News and Events
It is our pleasure to announce the appointment of Professor Victoria Cogger as Director, ANZAC Research Institute.
Professor Cogger has an international reputation for her scientific work on the ageing liver and targeted drug delivery with a background in physiology, pharmacology and histology, and has received continuous funding since receiving her PhD in 2003. Her competitive research grant income of $11.75 million since 2003 attests to her ability to establish and sustain productive national and international research partnerships that receive support from a range of grant sources. Her research outputs include over 125 research publications and three patent applications.
Professor Cogger will step into this position from her role as the Faculty of Medicine and Health’s Associate Dean, Research Education (ADRE), which she has held since July 2018. Under Professor Cogger’s leadership, Research Education in the Faculty has grown into a cohesive and transformative unit that contributes to the faculty’s upward research trajectory. This role gave her an extensive understanding of the broad medicine and health research landscape and the training needs of our next generation of researchers. During her tenure as ADRE, Professor Cogger continued to lead a successful research team at the ANZAC Institute.
Throughout her time as ADRE, Professor Cogger has developed and strengthened her relationships with many key stakeholders within the Faculty of Medicine and Health, the University, Sydney Local Health District and beyond. Her positive approach to partnership will help ensure the ANZAC Institute integrates well with its existing partners and new collaborators.
The ANZAC Institute is a biomedical research institute operated in memory of our war veterans and their families; its research is largely aimed at the long-term goal of prolonging enjoyable, independent living for the ageing population. The Institute was established in 1995 and is an entity of Sydney Local Health District (SLHD), operating as a research partnership with the University. It is located on the campus of Concord Repatriation General Hospital (CRGH), a primary referral hospital within SLHD and a teaching hospital of the Faculty of Medicine and Health. As one of the nine clinical schools of Sydney Medical School, Concord Clinical School is a major contributor to the University’s reputation and achievements in medicine and the biosciences.
The Institute aims to co-ordinate the highest quality innovative research in the basic sciences with clinical and population health. Each research group has strong linkages with the clinicians, health professionals, researchers and academics co-located at Concord Hospital and across the campus. The ANZAC Research Institute supports 120 scientific staff and approximately 70 postgraduate students working in key disciplines of modern biomedical research. It receives up to $7 million of grant funding annually and produces over 130 peer reviewed publications each year.
Professor Cogger is passionate about biomedical research and is excited to lead the ANZAC Institute into the future. Please join us in congratulating and warmly welcoming her into the new role.
Regards
Robyn and Teresa
Professor Robyn Ward AM FAHMS
Executive Dean and Pro Vice-Chancellor (Medicine and Health)
Dr Teresa Anderson AM
Chief Executive, Sydney Local Health District
The Kokoda Track Memorial Walkway is an 800 metre track along the Brays Bay foreshore that acts as a living memorial and site of commemoration for all those who fought for Australia during World War II.
The walkway has been planted with tropical vegetation that resembles the conditions of the original Kokoda Track, and leads to a granite wall memorial bearing images of the Kokoda campaign, then a memorial rose garden; and finally onto the Concord Repatriation General Hospital site, where the ANZAC Research Institute is located.
Join us for a virtual tour along this walkway leading to the ANZAC Research Institute:
The wounded private in the photograph was George Whittington, who later died of bush typhus in February 1943. It took many years for the the Papuan man to be identified as Raphael Oimbari. He was later made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire.
The word ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. The soldiers who fought together became known as Anzacs, exemplifying a tradition of service, selflessness and mateship. April 25th was officially designated ANZAC Day in 1916 by Australia and New Zealand. With the start of the Second World War and other conflicts including those of Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq; ANZAC Day has been expanded to include remembrance of all servicemen and women who have given so much to Australia.
The health and medical ANZAC Research Institute was named after and in remembrance of this tradition. It’s mission is to provide leadership and excellence in health and medical research activities throughout Australia, with a focus on aging, to improve the future health and medical care for the Australasian community. In so doing, the Institute will provide a lasting legacy to the veterans and their families who have created the society we have today.
Learn more about the Kokoda Track Memorial Walkway.
Donate to the ANZAC Research Institute.
If you would like to do this virtual walk in person, this is the route:
The word ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. The soldiers who fought together became known as Anzacs, exemplifying a tradition of service, selflessness and mateship. April 25th was officially designated ANZAC Day in 1916 by Australia and New Zealand. It is a national holiday in both countries and a day of remembrance. Commemorative services are held each year at dawn, the time of the original Gallipoli landing.
