Letter from the Editor

Guess who's back, back again, nope not a Detroit rapper but your slightly hypomanic Editor!  Welcome to another edition of the THANZ newsletter!  Back from long service leave, I am certainly rejuvanted and ready for action.  In this edition, we are proud to see the achievements of our fellow THANZ members, as well as more details on the upcoming BLOOD 2023!

For those whom attended ISTH 2023 in Montreal (par exemple, moi), I think we can agree what a great meeting it was in terms of scientific content as well as the chance to socialise and network with our peers.  By now, most of us are aware of the sad passing of our colleague, friend and ex-ISTH president Claire McLintock.  It was befitting to see Prof Beverley Hunt honouring the memory our beloved Claire at the congress.  You can follow this link to access the tribute https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vScFGEDrghE .  I know that Claire would have wanted us all to get on with life and don't delay fun...Having recently lost my dear mum to cancer as well, I intend to do that and keep on having fun :) Please enjoy some of the snaps from ISTH 2023 featuring our fabulous fellow THANZ members!!!

As the year starts to wrap up, you all know what else is coming up...BLOOOOOD 2023!  Our THANZ LOC members James and Cherry (as well as Dom and Joe for the THANZ Workshop) have put together a wonderful program.  I am also looking forward to see which one of our THANZ members have the most colourful outfits for the gala.  I'm taking odds so please place your bets...my money is on Prof Ward or Prof Tran for the men's crown (no pressure at all gents...).

Your Editor,

Danny

Presidents Report

Dear friends and fellow THANZ members

In a blink of an eye, we are drawing to the close of another year.  It is a year that I hope has brought much joy and happy moments to THANZ members as the world, including Australia and New Zealand, does it best to resume a normal life akin to the period prior to the pandemic.  

We often look back on the year as the year approaches its end.  One of the highlights of 2023 was ISTH Montreal.  It was the first face-to-face ISTH congress for many since ISTH Melbourne in 2019.  And boy did it not disappoint 😊  I think what many of us found most fulfilling was just the opportunity to talk, and chat and smile with like-minded colleagues from around the world.  New friendships were formed, old friendships were re-established and re-invigorated as the science and latest developments in patient care that draw us to conferences in the first place is once again in the forefront of our minds.  Thank you Danny for providing us with terrific photos of ISTH Montreal, they represent moments that one will not forget. 

We also often look at the present as the year draws to a close.  And the highlight of the year for THANZ members is fast approaching, the BLOOD conference.  This year it is in Melbourne, the world’s most liveable city according to LOC member and vice-president James McFadyen and his fellow Melburnians😊  As the fates have determined, this year’s conference happens to occur on Melbourne Cup weekend!   So, bring your spring carnival gear and most importantly your spring carnival spirit and sense of excitement as we gather in Melbourne very soon.  Many thanks go to James and Cherry Keragala for organising a fantastic programme for BLOOD as well as Dominic Pepperell and Joe Rigano, who have done likewise for the THANZ workshop.  

Continuing to cast an eye at the present, I would like to acknowledge the efforts of THANZ members in their respective fields and in their respective circles of influence.  Congratulations to Harshal Nandurkar and Erica Wood for their King’s birthday honours.  It is much deserved.  In this edition of the newsletter, we also acknowledge the contributions of members serving in organisations and committees on behalf of THANZ.  Many on this list continue to serve and help others without fanfare or recognition, as do many THANZ members not on this list.  So to all of you, a big thank you for all that you’ve done for haemostasis and thrombosis.  

And finally, we look to the future.  THANZ council has reviewed our articles of association and have proposed some changes which will be discussed at the AGM.  Many of the changes are minor and administrative, with one main revision concerning the current membership categories.  The revision facilitates a more equitable membership fee structure which council hopes members will support at the AGM. 

It is often said that the future of any organisation lies in its youth.  And THANZ indeed has a bright future ahead, looking at the accomplishments of its younger members.  Dr Sonali Gnanenthiran’s achievements are highlighted in this issue of the newsletter, and many of the recipients of research and travel grants from this year’s THANZ Science and Education funding round are members in the early stages of their careers and have already achieved so much.  I look forward to hearing about further successes in the future. 

