Early Career Researchers

The aim of this symposium, the second of the biannual ECR symposium series for 2012, is to provide a forum for Early Career Researchers (ECRs) to present their work to fellow researchers and also to foster collaborations, enhance networking and bring together researchers located at the Alfred Medical Research and Education Precinct (AMREP). The AMREP ECRs come from the Central Clinical School, BakerIDI, Burnet Institute and the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine. The research undertaken is a 'broad church', embracing a variety of research strands from investigation of physiological mechanisms at their most detailed to population health statistical analyses and data registries. Such a nexus provides great opportunities for development of cross disciplinary research initiatives, and for individuals to draw on a wide range of expertise for their research projects. Increased HIV-1 dependence on the CCR5 N-terminus and altered recognition of the CCR5 extracellular loops defines a common mechanism of clinical resistance to the CCR5 antagonist maraviroc in vivo, and exposes a new drug target TACI regulates T-independent marginal zone B cell responses through innate activation-induced cell death Speaker Erica Neill (CCS, MAPrc) Category fluency in schizophrenia research: Is it an executive or semantic measure? A new approach The transcription factor GRHL3 functions as a tumour suppressor in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma Cognitive deficits in schizophrenia underlie more functional disability than any other symptom of the illness and existing treatments are largely inadequate. The development of effective pathophysiology based techniques are urgently required. Currently, the standard treatment approach is cognitive remediation, however the degree of improvement is modest at best (with low to medium effect sizes [on average d = 0.41]) and remediation requires many hours of intensive training. An approach which is able to produce cognitive improvements of large effect sizes within short durations would be transformative. Non-invasive brain stimulation, namely Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, has very recently been shown to hold considerable promise in this respect (Barr et al, In Press). Here we present highly complementary preliminary data of the effects of another non-invasive form of stimulation, transcranial Direct Current Stimulation. These results suggest that brain stimulation techniques may represent a transformational approach to the treatment of cognitive impairment in schizophrenia. Background: The CCR5 antagonist maraviroc (MVC) inhibits HIV-1 entry by altering the CCR5 extracellular loops (ECL), such that the gp120 envelope glycoproteins (Env) no longer recognize CCR5. To elucidate the mechanism of resistance to …