News

Source: UniSA

The Federal Government, through a $40m investment, has backed the formation of a powerful new partnership between the University of South Australia and SA Pathology to accommodate and support the growth of the Centre for Cancer Biology (CCB).

The Centre has a specific focus on fundamental research that is relevant to many types of cancer, as well as the research of blood-related cancers, such as leukaemia and lymphoma, which account for nearly 20 per cent of cancer mortalities in Australia and more than one third of cancers in children.

The Centre for Cancer Biology will form part of the University’s significant health and biomedical footprint in the North Terrace hospital precinct and will be housed in a new facility currently being planned.

The Centre provides world class cancer research that moves from fundamental discoveries in the laboratory straight into treatments, drug development and improved and sustainable practices to manage and diagnose cancer.

UniSA Vice Chancellor Professor David Lloyd says the move will help to sustain and grow expertise in cancer research in South Australia.

“We’re very pleased that the Federal Government has seen the merits of this project and provided funding to support new facilities and also that the State Government, via SA Health, has collaborated with us to support this initiative with the CCB,” Prof Lloyd says.

“The Centre for Cancer Biology will continue to forge extensive and close relationships with industry so that we can find treatment solutions for cancer patients, develop more reliable and effective medications and move from discovery to application with speed.

“Our goal is to develop the Centre as one of the very best in the world for cancer research.”

The Centre will be located near the SA Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI) and the new Royal Adelaide Hospital and will complement expertise within SAHMRI and the wider bioscience health precinct being developed around it.

It will also complement UniSA’s acknowledged expertise in the quality use of medicines, pharmaceutical science and pharmacokinetics research and build upon its recent investment in attracting international research leaders in cancer medicinal therapy and innovative drug formulation.

There are also clear research links with the University’s advanced manufacturing capabilities in nanotechnology and coatings and with its technological leadership in the new CRC for Cell Therapy Manufacture.

Co-directors at the CCB, which is one of Australia’s top three cancer research centres, Professors Angel Lopez and Sharad Kumar believe the partnership will support the development of a cancer research community of enormous depth and capacity in South Australia.

“Already the CCB is an exciting place for fundamental research in the causes of cancer and for cancer treatment but this partnership will allow us to grow that expertise and develop a larger team,” Prof Lopez says.

“New relationships and facilities will mean we can attract the right people to join the Centre – the best and brightest - and as a Centre, contribute significant research to the fight against cancer.”

“CCB already hosts a number of key research groups studying biology, causes, differential diagnosis and treatment of cancer and with the new partnership, we hope to expand our expertise and scope of research even further,” Prof Kumar says.

Prof Lloyd says consolidating advanced cancer research in this new relationship has key benefits for the State including:

• strengthening of the capacity to translate cancer research into improved practice and applications such as early diagnosis; prevention; and improved sustainability and reduced cost in the health system;
• boosting Australia’s reputation for excellence in cancer and cell biology research through the attraction of additional world-class researchers to South Australia;
• enhancing the clinical/research nexus that helps the quality of patient care and the development of new treatments;
• attracting talented international students in healthcare and bioscience disciplines;
• completing a unified world-class health and medical precinct in the north-west end of the Adelaide CBD that will provide synergies between UniSA research and teaching (and that of the other SA Universities), SAHMRI, CSIRO and the new Royal Adelaide Hospital;
• creating increased opportunities for the commercialisation of research into the global pharmaceutical and other healthcare industries and boosting local job creation;
• and, attracting investment to Australia from other parts of the world in these industries.

Media contact: Michèle Nardelli office: 08 8302 0966 mobile: 0418 823 673 email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  

http://www.unisa.edu.au/Media-Centre/Releases/40m_federal_government_backing_for_SA_Pathology_Centre/

Source: UniSA

A new learning course pioneered by two University of South Australia lecturers is aimed at raising the standard of handover of patient care in hospital and care facilities across the country.

