Principal Areas of Research by School and Academic Unit

School of Biomedical Sciences

Anatomy and Cell Biology

Key Words:Cardiovascular cell biology; kidney development and kidney disease; renal scarring; using stem cells to repair and make kidneys; proteomics; gene arrays; confocal microscopy; neuroscience; neurodegeneration; regeneration of motor neurones; neuroproteomics; spinal cord injury; male reproductive biology; testicular function; testis development; neural stem cells; remyelination; connective tissue biology; repair of ligaments; bone and cartilage biology; stereology; transgenic mice/molecular biology; cell biology; blood disorders; hypertension; and thalassaemia.

Lay Terms: Cardiovascular disease; heart disease, kidney disease, high blood pressure; hypertension; reproductive health.

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

PhD and Masters Information Contact: Associate Professor Rod Devenish
Tel: +61 3 9905 3782

The Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Monash University is very active in a variety of research areas, has made significant contributions in these areas and is well respected internationally as a research centre.

URL: http://www.med.monash.edu.au/biochem/research/

Key Words: Signal transduction in the regulation of secretion, cytoskeletal rearrangements and cellular proliferation in cancer; proteases and their inhibitors and receptors in degenerative diseases; the role of protein folding and misfolding in disease; nuclear protein transport in medicine and development; bioinformatics: searching for novel protein domains in the human proteome; structural biology (crystallography) of medically important proteins; molecular analysis of the cause and expression of autoimmune diseases; peptide folding, protein engineering and drug design;diabetes and renal failure, mechanisms of proteinura in the kidney; the molecular neurobiology of Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders, molecular analysis of platelet function in thrombosis and haemostasis; the structure and function of a molecular machine: mitochondrial ATP synthase; mitochondrial turnover, vacuolar ATPase function and autophagy; fluorescent proteins with novel proteins, functional and biochemical aspects of hyaluronan with special reference to its role in disease; adrenal steroid signaling and actions in embryonic development, heart failure and obesity, mitochondria in ageing; environmental causes of type 1 diabetes; protein tyrosine phosphatases in cancer and diabetes.

Lay Terms: Cancer; diabetes; Alzheimer's disease; degenerative disease and ageing; biotechnology.

Microbiology

Key Words: Medical microbiology and microbial pathogenesis; infection and immunity: vaccine development; molecular parasitology; molecular virology: viral gene expression; molecular microbiology and microbial genetics; gene probes; transposons; gonococci; meningococci; repetitive DNA; gonorrhoea; pili; regulon; environmental microbiology; dengue; coronavirus; molecular virology; rubella virus; clostridial genetics; transposable genetic elements; two-component signal transduction; footrot; antibiotic resistance; calicivirus; viral gastroenteritis; plasmodium falciparum; malaria; DNA vaccination; malaria transfection; microarrays; transgenic plants as vaccines; malaria antigens; biorheology of malaria infected red blood cells; seroepidemiology of malaria infection; tuberculosis; genome databases; cell wall synthetic pathways; bioinformatics; protein-protein interactions in malaria-infected cells; signal transduction regulation; leptospirosis; pasteurella pathogenesis and vaccines; shigella virulence; bacillary dysentery; buruli ulcer and bairnsdale ulcer; diarrheagenic E. coli; Legionella-host cell interactions; fowl cholera; swine dysentery; melioidosis; cell adhesion; Mechanisms of pathogenesis of diseases caused by Haemoprotozoan parasites; Babesia bovis; Pseudomonas pathogenesis; protein interaction networks; biofilm; Helicobacter pylori; intestinal helicobacters; host-cell interactions; gastrointestinal inflammation; innate immunity; TLR/Nod proteins; defensins; and bacterial adhesions.

Lay Terms: Infection; immunity; vaccines; viruses; measles; rubella; antibiotic resistance; gastroenteritis; malaria; tuberculosis; ulcers; hepatitis B viruses; Babesiosis; Tick fever; gastritis; peptic ulcer disease; inflammatory bowel disease.

Pharmacology

Key Words: Neuropharmacology; molecular pharmacology; cardiovascular pharmacology; reproductive and genitourinary pharmacology; venoms and toxins; use of novel microscopic imaging techniques for early diagnosis, anti-obesity drugs; autacoids; diabetes; drug development; drug receptor mechanisms; hypertension; molecular pharmacology; neuropharmacology; neurotransmitters; endocrine pharmacology; peptides; confocal microscopy; and pharmacology of potassium channels.