With the start of the Second World War and other conflicts including those of Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq; ANZAC Day has been expanded to include remembrance of all servicemen and women who have given so much to Australia. A statue stands outside the ANZAC Research Institute based on George Silk’s famous photograph of a Panuan man leading a wounded Australian solider. The photograph was taken on Christmas Day, 1942, and has come to represent the sacrifice of Australian military personnel during the Second World War, and the mateship of the ‘Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels’. The angels were Papuan volunteers who assisted in guiding soldiers to safety along the trail. The wounded private depicted in the statue is George Whittington, and the Papuan man assisting him is Raphael Oimbari. This statue stands as a monument of the great legacy of ANZAC service and sacrifice.
(Statue outside the ANZAC Research Institute, based on a George Silk photograph)
“Lest we forget” is a phrase commonly used as symbol of commemoration in Australia on ANZAC Day and Remembrance Day. It is a line from the 1897 Rudyard Kipling poem “Recessional”:
‘God of our fathers, known of old,
Lord of our far-flung battle line,
Beneath whose awful hand we hold
Dominion over palm and pine—
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!’
At ANZAC Day ceremonies, after the speaker recites the Ode of Remembrance:
They shall grow not old,
as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them,
nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun
and in the morning
We will remember them.
Then those attending will usually repeat the words, ‘We will remember them’ followed by a short pause and then ‘Lest we forget’. These traditions carry rich symbolism and allow us to turn our minds to the sacrifices offered for the country and freedoms we enjoy. This ANZAC day, the ANZAC Research Institute also joins in this tradition:
We will remember them
Lest we forget
The health and medical ANZAC Research Institute was named after and in remembrance of the ANZAC tradition. It’s mission is to provide leadership and excellence in health and medical research activities throughout Australia, with a focus on aging, to improve the future health and medical care for the Australasian community. In so doing, the Institute will provide a lasting legacy to the veterans and their families who have created the society we have today.
Donate to the ANZAC Research Institute.
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Each year, at 11am on the 11th of November, Australians observe one minute’s silence in memory of those who have died or suffered in all wars and armed conflicts.
Known as Armistice Day, or Remembrance Day, the day is commemorated across the country in different ways.
This year like in 2020, many will participate in virtual services and memorials or find their own ways to remember and honour of the service rendered by so many.
Here are some services that you can participate in virtually:
The NSW Remembrance Day Service:
The Australian War Memorial Remembrance Day Service:
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We congratulate our own Dr. Vivien Chen – Laboratory Leader for the ANZAC Research Institute’s Platelet, Thrombosis and Cancer Research Laboratory, Associate Professor at the University of Sydney and Specialist at Concord Hospital – for the life-saving work she has done to quickly establish diagnostic and treatment protocols for Covid vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia (TTS). Swift voluntary action has led to amazing results and hundreds of Australian lives saved.
Dr. Chen pivoted her research to develop one of the diagnostic tests for TTS/VITT which was ready for use as the first suspected patients presented. Her ongoing research into improved diagnostics and novel therapeutics for TTS aim to deliver improved outcomes in TTS and other related clotting disorders. We would love your support for Dr. Chen’s work in managing the effects of thrombosis resulting from Covid vaccines and other imperative research projects.
Your support of Dr. Chen and her team is possible by easily donating directly here:
More information about Dr. Chen’s work:
Recent Media Articles about Dr. Chen’s work:
Guardian Australia – “‘Just in time’: how Australian doctors drastically reduced deaths from vaccine-linked blood clots”
Guardian Australia Podcast – “How Australian doctors reduced vaccine-linked blood clot deaths”
Sydney Morning Herald – “Here’s what we know about AstraZeneca and that rare blood clotting disorder”
Link to Book a Vaccination:
Dr. Chen’s work has helped even more people be vaccinated for COVID-19. All vaccines help prevent serious illness from COVID-19; and in particular they help prevent hospitalisation and death. Vaccination assists in protecting both individuals and also the wider community by reducing the spread of COVID-19.
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Dr. Vivien Chen, Laboratory Leader for the ANZAC Research Institute’s Platelet, Thrombosis and Cancer Research Laboratory discuss how deaths were prevented from thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) on a podcast with Guardian Australia’s Medical editor, Melissa Davey.
“The AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine has been linked with a rare blood-clotting condition called thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS). But in Australia, the death rates from this condition have been much lower than overseas. Medical editor Melissa Davey explains to Laura Murphy-Oates how a team of specialists including Dr Vivien Chen drastically reduced deaths from the condition.”
Listen to the Podcast:
Donate to assist this research
Alternative Podcast Links:
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This year marks the 20th ANZAC Day commemorated by the ANZAC Research Institute since its opening in April 2002. At reaching the 106th anniversary of the landings at Gallipoli, we at the ANZAC Research Institute are more conscious than most in the community of the debt all Australians owe our veterans.