In cooperation with St Andrew's Hospital, UniSA’s Tina Holmes and Dr Jane Warland from the School of Nursing and Midwifery have developed an innovative e-learning course, designed to be used by health professionals at any stage of their career.

The launch of the course coincides with the declaration of Clinical Handover as one of the new National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards. It also follows research by the World Health Organisation, identifying poor implementation of clinical handover as one of the top five patient safety problems.

Tina Holmes says that effective clinical communication is vital to ensure patient safety and quality in the provision of healthcare.

“Patients are often vulnerable when critically unwell and depend on the health team to communicate crucial information relevant to their plan of care,” Holmes says.

“It was critical to develop a workable education tool that identified key issues to highlight which clinical handover situations carry the most risk and what interventions are most effective based on current research evidence.”

“It was also crucial that this e-learning tool had real world applications connecting users with authentic scenarios.”

The e-learning course comprises four modules including videos of real life clinical handover scenarios with assessed exercises at the end of each module. The videos show good clinical handovers and also highlight what can go wrong if structured approaches are not adopted when clinical handovers occur.

Commercialisation of the course was made possible through the support of ITEK Ventures, the technology transfer company of the University of South Australia.

Dr Stephanie Agius, the Commercial Manager of ITEK Ventures says the Clinical Handover e-learning Course has been developed by a multi-disciplinary team of people with different expertise and experience adding to the breadth and quality of the course.

“Being part of a cohesive team has allowed the development of this course to progress and is now being made available to the public to ensure all health care providers can meet accreditation for clinical handover,” Dr Agius says.

IntelliLearn, a leader in on-line education in clinical health practice, is hosting and marketing the course to health services throughout Australia and New Zealand.

Please click here for more information.

http://www.unisa.edu.au/Media-Centre/Releases/New-e-learning-course-champions-patient-safety/

Source: UniSA

As South Australia gears up for the Santos Tour Down Under, an invention by a University of South Australia lecturer is set to make cycling safer for all recreational riders.

Industrial Design lecturer Sandy Walker has invented Safety Bottle Light, a water bottle fitted with a removable and rechargeable LED light, which provides 360 degree visibility of the bike and rider for approaching drivers.

Mr Walker is working with ITEK, the technology commercialisation arm of the University, to commercialise the product so it will be available for recreational riders to purchase sometime this year.

Mr Walker says his primary motivation in inventing Safety Bottle Light is to decrease the risk of cyclist-car accidents due to poor visibility, particularly at dawn and dusk.

“I’m a cyclist myself and I usually ride in the early mornings. As a cyclist, one of your concerns is always visibility to other traffic,” Mr Walker says.

“Last year I was involved in a Design Institute of Australia exhibition around the theme of water and I was thinking what I could design for this exhibition. I was looking at sustainability, safety and cycling and then I started wondering if you could turn a water bottle, which all cyclists carry, into a light source which has a large surface area to increase visibility, particularly from the side view of a bike.

“One of the problems with current bike lights is the front light shines forward and the rear light shines backwards, but side visibility is a problem. When you’re riding on the road or through a round-a-bout and you see a car approaching from the side, you think ‘have they seen me, are they going to keep coming?’.”

Mr Walker produced prototypes for the exhibition and, after receiving positive feedback from fellow recreational cyclists, decided to approach ITEK with his final design.

ITEK has patented the invention and is currently negotiating with companies to take on manufacturing and distribution rights for the product.

Mr Walker believes his invention will not only be popular with cyclists, but could also be used by early morning runners, for children’s back packs, and for outdoor activities such as hiking and bushwalking.

Mr Walker has invented and commercialised other products in the past, including a range of sports surfaces for playing netball, basketball, inline hockey and volleyball, called Orbcourt, which is currently being manufactured in the United States. More information is available on Orbcourt, click here.

To watch ITEK’s video on Safety Bottle Light, click here.

http://www.unisa.edu.au/media-centre/releases/Bottle-Light-set-to-transform-cycling-safety/

Source: UniSA

Adelaide ‘car-to-car’ communications technology company Cohda Wireless has attracted a substantial, undisclosed investment deal from global networking equipment firm Cisco Systems and NXP B.V. a top 10 global semiconductor company.

