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Congratulations to WAHTN Executive Board member, Prof Peter Klinken who has been elected as a Fellow of the Academy for 2016 of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE).

ATSE is an independent body of more than 800 Australian scientists and engineers seeking to enhance Australia’s prosperity through technological innovation.

Peter Klinken was acknowledged as an outstanding medical scientist with many publications in leading international journals. His work has led to the granting of several current patents relating to tumour suppression, sumoylation control, transcription modulation and hormone disorders. He has led the establishment of the Western Australian Medical Research Institute. In 2008 he named WA Citizen of the Year and in 2014 he was appointed Chief Scientist for Western Australia where he has displayed great leadership in developing science policy.

The Hon Greg Hunt MP, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, has announced seed funding from the Medical Technologies and Pharmaceuticals Industry Growth Centre Project Fund Program for an exciting new Australia-wide consortium that promises to bring new treatments closer.

The consortium is focused on collaboration to develop a culture of innovation that supports the progression of Australian medical research through to real world outcomes, through the provision of a mentoring network and training programmes adapted from global best practice in innovation and entrepreneurship.

The Consortium partners at inception are the Centre for Entrepreneurial Research and Innovation (CERI), The University of Western Australia, Monash University, University of Sydney, SPARK Co-Lab Ltd, University of Technology Sydney, Proteomics International Limited, Orthocell Ltd, St John of God Healthcare, Avita Medical, University of Adelaide, Murdoch University, Curtin University, Edith Cowan University, Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research, Telethon Kids Institute, Lion’s Eye Institute, Ear Science Institute Australia and the WA Neuroscience Research Institute.

Chair of the Consortium Steering Committee, Associate Professor Kevin Pfleger said, “We owe it to the community to translate research as effectively as possible and this Australia-wide collaboration between industry, healthcare providers and academia will take an important step towards that goal.”

The Consortium would like to thank MTPConnect for their support of this initiative through their competitive matched funding program that aims to invest in big, bold ideas to boost the innovation, productivity and competitiveness of Australia’s MTP sector. The Consortium’s funding is part of the $7.4m going to 14 projects over two years through the Project Fund Program.

Sue MacLeman, CEO of MTPConnect said, “We are very excited to be supporting this impressive national consortium led by the Centre for Entrepreneurial Research and Innovation. Development of this project will ensure that it is set to drive change through collaboration and innovation, two important pillars of the MTPConnect Sector Competitiveness Plan. Translational research and training is essential for the future growth and competitiveness of the medtech and pharmaceuticals sector in Australia, to ensure that we can flourish on both a local and global scale.”

For additional information please contact:

Sarah-Jane Aston – Media and Communications Officer

Centre for Entrepreneurial Research and Innovation

0400 466 485

sarah@ceri.org.au

The Research Education and Training Program (RETP) is an initiative of the WA Health Translation Network (WAHTN) funded by the Department of Health (WA).

Western Australia’s Chief Medical Officer, Professor Gary Geelhoed launched the program on Tuesday 27 September 2016.

Five Good Clinical Practice (GCP) modules are now available free-to-use for WA Health Translation Network members and can be accessed at https://www.retp.org.

Please find attached a flyer which provides more detailed information regarding the GCP modules.

A media announcement can be found at the Department of Health Website: http://ww2.health.wa.gov.au/Media-releases/Training-boost-for-WA-researchers.

Please direct enquiries to researcheducation@retp.org

Good Clinical Practice Flyer

On 5 and 13 September, the WA Health Translation Network held Retreats over two days, with presentations from a wide range of WAHTN’s partners to showcase Western Australia’s exciting and vast range of initiatives and key translational research successes. The two days focused on WAHTN’s enabling platform activities and themes, and on building physician-research translation.

We were delighted to be joined by two leading academics, Professor Hans Meij from the Melbourne Academic Centre for Health (MACH) and Professor Alex Brown from the South Australian Health & Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI). Both organisations were successful in receiving recognition as an Advanced Health Research and Translation Centre (AHRTC) in 2015.

Hans Meij shared with attendees the aims of MACH and their focus on increasing research and research output; increasing clinical translation of research; improving patient care; and integration of the network.

Alex Brown highlighted the successes SAHMRI has had in the area of Aboriginal Health research and further challenges still faced.

The Retreats received positive feedback from attendees and assisted with discussion surrounding collaborative opportunities activities amongst WAHTN’s partners.

A copy of the program can be found here.

The 2016 Scopus Eureka Prize for Excellence in International Scientific Collaboration was awarded to Professor Alistair Forrest and his team at a gala dinner in Sydney in recognition of the FANTOM5 project.

The project, which started in RIKEN Japan, involves researchers systematically examining the sets of genes used in most cell types of the human body.

Professor Forrest, who returned from Japan to head the Systems Biology and Genomics Laboratory at the Perkins, said the work being undertaken through FANTOM5 had extensive implications for medicine.

FANTOM5 is a major international collaborative project, involving more than 260 medical researchers and computational biologists from over 20 countries.