Category: <span>Bellberry Community</span>

In January we welcomed Simon Windsor to the Bellberry team. Simon’s previous position was at Women’s and Children’s Health Research Institute, SAHMRI where he worked for 3 years as a Clinical Trial Coordinator managing randomised controlled trials in a variety of therapeutic areas. This mainly involved coordination of site start up, recruitment, enrolment and data collection for a neonatal nutrition study based in Australia with sites in Singapore and New Zealand. Simon and his wife had previously lived in London, where he worked on Phase I Respiratory studies.

Simon will be working across a range of projects to support the operations of the organisation including project management of the National PICF project.

This project will engage stakeholders from the Australian Health and Research community to develop resources that improve the informed consent process and promote consumer involvement in decision making.

New Committee Secretary

In October we welcomed Margaret Jelbart to the Bellberry team. Margaret’s previous position was at James Cook University, North Queensland where she worked for 13 years as a Governance Officer providing secretarial and administration support to a variety of governance committees, as well as academic based working parties. This mainly involved the co-ordination and preparation of meeting agendas and minutes, as well as providing support to committee members.

Margaret’s family moved from Townsville to Adelaide in 2013. Margaret’s husband grew up in Adelaide so the move has given them the opportunity to spend a lot more time with his extended family.

Margaret has taken over responsibility for Committee A.

Happy New Year!

Today’s is just a short message to welcome back Bellberry Members and Users. The Bellberry office re-opened on the 5th January 2015, with our first HREC meeting of the year on the 7th January. We can tell that our Investigator groups are back because the studies are flowing in! In fact, the message from our User groups is clear: they’re back in the clinic/lab/office, and back to work. In response to the number of submissions, Bellberry has doubled the planned meeting numbers in January – an action that we will always endeavour to undertake in order to maintain turnaround times. We look forward to working with you in 2015. If there is anything we can do to assist, please do contact the office.

With the support of Bellberry funding, SAHMRI has now commenced the first Bellberry Research Fellowship. Dr Michael Musker, the recipient of the Fellowship, works within SAHMRI’s Mind and Brain theme and is examining gene-environment interactions in obesity, depression and their interface.

Bellberry’s donation for this Fellowship was recognised by the SAHMRI in their latest Newsletter.

The South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute’s (SAHMRI) Mind and Brain Theme Leader, Professor Julio Licinio, is pleased to announce the recipient of the inaugural Bellberry Mind and Brain Fellowship.

This unique position, newly created with philanthropic support from Bellberry, will be based within the Mind and Brain research theme at SAHMRI in Adelaide, South Australia.

The recipient of the Fellowship is Dr Michael Musker, who joins SAHMRI from the Forensic Mental Health Service in South Australia. He is originally from the UK where he trained as a Mental Health Nurse. He also holds a BA in Health Studies (Liverpool), an MSc in Health Promotion, Research and Policy Change (Liverpool) and recently completed his PhD in Forensic Mental Health (Adelaide) with Professor Alexander McFarlane, a world-renowned leader in the field of psychiatry.

Professor Licinio said that SAHMRI will benefit greatly from Dr Musker’s appointment. “We are delighted to have this generous level of support from Bellberry, allowing us to launch a highly innovative project on gene-environment interactions, that uses advanced genomics and social media to reach large numbers of consumers,” Professor Licinio said. “The Bellberry Fellowship will support Dr Musker, who recently obtained a PhD from the University of Adelaide, to spearhead such an exciting area of research. This creative new type of partnership will greatly advance research in SAHMRI’s Mind and Brain Theme.”

Education Initiative – National Networking Meetings, September 2014

Recently I had an opportunity to meet with HRECs and researchers in some of Queensland’s premier research institutes including QIMR and QBI as well as public and private health care settings. Queensland’s dedication and commitment in funding and infrastructure for research, along with their success in commercialisation ventures demonstrates their skill and advantage in areas of significant importance to the national strategic aims of improved competitiveness in R&D on the international stage. Bellberry look forward to collaborating with new and existing partners in Queensland as we embark on our education initiatives, which aims to promote a skilled and competent research workforce nationally.