The decision by the two United States NASDAQ listed technology giants to invest in the company is a coup for Cohda Wireless which was founded in 2005 by a group of research scientists working at UniSA’s Institute for Telecommunications Research (ITR).

With its roots originating from, and strong ongoing links with, UniSA and the University’s commercialisation arm ITEK Ventures (ITEK), Cohda Wireless will now be able to advance its connected car communications and further extend its reach into the global automotive industry.

Cohda Wireless’ key patented technology, called Dedicated Short Range Communications, is embedded in the receive side of an 802.11p radio and Cohda has also developed complete software solutions (from network layer to applications) to run on this hardware.

The technology, which is currently being tested in major trials around the world in Germany, France, United States and Australia, effectively allows cars to ‘talk’ to each other and reduce or eliminate crashes through car-to-car data transmission that provides drivers with an audio or visual alert in the threat of an accident.

It is estimated by the US Department of Transport that these car-to-car technologies may address up to 82 per cent of crash scenarios.

Car-to-infrastructure network communications will also capture real-time data from on-board technology to better manage transportation system congestion and maximise vehicles operating maintenance and fuel efficiency.

Cohda Wireless’ advanced radio signal processing techniques started development in 2004 at UniSA’s ITR under a $1m project and funding agreement funded by ITEK and Melbourne-based SciVentures Investments Pty Ltd.

Cohda Wireless was incubated through ITEK and in June 2005 the company was established, with further investment from ITEK and Canberra-based Epicorp Pre Seed Fund to commercialise the technology developed under the project and funding agreement.

ITEK Chief Financial Officer, and Director of Cohda Wireless, Bruce Tilbrook welcomes this week’s announcement from Cisco and NXP Semiconductors.

“This investment from multi-billion dollar industry giants Cisco and NXP serves to validate the Cohda business model and its superior technology,” Mr Tilbrook says.

“In addition, Cohda also has commercial agreements with both Cisco and NXP providing global scale and strong channels to market its technology."

“The pay-off if everything goes right is very convincing.”

http://www.unisa.edu.au/Media-Centre/Releases/Global_tech_giants_invest_in_talking_cars_technology/ 

Source : ITEK Ventures Pty Ltd

Congratulations to our Commercial Manager Mark Bruce who just received the long awaited granted US patent for Ceridia's novel drug delivery technology.

Ceridia's LipoCeramic platform technology allows for the reformulation of both novel and generic drugs to improve bioavailability, reduce dosage and minimize food effects.

Click here for more information.

Source : UniSA

If you drive a new car in the next few years, when you check your side mirrors, take a close look; the reflection may appear courtesy of some cutting-edge technology developed by researchers at UniSA.

Dr Drew Evans is a research fellow whose expertise in ultrathin film technologies and work with the Thin Film Coatings Group at the Mawson Institute, has seen the development of plastic side mirrors designed to make cars both safer and more environmentally friendly.

“By developing a reflective thin film coating, which is less than the width of a human hair and which can be used on plastic, the application in cars has several advantages,” said Dr Evans.

“As soon as you replace glass with plastic you can effectively reduce by half the weight of the car mirror. This has a flow-on effect – the motor that adjusts the mirror can be made lighter as can the housing that encases the mirror.

“These weight savings add up to fuel savings which means the vehicle becomes more energy efficient.”

Environmental benefits are not the only advantage of using plastic mirrors.

“Plastic is inherently safe; the mirror is shatter proof. You can do things with plastic that you can’t do with glass. This gives car manufacturers freedom to redesign their cars around the fact they have this flexible material,” he said.

Dr Evans highlights the move in production from flat glass headlights to plastic headlights on cars as being instrumental for the development of more sleek, aerodynamically designed vehicles.

“This change was possible due to the moulding properties of plastic and the same analogy can now be applied to side mirrors,” he said.