Lay Terms: Venoms and toxins; diabetes; obesity; drugs; hypertension; high blood pressure.

Physiology

Key Words: Cardiovascular physiology; cell and molecular physiology; endocrinology; stress physiology; reproductive biology; fetal and neonatal physiology; autonomic neurobiology; muscle and exercise physiology; neuroscience; vision; hearing; brain; renal physiology.

Lay Terms: Biological systems; circulatory system; nervous system; cell development and function; muscle development; hearing; vision; memory; movement; stress; reproduction; glands; hormones; SIDS.

Medical Imaging and Radiation Sciences

Key Words:Medical ultrasound; sonography;vascular imaging; radiobiology;and radiation therapy.

Lay Terms: Ultrasound.

Central and Eastern Clinical School

Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine

Key Words:All aspects of public health research and preventative medicine including chronic disease epidemiology (cardiovascular, respiratory and rheumatic diseases); clinical pharmacology; the clinical evaluation of drugs including physiological studies humans, drug trials and drug safety studies; toxicology; clinical epidemiology and biostatistical methods (including diagnostic tests, clinical measurement and systematic reviews); infectious diseases neuro-epidemiology: epidemiological modelling; health services delivery; health economics and cost-effectiveness studies; health services research; environmental health; including health risk assessment; evidence based medicine, preventative medicine and occupational health; health promotion; health policy development; quality assessment and outcomes in healthcare.

Lay Terms: Cardiovascular disease, heart disease; respiratory disease; drug trials; drug safety; infectious diseases; health services; occupational health.

Forensic Medicine

Key Words: All aspects of the interface between law and medicine including forensic pathology; clinical forensic medicine; forensic toxicology; molecular biology and tissue banking; intravenous drug abuse; death and injury and prevention; adverse events in hospital practice; patterns of injury; sexual assault; traumatic neuropathology; ageing of injuries; traffic medicine including drugs and driving; post mortem drug redistribution; wound ballistics; SIDS; tissue banking including allograft incorporation and tissue engineering.

Lay Terms: Forensic pathology; forensic medicine; death; injury; SIDS.

Medicine, Alfred Hospital

Organ transplantation; renal disease; respiratory disease; clinical pharmacology; infectious diseases; oncology; rheumatology; dermatology and palliative care.

Medicine, Box Hill Hospital

Fibrinolysis/plasminogen activator laboratory; serpins biology group; the dynamic cytoskeleton; the blood platelet.

Immunology

Contact: Professor Ban-Hock Toh
Tel: +61 3 9903 0713 
URL: http://www.med.monash.edu.au/path/research/

Key Words:Tolerance and autoimmunity-autoimmune gastritis; type 1 diabetes; atherosclerosis; heart disease, immunopathogenesis; molecular mechanisms; transgenic and genetically engineered mice; stem cell engineering, bone marrow transplantation; allergy-asthma; cytokines; allergens; T cell responses; thymus biology-thymus stem cells; thymus regeneration; thymus epithelial cells; surgical and chemical castration; monoclonal antibodies; immunohistology of the thymus; transplantation tolerance; organ transplantation; organ regeneration;  cell biology-cell immortalisation; cell senescence; telomeres; cell division; cancer; secretory pathway and the Golgi.

Lay Terms: Autoimmunity; allergy; immunity.

Surgery, Alfred Hospital

Molecular biology laboratory; cell culture laboratory; tissue culture laboratory; colorectal cancer; colon cancer; chemoprevention of colorectal cancer; evaluation of laparoscopic procedures; obesity; hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery; diseases of the liver and bile ducts; gastric mucosal protection.

School of Nursing

School of Nursing

Key Words: Acute clinical nursing; health services operations management; mental health nursing; midwifery; nursing education; palliative care; rural nursing and rural heath.

Lay Terms: Nursing; health services; mental health; midwifery; nurse education; palliative care; rural nursing; and health.

Centre for Health Services Operations Management

Key Words: Integration of multi-disciplinary work systems and patient flow processes; systems analysis and systems optimisation; communications (e.g. internet-based, wireless technologies); use of IT tools for clinical/financial decision support.

Lay Terms: Health care systems and technology.

