went on to be her husband. Metro CEO Katie Cooper awarded the people’s choice award to Reena Balding for her story of how international adventures led to a healthy obsession with cycling to work. Rolls Cycles sponsored a youth prize that was awarded to Zachary Cubitt from Launceston Church Grammar School for a hilarious rendition of a fateful mountainbiking mishap. The competition was adjudicated by Donald Reid and Briony Kidd from The Media School, and Dr Emily Flies from the School of Life Sciences.
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Long road back: Hobart mother Reece Davies suffered a stroke at just 37.
How will you be remembered? In Memoriam
One sentence in your Will can fund life-saving medical research. If you would like more information, please contact the Advancement Office on 03 6226 1920.
Facing the truth about strokes Many of us think that a stroke is something that happens only to the elderly. The truth is about 25 per cent of first-ever strokes occur in people under 55. This year, the Menzies Annual Winter Appeal will be focusing on stroke, an important area of research within the “Cardiovascular and Respiratory Health and Disease” theme. The appeal tells the story of Reece Davies, a Hobart mother who suffered a stroke at just 37. Not only did Reece face a difficult recovery learning to regain movement of her left side, but the stroke also had a significant emotional impact. “My initial reaction to having a stroke was one of shock and bewilderment,” she said. “I mourned the person I was before the stroke and had no idea how to get that person back.” Reece’s children were the main drive for her recovery – her daughter was three and her son was just 14 months when she had the stroke, so she was desperate to get back to a place where she could
care for her children again. It took eight long months for Reece to make a full recovery. Life now has a much slower pace, and she takes time to enjoy the important moments with family and friends. Reece is one of the
My initial reaction to having a stroke was one of shock and bewilderment
Bequests save lives by funding research. Thank you. lucky ones. Only 50 per cent of people of working age will return to work a year after their stroke and 20 per cent of people will be dependant on others for daily living. While much has been done to improve the treatment of stroke in the past 10 years, more research is needed to prevent stokes from happening. Your support is vital for Menzies to better understand stroke risk factors, test new ways to prevent stroke and determine the best ways to improve outcomes for those who have suffered a stroke. You can support our research now at www.menzies. utas.edu.au/donate or watch out for the appeal in your mailbox or inbox.
We gratefully acknowledge gifts made from the following estates: Estate of the late Bernard Thomas Brown Estate of the late Wendy June Palmer We gratefully acknowledge gifts made in honour of: Kevin John Charles Dr Simon Connor Emilia Galea Glynn Howells Coral B Hutcheon Marlene Moore Mrs Mary Polack Graham Smith Barbara White
Menzies events in 2022 Thank you to all who have enquired about our first event for 2022. Given we postponed our plans for March due to the COVID-19 outbreak, we will be sending a ‘save the date’ via mail and email soon, with invitations closer to the event.
If you have recently changed your contact details, please update us at Menzies.Advancement@utas.edu.au
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AWARDS
Menzies Excellence Awards Each year we recognise the outstanding research and excellent contributions from our team with the annual Menzies Excellence Awards. For the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic we were able to hold an in-person presentation, with our Director presenting the winners with their awards. It was wonderful to be able to join together as an institution to celebrate our achievements.
Top of the class: Winners of the annual Menzies Excellence Awards.
