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Listen to leading UniSA researchers as they discuss their latest research and how it positively impacts communities and end-users. Their papers have either been published in high impact journals, or received a high number of citations in a short period of time. Most importantly, the world-class research contained within them is translating into valuable outcomes for society. Tune in to these podcasts and find out about some of our exciting research which is providing societal and economic benefits both locally and globally.
Many cancer treatments are limited by the side effects that patients would suffer. For example, through chemotherapy the drug is not only going to the tumor, it’s also affecting other tissues and organs in the patient. Associate Professor Ivan Kempson’s latest journal paper explores how to deliver therapeutic agents more targeted into cancer tumors.
Article: Targeting Tumor Microenvironment by Bioreduction-Activated Nanoparticles for Light-Triggered Virotherapy
Authors: Tseng, S.-J., Kempson, I.M., Huang, K.-Y., Li, H.-J., Fa, Y.-C., Ho, Y.-C., Liao, Z.-X., Yang, P.-C.
Published in: ACS Nano, October 2018
Both drug delivery performance and various age-related physical, mental and physiological changes can affect drug effectiveness and safety in elderly patients. The many drug delivery systems developed over the years include recent novel transdermal, nasal, pulmonary and orally disintegrating tablets that provide consistent, precise, timely and more targeted drug delivery. In their latest journal article, Professor Michael Roberts and Muhammad Suleman Khan looked into the challenges and innovations of drug delivery in older age.
Article: Challenges and innovations of drug delivery in older age
Authors: Muhammad Suleman Khan, Michael S. Roberts
Published in: Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews
There’s a second immune system in every cell that acts as an early-warning sentinel against bacterial infections. It’s the same system that also modulates stress resistance and longevity. Known as the nucleolus, we are only just coming to terms with the crucial roles it plays in regulating cellular processes and the implications for health and disease.
Together with a group of researchers, Dr Nirmal Robinson from the Centre for Cancer Biology (CCB) shows the highly conserved nucleolar protein, fibrillarin, is a vital factor regulating pathogen resistance.
Article: Nucleolar fibrillarin is an evolutionarily conserved regulator of bacterial pathogen resistance
Authors: Varnesh Tiku, Chun Kew, Parul Mehrotra, Raja Ganesan, Nirmal Robinson & Adam Antebi
Published in: Nature Communications, September 2018
A significant barrier to progress in the multidisciplinary area of nanomedicines is the variability of published literature with regards to characterizations performed and experimental details reported.
A team of researchers including Professor Clive Prestidge from UniSA's School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences looked into how they can create a standard methodology in this field.
Article: Minimum information reporting in bio-nano experimental literature
Authors: Matthew Faria, Mattias Björnmalm, Kristofer J. Thurecht, Stephen J. Kent, Robert G. Parton, Maria Kavallaris, Angus P. R. Johnston, J. Justin Gooding, Simon R. Corrie, Ben J. Boyd, Pall Thordarson, Andrew K. Whittaker, Molly M. Stevens, Clive A. Prestidge, Christopher J. H. Porter, Wolfgang J. Parak, Thomas P. Davis, Edmund J. Crampin & Frank Caruso
Published in: Nature Nanotechnology September 2018
Obesity is a major health issue in the developed and developing world, and is in part due to excess dietary energy intake. A new study showed that increased fat content alone was associated with increased energy intake and adiposity, suggesting that the availability of high-fat foods might be driving the development of overweight or obesity.
Article: Availability of high-fat foods might drive the obesity epidemic
Authors: Jonathan Buckley
Published in: Nature Reviews Endocrinology September 2018
Professor Jeff Connor and a team of researchers reviewed 16 sustainability programmes, which invested US$378.5 billion (in 2015 US$), covered 623.9 million hectares of land and involved over 500 million people, mostly since 1998.
Article: China’s response to a national landsystem sustainability emergency;
Authors: Brett A. Bryan, Lei Gao, Yanqiong Ye, Xiufeng Sun, Jeffery D. Connor, Neville D. Crossman, Mark Stafford-Smith, Jianguo Wu, Chunyang He, Deyong Yu, Zhifeng Liu, Ang Li, Qingxu Huang, Hai Ren, Xiangzheng Deng, Hua Zheng, Jianming Niu, Guodong Han & Xiangyang Hou
Published in: Nature July 2018
In this recently published paper in the magazine “Cancer Cell”, Professor Tarl Prow and a team of researchers study the transition of a nevus into a melanoma and then beyond into a metastatic melanoma.
