Now that the excitement of the ASM is starting to
diminish and we might be reflecting on what we would have liked to have said to
that sticky question but didn't, on what we should have not have eaten
(lollies) but did and what we wanted to ask but didn't, we might also like to
reflect on just how fantastic a meeting it was. The talks and posters were
exceptional and the feature lectures were exciting and provoking.
Congratulations to all the council members, guests and students for making it
such a terrific experience (See Jaye's section).
Photos from the ASM are now located on the HBPRCA
website.
This month's feature article is PART 2 from Monash
University Physiology. However, I suspect that Warwick has a touch of
Spielberg in him and there may be more to come.
This is the last newsletter this year and so we wish
everyone a safe and happy holiday break. We will be back next year with
quarterly e-news rather than monthly which you may be relieved to hear.
However, we will be keeping up the feature articles and other new initiatives
including a new web site that updates more frequently.
PRESIDENT’S
MESSAGE from Stephen Harrap
The Annual Scientific Meeting last
week was the culmination of a really exciting year for the Council. We ended
2005 with more members, more sponsorship income, an expanded and diversified
scientific program and generally a more vibrant feel to the Council and its
future.
Jaye did a fantastic job as
Program Secretary and one meeting highlight for me was the mediated poster sessions.
It was fabulous to see our students really get involved. It is easy to forget
just how daunting it is to ask your first ever question at a national meeting.
It was marvellous to see so many young people breaking the ice and join in the
cut and thrust! Jaye has more on the meeting successes below.
At this point, I'd like to pay
thanks to all those working in executive and organisational capacities on your
behalf. In particular, Geoff Head as Secretary for his drive and innovation in
making eNews such a success and
Jenny and Athina and team for their unswerving and highly professional
assistance.
I'm
especially grateful to all the members of the Executive who make such a great
team. Despite the hard work we all received great encouragement and pleasure
from your kind and positive comments last week. 2006 will be a year of
consolidation, but also a focused effort on increasing membership and a few new
good ideas to boot. To each of you, may I wish you a Very Happy Christmas and
all the Best for the New Year.
Pictured:
Stephen congratulating Enzo Porello (Melbourne Uni/Baker Heart Research Inst)
for winning the young investigator’s oral prize which includes travel to
Britain to present at the BHS meeting next year.
MEETING NEWS from Jaye Chin Dusting
The 2005 HBPRCA Annual Scientific Meeting (Dec7-9th, Bio21 Melbourne) came and went with aplomb. It opened with a clinical session (Wednesday evening) on the Treatment of High Blood Pressure in the Complicated Patient (speakers: Mark Nelson, Karen Duggan, Mark Cooper) and a terrific update on evidence-based clinical trials delivered by Lawrie Beilin; talks which were well received by the 50-60 members of the audience who participated in robust discussions around the practical realities of the patient-doctor interface.
The meeting proper started off in an invigorating session
chaired by Wally Thomas and featuring a great mix of members from the
council ranging from students Nicola Smith and Jennifer Irvine to
senior members the calibre of Di Nicolantonio and Christine Wright
to an international participant Moe Kway Thu from Singapore. This egalitarian mix of presenters was
reflected in almost all the sessions and allowed for great discussion of
science without rank limitations. The
Genetic Mouse Model Session followed and led into what proved to be the
highlight of the meeting, the RD Wright Lecture delivered by Anna
Dominiczak (Glasgow). The
lecture was a tour de force and left many in the audience reeling from
the sheer breadth and depth of the topic covered. Anna’s contribution to the rest of the meeting was also second to
none and indeed infectiously increased the level of audience participation
substantially. The Colin I Johnston Lecturer,
Shaun Jackson and the Austin Doyle Lecturer, Terry Dwyer completed
the trifecta. The Foundation Fellows
also played no small part in contributing to the high quality of the
meeting and the late but well-received presentation by Helena “just in the nick
of time” Teede added a lightened bit of drama at the end of a long but
satisfying day.
The two moderated poster
sessions, chaired by Greg Dusting and Geoff Head, were memorable
a) for successfully turning the focus back onto poster sessions; b) for reminding
us all the supreme skill required for succinctly forwarding the gist of a
presentation and c) for generating audience, and most pleasing, student
participation during question time. We
will endeavour to get the acoustics and visuals correct in future meetings but
a big thank you to all presenters for gamely going through their strides in
what was essentially a programming experiment.