Also in the near future is ISTH 2024, to be held in Bangkok, Thailand in late June.  Chris Ward is chair of this congress, and it will be terrific if members can show their support for this conference and also represent the Asia-Pacific region by attending and participating in ISTH 2024.   From what I hear, Bangkok is a fantastic city, and the food and hospitality of the Thai people are second to none, so you won’t be disappointed!    

As I reflect back and look forward, I am reminded of what a privilege it is to be part of the THANZ family and to serve as president.  I look forward to seeing all of you in Melbourne in BLOOD 2023 for one big party and celebration!  

Best regards

Chee Wee

Blood 2023

The spring racing carnival is a Melbourne institution and naturally includes a public holiday for a horse race in our inimitable Melbourne style. Whilst us Melburnians (dubiously?) claim this race stops the nation, now the BLOOD planning is complete (final flourishes aside) and the program is set, Flemington will be a mere afterthought and the Melbourne Convention Centre will most definitely be the place to be over the Cup Weekend. The THANZ program has a wonderful international speaker line up covering clinical, translational and basic science. We look forward to welcoming Dr Pantep Pantep Angchaisuksiri (Thailand), Prof Jorge Di Paola (USA) and Prof Nikki Mutch (Scotland). All three speakers are world leaders in their respective fields and will no doubt provide excellent and stimulating talks. The program will also showcase our local speakers who will continue our rich tradition of highlighting the cutting edge thrombosis/haemostasis research from Australia and New Zealand. Kicking off the BLOOD weekend will be the THANZ workshop which again will no doubt again provide a wonderful array of educational content. Make sure you register if you have not already done so. For the those that enjoy an early morning walk, the traditional WTD walk will let us bask in the Melbourne sun along the Yarra River. All this of course will be interspersed with the all important networking events and Gala Dinner, which will appropriately be spring carnival themed. Lastly, a big thank you to Katrina Aro from the Conference Company and the other members of the local organising committee (particularly Cherry Keragala) and Dom Pepperell and Joe Rigano (THANZ workshop) for all their work.

We look forward to seeing and welcoming you all to (incontrovertibly) Australia’s most liveable city!

James McFadyen

THANZ Workshop

Dominic and Joe have put together a fantastic program and international speaker Jorge Di Paola (University of Washington, USA) together with an array of local speakers. Its not too late to register- head to the Blood registration portal and follow the instructions to register for the Satuerday Workshop- you must register at the portal even if you're not attending Blood

Click HERE to register for the Workshop

The program is available here

Sonali Gnanenthiran Awarded ATVB Early Career Investigator Award 

Dr Sonali Gnanenthiran, the 2021 THANZ Scientific Medal Awardee, has been awarded the prestigious 2023 Karl Link Early Career Investigator Award by the editorial board of American Heart Disease Journal, Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology. Her paper “Identification of a Distinct Platelet Phenotype in the Elderly: ADP Hypersensitivity co-exists with Thrombin Resistance,” was selected as the most outstanding paper published during 2022 in Thrombosis category. The award was established in honour of Dr. Karl Link who developed dicoumarol and warfarin as anticoagulant drugs. A rising star physician scientist, Dr Gnanenthiran gave her invited plenary lecture at the American Heart Association Vascular Discovery Conference in Boston, May 2023. Thrombotic cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death and disability in Australia’s rapidly growing older population. Dr Gnanenthiran’ ongoing research at the ANZAC Research Institute into age specific changes in clotting and inflammation aims to develop targeted management strategies in the elderly.

A copy of Sonali’s presentation can be downloaded here

Vivien Chen

King's Birthday Honours

Many congratulations to the two THANZ members who were awarded Honours this year for the King's Birthday

Erica Wood was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for distinguished service to transfusion medicine and haemovigilance, to haematology, and to national and international organisations.

Erica with her family at the investiture at Government House Sept 2023

Harshal Nandurkah was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for significant service to medicine, particularly as a haematologist.

Harshal with his wife and children

And just to show that brilliant heamatologists stick together as well as platelets- Erica and Harshal posed together before the investiture

Conference Review

Simone Brysland

With the support of the THANZ Science and Education Trust travel grant, I attended the Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) and Conference (GRC) on the Cell Biology of Megakaryocytes and Platelets in Lucca, Italy from 5-10 March 2023. This conference was not like any other that I had attended before. The GRC is known for being an intimate and highly collaborative conference, being limited to only 200 attendees. As a first-time attendee, I really noticed how much closer I became with my peers compared with other conferences. The location in the Tuscan mountains near Lucca was absolutely breathtaking, sparking many conversations and making the conference all-the-more enjoyable to attend.

