Callum Verdonk, Linton Robins and Tahlia Bastholm.

Is Shenton College Year 12 student Linton Robins a future microbial genetics researcher at the Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute (CHIRI)? Time will tell but Linton is on the right track having recently completed a three-day work placement under the supervision of PhD students Tahlia Bastholm and Callum Verdonk.

Tahlia and Callum are researchers in Dr Josh Ramsay’s team, which looks at the genetics of bacteria and their role in the spread of infectious diseases. They welcomed Linton with a tour of CHIRI’s facilities, followed by some hands-on work in the lab.

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CHIRI Director Professor John Mamo, PhD student Nick Fimognari and Professor Spencer Proctor.

It has been more than a decade since the Curtin Health Innovation and Research Institute (CHIRI) Director Professor John Mamo and his former PhD student Professor Spencer Proctor teamed up and made some ground-breaking discoveries in heart disease research.

Their pioneering study turned some previously held misconceptions about the causes of heart disease on their head, finding lipoproteins from dietary fats to be a major contributor to the disease.

The findings surprised the research world and earned the pair an international reputation that led to Professor Proctor securing a prestigious National Health and Medical Research Council-Early Career Research Fellowship, which he completed at the University of Alberta in Canada, where he is now based.

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When you’re a researcher at CHIRI the work can really get under your skin!

Just ask CHIRI’s Postdoctoral Fellow Dr Joanne Gardner (School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences).

It’s been great having Joanne working with us as part of Associate Professor Pritinder Kaur’s team, whose research is focused on improving the regeneration abilities of skin stem cells.  Joanne had previously completed her PhD here at CHIRI.

The research team is working to develop better ways of growing skin in the laboratory for transplanting onto patients with skin-related injuries including burns, or to replace skin lost in the removal of skin cancer.

Hear more about what Joanne has been up to on this video.

Congratulations to CHIRI post-doctoral research fellow Dr Virginie Lam on being recognised among WA’s six leading researchers, and as ‘The Brainchild’, by The West Australian newspaper for her work investigating links between Vitamin D and brain health.

Dr Lam is profiled among a number of passionate, highly skilled scientists and health practitioners who are working to deliver breakthroughs in chronic disease management, brain development and mental health and Aboriginal health and wellbeing across WA.

Dr Lam’s research focus is ageing and neurodegenerative disorders, where she is investigating how vasoactive nutrients (micro-nutrients and vitamins), and specifically Vitamin D, effect the micro-vessels in the brain.

The profile of Dr Lam and her work is part of Science on the Swan, an annual health and medical science conference established by the Western Australian Health Translation Network. The network’s members include Curtin University.

Read the feature on The West Australian Science on the Swan website: https://buff.ly/2KKzebl.

The Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute (CHIRI) has some pretty impressive facilities, so who better to chair the 4th Annual Research Facilities Design and Development Summit than one of our own?

CHIRI’s Research Facility Manager, Dr Rob Steuart has been in Sydney chairing the 2-day summit, which ran from 30 April to 1 May 2018. Rob’s official duties include opening and closing the summit, and no doubt assisting with the odd speaker introduction, housekeeping message or IT solution in between.

This year’s summit covered topics including:

• innovation and finding the best designs for research facilities;
• construction strategies to boost operations of research facilities;
• maximising the use of space in the development of research facilities; and
• providing management advice to prevent return on investment losses.

You can find out more about the summit on the International Quality and Productivity Centre website https://researchfacilities.iqpc.com.au. Well done Rob!