NRF Chair of Neurosurgical Research 2011

NRF Chair of Neurosurgical Research, University of Adelaide – Research Report

The past year marks another year of successful outcomes for the neurosurgical research program. Foremost is the graduation of four more of our higher degree research students, firstly Rowena Newcombe and Damian Amato who submitted late last year, and Christine Barry and Patricia Wheaton who both successfully completed this year. Rowena was awarded her PhD for her studies examining mechanisms of cell death after spinal cord injury, Damian for his Masters in Surgery thesis describing more appropriate models for the study of raised intracranial pressure, Christine her PhD for characterising the role of neuropeptides in subarachnoid haemorrhage, and Patricia her PhD for her meta-analyses of TBI treatment. All of these awards were the culmination of years of hard work, and each of the students should be congratulated for their significant contribution to the scientific knowledge base in our field.

In addition to the higher degree students, we saw a number of honours students successfully complete their research projects and graduate. Hannah Carthew, Jane Elliot, Alexander Horner and Matthew King all performed very well throughout the year, not only completing important pieces of research work, but also adding to the long list of fine young scientists that we have had the pleasure to interact with. I am certain that they all will achieve great personal success in their chosen careers. In their place, several new students have been accepted into the neurosurgical research program. These include Dr David Gidley, a clinical trainee studying toward his research Masters in Philosophy, as well as honours students Hannah Leppinus and Joshua Burton. Dr Adam Wells (neurosurgical trainee) has also converted his stroke studies from a Masters to a PhD program, and is now working alongside Dr Renée Turner who has returned as a National Health and Biomedical Research Council Fellow after 2 years of postdoctoral training in the United States. Our team leader for the Parkinson’s Disease project, Dr Emma Thornton, is currently on maternity leave after giving birth to her son, Joshua. We are all pleased to see our laboratory numbers growing in more ways than one!

The research team continued to successfully publish a number of studies in international journals over the past 12 months, as well as present their work at both national and international conferences including the International Neurotrauma Conference in Shanghai, the International Biomechanics Conference in Barcelona, Brain 2011 in Barcelona, the Neurosurgical Society of Australasia at Coolum and the Australian Neuroscience Society meeting in Auckland. Our continued presence at these important meetings not only continues to communicate our findings to the broader neurosurgical research community, but also provides an opportunity to build international research collaborations.

With the benefit of generous donations from the NRF, we were able to purchase vital research equipment dedicated to brain tumour research this year. We gratefully acknowledge both Ride Like Crazy/SAPOL and the Dean Bowman family for their generous support of the NRF and its objectives. These funds are critically important if we are to pursue innovative research that has the potential to make breakthrough discoveries. These funds are also essential for the training of the outstanding young scientists that join our group every year, and subsequently graduate to become the future leaders in neurosurgical research. Having the freedom to pursue a creative idea knowing you have the support of the NRF and your scientific colleagues promotes excellence in innovative scientific endeavour. Some of the research projects that have either directly or indirectly benefited from such support are described below, as well as an example of how the international scientific community has derived benefits from the Adelaide neurosurgical research laboratories.

Robert Vink

NRF Chair of Neurosurgical Research, University of Adelaide