Thank You!

Thank you all so much for making the 2014 Professional Development dinner a huge success. We managed to sell the event out! We had 120 students from over 15 universities and institutes Melbourne wide along side 30 VIPs from industry, academia and media. The keynote speeches from Adam Bandt and Sen Penny Wright were interesting and covered a wide range of topics from how government is failing science through to evidence based policy and generated a discussion amongst all attending.

Now we must look forward to next amazing SOBR event! The 2014 Student Symposium! This year the symposium will be held at the Florey Institute for Neuroscience and Mental Health on the 15th of October. There will be both student posters and student presentations and abstract submissions will be opening in the coming weeks so keep an eye out and start getting your abstract ready!

In the mean time, here are a few photos from the professional development dinner:

 

The 2014 SOBR Professional Development Dinner

Hi SOBRers!

The time has come for you to get your tickets to the 2014 professional development dinner! 1st of July is just around the corner and tickets are selling quickly. We have a limited capacity so be sure to get your tickets, they're only $40 and that gets you not only a 2-course meal at the Rialto InterContinental but also 4 hours of drinks and some excellent talks from our guest speakers.

Tickets can be found here

See poster below for more information and we look forward to seeing you on the night!

- SOBR

The SOBR Professional Networking Dinner 2014 -- July 1st -- Save the date!

It’s that time again and we have been working hard behind the scenes and are pleased to announce the annual Students of Brain Research professional networking dinner will be held on the 1^st of July at the Rialto. This year the theme is revolving around a highly topical and contentious issue: “Politics in Science”. The dinner will be emceed by none other Dr Andi Horvath, the media officer for science at the University of Melbourne and will feature keynote speakers Sen. Adam Bandt (the spokesperson for science for the Greens and the man behind the ‘Respect Research’ campaign’) and Sen. Penny Wright who is the spokesperson for mental health, also from the Greens party. The speakers this year will provide interesting insight and discussion into the interplay between science and politics, a discussion not to be missed by young researchers. So it’s time to save that date. The 1^st of July. Tickets will be on sale later this month.

Scientists from the Florey, in collaboration with other Australian institutes, are now one step closer to a blood test for Alzheimer’s disease

"One step closer to a blood test for Alzheimer's"

They identified blood-based biological markers that are associated with the build up of a toxic protein in the brain which occurs years before symptoms appear and irreversible brain damage has occurred.

"Early detection is critical if we are to make any real difference in the battle against Alzheimer's, giving those at risk a much better chance of receiving treatment earlier, before it’s too late to do much about it," said Dr Samantha Burnham from CSIRO’s Preventative Health Flagship.

Alzheimer's is the leading cause of dementia. One quarter of a million Australians currently suffer from dementia and given our ageing population, this is predicted to increase to one million people by 2050.

Sophisticated mathematical models were used to analyse data from 273 participants in the Australian Imaging, Biomarkers and Lifestyle study of ageing (AIBL).

This identified nine markers that correlate with brain positron emission tomography (PET) imaging measurements of a toxic protein, amyloid beta, which deposits in the brain as plaques early in disease development.

"The progressive build up of the toxic protein, amyloid beta, is one of the earliest changes in the brain associated with the development of Alzheimer's disease," said Dr Noel Faux, from the Florey Institute for Neuroscience and Mental Health.

"A recent study from the AIBL team showed that amyloid beta levels become abnormal about 17 years before dementia symptoms appear. This gives us a much longer time to intervene to try to slow disease progression if we are able to detect cases early."

Dr Burnham adds “We hope our continued research will lead to the development of a low cost, minimally invasive population based screening test for Alzheimer’s."

"A blood test would be the ideal first stage to help identify many more people at risk before a diagnosis is confirmed with cognitive tests and PET imaging or cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) testing."

The results have been published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

http://www.csiro.au/Portals/Media/One-step-closer-to-a-blood-test-fo

Abstract Submissions extended until Friday 30th August

Due to popular request, the deadline for abstract submission has been extended until this Friday 30th August at 5pm.

  

Don't miss out on this invaluable opportunity to present your research, hear from a prestigious guest speaker, and network with other young brain researchers from across Melbourne. Plenty of excellent prizes will be awarded to the most outstanding young researchers on the day.

This free symposium will be held at the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (Royal Parade, Parkville) on Wednesday 30^th October, with more details to follow in the coming months.

Abstract submissions
Submit your abstract by filling out the abstract submission form and sending your completed form to sobrnetwork@gmail.com by 5pm 30th of August. 

Submissions can be made for poster presentations or oral presentations, the latter of which will automatically be considered for a poster presentation should the submission not be accepted for an oral presentation.

The abstract submission form can be downloaded here and an example submission for is provided here for those who need some help.

Registrations
All attendees (whether presenting or non-presenting) must register for the symposium by 24th of September via the following link: http://www.trybooking.com/DEUZ