News 

Dr Michael Gouzos (second from left in photo) has qualified academically for his degree of Doctor of Philosophy from The University of Adelaide and has also received a Dean's Commendation for Doctoral Thesis Excellence. Michael's PhD thesis "A delicate balance: Modulation of reactive oxygen species after sinus surgery to improve the healing process" was supervised by Professors PJ Wormald and Alkis Psaltis and Associate Professor Sarah Vreugde in the ENT Surgery group at the BHI, TQEH. Michael was the recipient of a Research Training Program Stipend from The University of Adelaide. He is currently working as a Clinical Service Registrar in ENT Surgery at the Flinders Medical Centre..

Sophie Camens (ENT Surgery) has been awarded a University Medal for 2020 for outstanding academic merit throughout her undergraduate studies. This includes last year at the Basil Hetzel Institute, TQEH, where she completed a First Class Honours degree and received a Medical Specialities Honours Award from the Adelaide Medical School. Sophie's thesis "Preclinical development of a P. aeruginosa phage cocktail for use to treat infections with multi-drug resistant bacteria" was supervised by University of Adelaide researchers Associate Professor Sarah Vreugde, Professor Alkis Psaltis (TQEH) and Dr Sha Liu. She was supported by a scholarship from The Hospital Research Foundation..

Professor Guy Maddern, Head of The University of Adelaide's Discipline of Surgery, and hepatobiliary surgeon at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, has been awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the American College of Surgeons (ACS). These fellowships are awarded to individuals who possess an international reputation in the field of surgery or medicine, with only 5-12 being awarded each year. Professor Maddern says "It is a great honour to be offered an Honorary Fellowship of the American College of Surgeons. Over the years I have had the opportunity to work closely with the American College on a number of initiatives, particularly in the area of new technologies in surgery. This relationship has continued to the present day and each year we provide a new technology review for the American College of Surgeons to disseminate to their membership"..

Congratulations to Professor John Beltrame for being awarded the Executive Dean's Award for Research Excellence (Senior Career category) for 2020. The award was presented by the Executive Dean of the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, Professor Ben Kile, at a ceremony held on Thursday 4 February. The citation, read by Ben before presenting the award, said "... this recipient has been a long-standing member of The University of Adelaide. In the recipient's most recent role [Head, Department of Medical Specialities, Adelaide Medical School], they have responsibility of supervising over 900 affiliates and 20 staff. In addition, they have published over 93 papers [in the last 5 years] and in 2020 were identified as the Australian researcher with the highest number of citations for papers published in the last five years in the top 20 journals in their field. The recipient has contributed to many successful grant applications, with 7 currently active, including 3 NHMRC grants. Well recognised at all levels for their expertise and leadership in the field of cardiovascular medicine…the recipient is Professor John Beltrame". [photo supplied by The University of Adelaide: L-R, Professors Ben Kile and John Beltrame]. .

The Institute of Australian Geographers (IAG) Presidents’ Leadership Award for Contribution by an Early Career Scholar (PLACE) recognises excellence in any area of geographic scholarship or academic endeavour contributing to the discipline of geography in Australia. Two national awards have been announced in their inaugural year – one of which has been awarded to Dr Danielle Taylor. Danielle is a Hospital Research Foundation mid-career fellow with the Adelaide GTRAC Centre and an associate investigator in the NHMRC funded Centre of Research Excellence in Frailty and Healthy Ageing (CRE) at the University of Adelaide..

The Australian Centre for Hepatitis Virology (ACHV) has awarded three prizes, valued at $2,000 each, to early career researchers who submitted abstracts and presented short talks at the virtual annual ACH2 meeting held on the 5th of November. Dr Mak Masavuli, a postdoctoral researcher with the Viral Immunology Group at the Basil Hetzel Institute, TQEH, was awarded a prize for his talk on "Evaluating the immunogenicity of a cocktail HCV DNA vaccine in mice". Hopefully he will have the opportunity to present his results at the 2021 meeting!.

The 2020 SA Annual Scientific Meeting of the Australian Society for Medical Research (ASMR) held a virtual meeting over November 9th and 10th. Two researchers in Associate Professor Wendy Ingman's Breast Biology and Cancer Unit, based at the Basil Hetzel Institute, TQEH, were awarded prizes for their presentations. Postdoctoral researcher Dr Sarah Bernhardt won the Ross Wishart Memorial Award for her talk titled “The impact of menstrual cycling on precision medicine for premenopausal breast cancer patients”, while PhD student Amita Ghadge won the Robinson Research Institute Prize for her talk titled “Deposition of adipose tissue during puberty alters mammary cancer risk in adulthood”. The Ross Wishart Memorial Award is given to the person who delivers the most outstanding presentation at the SA division's Annual Scientific Meeting. It is named in memory of Ross Wishart, a scientist and long-term member of the SA ASMR committee. [photo L-R: Amita Ghadge and Dr Sarah Bernhardt]..

The Heart Foundation’s Vanguard Grants are available to researchers for concept studies, with the potential to improve cardiovascular health in the short term. John Horowitz, an Emeritus Professor at The University of Adelaide, and Group Leader of the Cardiovascular Pathophysiology and Therapeutics Group at the Basil Hetzel Institute, TQEH, is a chief investigator on two of the three Vanguard Grants awarded to South Australian researchers, from a total of 24 grants. More details can be found in the November edition of the BHI Winning News. [photo: John Horowitz, back row third from right, with his Cardiovascular Pathophysiology and Therapeutics Group. Taken February 2020]..

Dr Stephen Kao (second from right in photo) completed his PhD in ENT Surgery under the supervision of Associate Professor Alkis Psaltis and Dr Mahnaz Ramezanpour. His PhD thesis "Nasal mucus: friend or foe? The effect of mucus on mucosal barrier dysfunction in chronic rhinosinusitis" has just been conferred by The University of Adelaide and he also received a Dean's Commendation for Doctoral Thesis Excellence. Stephen was supported by three scholarships, a Research Training Program Stipend and Bertha Sudholz Research Scholarship from The University of Adelaide and an Academic Surgeon Scientist Research Scholarship from The Garnett Passe and Rodney Williams Memorial Foundation. He is currently working as an ENT registrar at the Women's and Children's Hospital in North Adelaide. Stephen writes "The BHI has been an amazing, supportive and friendly environment for me to cultivate and enhance my knowledge on snot. A runny nose is snot a laughing matter!" [photo: TQEH Research Expo 2018. L-R: Chair Dr Tania Crotti with presenters in the Junior PhD student (Laboratory) session Dr Michael Gouzos, Dr Giri Krishnan, Dr Stephen Kao, and Dr Maryam Nakhjavani]..