SPIRITUS: (06-17) A Monthly update from the Respiratory Technology team at the WIMR.

This is the June 2017 newsletter from the RespiTech Group at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research.

This month a number of the group have been traveling overseas. YY (Hui Xin Ong) spent time in in the USA and attended the International Society for Aerosols in Medicine (ISAM) 2017 conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico where she gave an oral presentation titled "Simvastatin nanoparticles reduce infammation in LPS induced alveolar macrophages" Meanwhile, Daniela traveled to Singapore to attend the Commonwealth Science Conference of the Royal Society.

Meanwhile back in Sydney, Zara Sheikh joined the group as a new PhD student. Zara will be working on a novel approach to treating inflammation in the lung. Welcome Zara.

Postgraduate students, Jesse Xu and Khanh Huynh presented at the  Sydney Medical Postgraduate symposium and Jesse presented at the 3minute thesis competition at the Bosh Annual Scientific Conference.

Paul was awarded a successful Australian Research Council Linkage grant worth $555,000 (incl partner contribution). The project is being lead by a Colleague in Monash, Prof Damon Honnery. Chiesi is the industry partner and the grant will focus on "Improving respiratory drug delivery through targeted nozzle design". You can learn more about RespiTech successful grant funding here.

Lastly, this month Jesse was a Finalist in Sydney Research's the Big Idea.The Big Idea is the first Sydney Research event focusing on research innovation and commercialisation and is an innovation challenge supporting individuals to progress their idea to the next level. Jesse Xu's Big Idea is to develop a 3D-printing platform technology that will revolutionise the way that airway stents are used in a clinical setting. This Big Idea forms one of the Core Translation Projects within the Lung Cancer Research Network. you can learn more about the Centre for Lung Cancer Research and theLung Cancer research Network here