Monash Sensory Science exhibition and books gain international recognition

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A creative and inclusive Monash University program to employ laboratory staff with disabilities and bring science to life for those with low vision has been highlighted in the journal Cell .

It is hoped that this publication will catalyse other researchers and institutions to be more inclusive in the workplace and in public engagement.

Monash Sensory Science began as a Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute (BDI) internship program for people with disabilities and a one-off exhibition for blind and low-vision communities.

Supported by the ARC and Monash University, it has evolved into a national and international multisensory, accessible science initiative involving accessible employment, exhibitions and books championing inclusion in science communication.

The founder of this initiative and BDI researcher Professor Jamie Rossjohn reflected on the opportunities he’d received during his career and whether he would have had them if he had a disability.

“The answer to this question is likely no, because all too often, science is taught and communicated through the lens of able-bodied people to the exclusion of people with disabilities,” Professor Rossjohn said in the article .

“There was also the realisation that in the two decades of running a lab, we hadn’t included employees with diverse physical needs. People with disabilities face huge challenges in securing employment, and I realised that we are part of the problem.”

After contacting disability-focused employment agencies, Professor Rossjohn found some job seekers were prepared to work voluntarily as it was so rare to gain lab experience.

He designed an internship program around inclusion and equality, working with service providers to understand interns’ goals, and the university’s human resources requirements.

The program began in 2017 with three-month paid positions in administrative and technical lab roles. Wise Employment helped with adjustments such as assistive technologies, sign language interpreters and staff disability awareness training.

“One researcher is now undertaking a master’s of biomedical and health science at Monash, while another intern, concerned they couldn’t perform particular types of lab work, pivoted instead to computational biology and is now completing a PhD in genetics at our university,” Professor Rossjohn said.

A notable success story is Dr Erica Tandori, a legally blind artist who joined the team in 2018 via Vision Australia after completing a PhD.

Dr Tandori became legally blind at 23, due to a genetic condition called juvenile macular degeneration, and returned to university after raising her children to conduct art-based research. Among other things, she used oil paint and drawing to show what her condition looked like from a patient’s perspective.

At the BDI, Dr Tandori developed a tactile exhibition to bring the microscopic world of cells and microbes alive for the blind and vision impaired. She worked with lab scientists and others across the BDI to create large tactile posters with braille labels and large text, 3D models of immune cells, viruses, and proteins, and braille-inspired amino acid sculptures and handcrafted models.

The first Monash Sensory Science exhibition was held in 2018, and it has since incorporated an internship program for people with disabilities. “Most of all, I realised art has enormous potential in research and in communicating science and medicine,” Dr Tandori told Cell.

“I began using food, paper clay, and found objects to make sculptures of proteins, cells, viruses, and bacteria, articulating their surfaces with couscous, pasta, rice, seeds, leaves, clay, paper and other items. Trying to invoke connections and memories of familiar things when touched, I was instinctively beginning to develop a multisensory language that could assist blind and low-vision people to grasp more complex concepts in non-visual ways.”

More exhibitions followed, and multisensory, interactive science ‘exhibitions in a book’ for blind, low-vision and diverse-needs readers were developed with the help of Dr Stuart Favilla and Dr James Marshall from Swinburne University of Technology.

“We have also staged virtual exhibitions internationally and brought numerous small-scale outreach exhibitions to blind and low-vision people in community settings,” Dr Tandori said. “This has been a shared vision with my supervisor Jamie, a recognition we both have that science and immunology affect everyone and should be accessible to all.”

Adds Professor Rossjohn: “Witnessing the positive experiences of our interns has been heartwarming and immensely rewarding, and there is a recognition that the key to success lies in opportunities afforded to us in life.

“We hope our experiences can motivate other research labs and institutions to develop more inclusive workplaces, opportunities and educational programs for people with disability. This is where philanthropy could play a role in supporting such initiatives. The benefits are not a one-way street – diversity brings a richer, more tolerant and rewarding research environment and culture to all.”

Read the full paper in Cell, Advancing accessible science for low-vision and diverse-needs communities.

DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2024.05.020

Original article

Professor Jamie Rossjohn honoured with prestigious international award

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Leading researcher Professor Jamie Rossjohn from the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute has been selected to receive the Ceppellini Award 2024 in memory of Ruggero Ceppellini, one of the pioneers in the field of immunogenetics. The prestigious lifetime achievement award was presented at the 37th EFI Conference in Geneva, Switzerland on 20 May 2024.

