The Secrets of Healthy Ageing – Bone Health

About the event

Join us to learn about The Secrets of Healthy Ageing and the Secrets of Bone Health.

Professor Cassandra Szoeke is one of our CSIRO Alumni members and and is the principal investigator of the Women’s Healthy Ageing Project, the longest ongoing study of women’s health in Australia.

CSIRO Alumni is hosting a series of online talks with Professor Szoeke to delve further into the Secrets of Healthy Ageing. Expert guest speakers will join us for each topic and Peggy Stasinos, CSIRO Strategic Global Partnerships, will guide the discussion.

The Secrets of Bone Health

Bones, Muscles and Balance are a key foundation for healthy ageing. In this seminar Professor Szoeke, physician and clinical academic (CSIRO Alumni, Preventive Health Flagship) will discuss the importance of bone & muscle health in maintaining our health. She will cover how we can improve our bone health including data on lifestyle, supplements and hormonal factors. With special guest appearance from Prof Susie Nilsson, Research Director, Biomedical Manufacturing CSIRO to discuss advances in STEM cell work.

Peggy Stasinos will host the event and guide the discussion, with a Q&A session at the end. The audience are invited to submit their questions online through the event portal.

This will be an online event. Once you register, you will receive an email with the link to attend the event.

Pricing

• Free

Dates and Times

Contact

Alexandra Mead

More information

Professor Cassandra Szoeke

PhD, FRACP, MBBS BSc (Hons), GAICD, AMAM, AFAIDH. Centre for Medical Research, Royal Melbourne Hospital. Healthy Ageing Program, University of Melbourne

Professor Cassandra Szoeke is a Full Academic Professor, Clinician, Speaker and Author. As Principal Investigator of the Women’s Healthy Ageing Project, the longest study of women’s health in Australia, she authored the book Secrets of Women’s Healthy Ageing, which was highly commended in the Educational Publishing Awards Australia and Best-selling title in 100 years of Melbourne University Publishing in the genre of Medicine. She is a general physician, consultant neurologist and multi-award-winning clinical researcher.

She has several hundred published articles in the medical literature and several book chapters in medical textbooks. She has worked in the CSIRO, Public Hospital system and as non-executive board director for the Department of Health, including holding roles as Chair of Quality & Safety and Chair of Education, Training and Research Committees.

In addition to her medical qualifications and fellowship in the Royal College of Physicians she has a BSc with Honours in Genetics and PhD in Epidemiology, and her postdoctoral studies at Stanford University CA, focused on public health and policy. Her sabbatical at Oxford University focused on sex-specific medicine. She is an Associate Fellow of the Australian Institute of Digital Health and Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

She has held many significant academic positions and teaching roles for academic institutions and specialist colleges and has successfully graduated more than 60 higher research degree candidates since 2008.

She has represented Australia on several major international collaborative efforts including Australian clinical representative role in the world-wide Alzheimer’s Disease, Clinical lead on the Global burden of Dementia and on the science advisory of the International Women’s Brain Project and inaugural lead of the Asia Pacific node. She spent more than two decades working in Healthy Ageing at the University of Melbourne including more than a decade as Director of the Healthy Ageing Program at the University of Melbourne.

She has worked in the public and private health system in clinical, leadership and governance roles as board director appointed by the state health minister. She has contributed to development of national health policies, sat on the Council of the Australian Medical Association, was appointed to Medical Panels by the Department of Health (Victoria) and she has held Chief Medical Officer roles for the Australian Healthy Ageing Organisation and the National Council of Women.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Cassandra-Szoeke
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/cassandra.szoeke.1/bibliography/public/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_Healthy_Ageing_Project#

Professor Susie Nilsson

Research Director, Biomedical Manufacturing, CSIRO

Prof Susie Nilsson is the Research Director for the Biomedical Manufacturing program with CSIRO (the Commonwealth Science and Industry Research Organisation), Australia’s National Science Agency. Her portfolio encompasses the production of new products and processes for the biomedical sector – medical devices, diagnostics, drugs, vaccines, and efficient processes to produce them. This covers regulated biomanufacturing, biologics research and development, chemical biology, diagnostics and devices and bioactive small molecules and polymers.

Susie has an extensive history in biologics and specifically haematopoietic stem cell research. She completed her PhD at Melbourne University and post-doctoral studies at the University of Massachusetts prior to taking up a position at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute then the Australian Stem Cell Centre. She moved to CSIRO in 2009 and was appointed as an Australian Research Council Future Fellow. She became a group leader at the Australian Regenerative Medical Institute, Monash University in 2013 and a CSIRO Science Leader in 2014. Her current role sees broad contributions including overseeing the production of biologics for Phase I clinical trials, exemplified by the production of two COVID-19 vaccine candidates, the building of the new National Vaccine and Therapeutics Laboratory for producing products in mammalian and insect systems for Phase I and II/III clinical trials as well as the growth of interactions with industry in key areas or of the biomedical sector. Recently she was awarded the 2023 BioMelbourne Network Inspiring Women’s Leadership Award.

This event is hosted by the CSIRO Alumni network

The CSIRO Alumni network now has over 4,900 members and we encourage former staff to join and reconnect with one another. Cassandra highlights her work with one of our other alumni, Dr Peter Clifton (the well-known co-author of the CSIRO Total Wellbeing diet books) who was part of the Scientific Advisory for ‘The Secrets of Women’s Health Ageing’. They worked together with Peggy Stasinos within the CSIRO Preventive Health Flagship. As Cassandra says, “CSIRO forged friendships never die!”