News
- New medical degree on offer
- High praise from accreditation body
- Funding success for early origins of adult health research
- $2 million for poly-morbidity project
New
medical degree on offer
Article from The Advertiser, 7 September 2009, p9. By Lauren Novak.
A NEW degree to be offered by the University of South Australia will enable
more students to study medicine and help meet future demand for medical
researchers created by a new facility to be built in Adelaide.
The three-year Bachelor of Medical Science, starting next year, will not
skill graduates as doctors but as medical researchers who can go on to
further study in medicine, physiotherapy and other related fields.
Graduates will be qualified to work at the new $200 million South Australian
Health and Medical research Institute to be built as part of the planned new
Royal Adelaide Hospital - announced in this year's Federal Budget.
The 675-position facility will be open by the end of 2012.
UniSA School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences program director Sandra Orgeig
said there already was plenty of demand for the skills offered by the new
course, at hospitals and companies such as those in the Thebarton Bioscience
Precinct.
"It also would be perfect timing for graduates from this new program to come
out and find employment there (at the new facility)," she said.
"This (degree) expands the options for South Australians who might be
interested in medicine to stay for longer in South Australia with the option
of medical entry later on."
UniSA expects to take on between 30 and 50 students, including 10
international students, in the first year of the new degree.
The curriculum will cover such topics as genetics, immunology,
biotechnology, pharmaceutical chemistry, nutrition, anatomy and molecular
biology.
High praise from accreditation body
UniSA’s School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences has been commended for its commitment to providing high quality pharmacy training by the national accreditation body.
The School recently retained its long-standing accreditation with the Council of Pharmacy Registering Authorities, drawing praise from the accreditation committee’s site evaluation team.
The team’s report commended the quality of the School’s teaching staff, its investment in new laboratories and infrastructure, and its commitment to developing and promoting innovative pharmacy practice.
Head of School Professor Allan Evans said the accreditation was a welcome vote of confidence from an important authority.
“I would like to thank all of the people who contributed to our success, particularly the staff and students who met with the evaluation team, Associate Professor Ieva Stupans and Libby Hotham, and the professional staff who prepared the documentation and coordinated the process,” he said.
Funding success for early origins of adult health research
The Sansom Institute’s Early Origins of Adult Health Research Group has been awarded more than $1 million in grants by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).
The funding will go towards three research projects looking at how events before birth can have an impact on adult health.
In one of the projects, Professor Caroline McMillan and Dr Beverly Muhlhausler are studying the impact of high levels of maternal nutrition on the development of childhood obesity.
The research will focus on intervening to block the effects of over nutrition by administering a specific drug that can stop a particular gene inside fat cells from being over activated and producing too much fat tissue.
“Understanding what happens early on can help to define the critical window in which to introduce an intervention that will block the obesity cycle,” Dr Muhlhausler said.
“Evidence from our work suggests that the neural network, the pathway that regulates appetite and food choices in the brain, is more flexible or ‘plastic’ as it develops before birth and for a short time after birth but once the neural connection is set up, the appetite regulation pattern becomes permanently set.”
The researchers believe that the same early setup applies to genes within the fat cells, which regulate how much fat is made in response to particular stimuli such as a meal or high glucose.
“Having an understanding of the response mechanisms that are set early in life will help us to intervene early in the neonatal period and potentially prevent childhood obesity,” Dr Muhlhausler said.
In another project Professor McMillen and Dr Janna Morrison are examining how poor growth before birth results in increased risk of high blood pressure after birth. Dr Morrison, a National Heart Foundation Fellow was also awarded a major grant to study heart development before birth.
Another key researcher in the Sansom Institute, Associate Professor Dr Libby Roughead, was awarded an NHMRC grant to lead a team of investigators studying the impact on access and health outcomes of consumer co-payments for subsidised medicines.
This news item is an edited version of articles first published in UniSA’s research newsletter, The Researcher.
$2 million for poly-morbidity project
Professor Andy Gilbert of the Sansom Institute has been awarded $2 million through a joint funding collaboration between the National Health and Medical Research Council and the Australian Research Council targeting the Government priority goal Ageing Well, Ageing Productively.
The project addresses the issue of poly-morbidity, multiple chronic health problems affecting the one individual, which is a common and increasing issue in our ageing population.
The study aims to establish a methodology for developing guidelines to achieve the best possible outcomes for older Australians with common combinations of chronic conditions.