As the awardee, Professor Rossjohn was also invited to present his work in the form of the Ceppellini Lecture during the conference’s opening ceremony. His lecture was on the topic of T cell immunity, specifically interactions mediated by the T cell receptor.

Professor Rossjohn received the Ceppellini Award for his significant contribution to understanding defined events central to cellular immunity. His research in T cell immunity has provided an understanding of the molecular basis of peptide, lipid and small molecule presentation – both in the context of infectious disease and unwanted immunity, as occurs in autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis and in drug and food hypersensitivities such as Celiac Disease. Professor Rossjohn is the 35th recipient of the award, which he accepted from Dr. Ann-Margaret Little, President of the European Federation for Immunogenetics.

Professor Jamie Rossjohn receiving the Ceppellini award

Professor Jamie Rossjohn receiving the Ceppellini award

Professor Rossjohn is currently a National Health and Medical Research (NHMRC) Investigator Fellow at Monash University, was a recent Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow from 2017-21 and has been recognised as a Clarivate Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher from 2018-2023.  In 2022, Jamie was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society (UK), a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences in 2017 and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2014.

Professor Rossjohn said that it was an honour to receive the Ceppellini Award.  “It came as a bit of a shock to me, and my close companion, Ziggy, to be recognised in this manner, as some very heavy hitters have come before me in receiving the Ceppellini Award, “ he said. “It’s a testament to our sustained research in this area for the last 20-plus years, and of the collaborations, research fellows and students who have worked alongside me. These findings would not have been possible without funding from the NHMRC and ARC, and most importantly, the  ‘think big’ research environment that Monash fosters.”

Find out more about Professor Jamie Rossjohn’s research.

Original article

Congrats Jamie and the international team on awarded funding for an 8-year research programme from global charitable foundation Wellcome Trust.

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A team led by Professor Graham Ogg, Deputy Director of the MRC Translational Immune Discovery Unit (TIDU) and Leader of the Translational Dermatology Unit, alongside Professor Jamie Rossjohn (Monash, Australia and TIDU Affiliate member), Professor Branch Moody (Harvard, USA), Professor Muzlifah Haniffa (Newcastle) and Professor Gurdyal Besra (Birmingham), have received a Wellcome Discovery Award to investigate how immune cells contribute to inflammation.

The research programme will be strongly collaborative, bringing together researchers with complementary skills from the co-applicant laboratories to address how T cells can specifically sense certain lipids which can be indicators of infection or tissue damage.

Immune cells help protect us from infections and other challenges, but can also contribute to different forms of inflammation if not adequately controlled.  T cells are a key type of immune cell that circulates in the bloodstream and can enter different organs to sense infection and damage.  By understanding how T cells are triggered, the research team aims to gain deeper knowledge about different forms of inflammatory diseases and how they might develop new approaches to treatment.

The Wellcome Discovery Award will also promote training and development opportunities and will facilitate interactions with patients, the public and scientific communities.  The discoveries will be made available in open databases, to enable the wider field and drive improvements in human health.

Original article

Monash Sensory Science ‘Highly Commended’ Award – Victorian Premier’s Design Awards

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2023 Victorian Premier’s Design Awards Winners Announced

More innovative and creative designers from across Victoria have been celebrated for their achievements, with the Victorian Premier’s Design Award of the Year shining a light on the people who take Victoria’s design industry from strength to strength.

Minister for Creative Industries Colin Brooks today congratulated all the winners and finalists of the Victorian Premier’s Design Awards, which showcase the best of Victorian innovation and design from the past 12 months – backed by the Allan Labor Government.

This year’s award was won by UNESCO World Heritage listed Budj Bim Cultural Landscape, with the tourism infrastructure project featuring a Visitor Information Centre, café and boardwalks that pays homage to the area’s history as one of the world’s most extensive and oldest aquaculture systems.

A weathered steel mesh pedestrian bridge with a black timber shelter spans a fast flowing Killara creek at Tyrendarra IPA.

Budj Bim Cultural Landscape –  2023 Victorian Premier’s Design Award of the Year

The design reflects the rich history of the Gunditjamara Traditional Owners who have worked and fished on the land for more than 30,000 years while the projects supports them to care for Country and share their stories with the growing number of visitors to the site which gained World Heritage status in 2019.

