Search

Research

While most education professionals enjoy the many opportunities working in schools and with students provides, they are also exposed to numerous stressors, such as excessive workload, complex and challenging student needs and responding to parent demands can compromise their wellbeing. Frequent exposure can lead to burnout, stress, health and relationship problems and fatigue, which can have a negative impact on their motivation, job satisfaction and their likelihood of remaining in the profession. This research paper provides recommendations and practical actions to protect and promote the wellbeing of school leaders and staff, and to support staff who may be experiencing difficulties with their mental health and wellbeing.

Research

Myopia (near-sightedness) is an important public health issue. Spending more time outdoors can prevent myopia but the long-term association between this exposure and myopia has not been well characterised. We investigated the relationship between time spent outdoors in childhood, adolescence and young adulthood and risk of myopia in young adulthood. The Kidskin Young Adult Myopia Study (KYAMS) was a follow-up of the Kidskin Study, a sun exposure-intervention study of 1776 children aged 6-12 years.

Research

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people do not enjoy equal access to specialist health services that adequately meet their needs. Clinical genetics services are at the vanguard of realising the health benefits of genomic medicine. As the field continues to expand in clinical utility and implementation, it is critical that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are able to participate and benefit equally to avoid further widening of the existing health gap. This is the first study to explore barriers to accessing clinical genetics services among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, which has been acknowledged as a key strategic priority in Australian genomic health policy.

Research

Social communication difficulties in autism spectrum disorder have been associated with poor Theory of Mind (ToM), an ability to attribute mental states to others. Interventions using humanoid robots could improve ToM that may generalize to human-human interactions. Traditionally, ToM has been measured using the Firth-Happe Animations (FHA) task which depicts interactions between two animated triangles.

Research

There is increasing interest in the association between perinatal depression and diet including whether diet may have an impact on depressive symptoms and equally whether depression influences diet. Furthermore, whether pharmacological treatment of depression with antidepressant medication also may influence diet.

Research

Streptococcus pyogenes is a leading cause of infection-related morbidity and mortality. A reinvigorated vaccine development effort calls for new clinically relevant human S pyogenes experimental infection models to support proof of concept evaluation of candidate vaccines. We describe the initial Controlled Human Infection for Vaccination Against S pyogenes (CHIVAS-M75) study, in which we aimed to identify a dose of emm75 S pyogenes that causes acute pharyngitis in at least 60% of volunteers when applied to the pharynx by swab.

Research

Jonathan Jeffrey Carapetis AM Cannon AM MBBS FRACP FAFPHM PhD FAHMS BSc(Hons) BBus PhD Executive Director; Co-Head, Strep A Translation; Co-Founder

Research

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental condition whose biological basis is yet to be elucidated. The Australian Autism Biobank (AAB) is an initiative of the Cooperative Research Centre for Living with Autism (Autism CRC) to establish an Australian resource of biospecimens, phenotypes and genomic data for research on autism.

Research

B cells are critical to the development of multiple sclerosis (MS), but the mechanisms by which they contribute to the disease are poorly defined. We hypothesised that the expression of CD32b (FcγRIIb), a receptor for the Fc region of IgG with inhibitory activities in B cells, is lower on B cell subsets from people with clinically isolated syndrome (CIS) or MS. CD32b expression was highest on post-naive IgM+ B cell subsets in healthy controls. For females with MS or CIS, significantly lower CD32b expression was identified on IgM+ B cell subsets, including naive and IgMhi MZ-like B cells, when compared with control females. Lower CD32b expression on these B cell subsets was associated with detectable anti-Epstein Barr Virus viral capsid antigen IgM antibodies, and higher serum levels of B cell activating factor. To investigate the effects of lower CD32b expression, B cells were polyclonally activated in the presence of IgG immune complexes, with or without a CD32b blocking antibody, and the expression of TNF and IL-10 in B cell subsets was assessed.

Research

Infant acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is characterized by a high incidence of KMT2A gene rearrangements and poor outcome. We evaluated the value of minimal residual disease (MRD) in infants with KMT2A-rearranged ALL treated within the Interfant-06 protocol, which compared lymphoid-style consolidation (protocol IB) versus myeloid-style consolidation (araC, daunorubicin, etoposide/mitoxantrone, araC, etoposide).