NIF Newsletter Nov 2020
Content
Research spotlights:
- Creating a Lizard Brain Atlas
- Development of Microbeam Radiation Therapy
Development of Microbeam Radiation Therapy
Only two in ten people diagnosed with brain cancer will survive for at least five years, a figure that has barely improved in the last 30 years. Due to the blood-brain barrier and the risk of damaging normal brain tissue, brain cancer treatments are complex and multidisciplinary. Despite advances in surgical techniques, radiotherapy and chemotherapeutics, brain tumours remain challenging to treat. Hence, image-guided microbeam radiation therapy (MRT) with nanoparticle enhancement is being investigated for the treatment of brain cancer in animal models.
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Cancer cells killed by honeybee venom
Breast cancer, the most common cancer in women worldwide, may one day be treated using the venom of the European honeybee.
Dr Ciara Duffy from Western Australia’s Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research has found that venom from honeybees can rapidly kill aggressive and hard-to-treat breast cancer cells. NCRIS-enabled facilities at the Centre for Microscopy, Characterization and Analysis (CMCA), UWA, were integral to the research, published recently in the journal Nature Precision Oncology.
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Creating a Lizard Brain Atlas
Until recently, reptilian evolutionary studies lacked an important resource – a lizard brain atlas. As the subject of numerous ecological and behavioural studies, the Australian tawny dragon (Agamidae: Ctenophorus decresii) was an ideal candidate for creating a high-resolution MRI atlas of a representative scaled reptile (squamata). Such data is not only a resource for studies of the genus but also informs environmental decision making through an improved understanding of animal adaptation and evolution.
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CT as part of the Forensic Science SA toolkit
A post-mortem examination, or autopsy, is a forensic technique for learning about the conditions of a person’s health at the end of life. These are typically carried out as part of a coronial inquiry to establish the cause of death. A post-mortem may also provide information about undiagnosed medical problems of relevance to family members and the research community.
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National Preclinical PET QA
The NIF Molecular Imaging & Radiochemistry (MIR) Theme is a group of NIF Fellows, Directors, and users of NIF facilities that focus on state-of-the-art radiochemistry and molecular imaging applications using PET, SPECT, and MRI.
Integrating preclinical PET systems into a national resource requires the development of defined QA programs to monitor and integrate the data from individual systems. Hence, the MIR Theme initiated a national quality assurance (QA) program for the NIF preclinical PET instruments.
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