The project was commissioned by the Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owners Corporation and was designed by Hamilton architectural firm Cooper Scaife Architects.

Founded in 1996, the Government’s annual awards celebrate design across eight categories – architectural, communication, digital, product, fashion, service, student and design strategy, with this year’s winners chosen from more than 330 entries.

Other winners include the CYBERTONGUE Food Testing System, a tool that analyses food samples in minutes, and a The Social Studio, Kay Abude and Alpha60 collaboration which uses off-cuts to create zero-waste bags and hats.

Swinburne University product design graduate Lily Geyle took home the Student Design category award for a post-operation recovery device for transgender people, while the Service Design winner was One Stop One Story, an online information hub where users tell their story before being connected to multiple corporate and community services.

The Design Strategy award went to the Fashion Futuring Toolkit which helps fashion designers and students learn ways to combat climate change, while design agency AKQA won the Digital Design award for its Nike campaign which used AI and machine learning to create a live virtual tennis match between two versions of Serena Williams.

Design is an economic powerhouse of Victoria’s $38.4 billion creative industries sector, employing almost 200 000 people and injecting $6 billion annually into the state economy.

View All Winners and Finalists

View Monash Sensory Science entry

 

 

 

 

Monash Sensory Science is a world-first, multisensory design strategy engaging one of Australia’s leading biomedicine institutes through multisensory design, co-creation, STEM exhibition and outreach for blind, low vision and diverse-needs communities. Leveraging the lived experience of a legally blind artist/designer, the program has empowered scientists to communicate cutting edge biomedical discovery through creative multisensory exhibitions for diverse needs audiences. Together with Swinburne University designers, Monash Sensory Science enables diverse engagement, through visual and tactile design, novel technologies, interactions and experiences, audio design and sonification and through multisensory science books. The initiative has achieved national and international recognition

Original article

Congrats Erica and the Monash Sensory Science team – Finalists in 2023 Victorian Premier’s Design Awards

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Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute’s inclusive science literacy initiative Monash Sensory Science has been named as a design strategy finalist in the 2023 Victorian Premier’s Design Awards. Established by the Victorian Government in 1996, the awards highlight and celebrate local design capability across architectural, communication, design strategy, digital, fashion, product, service and student categories.

Monash Sensory Science is a world-first, multisensory design strategy engaging one of Australia’s leading biomedicine institutes through multisensory design, co-creation, STEM exhibition and outreach for blind, low vision and diverse-needs communities. Established by the Rossjohn Laboratory and leveraging the lived experience of legally blind artist and designer Dr Erica Tandori, the program has empowered scientists to communicate cutting-edge biomedical discovery through creative multisensory exhibitions for diverse needs audiences. Together with Swinburne University designers, Monash Sensory Science enables diverse engagement through visual and tactile design, novel technologies, interactions and experiences, audio design and sonification, and multisensory science books. The initiative has achieved national and international recognition.

First held in 2018, the Monash Sensory Science Exhibition is one of their key design strategies. Designed for all ages and levels of science literacy, the exhibition explores science concepts such as immunity and immunology through multi-sensory, multi-modal artworks and tactile displays, offering an accessible and inclusive learning opportunity.

Dr Tandori said it was truly an honour and testament to the team’s collective dedication to be named as a finalist. “Our exhibition initiative, spearheaded by ARC Laureate Fellow Professor Jamie Rossjohn and developed collaboratively between Monash and Swinburne University, strives to break barriers in STEM and biomedical science communication, particularly for underrepresented audiences like those with blindness, low vision, and diverse needs,” she said. “Monash Sensory Science is a pioneering multisensory design strategy that has engaged scientists and individuals living with blindness and low vision to ensure inclusivity. With over 450,000 Australians experiencing blindness and low vision, our mission to make biomedicine accessible to all takes on a crucial role.”

“We hope that our approach becomes a global model, and my heartfelt thanks go to the incredible Rossjohn team and Swinburne designers for their hard work and dedication,” she said. “This recognition reinforces the importance of bridging gaps in understanding and making strides toward a more inclusive future in biomedical science communication.”

Read about the team’s entry: Design Strategy 2023 Finalists here.

Original article