HEALTH & WELLBEING

Think biomedicine is just research?

New directions in this exciting field aim to
speed up the process of taking the results
of research from the bench to the bedside,
providing opportunities to help alleviate some
of the biggest health problems of our age.

Peter Casamento

to bedside

HEALTH & WELLBEING

This bat-shaped bunch of electrons,

propagated through space, willnot lose
its shape because the electrons are so cold.

Physics takes a cold approach

Physics is playing a significant
role in the development of
new drugs, with a new source
of very cold electrons that will
improve the quality and speed
of nano-imaging for drug and
materials development to a
trillionth of a second.
Better visibility of the structure
of a cell membrane protein
and how it functions will assist
in more targeted drug design,
explains Associate Professor
Robert Scholten from the Centre
of Excellence for Coherent X-ray

Science (CXS), which has its

headquarters at the University of
Melbourne.
The team led by Prof. Scholten
used lasers to cool atoms to a
few millionths of a degree above
absolute zero and then to extract a
beam of extremely cold electrons.
Using new technology, they
were able to create beams in
complex shapes, and because the
electrons are so very cold (about
10 degrees above absolute zero)
the beam retains that shape,
rather than exploding as it would

for a conventional hot electron

source.
Depending on the target, nanoimaging using electron microscopy
with conventional hot electron
sources can take several minutes
to several hours and the resulting
image is not very clear.
With cold electrons and our
new technology, we will be able
to take a snapshot of the whole
sample with atomic resolution
and to reduce the imaging time
to a trillionth of a second, Prof.
Scholten says.

D.V. Sheludko, A.J. McCulloch and R. Scholten

ustralia already punches well above its weight in

biomedical research, producing 3% of the worlds
research with only 0.3% of the population. What
happens with the results of that research is now being put
under the microscope.
In some ways, the field is experiencing a golden age,
Australias Chief Scientist, Professor Ian Chubb, said in a
keynote address at the BioBreakfast in Melbourne in April 2012.
The amount of basic research being conducted is sky high and
budgets are far larger than they were in the 1980s or 90s.
Now, Prof. Chubb says, the emphasis has to be on
translational research, an area of research that has only come
onto the scene in the last decade or so. It is used to find ways to
translate research findings into practice more quickly.
My favourite description is the bridge across the valley
of death where on one side of a great divide, you have
doctors and medical practitioners, and on the other are the
basic researchers there is a gap between basic research
and clinical applications, and it is to the detriment of our
healthcare options. We need some sort of link to facilitate a
pathway from discovery to health, says Prof. Chubb.
Australias international reputation in biomedicine builds
on historic breakthroughs that have improved the health
and quality of life of people around the world. These include
the creation of the bionic ear and establishing the ability to
purify and clone three of the major regulators of blood cell
formation.
While the amount of fundamental discovery is staggering
and medical journals are choked with quality science, Prof.
Chubb says that research advances have not led to a marked
increase in new cures.
Much of what we now use to treat many common
ailments is based on research from years ago, he says.
Two examples come to mind depression and obesity.
Depression is the second highest cause of disability. Suicide,
which is mostly a consequence of depression, is the eleventh
overall cause of death and the third cause of death in the
age group of 15 to 24 years.

HEALTH & WELLBEING

Prof. Chubb points out

that the action of the
majority of antidepressants
is based on a scientific
principle dating back to
The minimum time for
1961. This is despite the
evidence to reach
reviews, papers
fact that Australia alone
and textbooks.
has spent $140 million on
research into depression in
the last 10 years.
The average additional
In obesity, the story
time it then takes for
evidence from reviews,
is similar two-thirds of
papers and textbooks
Australians are overweight
to be implemented into
or obese, Prof. Chubb says.
clinical practice.
In the last 20 years, there
has been an explosion in
the science underlying
the genetics, basic biology and neuroscience regulating
food intake and satiety. In the last 10 years, we have spent
almost $200 million on research. And yet such knowledge
has not been translated to any new drugs that decrease
weight safely and effectively.
Prof. Chubb notes that the lack of new treatments is not
restricted to obesity or depression he says the story is the
same across most human diseases.
It hasnt always been this way. In the 1960s, there were
fairly strong links between basic and clinical research.
Medical research was largely done by physician-scientists
who also treated patients. But as molecular biology
exploded, clinical and basic research started to separate.
Nowadays, the majority of biomedical research is done
by highly specialised PhD scientists who have never seen a
patient before, he says.
Translational research is thought to be the answer.
It has a key part to play in improving our lives and also in
justifying taxpayer dollars, because the underlying question
is always, Is the country gaining the greatest possible
practical benefit from its research investment?