School of Primary Health Care

Centre for Ambulance and Paramedic Studies

Contact: Associate Professor Frank Archer
Tel: +61 3 9904 4330 
URL: http://www.med.monash.edu.au/mucaps/research/

Key Words: Emergency medical services; pre-hospital emergency medical care; paramedic education. 

General Practice

Contact: Professor Shane Thomas
Tel: +61 3 8575 2244
URL: http://www.med.monash.edu.au/general-practice/research/

Social Work

Key Words: Family violence; child abuse; child protection; community health; community services; management of health and welfare services; corrections; ethnic welfare; family law; Family and Children’s courts; family intervention; family violence; globalisation; management; policy development; poverty; residential care; women and social work; the welfare lobby; drug law reform; child abuse and the media; aged care.

Lay Terms: Welfare; community health; child abuse; violence; poverty.

School of Psychology, Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine

Psychological Medicine

Key Words: Addiction psychiatry; Alzheimer’s disease; anxiety disorders; autism; behavioural neurobiology; bipolar disorder; brain imaging; brain plasticity; community, child and adolescent psychiatry; cortical inhibition; depression; developmental delay; developmental forensic; developmental psychology and psychiatry; electrophysiology; epidemiology; general practice psychiatry; health economics; health outcomes; health psychology; intellectual disability; medical education; old age psychiatry; pervasive developmental disorders; psychiatric aspects of general medicine; psychoanalytic studies; psychogeriatrics; psychoneuroendocrinology;psychopharmacology; psychotic illnesses; rural mental health; schizophrenia; service evaluation research; transcranial magnetic stimulation; treatment resistance; women's mental health.

Lay Terms: Alzheimer's disease; depression; mental health; psychiatry; psychology; schizophrenia.

Psychology

Key Words: Alzheimer's disease; amyloid beta; analysis of human skill; animal and human interaction; animal welfare; animal-assisted therapy; astrocytes; attachment theory; attention; attentional and movement disorders; attitude assessment; auditory attentional processes; auditory cortex organization; behavioural medicine; behavioural neuroscience; biochemistry of memory; brain iron; cancer treatment; cerebral cortex; change management; chronobiology; circadian rhythms; clinical neuropsychology; clinical psychology; cognitive and motor functions; cognitive neuroscience; comparative neuroscience; conceptual change theory; cortical plasticity; counselling psychology; cross-cultural psychology; developmental psychopathology; educational psychology; educational technologies; electrophysiology; emotional development; engineering psychology; environmental psychology; epidemiology; experimental neuropsychology; families and parenting; fatigue; functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI); glia-neuronal interactions; health care management; health psychology and health behaviours; Huntington's disease; information processing; innovation and creativity; leadership development; leadership succession; leadership; learning; medical education; medical simulation; memory; mental health; movement disorders; music psychology; nature and psychological well-being; neuroanatomy; neurobiology; neurodegenerative disorders; neurodevelopmental disorders; neuroethology; neurophysiology; neuropsychology; nitric oxide; normal aging; organisational psychology; organizational change; oxidative stress; Parkinson’s disease; perceptual learning; personality; play and aggression in children; primate vocal communication; professional identity; performance in the workplace; psychobiology of emotion; psycholinguistics; psychological assessment; psychology of aging; psychology of groups and teams; psychometrics; psycho-oncology; quality of life; road user behaviour; sensory processes and perception; sleep disorders; sleep; sound localisation; stress management; traumatic brain injury; values, culture and climate; vocational psychology; voice recognition.

Lay Terms: ADHD; adult health; aggression; aging; Alzheimer’s disease; animals and humans; attention; behaviour; brain mapping; brain research; child health; children’s understanding of health and illness; computers in education; counselling; emotional development; families and parenting; health promotion; human evolution; Huntington's disease; learning; education; memory; movement disorders; obesity; Parkinson's disease; personality; play; relationships; therapy; voice communication.