Best of the Best
Laboratory
Population Health
Population Health
Carlie Cullen
Kelsie Raspin
Feitong Wu
Bruna Silva Ragaini
“Periaxonal and nodal plasticities modulate action potential conduction in the adult mouse brain” (published in Cell Reports)
“A rare variant in EZH2 is associated with prostate cancer risk” (published in the International Journal of Cancer)
Clinical
Laboratory
“Childhood and Adulthood Passive Smoking and Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver in Midlife: A 31-year Cohort Study” (published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology)
Zhen (Lucy) Zhou
Johanna Jones
“Temporal trends in the incidence rates of keratinocyte carcinomas from 1978 to 2018 in Tasmania, Australia: a population-based study” (published in Discover Oncology)
“Effect of Statin Therapy on Cognitive Decline and Incident Dementia in Older Adults” (published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology)
“A 127 kb truncating deletion of PGRMC1 is a novel cause of X-linked isolated paediatric cataract” (published in the European Journal of Cancer)
Clinical
Population Health
Feng Pan
Emily Hemstock
“Muscle function, quality, and relative mass are associated with knee pain trajectory over 10.7 years” (published in Pain)
“Associations between respiratory and vascular function in early childhood” (published in Respirology)
Population Health
Matthew Armstrong “Association of NonHigh-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Measured in Adolescence, Young Adulthood, and MidAdulthood With Coronary Artery Calcification Measured in Mid-Adulthood” (published in the Journal of the American Medical Association)
Population Health
Brooklyn Fraser “Health-related criterionreferenced cut-points for musculoskeletal fitness among youth: a systematic review” (published in Sports Medicine)
Research Impact Prize
Academic Menotring Award
Professional Staff Award
To recognise research that has had demonstrable benefits to society
For recognition of the significant and ongoing contributions made to the career and professional development of staff and students
For outstanding achievement through exceptional performance and contributions to the Institute
Professor Ingrid van der Mei
Jocelyn Darby
Dr Suzi Claflin on behalf of the Understanding MS Massive Open Online Course team
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PROFILE
Researcher profile
Martin Hensher Henry Baldwin Professorial Research Fellow in Health System Sustainability
What brought you to Menzies? We spent the past three years in Melbourne, where I worked in Deakin University’s Institute for Health Transformation while my wife studied. Before that, we lived in Hobart for seven years, during which time I worked in the Tasmanian Department of Health, and I got to know many of the Menzies team well – even more so as I did my PhD part-time via Menzies. So when my wife got a job back in Hobart, I jumped at the chance to come to Menzies and work with colleagues old and new. What is the focus of your research? My main focus is on improving the sustainability of health and healthcare systems,
looking at economic, environmental and societal sustainability – ensuring that our health systems can continue to function in a challenging and disrupted era. Work in this area includes looking at overconsumption in healthcare (when too much healthcare is harmful or counterproductive) and how wider overconsumption undermines health; exploring techniques for the measurement of health and climate/ ecological co-benefits; how to incorporate environmental externalities in the economic evaluation of healthcare; and how digital health can help or hinder sustainable healthcare. I’m hoping we can start some
local research projects very soon to examine aspects of environmental sustainability in the Tasmanian health system. During COVID-19, I’ve been involved with several projects in areas including digital health (telehealth and health apps), the interaction of health and macroeconomic pandemic policies, and the privatisation of knowledge and the damages caused by the undermining of the knowledge commons. With my former team at Deakin, we have undertaken several modelling exercises to estimate the likely burden of disease of COVID-19 in Australia and the potential impacts of Long COVID and post-acute COVID sequelae. This work connects closely with work Menzies colleagues are leading on Myalgic encephalomyelitis/ chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), and allowed me to draw on skills and experience I gained 20 years ago working on
Know your risk for coronary heart disease Our research aims to improve the lives of Tasmanians by focussing on the diseases that impact our community. The rate of coronary heart disease in Tasmania is among the highest in the country.
We are working with the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute to determine if coronary artery disease can be detected early by including a polygenic, or genetic, risk assessment. We also want to find out whether knowing your risk factors makes it more effective in reducing the likelihood of the disease developing. Participation in this study gives you the opportunity for a free health assessment and participation in our research to help prevent the onset of chronic disease.
the HIV/AIDS epidemic in South Africa. What are some of the recent findings from this work? Our most recent model of likely Long COVID cases following the summer Omicron COVID-19 wave used estimates of likely Long COVID incidence following acute infection from Australia and from the UK Office for National Statistics. Reflecting the significant uncertainty in this area, we estimated that between 80,000 and 325,000 Australians might display Long COVID symptoms 12 weeks after their initial infection, falling to as few as 14,000 or as many as 170,00 still with Long COVID symptoms a year after infection. With more than 4.5 million Australians now having had a confirmed case of COVID, the real numbers might be even higher – but we have no surveillance mechanisms for Long COVID cases to tell us how far off our estimates really were.
What is the most interesting aspect of this work? I love the work I do on healthcare sustainability. It is vitally important to all of our futures, and – because it is still a really quite new field – it allows for a great deal of imagination and new thinking. It allows me to use a much broader set of economic concepts and analyses than more traditional health economics. And both my sustainability work and my work on Long COVID have again proved something I have learned over and over in my career in healthcare – it is always better to be roughly right than precisely wrong. What do you enjoy doing in your spare time? I’ve just rejoined the State Emergency Service Search and Rescue team as a volunteer. I’m active in our church and on the board of Glenview Community Services, a non-profit aged care provider in Glenorchy.
Who can participate? You may be eligible for this study if you: • Are aged 40 to 70 • Live in Victoria or Tasmania • Are not taking cholesterol-lowering drugs (‘statins’) • H ave no previous personal history of heart failure, heart attack or stroke • H ave or had a family member or friend with coronary artery disease (for example, has had a heart attack, stents or bypass surgery in the past).
For further information, please contact Kristyn Whitmore on 6226 4235 or email Menzies.edcad@utas.edu.au
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