Fact

6.3 years
9.3 years

Ritu Chaurasia
Bachelor of Biomedicine
Ritus love of science and human
biology was were the major factors
that led her to study at the University
of Melbourne.
I knew I loved science, in particular
human biology, but I didnt know exactly
which stream I wanted to venture into.
The Bachelor of Biomedicine allowed
me to get straight into tertiary studies
and work towards a degree while still
keeping my options open, she says.
Another drawcard was the fact that the
University has strong connections with
some of the leading health institutes
and hospitals in Victoria.
Ritu intends to stay at Melbourne when
she completes her course in order to
embark on the Master of Public Health.
She hopes that completing a pathway
from Biomedicine to a graduate degree
will one day lead to her dream of
working for a leading non-government
body or the World Health Organisation,
for example.
My course has opened my eyes to so
many fantastic things that biomedicine
can do for the world and for people less
fortunate than us and I really want to
use the knowledge Ive learned in this
degree to help lift global health and
eradicate diseases in areas that need it
most, she says.

HEALTH & WELLBEING

for humans
If you like mechanical engineering and youre
fascinated by the human body, theres a growing
area where the two interests come together.

Make it

happen

First Degree
Bachelor of Science or Bachelor of Biomedicine

A robotic arm being

used in physiotherapy.

rehabilitation robot being placed in the

patients home. The robot makes use of
haptic technology that provides force
feedback over a broadband connection.
This enables physiotherapists to
understand how patients are exercising,
even though they are in another location.
Remote monitoring of patients through
broadband connections has many other
possibilities still to be explored. For
instance, the Institute for a Broadband
Enabled Society (IBES) and Ericsson

Graduate Study options

Master of Health Sciences or Master of Engineering

Fact

60,000
$2.14
billion

The annual number of

Australians who have a
stroke (approx.)

The cost of the above to

the health system.

fund researchers at the University of

Melbourne who are developing a device
to wirelessly monitor patients with knee
osteoarthritis. The device consists of
small inertial sensors, accelerometers
and a gyroscope connected to the
patients body to monitor joint
movements. The data is transmitted to
an Android smartphone carried by the
patient and then transmitted back to
a server, allowing real-time recording
of movements to help the patient with
their physiotherapy.

Getty Images

he study of robotics, biomechanics and virtual

simulations are coming together as a means of
helping rehabilitate patients. When combined with
broadband technology, these systems can be designed for
remote access through a computer.
For example, the Melbourne University Virtual
Environments for Simulations group (MUVES) has
developed a low-cost in-home tele-rehabilitation system
to assist stroke patients. Of those who suffer strokes,
85% have some initial loss of arm function, and early
rehabilitation of the arm and hand after a stroke can be
highly effective.
For a number of reasons, arm training has often been
given a lower priority than walking training in hospitals
and clinics, with a recent study finding that only 6% of
rehabilitation time is allocated to the affected arm, even
though hand function has a huge impact on a persons
ability to lead an independent life.
Using broadband technologies to provide alternative
rehabilitation methods for stroke survivors could
significantly improve healthcare outcomes.
The prototype system from MUVES involves a

HEALTH & WELLBEING

Bio-artificial tissue
created by printing
living cells and viscous
polymer onto a tissue
scaffold.

Building
the body
For hundreds of years humanity has dreamed of growing human body parts. Today the field of
tissue engineering constructs the building blocks that make this a reality.

SPL

issue engineering is the creation of new body parts from

the building blocks of cells, a matrix (a structure to bring
and hold the cells together) and a blood supply.The
cells may be autologous (coming from the same person they
are going to) or from an outside source. The type of tissue
that forms can be controlled through the type of cells used
and the environment created in the chamber in which the
cells are placed. Using this technique, researchers at the
OBrien Institute in Melbourne have been able to make
skeletal muscle, fat and bone, as well as heart, pancreas,
thymus, liver and growth hormone-secreting organs. This has
exciting implications for the future of organ transplants and
reconstructive surgery.
Two important research areas in tissue engineering are the
construction of heart tissue and vascularised adipose tissue
otherwise known as fat. Why is making fat important when
so many people want it to disappear? One reason is that since
vascularised adipose tissue is the major component of the
human breast, tissue engineering with this would seem to be
the ideal way to grow a replacement breast using the patients
own tissue and cells after a mastectomy or body-contour
defects resulting from the removal of head and neck tumours.