By working in collaboration with industry partner SMR Automotive, the first commercial roll-out of side mirrors using the thin film coating technology is due in the US in the next few months.

“It will take about 18 months to two years to see its uptake in the consumer market place and we have confidence the product will be taken up,” said Dr Evans.

Earlier this year, Dr Evans was a finalist in the SA Science Excellence Awards and won a People’s Choice Award in recognition for his work in thin film coatings, particularly the development of the thin film mirror from design inception to product development and commercialisation.

“Our expertise is putting coatings on plastic; these don’t necessarily have to be reflective, another stream of our work is developing polymers that conduct electricity,” he said.

“When you put these onto flexible plastics they can be used in mobile phone technology, flat panel displays and solar cells.”

Dr Evans’ research, at the new $50 million Materials and Minerals Science Building and Plasso at Mawson Lakes campus, has also proved encouraging to undergraduate students.

“Being in an environment like this, where there are floor to ceiling glass laboratories, is fantastic,” he said.

“The philosophy of the M2 building is to create a portal from undergraduates to postgraduates; you can see the inspiration it gives to the next generation of scientists coming through, to see you do something.

“Science is not about being stuck in a dark lab somewhere, doing some experiment that doesn’t mean anything. You can see that we’re doing fundamental science that has real world applications.”

By Will Venn

http://w3.unisa.edu.au/unisanews/2012/november/story9.asp

Source : UniSA

A UniSA research team is using compounds extracted from an Indigenous medicinal plant to develop a natural cream to treat inflammatory skin conditions like dermatitis and psoriasis.

The research is conducted in partnership with the Chuulangun Aboriginal Corporation, led by Mr David Claudie, which represents the traditional owners of the Northern Kaanju homelands in Queensland’s central Cape York Peninsula.

Dr Susan Semple from UniSA’s Quality Use of Medicines and Pharmacy Research Centre says while there are a number of anti-inflammatory creams available on the market, these medicines can have unwanted side effects in certain groups of people, such as children and people with slow-healing wounds.

The team led by Dr Semple and Mr Claudie is using compounds extracted from the Indigenous plant Dodonaea polyandra or ‘Uncha’ to develop a cream which is completely natural and has a novel mechanism of action that may allow it to have an improved safety profile.

“Compounds with this particular structure have not been isolated from a natural source before,” Dr Semple says.

“Our initial aim is to develop a cream to treat inflammatory skin conditions, but there may be potential uses for other inflammatory conditions, such as inflammatory conditions of the mouth and gastrointestinal system as well as wound healing.”

Dr Semple has been awarded a grant from BioSA for the pharmaceutical development of the work, which is supported by ITEK Ventures, the commercialisation company of UniSA.

Chuulangun Aboriginal Corporation is leading the on-country aspects of the research including collecting plant materials, examining plant distribution and numbers, and looking at the effects of plant harvesting. The Corporation is a joint applicant with UniSA on a patent concerning the anti-inflammatory components of the plant extract.

The UniSA team’s work in researching Indigenous medicines is funded through a National Health and Medical Research Council Development Grant. Dr Semple says the BioSA funding will support the pharmaceutical development of her work in a number of ways.

“The BioSA funding will allow us to isolate larger quantities of some of the active components from the plant material, which is important because we need quite large amounts of these compounds to get the necessary testing for safety and effectiveness done,” she says.

“It will also support testing of the plant extract in a model of dermatitis to determine its usefulness in this condition.”

Dr Semple hopes her work will benefit society in general with the development of new anti-inflammatory medicines.

“The aim of this project is also to benefit Indigenous traditional owners with increased knowledge about the plant and the traditional homelands in which the plant grows, through the development of sustainable harvesting and growing of plant material on the homelands.”

Dr Stephanie Agius, Commercial Manager from ITEK Ventures says it’s exciting to support the development of a natural alternative to steroids in the treatment of inflammatory skin conditions and the complementary approach of Western scientific and traditional perspectives of a medicinal plant species.

http://www.unisa.edu.au/Media-Centre/Releases/280812/