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MELBOURNE
BRUNSWICK
BUNDOORA
FISHERMANS BEND
POINT COOK
HAMILTON
HO CHI MINH CITY
HANOI
Nobel laureate launches RMIT health research institute
Nobel laureate Professor Erwin Neher will next week help launch a new research
institute at RMIT University that will lead the way in the search for solutions to the
key health issues facing Australia in the 21st century.
The RMIT Health Innovations Research Institute (HIRi) will be launched by
Professor Neher and RMIT Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Margaret
Gardner AO, at the University’s Bundoora campus on Tuesday, 8 December.
Institute Director, Professor David Adams, said HIRi brought together multi-
disciplinary teams in targeted research programs to work on understanding how
the human body functioned at a molecular and cellular level.
“By bringing together individuals and groups from a wide range of fields, including
applied physics, biotechnology, nanotechnology and exercise metabolism, the
Health Innovations Research Institute is taking a distinctive approach to research,”
Professor Adams said.
“Finding the solutions to our biggest health problems will need the kind of
imaginative ideas and left-of-field approaches that can only come through working
across disciplines.
“This is an exciting step for RMIT and a new way forward in health research.”
The institute’s research programs bring together more than 100 researchers and
collaborators under four themes: metabolism, exercise and disease;
electromagnetism and biophysical modulators; traditional and complementary
medicine; and, ion channels and transporters as therapeutic targets.
Outreach initiatives will be central to the new institute’s engagement with the wider
community, including public lectures, tours, “discover science” workshops as well
as professional development courses for teachers and health professionals.
“To inspire the next generation of researchers, we’ll also be working with local
schools on ‘scientist in the classroom’ initiatives,” Professor Adams said.
Professor Neher, who was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1991, will
give a lecture on Current Frontiers in Neurosciences at RMIT’s Bundoora West
campus from 2pm to 3pm on Tuesday, 8 December.
The public launch of the RMIT Health Innovations Research Institute will be held at
the Bundoora West campus from 4.30pm to 6pm on Tuesday, 8 December.
For interviews: RMIT Health Innovations Research Institute Director,
Professor David Adams, (03) 9925 6606 or 0437 580 598.
For general media enquiries: RMIT University Communications, Gosia
Kaszubska, (03) 9925 3176 or 0417 510 735.
4
December, 2009
NEWS 
