News

2021

We are proud to announce that WWSW lab has become the first green-certified lab in Sydney and the second lab in Australia. A special thanks and congratulations to Nancy Martin La Rotta whose efforts made this achievement possible.

Congratulations to Chanchanok Chaichim and Lital Livni who submitted their PhD theses in 2021.

Congratulations to the neuroscience honors students who graduated from the TNF in 2020:

• Julie-Anne Matherson
• Terry Salthouse
• Lily Pearson
• Aaron D’Hardy
• Elizabeth Kalotay
• Aiden Symonds
• Melanie Lowe  

If you are interested in studying with us, please find your favorite team or project and contact them directly.

• October 2016:  Dr Jason Potas joins our team, coming from ANU and starting the Somatosensory Systems Group
• August 2016: Nagarajesh Gormandala hands in his PhD Thesis
• July 2016: Chamini Parera is awarded her PhD
• December 2015:  Jeremy Pinyon hands in his PhD Thesis
• November 2015:  Dr Gila Moalem-Taylor wins a Postgraduate Committee prize for excellence in supervision of students.
• August 2015: TNF lab lunch to farewell Kris, a Postdoc with us for 5 years who has had a Nature Communications article published recently and is moving home to England.

• August 2015: Understanding the Function of Glia in the Healthy and Diseased CNS: Tushar Issar presenting

• June 2015: TNF and CSP BBQ

• May 2015:  Nature communications article published!
  http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2015/150512/ncomms8115/full/ncomms8115.html

• May 2015:Chamini, Justin and Preet presenting posters at the 5thInternational Congress on Neuropathic Pain, Nice France

• May 2015: Congratulations to Kurt Daley for receiving the University Medal in Neuroscience.  
• March 2015:  The SoMS Research Support Committee is delighted to announce the following ‘Paper of the Month’ for March 2015 a study by

  Chamini J Perera, Samuel S Duffy, Justin G Lees, Cristina F Kim, Barbara Cameron, Vasso Apostolopoulos and Gila Moalem-Taylor “Active immunization with myelin-derived altered peptide ligand reduces mechanical pain hypersensitivity following peripheral nerve injury”Journal of Neuroinflammation doi: 10.1186/s12974-015-0253-4.
  
  This is Chamini’s first publication from her PhD studies with Neuropathic pain research group.
  
  The study was the first to identify the effects of active immunisation with myelin derived altered peptide ligand (APL) on neuropathic pain following peripheral nerve injury. We found that immune deviation by active immunisation with a non-encephalitogenic myelin-derived APL mediates an analgesic effect in neuropathic animals. Although the underlying mechanisms remain unknown, our results suggest that modulating neuroinflammation by decreased infiltration of T cells and macrophages, upregulation of anti-inflammatory macrophages in the injured nerve, and upregulation of splenic regulatory T cells are all possible explanations. These findings suggest the potential application of immunisation with myelin-derived APL for the treatment of peripheral neuropathic pain.

• Congratulations to Dr Renee Morris on her well deserved promotion to Senior Lecturer
• Congratulations to Andrew Tosolini who was awarded a prize for best student poster presentation at the International Motoneuron Meeting, Sydney 2012

• Congratulations to Ria Arnold for receiving The Novartis Award for best free communication at the Australian and New Zealand Association of Neurologists Clinical Physiology Workshop
• Congratulations to Dr Arun Krishnan on his well deserved promotion to Associate Professor
• Congratulations to Dr Renee Morris and Dr Cindy Lin on receiving the 2011 Spinal Cord Injury Awards from the Brain Foundation.

• Dr Jennie Cederholm received the Mark A. Smith prize for 2010 for her paper “Conformational changes in extracellular loop 2 associated with signal transduction in the glycine receptor” Cederholm, Absalom, Sugiharto, Griffith, Schofield, and Lewis (2010), J. of Neurochemistry 115, 1245-1255. Dr. Jennie Cederholm accepted the award at the Megaron Athens International conference centre on Sunday 28th August, 2011 from the Chief Editor (Rest of the World) of the Journal of Neurochemistry, Jörg B. Schulz.

• Further information on studies in diabetes taking place at the TNF, please follow the link to a recent ABC News interview with Arun Krishnan http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2011/07/02/3259497.htm
• Congratulations to Natalie Kwai who was awarded the Staff Prize for Health and Exercise Science of the School of Biomedical Sciences. This prize recognises her success in achieving the highest mark in the Health and Exercise Science Stage 4 Research Project. Natalie is currently undertaking a PhD in the TNF on axonal dysfunction in diabetes.