School of Rural Health

Rural Health

Key Words: Rural mental health and illness services; health sociology, history of medicine, drugs and alcohol issues; social and cultural determinants of health; health status of, and health services provision for, immigrants, disadvantaged, and rural Australians; international health, industrial injury victims, complementary therapies, political economy of health, illness and health care, overseas Korean communities; current research focuses on health care planning and policies in rural and remote Australia, rural health workforce recruitment and retention; sustainable service delivery models, rural community development; rural and farm injuries; chronic illness; disability carers; health services models; work of voluntary organisations; qualitative research issues, and health policy; psychological interventions for depression and anxiety; cognitive functions in schizophrenia and alcohol and drug abuse; rehabilitation in Schizophrenia; dual diagnosis; multidisciplinary team work with a focus on speech pathology; community based rehabilitation for rural and remote communities; cross cultural language and cognitive assessment; early child development in disadvantaged communities; community-based education for health professionals; paediatrics and child health; community paediatrics in developing countries with a special emphasis on vaccine preventable diseases, diarrhoeal disease, acute respiratory infections and their impact on infant and child mortality; education and curriculum development with a special emphasis on the design and evaluation of community-based medical education programmes; rural health service delivery; female rural doctors; women in medicine; rural specialist workforce, management of chronic disease in rural areas; rural health systems, rural cancer services, rural hospital structures, and Internal medicine in rural areas; rehabilitation psychology; occupational rehabilitation; rural psychology; psychosocial influences on health and health outcomes; rural health consumers services quality issues; equity of access in health services; social determinants of indigenous health; indigenous women and children; reconciliation; health promotion and education; International Indigenous health and diabetes; critical and cute care; infection control; evidence-based practice; nursing and allied health research.

Lay Terms: Medicine and health care in rural/urban Australia.

Southern Clinical School

Anaesthesia

Key Words: Pain medicine. Basic scientific and clinical studies of the physiology and pharmacology of pain, with particular emphasis on mechanisms at the level of the spinal cord.

Lay words: Pain management; pain relief; anaesthetics.

Medicine, Monash Medical Centre

Centre for Inflammatory Diseases (including glomerular disease, joint disease and liver disease); Monash Institute for Neurological Diseases; Nutrition Research Group; Cardiovascular Centre.

Key words: Apoptosis; asthma and airways disease; anticoagulants; bioethics; bowel cancer; liver disease; cardiovascular disease; especially atherosclerotic and cardiac failure and hypertension; clinical and public health nutrition; cytotoxic lymphocytes; diabetes; gene regulation; haemostasis; oncology; inflammatory disease (joints, skin and kidneys); infectious diseases; intensive care medicine; intracellular signalling; movement disorders; osteoporosis; osteoarthritis; peptic ulcer; proteases and protease inhibitors; platelet biology; renal disease; rheumatology; serine proteinase inhibitors; skin cancer; psoriasis; clinical pharmacology; gerontology; palliative care; neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's disease; neuro-otology; clinical and basic research in the cardiology, vascular and respiratory areas including vascular biology, physiology and pharmacology of the peripheral and coronary vasculature; metabolic vasodilation; vascular effects of hormone replacement, vitamin therapy, hypercholesterolaemia; pathophysiology of left atrial thrombus; mitral stenosis; atrial fibrillation; pulmonary circulation; pulmonary hypertension; cardiac function; coagulation activity; acute coronary syndromes; inotropic agents; asthma; bronchiectasis; sleep disorders; thrombosis; platelets; Von Willebrand factor; fibrinogen; intracellular signalling; glycoprotein aIIbb3; RhoA; actin cytoskeleton; haemopoiesis; serpins; yeast-2-hybrid; yeast-3-hybrid fibrinolysis; tissue plasminogen activator; urokinase plasminogen activator; and plasminogen activator inhibitor-2; neurodegeneration, tumour metastasis; gene regulation; RNA processing; mRNA stability; Prothrombin G20210A polymorphism.

Lay Terms: Asthma; respiratory disease; cancer; heart disease; heart attack; high blood pressure; nutrition; diabetes; infectious diseases; intensive care; osteoporosis; ulcer; liver disease; kidney disease; rheumatism; arthritis; psoriasis; aged care; blood clotting; sleep disorders.

Obstetrics and Gynaecology

Key Words: Gynaecology and infertility; maternal-fetal medicine; reproductive and endothelial cell biology; reproductive endocrinology; reproductive hormones; menstruation; implantation; infertility; labour; trophoblast function; regulation of placental blood flow; preterm labour; low birth weight; prenatal diagnosis; models of antenatal care; endometriosis; preeclampsia; ovarian cancer; molecular obstetrics; molecular gynaecology; virtual reality, computerized surgery, angiogenesis (control of blood vessel growth); and factors in fibroid growth and development, investigating why these common benign tumours develop and grow.

Lay Terms: Obstetrics; gynaecology; reproduction; fertility; infertility; labour; prenatal and antenatal care; ovarian cancer.

