SPIRITUS: (03) A Monthly update from the Respiratory Technology team at the WIMR

Respiratory Technology celebrates its third month since establishment at the WIMR. March has been a productive month both socially and scientifically. 

On a social note, Alessandro entertained local residents in the Sydney's Inner West by playing a session at Mr Falcon's; for those who missed out, he will be playing a longer chill-out session in April (keep an eye on our www.Facebook/RespiTech feed for more info). The winners of the WIMR 'Think Tank' Challenge (Ketan, Mehra, YY, Jess and Eric) enjoyed fine dining at Glebe Point Dinner courtesy of the WIMR. Earlier in the month the RespiTech team took part in the Woolcock 'CookUp' to celebrate the Dr Cheryl's Salome's retirement from the Respiratory Physiology and Imaging group. Members from throughout the institute attended and cooked dishes, which were shared and enjoyed by all. 

Each month the group would like to congratulate individuals for their personal achievements over the past month. Mehra graduated with a PhD from the Faculty of Pharmacy in a ceremony held at the Great Hall. In the same month, both YY and Eric gave their final PhD presentations at two of the WIMR seminar series. Two papers were accepted for publication in 'Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy' and the 'European Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences'. The first, studied the potential uptake of antibiotics after deposition in the lung while the second investigated the potential uses of Quercitin as a flavanoid for inhalation therapy, with a view to target a range of diseases. Lastly, YY and Eric completed and submitted their PhD thesis to the Post-Graduate board so that it could be externally evaluated.

Finally we welcome a new member to the group, Sharon Davis. Sharon has moved to the WIMR from the Faculty of Pharmacy to work in the area of inhaler device use in patients with disabilities. Sharon is supervised by A/Prof Sinthia Bosnic-Anticevich (who recently joined the WIMR Clinical Management Group at the WIMR) and is co-supervised by Paul and Dany.