VELG Conference – Brisbane, September 2014

Bellberry’s Research Education Initiative will deliver accredited training through our partnership with the dual sector International University, RMIT. The national VET conference, the largest gathering of VET practitioners and policy leaders, was held recently in Brisbane and was an opportunity to get a firsthand understanding of current issues and debate that will inform our project. There have been recent significant changes to the national VET framework, as released by the federal government. The conference key note address was delivered by the Minister for Industry, the Hon Ian McFarlane along with presentations from all the key Industry sector representatives who discussed how legislative changes will impact on industry more broadly. There was a very clear message supporting the need for Industry and the education sector to work together in areas of our national competitive advantage, to create economic opportunities locally and importantly, internationally. The conference also offered a large variety of practical workshops that aim to hone the skills of educators and training providers, with a very strong emphasis on the requirement of high quality standards from all providers across the VET sector.

ARMS

The annual Australian Research Management Society national conference was held in Canberra this year with the theme of Think, Impact and Influence. One of the opening plenaries, delivered by Australia’s Chief Scientist, Professor Ian Chubb AC, provided further evidence on how Australia must address change and focus on our true areas of competitive edge and critical need. The recently released STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) – Agenda for Change paper is compulsory reading for Australia’s research sector – or perhaps for Australian’s more generally. Research Impact is a powerful concept demanding attention across research internationally. Research Impact is defined in brief as the outcomes or benefits of research to the economy, society, the environment, health and quality of life broadly. The role of research management in facilitating an environment of collaboration is essential to promoting research that achieves impact and brings the differences that high quality meaningful and measurable research can achieve, in a timely and supportive manner. Bellberry’s “best practice “ model of research administration (as a HREC service provider) is well established and they are acknowledged as an important collaborator, promoting research impact. We will continue to review and improve our systems and promote research and researchers through our core HREC services and our non-core services such as education, donation funding and national collaborations across health care sectors and with academic researchers and institutions. Melanie Gentgall – Bellberry Education Manager

Australian and international biotech leaders and stakeholders will gather on the Gold Coast from 29 to 31 October for the AusBiotech 2014 national conference. The conference theme ‘Life Sciences = Future. Jobs. Exports.’ brings the focus to the developments in biotechnology and the life sciences industry that will significantly boost Australia’s economic performance and build our nation.

Bellberry CEO Kylie Sproston will be attending this years conference and looks forward to the opportunity of creating new partnerships and catching up with you all.

Challenges of Early Crossover in Clinical Trial Design for Oncology

On Wednesday 22 October 2014, Bellberry will host a conference in Adelaide on the Challenges of Early Crossover in Clinical Trial Design for Oncology. At this important event, we will launch guidelines in this area which have been consolidated by an international panel of experts at a workshop overseen by a Scientific Advisory Committee, chaired by Emeritus Professor Lloyd Sansom AO.

The workshop will result in the development of an agreed statement of good practice, guidelines on approaches and clear agreement on any required next steps, all of which will be presented and debated at the conference.

Dr Shayne Bellingham, University of Melbourne and Alison Gibberd, University of Sydney both received donations in 2013 as part of the Bellberry donation scheme. Below is an update on both awards.

