The University of Queensland is hosting our annual Australia Day get-together for UQ alumni and friends in the DC Metro Area at  Oz Restaurant & Bar (Modern Australian cuisine infused with American flavors).

Come and enjoy hors d’oeuvres and drinks courtesy of UQ North America.

Date
Friday, January 26, 2018

Time
6:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Location
Oz Restaurant & Bar
2950 Clarendon Blvd.
Arlington, Virginia

RSVP 
http://uqaustraliaday2018.eventzilla.net/

Please RSVP by Thursday, January 25th.
We look forward to seeing you!

For more information please contact:
Tabitha Powell  The UQ North America Office

Ph: +1 202 495 3671
Email: northamerica@uq.edu.au
Website: northamerica.uq.edu.au 
CRICOS provider: 00025B

After more than a century of graduations, Queensland’s largest university is celebrating a major milestone this December: 250,000 graduates.

A passion for bringing English literature to the public has led to a Rhodes Scholarship for University of Queensland (UQ) student Damian Maher. Damian began his academic studies at UQ with a degree in economics and art, before completing an honours degree in English literature.

“I started in economics and law, but realised that literature is my passion,” he said.

“At Oxford, I’ll be studying a Masters in modern and contemporary literature, and hope to follow that with a doctorate in literature.”

His honours thesis at UQ focused on poetry, looking at themes of forgiveness and “how we can respect one another’s differences and still co-exist”.

Damian plans to use what he learns at the University of Oxford to launch a career in literature and the humanities, focussing on public accessibility and knowledge.

“Public-facing opportunities are where the humanities strength really lies,” he said.

“If we’re not jointly reading, sharing and talking about books, what good can they do?”

Damian credits the support of his supervisor Professor Peter Holbrook and Faculties of Humanities and Social Sciences Acting Executive Dean Professor Julie Duck for his successful scholarship application.

UQ President and Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Høj congratulated Damian on winning the prestigious scholarship.

“Damian is a fantastic representative of UQ, and has a long history of academic success, starting with winning the UQ Vice-Chancellor’s Scholarship when he first joined the University,” he said.

“Damian’s passion for the humanities is clear. In fact, he is responsible for a revival of UQ’s oldest student magazine, Galmahra, which originally included contributions from noted Australian literary figures Thea Astley, David Malouf and Judith Wright.

“Damian follows in the footsteps of almost 100 Rhodes scholars from UQ, and we look forward to seeing the impact he will make at Oxford.”

Professor Duck said she was delighted to hear of Damian’s success.

“Damian is unquestionably a leader for the world’s future and I can think of no better recipient for this distinguished scholarship than our own prized humanities graduate,” she said.

The Rhodes Scholarships, founded in 1902, offers nine scholarships in Australia each year – one for each state and three for Australia at large. The scholarship is tenable at the University of Oxford, and includes an additional personal stipend and travelling expenses for successful applicants. Information on applying can be found here.

Media: Gillian Ievers, g.ievers@uq.edu.au, 3346 1634, UQ Communication, communications@uq.edu.au, 3365 3439.

Human trials of an innovative treatment for rheumatoid arthritis developed by The University of Queensland have begun in Brisbane.

DEN-181, a vaccine-style treatment referred to as an ’immunotherapy’, targets the underlying cause of the disease rather than treating its inflammatory symptoms.

Patient trials at a clinical research facility at the Princess Alexandra Hospital began last week.

UQ’s Diamantina Institute research team, led by Professor Ranjeny Thomas, discovered the body’s immune system could be ‘re-educated’ to turn off, rather than react to a self-antigen responsible for autoimmune disease like rheumatoid arthritis. This led to the development of DEN-181.

DEN-181 is being commercialised by Dendright Pty Ltd, a start-up company of UniQuest, UQ’s commercialisation company.

UniQuest CEO Dr Dean Moss said the first-in-human trial was a momentous step towards making the breakthrough research discovery a treatment reality.

“This is an important milestone in developing a new medicine for the millions of people affected by this debilitating disease which destroys joints, causes cardiovascular complications and can reduce life-span,” he said.

Professor Thomas, who is also Dendright’s Chief Scientific Officer, said the phase 1b clinical trial was the bridge to bringing scientific data into clinical practice.

“The study team will be monitoring and assessing DEN-181 safety and immunological response in patients and we thank the participating patients and referring rheumatologists,” she said.

UQ Advancement Director of Development and Philanthropy Andrew Pentland said Arthritis Queensland had been an important supporter of UQ’s translational research and approaches to understanding disease biology since the early 1990s.

“Arthritis Queensland has provided philanthropic funding for the Arthritis Queensland Chair of Rheumatology at UQ over many years,” he said.

“This is a great example of how a philanthropic partnership can help drive important research outcomes for the benefit of community.”

Professor Thomas is the inaugural recipient of the Arthritis Queensland Chair of Rheumatology at UQ.

Dendright entered into a research collaboration and option to license agreement with US-based Janssen Biotech, Inc. (Janssen) in 2013.

This year Janssen agreed to provide additional funding to support further research, including the first-in-human safety trial and tolerability study that began in Brisbane last week.

Funding for the clinical program is also being provided by not-for-profit organisation Arthritis Queensland.

Further details of the study including patient eligibility criteria are available at www.anzctr.org.au using search term ‘Dendright’. Enquiries regarding study criteria can also be directed to joanne.tesiram@health.qld.gov.au.

Media: UniQuest, Danielle Koopman, +61 409 767 199; Dendright, Helen Roberts, +61 419 657 504.

Organised by UQ alumni, for UQ alumni, The [Global] Connection is a series of regular, informal meet-ups held in over 27 cities worldwide. First launched in 2014 for alumni of UQ’s Schools of Business, Economics and Law, the events are now open to all UQ alumni.

The [Global] Connection will be held on 7 December 2017. These casual events are a great opportunity to create new friendships, reignite old associations, and connect with like-minded professionals.

Venue
6:30pm, Randolph Beer Nolita
343 Broome Street (Soho)
New York NY USA

Contact
Trudie Paulus: trudie_paulus@hotmail.com
Chris Cardell: christopher.e.cardell@outlook.com
Rand Low: rand.low@gmail.com
Sophie Usasz: SUsasz@sifma.org