There is less than a month until the CPTT Annual Training Forum takes place. The first day will be a free, open to the public workshop, held in collaboration with ASCEPT’s Innovation and Industry Special Interest Group. Join us on 28th November at the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research in Perth for a full day of presentations on industry and innovation. The day will feature a keynote from Steve Rees, Vice-President Discovery Biology at AstraZeneca and many more presentations by top innovation and industry leaders. Follow the link to register and be sure to join us!
The second part of the CPTT Forum (half-day on 29th November) will be by invitation only. CPTT director and node leaders will highlight the research and progress of the Centre in the last 12 months. During this event, further training will be provided and students and ECRs will have the opportunity to pitch their research.
Prof Voelker is one of sixteen Australian Laureate Fellows who were approved for funding over five years to conduct pioneering research. Prof Voelcker’s research will focus on “Nanostructured Silicon-Based Wearable and Implantable Biosensors”. Read more about the project here.
The Australian Laureate Fellowships scheme supports world-class researchers to conduct research in Australia, forge strong links across the research community both local and international, and train and mentor early-career researchers.
ARC Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Ms Judi Zielke PSM, said that Laureate Fellows are at the forefront of the national research landscape and are essential in expanding Australia’s knowledge base and research capability.
We are so excited to finally announce the arrival of Dr Delphine Denoyer! Delphine officially joined our team at the start of August as our new ARC-CPTT Centre Manager.
After two and a half years with CPTT, our Centre Manager Dr Susan Northfield is leaving for a new role at the end of March 2022. We are currently advertising to fill this position. Details are all availablevia this link, including the position description and links for the application process.
The Centre is fully established, with another two years of operation remaining. We are therefore seeking someone who can step into this part time role for the remainder of the Centre’s operation.
If you have any questions about the role you can contact Susan and/or the CPTT Director, Professor Alastair Stewart via therapeutics-technologies@unimelb.edu.au
Today is International Women’s Day #IWD2022, and this year the theme is #BreakTheBias.
Imagine a gender equal world. A world free of bias, stereotypes and discrimination. A world that’s diverse, equitable, and inclusive. A world where difference is valued and celebrated. Together we can forge women’s equality. Collectively we can all #BreakTheBias.
Today we celebrate the women of our Centre – students, postdocs, chief investigators, executive members, and industry board members. The photo accompanying this post shows some past and present members of our Centre at our University of Melbourne, Monash University, and University of Western Australia #ARCCPTT nodes. We thank them and all members of the Centre for contributing to providing a diverse, inclusive and supportive environment as we commit to #BreakTheBias and call out inequality. #IWD2022
Congratulations to CPTT postdoc Dr Liz Johnstone, who is based at our University of Western Australia node, on her appointment as a level B Teaching and Research Academic in the School of Biomedical Sciences. This is a full time role and an exciting next step in Dr Johnstone’s career. Her research and association with the Centre will continue and from January she has move into an affiliate role with the Centre.
Dr Johnstone has had a busy 2021 with four journal publications (three first author) and a conference presentation at the Australasian Society of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacologists and Toxicologists (ASCEPT) conference in November, where she receive the ASCEPT 2021 Early Achievement Award for Women. Congratulations Liz!
We are delighted to announce that our very own Dr Xumei (Bryan) Gao has been awarded one of ten highly competitive fellowships from the MTPConnect REDI (Researcher Exchange and Development within Industry) Fellowship program. MTPConnect recently made public the ten high-skilled Australian researchers, clinicians and professionals from the medical technology, biotechnology and pharmaceutical sector who were selected as the next fellows under the REDI Fellowship Program. The successful fellows were selected from applications submitted across Australia.
The REDI Fellowship Program provides financial support to Australian, international and/or multinational medical technology and pharmaceutical companies to bring the best Australian talent in-house to work on priority research projects. It is helping Australian researchers, clinicians and MTP professionals gain real world experience and skills by being deployed into industry settings.
MTPConnect Managing Director and CEO, Dr Dan Grant, says this is the largest group of industry-led fellowships to be announced since the REDI program began, taking the total to 14 fellows. “Our congratulations to these ten talented fellows – and to the companies who are sponsoring them,” Dr Grant said. “It’s great to see so many major international companies in the sector getting behind this initiative and involving Australia’s talent base to spearhead global collaboration.”
Dr Gao is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the ARC CPTT, based at The University of Melbourne. He will undertake a 12-month project with one of our industry partners, Trajan Scientific & Medical. Dr Gao will be enhancing skills in product development and validation with Trajan, a Melbourne-based global leader in analytical technology commercialisation. He will focus on evaluating the application and utility of pump technology in commercial settings to emulate tissue physiology in cell culture to improve prediction of drug efficacy.
Congratulations to Bryan and our partners at Trajan on this successful outcome! We look forward to seeing this work continue to progress in the coming year.
Full announcement from MTPConnect can be found here.
On November 22nd our Perth node held a joint end-of-year forum with Biozone. This event was an opportunity for students and postdocs to present updates on their research projects from the last twelve months.
The pandemic prevented our Melbourne and Perth cohorts from running our end-of-year Forum together this year. However, unlike last year where our forum was entirely virtual, this year we have had the opportunity to gather in person, albeit in separate states. Plans are underway for our 2022 forum in twelve months time, which all being well will be our first time together in nearly three years! It’s certainly been a challenge but our Perth cohort has shown the way with their event.
The Melbourne end-of-year forum is scheduled for December 9th. If you have any questions, please contact the Centre Manager.
The ARC CPTT are delighted to welcome some new faces to our Industry Advisory Board (IAB). We are welcoming Andrew O’Brien from Clarivate Analytics and Bastian Stoehr from SMR! We were able to formally introduce them to the other members of our IAB at our most recent meeting.
Welcome Andrew and Bastian! We look forward to working with you both.
We would also like to thank outgoing members of the IAB, Gouri Betigeri (Clarivate Analytics) and Scott Edwards (SMR) for their contributions, and we wish them both well on their next endeavours.
The submission of a PhD thesis is an important milestone to celebrate. We are delighted to say that two of our Centre’s PhD students have just reached this stage of their candidature. Congratulations to Arianna Oddo and Qianyu (Helen) Chen! We invite you to learn a little more about them and their research below.
Arianna Oddo has undertaken her PhD at Monash University, under the supervision of Professor Nicolas Voelcker and Dr Tommy Tong. Her thesis title is “Microfluidic devices as novel in vitro platforms in the context of pre-clinical and toxicological studies”. Arianna has been active on Twitter during her PhD, demonstrating her skills in science communication. She has also been busy publishing her research in scientific journals, including Nanoscale Advances and Trends in Biotechnology. Click the links to read more!
Helen Chen undertook her PhD at The University of Melbourne, under the supervision of CPTT Director, Professor Alastair Stewart. Her thesis was titled “Organotypic airway epithelial cultures in modelling inflammation and infection”. Helen has also been an avid writer during her PhD, contributing to six publications so far (most recently in Biomicrofluidics), and another to be announced soon.
Congratulations again to Arianna and Helen on this milestone achievement in your academic careers!