Congratulations to Ravina Ravi, Monash University (Young
Investigator Poster Prize) and Morag Young, Prince Henry’s (Clinical
Science New Investigator Winner) for their well-deserved wins. The contenders for the Young
Investigators Oral Prize knew that the bar had been set following
the invite presentation by British Hypertension Society winner Carmel
McEniery, but indeed they all rose to the occasion magnificently with their
own papers. There is only ever a single
winner in any race however, and young Enzo Porello (Melbourne Uni/Baker
Heart Research Inst), walked away with the reciprocal invite to the 2006 BHS
conference. Congratulations are also
due to Rai-Chi Huang for winning the Robert Vandongen Award.
It only remains for me to thank everyone for their warm and
enthusiastic participation in what was a collegiate but lively meeting. I am reminded of a remark made to me 15
years ago by a senior member of council at my first presentation to the society
- to be warned: that the HBPRCA was not a battle-ground but neither was it
play-school - and indeed the level of critical interest from all members of
council shown at this 2005 meeting assures that the bar remains set. Personal thanks to Stephen Harrap
for his guidance; meetingsfirst for their hard yakka and other members
of the Exec Committee for their contribution.
MEMBERSHIP MESSAGE from Doug McKitrick
We thank everyone who has this
year made an effort to encourage or support colleagues, staff or students to become
members of the HBPRCA. The results have been outstanding. As announced at the
Annual General Meeting, the number of applications for Ordinary membership in
the HBPRCA for 2006 has exceeded the sum of applications in the previous two
years. In addition we have this year more than doubled our student membership,
from 26 in 2005 to 54 in 2006. Overall this has pushed us comfortably past the
200 member mark.
Speaking of student memberships we
remind all supervisors that student membership in the HBPRCA is free and may
become a requirement for student presenting authors at the Annual Scientific
Meeting (ASM). A new initiative to simplify that process is being considered
this year and will be the introduction of a standardised form that can be
downloaded, completed by the applicant and signed by sponsoring members to
complete the application process.
The introduction of the Membership
Contest will become an annual feature of the ASM. Congratulations go to Jaye
Chin-Dusting who wrote the most sponsorship letters for new Student and
Ordinary members in 2005. The race was close and Honourable Mention goes to
Roger Evans who was edged out of a tied first place in the week before the
meeting.
Several new membership categories are being considered in 2006 including a RA/Post-Doc/New Investigator category that we hope will encourage registration from this important group at the ASM. Also being considered is a ‘distinguished’ category for members that have made substantial contributions to the function and history of the HBPRCA. Throughout the year we invite any comments or suggestions regarding membership categories.
SOCIETY NEWS from
Kate Denton
This year we have undertaken the task to raise the international profile of the society. One element of this has been the exchange of presentations by the "Young Investigator" award winners of the British Hypertension Society and our own Society. Those of you who attended the ASM with have observed first hand the inaugral presentation by Carmel McEniery, the BHS winner. Our "Young Investigator" Enzo Porello is set to attend the BHS meeting next September. Other initiatives in progress included local registration rights to attend British, American and Canadian Hypertension meetings. Members of these Societies will also have reciprocal rights at our ASM. Additionally web-links to our society website will be posted on our fellow societies websites. We are also negotiating with the American Council for High Blood Pressure Research to make Australian students and post-docs eligible for travel awards given by this society, currently we are ineligible due to an oversight. This task of increasing the profile of our HBPRC is on going. Any suggestions of other society's to approach are welcomed.
CORPORATE NEWS from Louise Burrell
Currently there are four
pharmaceutical companies with corporate membership of the HBPRCA. These
include Pfizer Australia, Servier Laboratories, Bristol-Myers Squibb
Pharmaceuticals and Merck Sharp & Dohme. In addition, Pfizer and Servier
were Gold Sponsors of the annual meeting and we also received new sponsorship
from Solvay Pharmaceuticals, F. Hoffman La Roche (Drug Discovery, Basel)
and Portland Press (Clinical Science). Over the next year we will
encourage other pharmaceutical companies to become corporate members and/or
Gold, Silver and Bronze sponsors of the meeting itself. In addition, we
shall identify new potential sponsors, not only from the pharmaceutical
industry but also from those chemical/reagent companies as well as those making
equipment of relevance to high blood pressure. If any members have suggestions
for sponsors, please forward to me and I will follow up.
Cardiovascular
Research at Monash Physiology (Part 2)
This month we
continue with research at Monash Physiology focusing on the role of the kidney
in hypertension, fetal programming leading to hypertension, nephron endowment,
diabetes and the heart.
