ParkC's 5th Annual Open Day a great success
Friday, 30 November 2012
Record numbers attended the 5th Annual ParkC Open Day
Related Contents
- Blood donations support ParkC research
http://www.ecu.edu.au/__data/assets/image/0004/416416/parkc-open-day-2012-dna.jpg 
Blood donations support ParkC research
ParkC’s 5th Annual Open Day held on Saturday, 10 November was a great success with record numbers of people attending.
Professor John Finlay-Jones, ECU’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research & Advancement), gave the welcoming address and was followed by Professor Lyn Beazley (Chief Scientist, WA). Professor Beazley gave an entertaining account of her research background, how she had been a co-supervisor of Dr Meghan Thomas during her PhD training and how the idea of ParkC came into being.
Dr Meghan Thomas then outlined the ethos of inter-disciplinary collaboration that underpins ParkC’s research program. She went on to discuss the two major areas of research that ParkC focuses on.
During the morning tea break, in collaboration with Perth Pathology, participants of the ParkC “subtyping Parkinson’s” study were able to donate DNA samples.
Professor Roger Barker gave an impressive presentation on his thoughts about what goes wrong in Parkinson’s and what we can do about it. His presentation spanned the first description of Parkinson’s to today’s more refined understanding. He covered the prion disorder hypothesis of how Parkinson’s spreads through from the gut to the brain and then through different brain regions as well as describing the difficulties and progress in disease modifying treatment approaches. Professor Barker’s presentation slides can be downloaded here.
During morning tea and lunch breaks the Sixth Avenue Jazz band performed a mix of well-known jazz standards as well as a diverse range of contemporary songs with a jazz twist. They are known for their tight rhythm section and unique four-part vocal harmony approach to jazz standards, and offer great audience engaging entertainment.
The day wrapped up with presentations from the neurosurgeon Professor Christopher Lind and two of his PhD students, Stacy and Luqman. During the session Professor Lind described the deep brain stimulation technique he uses here in Perth. We are fortunate enough to have a neurosurgeon who is only one of two world wide performing DBS with the patient completely “asleep”. Stacy and Luqman described the research projects they will be performing in the coming years. Their projects utilise state-of-the -art 3 dimensional technology to analyse in great detail a person’s movement.