Inaugural Bellberry Indigenous Health Fellow

Dr Shayne Bellingham was awarded the inaugural Bellberry Indigenous Health Fellow at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Melbourne in 2013 to support indigenous research. One year on Dr Bellingham reflects on the impact that the fellowship has made on his ongoing research. ‘The Bellberry Indigenous Health Research Fellowship is a wonderful initiative to support indigenous Australians for a career in medical research. Importantly without such generous support it is more than likely I would not have been able to continue my research career. The fellowship, thus far, has provided the opportunity for me to expand research skills into animal models of disease for development of clinical diagnostic tests; witness my first PhD student graduate; and consolidate several research papers that will strengthen my NHMRC Project Grant application in the next funding round. The fellowship has also allowed me to engage with Indigenous leaders within the University of Melbourne and undergraduate students through Ormond College. The Bellberry Indigenous Health Fellowship has also fuelled a passion for me to develop my research career so that it has a direct benefit for indigenous Australians. Long term, I plan to head my own research team to investigate Alzheimer’s disease and end-stage chronic kidney in the field of early diagnosis and preventative medicine. The prevalence of dementia is 12.4% higher in Indigenous Australians and the incidence rate for end-stage renal disease for Indigenous Australians has more than doubled between 1991 and 2008, from 31 to 76 per 100,000 population. Since “closing the gap” is predicted to increase the life expectancy of Indigenous Australian, then the onset of dementia and development of chronic kidney disease will no doubt have a major cultural impact. I would like to thank the board of Bellberry Pty Ltd for the opportunities they have afforded me through the establishment of this Fellowship, and to commend them for their philanthropy and support for medical research and Indigenous researchers.’

The University of Sydney

The Bellberry Scholarship in Indigenous Health and Biostatistics was established in 2012 to offer a suitably qualified candidate with a Masters degree in Biostatistics to undertake research studies leading to a PhD in Biostatistics, in the field of Indigenous health. In March 2013, Alison Gibberd was excited to be awarded the inaugural Bellberry Scholarship in Indigenous Health and Biostatistics: ‘For almost 3 years, I worked on a project exploring reasons for poorer survival from cancer and patterns of care for Aboriginal people in NSW. During this period, my interest in Indigenous health was strengthened and I saw the Bellberry Postgradu¬ate Scholarship in Indigenous Health and Biostatistics as a fantastic opportunity to examine interesting questions in an area of great need. Disparities in the health of Indigenous and non- Indigenous Australians begin at birth, with higher rates of preterm birth, stillbirth and low birth weight in Aboriginal people, and continue across the life course. For my PhD, my supervisors, Judy Simpson and Sandra Eades, and I will investigate relationships between perinatal outcomes and subsequent health throughout the life course, as well as associations across generations, using birth and health data for all Indigenous people born in Western Australia over a 30 year period. I am very grateful to Bellberry Limited for the opportunity to work on this project.’ During her PhD, Alison is being supervised by Professor Judy Simpson and Professor Sandra Eades. ‘The Bellberry Scholarship in Indigenous Health and Biostatistics has enabled us to recruit Alison, an outstanding young biostatistician to work with us to understand intergenerational pathways to poor fetal growth among Aboriginal infants’ – Professor Sandra Eades

Bellberry achieved a significant milestone in July with the first interstate HREC meeting being successfully conducted in Queensland. Committee E, registered with the NHMRC in May, held its inaugural HREC meeting in Toowong on Wednesday 9th July with fantastic input from the six locally attending members and two members joining via teleconference from South Australia.

Our thanks to Life Sciences Queensland for the use of their facilities and for extending a very warm welcome.

Following the positive response to our recent ‘No Bookings’ trial for study submissions, Bellberry are pleased to announce that this system will continue to operate on a permanent basis.

Once all your study documentation is ready, please submit via eProtocol and your study will then be allocated to the next available meeting date. Bellberry will continue to aim to have studies allocated to the meeting two weeks following the study submission wherever possible. Your meeting date will be confirmed with you.

If you have specific time frames please contact Bellberry prior to submitting your documents.

Growing demand for review services indicates healthy Clinical Research environment

This month Bellberry featured in Life Sciences Queensland’s quarterly newsletter. Check out page 6!

Bellberry HREC will once again be attending the ARCS Scientific Congress in Sydney on the 3rd-4th June 2014. The ARCS congress brings together the Australian therapeutics community for education and networking. We look forward to this event as an opportunity to meet with Investigators, Institutions, research organisations, and HREC members. Bellberry will also be presenting on innovations in the Ethics arena.