Australian National University

The Australian National University is Australia’s top ranking research university*, and continues to maintain an enviable record in both undergraduate and postgraduate education.

A long tradition of excellence in the medical and health sciences at ANU has included the award of two Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine – to Sir John Eccles  Neuroscience) and to Professors Peter Doherty and Rolf Zinkernagel (Immunology). Continuing this tradition, the  recently formed ANU College of Medicine, Biology and Environment brings together biological, clinical, population health and environmental sciences in four schools: The John Curtin School of Medical Research, the Research School of Biology, the School of Health and Psychological Sciences  (which includes the ANU Medical School) and the Fenner School of Environment and Society in order to fully realise the potential of the ANU to focus resources on key medical and health science issues of our time.

Research in the College increases our understanding of, and underpins the development of treatments for, diseases such as cancer, HIV/AIDS, malaria, mental illness, obesity, and diabetes, as well as the neurological basis of vision and hearing, and conditions such as epilepsy. It also examines health inequalities, social determinants of health, ageing and an understanding of health systems. There are strong groups investigating infectious diseases and the College is the training hub for virologists and epidemiologists who investigate outbreaks such as SARS and swine flu. Other research focuses on global environmental change, including its effects on health. The research strengths of the College are of enormous benefit to our world class teaching programs at all levels, and are supported by state- of-the-art facilities, such as the new high throughput DNA sequencing platforms housed in the Biomolecular Resource Facility, microscopy and proteomics capability.

The College supports strong disciplinary and interdisciplinary work in key fields including genomics, immunity, neuroscience, virology, epidemiology, drug design, psychology, sociology, environmental sciences, and policy sciences. These groups work together in creative ways to tackle major health problems and to develop both preventative and curative approaches.

The NHMRC is Australia’s peak body supporting health and medical research. We congratulate the NHMRC on the release of its publication “NHMRC: Working to Build a Healthy Australia” and look forward to working with the NHMRC through these research activities to achieve our common objective – a healthy Australia.

Focus One: Dr Carola Vinuesa

Immunologist Dr Carola de Vinuesa was awarded the 2008 Science Minister’s Prize for Life scientist of the Year, an award that celebrates the achievements of an outstanding early career researcher. She was also awarded the 2009 Gottschalk Medal for research in the medical sciences.

Dr Vinuesa’s discovery of the gene ‘roquin’ is important to our understanding of the key elements of antibody formation during the immune response. This is helping to uncover the causes of autoimmune diseases such as Type I diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, and opens up new possibilities for more effective treatments.

Focus Two: MoodGym

MoodGYM was designed and developed by staff at the Centre for Mental Health Research at the Australian National University, including researchers, web and graphic designers, and software engineers.

Why was MoodGYM created?
Depression affects one in five Australians at some point in their life, and is the primary cause of disability in Australia.  However, many people receive no treatment for the problem due to stigma, a belief that they should handle the problem themselves and a lack of accessible services.  In addition, although immunisation and other preventative measures are widespread in many areas of medicine, there is less recognition of the need to protect mental health.
With these factors in mind, MoodGYM was developed as a training program to help prevent depression in young people. Making it available over the Internet seemed to be the most practical way of reaching the broader community.  Now, with the help of funding from the NHMRC MoodGYM has been demonstrated to be an effective self help tool for a range of age groups.
Since its launch in 2001, MoodGYM has received numerous IT and health awards. It currently has 300,000 registered users from over 200 countries around the world.

We invite you to discover more research excellence in medical and health sciences: http://cmbe.anu.edu.au/excellence

* 2008 Times Higher Education Supplement world universities rankings