Fetal programming of
adult hypertension
Kate Denton, Marelyn
Wintour, Marianne Tare, Helena Parkington, Michelle Kett
Marelyn's and Kate’s teams are investigating how fetal
environmental events may "program" the blood pressure regulatory
systems so that hypertension develops in adulthood. Marelyn published pivotal studies on the effects of fetal
exposure to steroids on development of hypertension, and has extended these
studies with Karen Moritz, Miodrag Dodic and Rob DeMatteo following her move to
Physiology in 2002. Currently Marelyn is an Honorary Professor, in the
Department of Physiology. Kate Denton with Rebecca Flower (research assistant),
and Dev Maduwegedera (PhD student) has developed an exciting new model, studying
the blood pressure of offspring of rabbit mothers with renal wrap hypertension.
These studies show that chronic kidney disease associated with high blood
pressure adversely effects maternal extracellular fluid homeostasis during
pregnancy and exposes the fetus to an unfavourable environment in which to
develop. Recent results suggest that
fetal development of the renal sympathetic nerves has been altered and that the
functional response is increased in the offspring prior to the onset of
hypertension.
Identifying other potential hazards, Marianne Tare, Helena
Parkington and group has shown that intrauterine growth restriction in sheep
markedly influences vascular reactivity and mechanical wall properties in the
coronary vasculature in the offspring. They have also shown that vitamin D
deficiency in utero in rats results in hypertension in the offspring,
accompanied by significant vascular endothelial dysfunction.
Students and collaborators: Kristen Bubb, Dewaki
Maduwegedera, Adelle McArdle, Dr Karen Moritz and Dr Jane Black (Anatomy &
Cell Biology, Monash University), Dr Ruth Morley and Sonya Grover (Murdoch and
Children’s Medical Research Institute), Dr Clare Roberts (Research Centre for
Reproductive Health Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of
Adelaide).
Nephron endowment
Michelle Kett, Amany Shweta, Roger Evans, Warwick Anderson
There is increasing evidence
that the number of nephrons that an individual possesses, so-called nephron
endowment, may be a major factor in setting arterial blood pressure levels. In
fact, several of the environmental factors described above are thought to have
a direct effect on the expression of genes involved in nephrogenesis in the
foetus. Michelle Kett (Foundation for High
Blood Pressure Research Fellow) has described that mice heterozygous for the
GDNF gene, and who are born with a 30% fewer nephrons, develop hypertension in
old age (Figure 1). This is similar to
studies to studies from humans showing reduced nephron numbers in hypertensive
patients (see Keller et al New Eng J Med 2003).
With
PhD Student Leah-Anne Ruta, she is now studying
whether this reduction in nephron capacity renders the mice more prone to the
hypertensive effects of high salt, and other environmental circumstances. Using
a mouse model of neonatal unilateral nephrectomy Michelle is also examining the
mechanisms whereby the timing of nephron loss leads to an increased risk of
cardiovascular disease. Fig 2 shows the relative immaturity of the mouse kidney
at birth providing an excellent model to examine the role of reduced nephron
number at an early age.
Pictured
left: Figure 1 Glomeruli number from GDNF mice
Pictured right: Figure 2
Renal cortex from 1 day old Mouse
Other studies, are investigating the molecular basis of the
developmental programming of reduced nephron endowment in collaboration with
the Department of Anatomy & Cell Biology, Monash.
Students
and collaborators: Leah-Anne Ruta, Chantal Hoppe, Dr Luise Cullen-McEwen, Dr
Sharon Ricardo (Monash Immunology and Stem Cell Laboratories), Dr Karen Moritz
and Professor John Bertram (Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Monash
University), Professor Melissa Little (University of Queensland).
Diabetes
Helena Parkington,
Marianne Tare, Harry Coleman, Sharyn Fitzgerald
This group uses detailed electrophysiological techniques,
coupled with molecular biology and haemodynamic measurements in conscious and
anaesthetized animals to probe the details of the disturbances that complicate
diabetic arteries. We have found that
· The
effects of diabetes are not uniform throughout the vasculature, especially in
relation to the nature of the endothelial factor impaired.
· Diabetes
interferes with endothelial potassium channels that play a key role in normal
vascular endothelial vasodilator function.
· In vivo
and subsequent in vitro studies suggest the involvement of reactive oxygen
species whose influence, again, appears to differ in different vascular
beds.
