St Vincent's Institute of Medical Research

The Diabetes Victoria Outstanding Contribution Award has been awarded each year since 2007 and the Outstanding Contribution – Lived Experience with Diabetes Award since 2020. These awards acknowledge people who have made substantial and meaningful contributions to improving the lives of Victorians affected by, or at risk of, diabetes. At Diabetes Victoria’s Thank You event, we were delighted to award Professor Thomas Kay with the 2024 Diabetes Victoria Outstanding Contribution Award, and Georgie Peters with the Outstanding Contribution – Lived Experience with Diabetes Award. Read more about these outstanding individuals >>> https://bit.ly/4dOBWJj St Vincent's Institute of Medical Research

Dr Kate Firipis has been awarded a $75,000 Jack Brockhoff Early Career Medical Research Grant for a novel tissue engineering and regenerative medicine project.  "I’m thrilled and grateful to receive this support from the Brockhoff Foundation. With no alternate treatment for skin flap replacement currently available,  lab-grown human skin can provide coverage and wound healing for severe wounds requiring surgery – arising from trauma, burns, chronic wounds and cancer – reducing the need to take healthy skin from elsewhere on the patient." For more: https://lnkd.in/gW6aAw82

Congratulations to Danise Onda who recently delivered her final PhD presentation on how the 'Inhibition of hypothalamic SIK3 signalling promotes weight loss and improves glycaemic control'. Thank you for all your hard work and dedication over the past few years! For more information on SVI's student programs, visit https://lnkd.in/gc_dd7xV

SVI researchers Dr Jarmon G Lees and Dr Elizabeth Paratz will receive $720,000 to support their respective research into Friedreich ataxia and sudden cardiac death. Find out more here: https://lnkd.in/gWuN6qMz

More than 150 friends of SVI attended the annual SVI Scholarship dinner at Kooyong Tennis Club.  Over the years, the Support Group’s fundraising efforts have supported more than 120 scholars researching some of Australia’s most challenging diseases, including multiple myeloma, pulmonary fibrosis, and Fanconi anaemia. The 2024 recipients of the Top-Up scholarship are: Saghar Mehrban, Geoff Zhang, Elissah Granger, Elahe Hajimiri, Xiaozhuo Yuan, Liyunhe (Yunhe) Qian, Vita Sukonthamarn, and Li Li. Find out more about the event: https://lnkd.in/gAssHMtm

It’s not often that you see a Faraday cage before the plasterboard goes up. Thanks to Kane for an inspiring behind the scenes tour of the Aikenhead Centre for Medical Discovery – ACMD – set to open in early 2025. As a founding partner, SVI is strongly invested in the success of the collaborative biomedical engineering centre designed to accelerate the translation and commercialisation of research. Backed by the State and Federal Governments and valued philanthropic and industry partners, the ACMD will harness the combined strengths of clinicians, scientists, and engineers to problem-solve and lead the way in medical breakthroughs. Davis McCarthy Dingyi Yu Dan Thomas Michaela Waibel

Congratulations to our Honours students who gave their final presentations on their research projects yesterday. Your hard work and dedication has not gone unnoticed! For more information on the student opportunities available at SVI visit: https://lnkd.in/gc_dd7xV University of Melbourne

It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Professor Helen Thomas, an outstanding medical researcher whose work in type 1 diabetes made a significant impact. All of our love and support goes out to Helen’s husband, Vince, her beloved children Jack and Gaby, and to her extended family and many friends. To read more: https://lnkd.in/gRi2D2yX

It’s Breast Cancer Awareness month.       SVI is part of a collaborative research project investigating the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to read mammograms.     The study has found that AI can help improve breast screening outcomes.  “Our ability to develop a state-of-the-art AI reader here in Australia not only highlights the skills and capabilities of our local researchers and institutions but also shows the value of investing in Australia’s capacity for leading AI applications in healthcare,” said Associate Professor Davis McCarthy, Head, Bioinformatics and Cellular Genomics, St Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research.      Recently published in Nature Communications, the BRAIx study uses Australian AI capability developed by a team of clinicians, data scientists and engineers from St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne, St Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research, BreastScreen Victoria, the University of Melbourne and the Australian Institute for Machine Learning (AIML) at the University of Adelaide. Click here to read more: https://lnkd.in/g_Z7DQXs

Fantastic work Rowan Quigley!