News & Events
Eat food, not nutrients: why healthy diets need a broad approach
OPINION: There seems to be a shortening gap between studies about diet, nutrition and health. And each starts another conversation about trans vs saturated vs polyunsaturated fats, or this diet vs that, or, as is today’s case, fats vs carbohydrates.
High-fat maternal diet changes newborn heart ‘tastebuds’
Baby rats whose mothers were fed a high-fat diet had larger than normal hearts with fewer taste receptors for bitter flavours, according to new UNSW research.
The study, led by the UNSW Head of Pharmacology Professor Margaret Morris and published in Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Diseases, examined the effect of a fatty maternal diet on receptors in the hearts of newborn rats, including those which detect certain flavours.
Getting doctors to reduce diagnostic testing is hard, but we should keep trying
OPINION: Health-care resources are wasted when doctors overuse diagnostic tests. The tests may be redundant or inappropriate in the first place, and may also generate false-positive results, which prompt further needless investigation, or cause adverse effects.
Do common chemicals increase your risk of cancer?
OPINION: New research about the risk of cancer from exposure to common chemicals is usually accompanied by headlines screaming “X causes cancer!” So when a new study on the topic was published in Carcinogenesis last week, I cringed in anticipation.
3 Minute Thesis 2015 - Medicine Finalists
Research higher degree students had three minutes to present a compelling oration on their thesis topic and its significance, in language appropriate to an intelligent but non-specialist audience.
The event was well-attended with representations from across the faculty.
There were 23 presenters on the day the three judges Associate Professor Pascal Carrive, Emma O’Neill and Robyn Stutchbury, had great difficult in selecting the winners due to the extremely high calibre of the presenters on the day.
The winners were:
Is breakfast really the most important meal of the day?
OPINION: Personally, I need breakfast. Almost every morning, I wake up early feeling hungry, and it’s only once I banish my morning hunger that I’m ready to fire. By mid-morning, I take a break and enjoy a snack.
I’ve used a personal anecdote because it’s likely that eating breakfast – or skipping it – may simply reflect a personal preference for timing food intake. Not everyone enjoys eating first thing in the morning. But your first choice of foods may contribute to an overall healthy diet.
Male offspring get the most benefit from pregnant mother’s exercise
Male offspring appear to benefit more than females from the positive effects of exercise during pregnancy, an animal study by UNSW medical researchers has found.
The study in rats also found mothers who exercised moderately while pregnant reduced their offspring’s body weight, insulin and blood glucose levels, potentially lessening their risk of developing metabolic disorders such as type-2 diabetes later in life.
The findings were published today in the journal PLOS ONE.
UNSW tops the state in medical research grants
UNSW has performed strongly in the latest round of funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), winning 12 grants worth more than $17.7 million.
The result puts UNSW at the top of the state in terms of funding awarded and second in the country for the highly sought-after grants.
The funding has been announced today by the Federal Health Minister Sussan Ley.
Bright future for biomedical research and teaching
The $140 million redevelopment pf the Wallace Wurth Building has today been officially opened by the Federal Minister for Health, Peter Dutton. The transformed and expanded building, home to UNSW Medicine and The Kirby Institute, now boasts teaching, learning and research spaces equal to any in the world.
Minister Dutton said innovative health and medical research is a key driver of better health care and outcomes.
HIV, cancer projects get NHMRC funding boost
UNSW research into childhood cancers, HIV prevention, and sexually transmissible diseases in remote Aboriginal communities has received major backing in the latest round of federal government health funding.
UNSW received a total of $65.8 million in National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) funding to commence in 2015, including $29 million for 40 new project grants.