• Melbourne Symphony special offer

Melbourne Symphony is offering staff and alumni generous discounts to the Robert Blackwood Hall 2000 series.

Subscriptions (four concerts)

A reserve - $125 (normally $160)
B reserve - $80 (normally $125)

Single tickets

A reserve - $42 (normally $51)
B reserve - $27 (normally $42)

Student/pensioner discounts are available for both subscriptions and single tickets. Bookings can be made at Ticketmaster outlets, or by calling 13 6166. MSO brochures are available from the Alumni Office in Monash House.

• Breakthrough at IRD

Scientists at the Monash Institute of Reproduction and Development announced last week in the prestigious journal Nature Biotechnology that for the first time cells derived from an early human embryo can be turned into nerve cells in the laboratory.

The institute team includes deputy director Professor Alan Trounson and senior research fellow Dr Martin Pera, who are working in conjunction with teams from the National University of Singapore and Israel's Hadassah Medical Centre on the research.

"These cells give us a new means of studying human embryonic development and its disorders, such as birth defects and childhood cancers, and they provide a new resource for the discovery of molecules which might help in regenerating diseased or damaged tissues for organ transplantation," explained Dr Pera.

• Visitors at Peninsula

The Peninsula campus has recently been hosting visitors from Japan and Tonga.

Students from the Bunkyo University, Kanagawa Prefecture, in Japan have been undertaking an intensive English language course at the Monash English Language Centre. The students, who are mostly majoring in international cultural studies, have been living with families on the Mornington Peninsula.

The School of Nursing and MUCAPS hosted two visiting health professionals from Tonga. Dr Nessie Makakavasaki and Ms Catherine Ramsay RN organised their own visit after an emergency medicine training course was conducted in Tonga by Monash's Graduate School of Clinical Nursing Studies last year.

As well as spending time at the Peninsula campus, Dr Makakavasaki and Ms Ramsay observed various clinical situations at Monash Medical Centre.