Our Institute carries the name of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps in tribute to our military history and as living legacy for the health of future generations, recognising the lnstitute’s location on the historic Concord Hospital campus, its links with the University of Sydney, and its foundation as part of the “Australian Remembers” commemoration program of 1995. Concord Hospital was commissioned in 1939 as a general hospital for the Army and when completed three years later, it was the largest hospital in the southern hemisphere, with 2000 beds. During WWII it was known as the 113 Australian General Hospital, then post-war as the Repatriation General Hospital, Concord.
(An early photograph of Concord Repatriation General Hospital)
In 1963 it became a teaching hospital for the University, and in 1993 was transferred from Commonwealth administration to the NSW Department of Health, taking on its current title of Concord Repatriation General Hospital. The ANZAC Health and Medical Research Foundation was established in 1995 when Australia commemorated 50 years since the end of WWII. Through its dedication to the future welfare of the veteran and war widow community and their children, the ANZAC’s research aims to improve the health and medical care of all Australians.
Two decades after the ANZAC Research Institute opened, it strives to continue a vital legacy of public service and the high ideals that the ANZAC name enshrines.
(Governor General Peter Hollingworth AC OBE, opening the ANZAC Research Institute on 9th April 2002)
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The ANZAC Research Institute would like to congratulate Dr Nicholas Hunt on winning the “2021 Australian Diabetes Society Skip Martin Early Career Fellowship Award” for his research project on “Nanotechnology for the oral delivery of regular insulin”
Each year, at 11am on the 11th of November, Australians observe one minute’s silence in memory of those who have died or suffered in all wars and armed conflicts.
Known as Armistice Day, or Remembrance Day, the day is commemorated across the country in different ways.
In the Covid era, many will participate in virtual services and memorials or find their own ways to remember and honour of the service rendered by so many.
Here is a list of services that you can participate in virtually, provided by the NSW RSL:
Read More
The 2020 Griffith Hack Concord Innovation Research Awards are presented to researchers or research groups that have developed research that has the potential for commercialisation. Griffith Hack will then work with them over the next 12 months to evaluate and/or capture their IP or develop a monetisation roadmap that would assist them going forward. Over October and November 2020, presentations were held and the following awards were presented:
- The 2020 Griffith Hack Concord Innovation Innovation Research Awards
- The 2020 Griffith Hack Concord Early Career Researcher Prize
- The 2020 Griffith Hack Concord Student Researcher Prize
Winners of the 2020 Griffith Hack Concord Innovation Research Awards were:
- Dr Carl Jenkinson: Development of a liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method to measure multiple active and inactive vitamin D metabolites in circulation; and
- Dr Christine Lee: Hitting the true HIT – Plasma from patients with heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) heightens the procoagulant response in healthy donor platelets
Finalists for the 2020 Griffith Hack Early Career Researcher Prize, with presentations held on Monday 26 October were:
- Dr Christine Lee: Hitting the true HIT – Plasma from patients with heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) heightens the procoagulant response in healthy donor platelets
- Dr Gonzalo Perez Siles: Therapeutic potential of targeting copper related pathways to treat axonal degeneration using in vitro (iPSC-derived motor neurons) and in vivo preclinical models
- Dr Alvaro Gonzalez-Rajal: Cell Cycle Status Impacts Recovery of Lung Adenocarcinoma Cells to Platinum Chemotherapy.
- Dr Ramesh Narayanan: Hacking 500 million years of evolution to understand biological pathways that lead to neurodegeneration in Homo sapiens
Winner– Dr Christine Lee; Runner ups– Dr Gonzalo Perez-Siles and Dr Alvaro Gonzalez-Rajal
L-R: Presenters: Dr Alvaro Gonzalez-Rajal; Dr Ramesh Narayanan; Dr Christine Lee; Prof David Handelsman (Director); Dr Carl Jenkinson; Dr Gonzalo Perez-Siles.
Finalists for the 2020 Griffith Hack Early Student Researcher Prize (open to all students both post and undergraduate), held on Monday 2nd November were :
Judge: Prof Cheryl Jones- Head and Dean of the University of Sydney Medical Medical School
- Ms Eugenie Macfarlane: Targeted Deletion of the Glucocorticoid Receptor in Chondrocytes Attenuates Cartilage Degradation in Murine Osteoarthritis
- Ms Julianne Chong: Successful development and implementation of VTE stewardship across a hospital network
- Dr Kim Tam Bui: Prevalence and severity of scanxiety in people with advanced cancers: Final results of a multicentre survey
- Dr Aviv Pudipeddi: High prevalence of Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis in the elderly: a population-based study in Sydney, Australia
Winner– Ms Eugenie Macfarlane; Runner up– Dr Kim Tam Bui
L-R: Ms Julianne Chong; Dr Kim Tam Bui; Prof Cheryl Jones (Judge); Prof David Handelsman (Director); Ms Eugenie Macfarlane and Dr Aviv Pudipeddi
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