Several sessions stood out to me during the conference. I was fascinated by the challenges with producing normally-functioning platelets in vitro, highlighted by Prof Koji Eto and Prof Cédric Ghevaert. Koji focussed on the large-scale manufacturing and quality control testing of platelets from iPSCs, showing off the plant that he has built in Tokyo with 4 x 10 L tanks to achieve this. Cédric used a different approach, optimising the perfect growth factor cocktail to create megakaryocyte-biased stem cells. I also enjoyed A/Prof Craig Jenne’s talk on the intravital visualisation of platelets and thrombin generation in the liver. Here, he showed that platelets originated in invertebrates as immune cells, which is highlighted by their immune roles in the liver, the organ which captures three-fold more bacteria than any other organ in the body. 

During the conference, I was also given the opportunity to present a poster on my research, investigating changes to platelet function and thrombin generation in the lymphoma Waldenström Macroglobulinaemia, where bleeding symptoms are common. This stimulated many interesting discussions with both clinicians and scientists, who were fascinated and shocked by my findings. All of these discussions, alongside the talks that I attended, have broadened my perspectives and my network. Coming home, I have found new purpose to my research, being inspired to think outside the box, apply new techniques, work harder and discover more.

I would like to thank THANZ again for giving me the opportunity to attend the GRS and GRC. It was a life-changing experience and I cannot wait for the next one!

International Collaboration Grant

The 2023 International Collaboration granted has been awarded to Robyn Devenish so she can continue her work in Cambodia. Her project is titled 'Continued Improvement in the Diagnosis, Treatment and Care of Cambodians with Hereditary and Acquired Bleeding Disorders in the Remote South East Province of Kampot' and we look foreard to hearing about her achievements next year. 

The project aims to continue the improvement in diagnosis, treatment and care of Cambodians with bleeding disorders in the SE provinces of Cambodia by

• training laboratory staff at Kep, Kampot, Takeo and Sihanoukville Government Referral Hospitals to be competent in performing PT and APTT analysis and interpret the results.
   
• training laboratory staff at Sonja KIll Memorial Hospital (SKMH) to be able to perform Fibrinogen quantitative assay and Ristocetin co-factor assay. 

Robyns collaborators in the project include-

Dr Cornelia Haener, CEO, SKMH.  

Mr Lon Phanouk, Laboratory Manager, SKMH

Dr Chean Sophal, Head of Department, Haematology – Immunology and Haemophilia Treatment Centre at National Paediatric Hospital & Professor of Paediatrics at University of Health Sciences, Phnom Penh

Mr Sem Samey, Medical Technologist at NPH 

Dr Sau Sokunna, Director of Public Health Laboratories at the Ministry of Health, Cambodia

2023 Science & Education Funding Round

This year THANZ has awarded S&E Research Grants to the following members:

Gabriella Pennings (ANZAC Research Institute/Sydney Local Health District)
Mechanism/s of acute IL-1β release from platelets

Yvonne Kong (Charles Perkins Centre, University of Sydney)
Role of altered platelet and megakaryocyte calcium flux in myeloproliferative neoplasms: contributions to thrombosis and myelofibrosis

S&E Travel Grants have been awarded to the following members:

Yvonne Kong will be travelling to the University of Pavia (Italy)

Hannah Stevens has travelled to the University of Cambridge (United Kingdom)

Simone Brysland attended the Gordon Research Seminar/Gordon Research Conference (read her conference review in this newsletter) at Lucca (Italy)

Christine Lee attended ISTH 2023 Montreal (Canada)

Welcome New Members

Please welcome new members

Doug, Mark, Kate, Anna, Justin, Akmez, Vijay, Karlheinz, Joanne, David, Praveen, Pratheepan, Marcus, Hadley, Ranae, Shrushti, Jeanne, Simone, Jing Jing and Joanne. 

THANZ Representatives

We are grateful to the THANZ members who continue to represent the Society across a range of organizations and committees.

Thanks to our Corporate Sponsor - Novo Nordisk

Our continued thanks go to Novo Nordisk for their on-going support of THANZ