Heart tissue is also a major focus, because the heart does

not regenerate after a heart attack. The development of new
cell and tissue therapies will help improve repair to the heart.
Another important use for tissue engineering is for the
testing of new drugs to test how a drug works, and whether
it is toxic or causes damage and disease to real human tissue
without a person or animal being involved.
The Tissue Engineering Group at the University of
Melbourne conducts research into tissue engineering and
biomaterials, with a particular focus on techniques for
growing three-dimensional soft tissues. Their research is a
collaboration that involves a range of professions engineers,
surgeons, cell biologists and mathematicians in league with
researchers at theOBrien Institute.
One of the Groups current projects is the design of the next
generation of hydrogel-based scaffold materials. Hydrogels
are water-insoluble polymer gels that have a flexibility very
similar to natural tissue, so they are used as scaffolds in
tissue engineering. They may contain human cells.
The success of the project will provide a significant
contribution to the solution of organ shortage for organ
transplantation both in Australia and globally.

David Ackland
Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical)
Bachelor of Science (Neurophysiology)
PhD (Biomechanics)
Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering,
University of Melbourne
My research is primarily in experimental
biomechanics, with an emphasis on muscle and joint
function.
I really only became interested in biomechanics
during my PhD. My PhD opened me up to the many
interesting techniques that are used in the study of
musculoskeletal biomechanics.
I enjoyed the challenges of problem solving,
and designing and building experimental testing
equipment. I was particularly fascinated with the
human shoulder, as it is a very complex joint to
model we still know relatively little about the roles
of the muscles spanning this joint.
One of the major challenges in biomechanics will
be to move to non-invasive in vivo experiments
(on live subjects) and the development of patientspecific computer models of human motion.
These models most accurately represent a given
joint and/or joint pathology, and are useful when
certain parameters cannot easily be measured on
live subjects. It is hoped that an accurate method
for measuring magnitude of muscle force will
be developed in the future. This will instantly
revolutionise the field.

HEALTH & WELLBEING

Students Ibrahim Hussein
and Casey Edgar in the new
MOHTEC simulation lab.

The University of Melbourne is

preparing tomorrows dental workers
with high-level practical skills that
simulate real-life experiences through
two state-of-the-art facilities that
opened in 2012. The Melbourne Oral
Health Training and Education Centre
(MOHTEC) has a 50-seat simulation
laboratory integrated with computeraided learning suites that include
simulated patient dummies.
For second-year student Casey Edgar,
who is in the process of completing
Despite a greater awareness
her Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS)
of dental care, job prospects
degree, the new laboratory and its
in dentistry are excellent
facilities are proving to be stimulating
and the role of the dentist
learning tools.
is changing.
Weve got all our own instruments
and equipment it represents what a
normal dental practice is. Its a realistic
environment with instruments on one
side and a spot for the dental assistant
other treatments are necessary, the technology available will
to sit on the other. It makes you feel comfortable with an
verall, Australians have better teeth now than ever
provide more effective treatment with less pain for patients.
actual dental setting, she says.
before, but this doesnt mean less work for dentists.
As the demand for dental services increases, dentists
The new Melbourne Dental Clinic, which complements
For example, a greater awareness of dental care
are likely to need more dental assistants and hygienists
MOHTEC, gives students experience in patient contact
means that elderly people in the future will be likely to
to handle routine services, which will increase the staff in
in a private and commercial environment. The clinic
retain their teeth longer than ever before, so theyll need
private practices (67% of Australian dentists are in private
features 50 dental chairs 10 for general dentistry, four
more complex dental care for longer. According to the
practice). This means that in addition to their technical
Australian Dental Association, dentists will be treating
that are multi-purpose and 36 for specialist treatments. The
skills, dentists will require a range of skills to manage their
more older patients with complex medical conditions
specialist chairs are split between orthodontics, endodontics,
staff and their practices.
that will influence dental disease and dental treatment.
periodontics and prosthodontics.
The Australian Dental Association says employment
Recognising and managing these conditions will become a
In a pioneering concept, a number of suites at the clinic
opportunities for dentists are excellent, with a shortage
more important part of dentistry.
will be installed with advanced clinical microscopes featuring
For younger people, dentists are more likely to be
especially in regional, rural and remote areas, and in
in-built video cameras, allowing complex dental procedures to
providing instruction to prevent the loss of teeth than to
government clinics. There is also a greatly increased demand
be filmed and then viewed by students and staff for training
be carrying out fillings, for example. But when fillings or
for aesthetic services.
and research purposes. For all the whizz-bang technology and
equipment, however, arguably the most important feature of
First Degree
Graduate Study options
the clinic is that it provides students with exposure to direct
Make it
Bachelor of Science or Bachelor of Biomedicine
Doctor of Dental Surgery
patient contact in a private clinical environment.

Careers with

bite

happen