Article: Genomic and Transcriptomic Analysis Reveals Incremental Disruption of Key Signaling Pathways during Melanoma Evolution;
Authors: A. Hunter Shain, Nancy M. Joseph, Richard Yu, Jamal Benhamida, Shanshan Liu, Tarl Prow, Beth Ruben, Jeffrey North, Laura Pincus, Iwei Yeh, Robert Judson, Boris C.
Published in: Cancer Cell, July 2018
In this podcast, UniSA’s Professor Richard D’Andrea and Professor Scott Hamish discuss their latest findings in regards to acute myeloid leukemia published in their article: ‘Differential effects on gene transcription and hematopoietic differentiation correlate with GATA2 mutant disease phenotypes’
Authors: C-E Chong, P Venugopal, PH Stokes, YK Lee, PJ Brautigan, DTO Yeung, M Babic, GA Engler, SW Lane, M Klingler-Hoffmann, JM Matthews, RJ D'Andrea, AL Brown, CN Hahn and HS Scott
Published in: Leukemia, March 2018
Statin medications reduce low density lipoprotein (LDL cholesterol) to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and are one of the most commonly prescribed medications world-wide. They are highly effective and are generally well tolerated by most patients. There are potential side-effects including the well-known muscle adverse effects such as muscle pain and weakness. Idiopathic inflammatory myositis is a group of very rare, clinically diverse autoimmune muscle disorders that can be severe and debilitating which may be associated with statin use. In this population-based case control study of 221 patients with idiopathic inflammatory myositis we observed a 79% increased likelihood of statin use in patients with idiopathic inflammatory myositis compared with controls (people without the condition). While we cannot conclude a causative role from our observed association, the results of this study highlight the need for an increased awareness and recognition of this potential rare adverse effect associated with statin use.
Article: Association of Statin Exposure With Histologically Confirmed Idiopathic Inflammatory Myositis in an Australian Population
Authors: Gillian E. Caughey, PhD; Genevieve M. Gabb, MBBS, MPH; Saffron Ronson, BPharm (Hons); Michael Ward, PhD; Timothy Beukelman, MD, MSCE; Catherine L. Hill, MBBS; Vidya Limaye, MBBS, PhD
Published in: JAMA Internal Medicine
With all the buzz and hysteria about how consumers are being connivingly “micro-targeted” in a bid for mind control, not only by advertisers of products but also by political parties, researchers at UniSA’s Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science have discovered there is probably no reason to panic.
Personalised advertising may be one thing but getting people to respond to even micro-targeted ads is a whole other ball game.
Professor Byron Sharp, Director of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute chats to Paul Willis about his recent paper, co-written with colleagues from the Institute : Psychological micro-targeting: do we know if it works?
Article: Psychological micro-targeting: do we know if it works?
Authors: Professor Byron Sharp, Dr. Nick Danenberg, Professor Steven Bellman
Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS)
More effective and safer cancer therapy
Dr Cameron Bracken Dr Cameron Bracken and his team explored the process of Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) that can be turned on inappropriately in cancer to enhance the invasiveness and chemo-resistance of cancer cells.
Article: Combinatorial Targeting by MicroRNAs Co-ordinates Post-transcriptional Control of EMT;
Authors: Joseph Cursons, Katherine A. Pillman, Kaitlin G. Scheer, Philip A. Gregory, Momeneh Foroutan, Soroor Hediyeh-Zadeh, John Toubia, Edmund J. Crampin, Gregory J. Goodall, Cameron P. Bracken, Melissa J. Davis;
Published in: Cell Systems, July 2018
Sounds could relieve back stiffness
Dr Tasha Stanton's research found, how stiff your back feels does not necessarily relate at all to how stiff your back actually is, but relates to how protective we are of our backs.
Article: Feeling stiffness in the back: a protective perceptual inference in chronic back pain;
Authors: Tasha R. Stanton, G. Lorimer Moseley, Arnold Y. L. Wong & Gregory N. Kawchuk;
Published in: Scientific Reports 2017