ERA 2018

17^th National Conference of Emerging Researchers in Ageing 

Bringing researchers and the community together

19-20 November 2018: Monash University, Caulfield Campus, Melbourne, Victoria

The ERA 2018 conference was hosted by the Monash University Dementia, Ageing and Neurodegeneration Network, and chaired by Dr Sharna Jamadar.

Conference materials

ERA 2018 conference proceedings

Keynote speakers

Professor Susan Kurrle Professor Kurrle is a geriatrician practising at Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Hospital in northern Sydney and is the Curran Professor in Health Care of Older People in the Faculty of Medicine at The University of Sydney, where she leads the NHMRC Cognitive Decline Partnership Centre. Prof Kurrle’s research focuses on aspects of dementia care.

Laureate Professor Rob Sanson-Fisher AO  Laureate Professor Sanson-Fisher AO is Director of the Priority Research Centre for Health Behaviour at the University of Newcastle. His current research interests include exploring health care provider behaviour and adoption of best evidence practice, and the development, implementation and evaluation of interventions to improve health outcomes for vulnerable population groups.

Post-conference workshops

Community Voices
In this NHMRC National Institute for Dementia Research workshop, we aimed to bring young researchers and members of the community together, to discuss the issues that community members feel most impact their day-to-day lives, and the issues that they would like research to focus on. Our panel comprised clinicians, representatives from the older community, and people living with Alzheimer’s disease, Friedreich’s Ataxia and Huntington’s disease. A short seminar delivered by the clinicians was followed by breakout sessions for small-group discussions with each of the community members.

Publishing Your Research
In this workshop, Editors-In-Chief for two leading journals in our field discussed how to get your work published in high-quality journals. We also discussed other important issues in publication, including how to avoid predatory publishers, and how to get your work noticed and cited.


Australian Association of Gerontology Student and Early Career Group / ERA workshop
ERA 2018 was held immediately prior to the Australian Association of Gerontology (AAG) conference in Melbourne on 21-23 November.

ERA and the AAG Student and Early Career Group offered a post-ERA / pre-AAG conference workshop on ‘Networking 101: Connecting with people to increase opportunities’, presented by A/Prof Priscilla Johanesen, Monash University. This workshop provided strategies and tools to assist students and early career researchers in connecting with people more effectively and included a practical session to hone new networking skills.

Local organising committee 

	Dr Sharna Jamadar (Chair) Sharna Jamadar is a cognitive neuroscientist in the Monash Institute of Cognitive and Clinical Neurosciences and Monash Biomedical Imaging. She holds an ARC DECRA Fellowship, and is interested in understanding how adults can maintain cognitive health into older age. Sharna uses a multimodal imaging approach to understand human brain function, including MRI, PET, EEG, eye tracking and neuropsychological assessment. Sharna is a passionate advocate for early career researchers and equity in neuroscience, and is delighted to Chair the 2018 Emerging Researchers in Ageing Conference.
	Ms Esa Chen Esa is a pharmacist undertaking a PhD with the Centre for Medicine Use and Safety, Monash University, and the NHMRC Cognitive Decline Partnership Centre under the supervision of Prof Simon Bell, Prof Sarah Hilmer, Dr Jenni Ilomäki, and Dr Janet Sluggett. Put simply, Esa’s thesis aims to make medicines easier to take for people living with cognitive and related functional decline and their carers, with a special focus on residents of aged care homes. Esa also maintains active advocacy roles in student and early career representative groups, and maintains a mild obsession with Twitter (@pharmec_).
	Dr Yifat Glikmann-Johnston Yifat is a cognitive neuroscientist and a clinical neuropsychologist. She completed her Masters in Clinical Neuropsychology and PhD at the University of Melbourne in 2009. From there she worked under the European Commission 7th Framework Programme, Marie Curie International Re-integration Grant as a postdoctoral and clinical fellow at Tel Aviv Center for Brain Functions in Tel Aviv University and Sourasky Medical Center (2009 – 2013). In 2014 she joined Prof Julie Stout and her research team in Huntington’s disease at Monash University. The Stout Lab leads the cognitive assessment component of several clinical trials in Huntington’s disease. Yifat’s research, funded by an NHMRC-ARC Dementia Research Development Fellowship, focuses on the translation of cognitive testing in clinical trials for Huntington’s disease from preclinical testing in animal models to clinical phases in humans. To pursue this, she uses spatial memory tests that translate across species in conjunction with structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging. Her aim is to bridge the gap between animal and human drug testing, which can facilitate the trials for new drugs targeting Huntington’s and similar neurodegenerative diseases.
	Dr Ian Harding Dr Harding is a neuroscientist based at the Institute of Cognitive and Clinical Neurosciences at Monash University (Melbourne, Australia). His expertise lies in using human MRI and PET neuroimaging to investigate markers and mechanisms of neurological disorders. He completed in PhD in cognitive neuroscience from the University of Melbourne in 2013, before commencing a post-doc investigating the neural expression and progression of Friedreich Ataxia (FRDA) at Monash University. In 2016, Dr. Harding was awarded an NHMRC early career research fellowship to continue his neuroimaging work in FRDA and other cerebellar and subcortical neurodegenerative disorders. He is the founding co-convener of the Monash University Dementia & Neurodegeneration Research Network, which launched in 2017.
	Dr Xiaoping Lin Dr Lin is a Research Fellow at the Department of General Practice, Monash University. She obtained her PhD from the University of Melbourne in 2014. Her main research areas are mental health, dementia, cancer, and health service development and evaluation. Being an immigrant herself, Xiaoping has a particular interest in research with people from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) backgrounds and has extensive links with the CALD community in Melbourne.
	Dr Lucy Vivash Dr Vivash is a Research Fellow in the Department of Neurosciences, Central Clinical School, Monash University and Dementia Research Unit Manager at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. The Dementia Research Unit runs many sponsored randomised controlled trials of novel treatments for Alzheimer’s Disease and other dementias, as well as a world first investigator-initiated trial of a disease modifying treatment for fronto-temporal dementia. Lucy’s research interests are in neuroimaging, particularly in PET imaging and the development of novel PET radiotracers to better understand the pathogenesis of a range of neurological and neuropsychiatric diseases including, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, fronto-temporal dementia and epilepsy.