· The
stiffening of arteries seen in diabetes can be rescued by new agents that
prevent or reverse the destructive cross-linking induced by excess circulating
glucose.
· The role
of fat cells in the vascular complications of diabetes is also under study.
· Investigating
how hyperglycaemia is affecting vessel function, concentrating on the role of
endothelial factors by utilising genetic models in mice, particularly NOS
knockouts.
Additionally, Dr Amanda Edgley, an NHMRC Industry Fellow,
currently working at Astra Zeneca, Sweden, will return to Melbourne in the New
Year. Amanda has been utilising mouse
models of diabetes and obesity to study vascular and cardiac function.
Students and
Collaborators: Jyosthna Rama, Dr Barbara Kemp (Department of Pharmacology,
Monash).
The heart
Igor Wendt, James
Pearson
Assoc. Prof. Igor Wendt (Deputy Head, Department of
Physiology) is investigating sex differences in cardiac physiology,
particularly the effects of sex hormones on myocardial calcium movements and on
the development of cardiac hypertrophy.
Findings to date indicate that oestrogen reduces calcium levels in the
female heart, and is also able to reduce the responsiveness of heart cells to
stimuli that induce abnormal cellular growth (hypertrophy). This supports the idea that oestrogen is able
to act at the myocardial cellular level to exert potential cardio-protective
actions.
James
Pearson is a Monash Synchrotron Senior Research Fellow and leads one of only
two research groups in the world that uses synchrotron x-ray radiation to investigate
molecular mechanisms of myocardial contraction in vivo, to pursue the basic
mechanisms that malfunction in ischemia and heart failure. He currently uses
the SPring-8 synchrotron in Japan, but will work with the Australian
synchrotron located adjacent to the Monash Clayton campus after it opens next
year. This unique research brings together traditional cardiac function
measurements of whole heart contractility and x-ray diffraction recordings of
cardiac myosin-actin interactions in localised regions of the heart wall. This
approach enables micro-level investigations of regional dysfunction. This work is currently being extended to
included study of real-time renal vascular reactivity (see figure 3).
Fig
3 Real-time contrast microangiography of rat kidney in vivo using Synchrotron
technology. The 3 images show different time-points after administration of
contrast bolus into the renal circulation.Image courtesy of Gabriela Eppel and
James Pearson.
Students and Collaborators: Ruchi Patel, Dr Rebecca Ritchie (Baker Institute),
Associate Professor Lea Delbridge and Dr Claire Curl (Physiology, Melbourne
University). Prof. Mikiyasu Shirai (Hiroshima Intl. University) and Dr Kenji
Kangawa and Dr Hiroyuki Suga (National Cardiovascular Center, Japan).
________________________________________________________________
Website
Meetings
First
t 61 3
9739 7697
f 61 3 9739 7076
MEETINGS IN
2006
|
|
International Conference on Healthy Ageing and Longevity
3rd Annual
Meeting Friday, October
13 – Sunday, October 15, 2006 Melbourne
Exhibition and ConventionCentre – Melbourne, AUSTRALIA Click
here for meeting website
|
International Society of Hypertension
21st Scientific
Meeting Saturday, October
15 – Wednesday, October 19, 2006 Fukuoka International Congress
Centre – Fukuoka, JAPAN Click
here for
meeting website Click here for
International Society of hypertension web page |
|
American Heart Association Obesity,
Lifestyle, and Cardiovascular Disease Symposium. Grand Hyatt
Washington - Washington, DC Jan 18-20, 2006 Click here for the meeting
website Click here for the
society website |
American Stroke Association
A Division of American Heart Association
International Stroke Conference, Gaylord Palms, Kissimmee,
Florida February
16-18 2006 Click here for the meeting
website Click here for the
society website |
|
American Society of Hypertension Annual meeting New York City,
Hilton Hotel Click here for the meeting
website Click here for the
society website |
European Society of Cardiology Heart Failure 2006 17 June 2006 - 20 June 2006
Helsinki, Finland
Click
here for the meeting website
Click here for the society website
|
World Congress of Cardiology 2006
2-6
September 2006 “Bringing together the European
Society of Cardiology Congress 2006 and the World Heart Federation's XVth
World Congress of Cardiology.”
Barcelona, Spain
Click here for the
meeting website
Click here for the society website
|
Experimental Biology 2006 1-5 April 2006 Moscone Convention centre,
San Francisco, CA, USA Click
here for the meeting website
Click here for the society website |