Paediatrics

Key Words: Neonatal research; paediatric sleep studies; Sudden Infant Death Syndrome ( SIDS); infant home monitoring; developmental disabilities; paediatric growth and endocrinology genetics; fetal and neonatal physiology; fetal surgery; adaptation at birth; lung growth and development; neonatal neurological outcomes; growth disorders; childhood diabetes and endocrinology; pathogenesis of viral infections; antiviral agents (clinical trials); developmental disability; adolescent medicine; and clinical and interventional cardiology.

Lay Terms: Fetal growth; infant development; cot death ( SIDS); sleep studies; diabetes.

Monash Institute of Health Services Research

Key words: Health technology assessment; implementation research; clinical decision making and decision support systems; technology transfer; systems analysis; clinical trials and evidence synthesis; complementary medicine; evaluation of the impact of evidence based practice in clinical environments; evidence based health promotion; consumers participation in health; provision of reliable information to consumers of health care; methodology and impact of systemic reviews of research evidence; cost effectiveness and economic modelling of health care interventions; internet, networking and telecommunications in health; educational technology; health databases; evaluation of information technology in general practice, health informatics via distance education; models of electronic support for clinical decision making; knowledge management.

Lay Terms: Health care systems; health technology; medical information management.

Monash Institute of Reproduction and Development

Centre for Molecular Reproduction and Endocrinology

Key words: Reproduction; Andrology; impotence; infertility; fertility; fertilisation; embryogenesis; male contraception; autoimmunity; assisted reproduction; IVF; molecular reproduction; endocrinology; genetics of male infertility; immunocontraception; inflammation biology, cell-based therapies, transgene, gene knockout; gene expression in oogenesis; egg development; developmental biology.

Centre for Urological Research

Key words: Prostate; androgens; testosterone; oestrogen; prostate development; prostate disease; stem cells; benign prostatic hyperplasia; BPH; urinary tract disease.

Centre for Early Human Development

Key words: Stem cells; embryonic stem cells; nuclear transfer; cloning, transgenic animals; developmental biology; biotechnology; endangered species, assisted reproduction; genetic analysis of embryos; early human development; developmental biology.

Centre for Functional Genomics and Human Disease

Key words: Genetics; genetics of human disease; functional genomics; cancer; cell death; apoptosis; brain cell death; stroke; toxic shock; sepsis; Down Syndrome; inflammation tumour immunity; cytokine signalling; transcription factors; apoptosis; inflammatory diseases, molecular biology

The Ritchie Centre for Baby Health Research

Key words: Premature; babies, baby health; sleep; sleep apnea; molecular embryology; birth defects; fetal physiology; neonatal physiology; neonatal intensive care; sleep physiology and medicine; Monash Neonatal Unit; Paediatric Sleep Studies Unit; Sudden Infant Death Syndrome; paediatric growth and endocrinology genetics; fetal and neonatal physiology; cot death studies (SIDS); sleep studies; lung growth and development; neonatal neurological outcomes; growth disorders; childhood diabetes and endocrinology; pathogenesis of viral infections; antiviral agents (clinical trials); developmental disability; adolescent medicine; and clinical and interventional cardiology.

Lay Terms: Reproduction; fertility; infertility; prostate disease; fertilisation; stem cells; cloning; genetics; birth defects; fetal development; cancer; immunity; inflammatory diseases; premature; babies; baby health; sleep; genetics; genetics of human disease; cancer; cell death; brain cell death; stroke; toxic shock; Down Syndrome; inflammation; cot death studies; SIDS.

Surgery, Cabrini Hospital

Investigation of bowel disorders; colorectal cancer; colon cancer; chemoprevention of colorectal cancer; evaluation of laparoscopic surgery for colorectal surgery; genetic predisposition of colorectal cancer; genetic mutations associated with colorectal cancer; assessment of diagnostic techniques for the early detection of colon cancer; clinical applications of anorectal physiology studies; applications of new clinical treatments for colorectal cancer; determining incidence between colorectal and other cancers.

Surgery, Monash Medical Centre

Retinal research; vascular surgery; experimental colorectal cancer; liver metastases; the vascular response to inflammation; ulcer healing; surgical education; laparoscopic surgery; cultured epithelial grafts; organ transplantation; microsurgery; gastrointestinal motility; and endovascular stents and grafts.