Mending broken hearts; gentler cancer treatments; geeks & gurus; and journalism awards

Bulletins, Media bulletins, National Science Week

Today: winners of national stem cell prize available for interview in Sydney and Melbourne

Tracy Heng is using stem cells to make cancer treatment gentler and more effective for elderly patients with blood cancer and other blood disorders. She’s at Monash in Melbourne.

James Chong is developing stem cells to mend broken hearts at the Westmead Institute in Sydney. As a cardiologist he sees heart attack patients he can’t cure…yet.

Or meet them Wednesday morning in Melbourne when they receive their prizes from Prof Peter Doherty.

More details below and call Tanya Ha on 0404 083 863 to line up interviews. 

Tomorrow at the pub: see this year’s Fresh Science finalists in Sydney

Join us and thirteen early-career scientists as they share their discoveries over a beer:

  • 26 July, 6 – 8pm at The Three Wise Monkeys Hotel – 555 George St, Sydney

And coming up in August…

International geeks and gurus visiting

  • Apple co-founder and innovator Steve Wozniak
  • BBC presenter and rock star of astrophysics Brian Cox
  • biohacker Ellen Jorgensen, bringing biotech and open science together

Plus international space historian; physicist and education revolutionary; nuclear physicist; and a robots in space evangelist.

Return of the #IdeasBoom

  • with a huge National Innovation Summit in Sydney
  • and hundreds of schools playing with ‘Drones, Droids and Robots

Over 1,400 local events, from Cocos Islands to the Australian Antarctic Division research bases, including:

  • virtual reality dinosaurs at Mt Annan
  • tech for the electric highway at the Perth Science Festival
  • Antarctic inspired art
  • lasers in Atherton marking the centenary of the birth of our forgotten Nobel hero.

All for National Science Week 13-21 August.

Media awards

Awards are open for cardio-science journalism, and from the American Association for the Advancement of Science for international science stories.

Kind regards,
Niall

In this bulletin:

Stem cells mending broken hearts; Making cancer treatment less aggressive, more effective

Two winners of $50,000 stem cell prizes available for interview

James Chong and Tracy Heng (photo credits: The Westmead Institute and Monash University)

James Chong and Tracy Heng (photo credits: The Westmead Institute and Monash University)

On 2nd May last year, 39-year-old business banking consultant Clarrie Chang suffered a massive heart attack. Clarrie was lucky to survive, but some of his heart muscle is dead and will never recover… unless we can develop stem cell treatments to regenerate heart muscle.

The heart specialist who performed the surgery was Dr James Chong, a cardiologist and researcher at the Westmead Institute for Medical Research in Sydney.

James has two starters in the race to develop stem cell therapies for damaged hearts.

Dr Tracy Heng of Monash University in Melbourne wants to make cancer treatment gentler and more effective for elderly patients with blood cancers and other blood disorders.

“James Chong and Tracy Heng have both received $50,000 Metcalf Prizes from the National Stem Cell Foundation of Australia in recognition of their leadership in stem cell research, translating and applying stem cell science to medical practice,” says Dr Graeme Blackman OAM, Chairman of the Foundation.

More below, profiles and photos available at www.scienceinpublic.com.au/category/stemcells

 

James Chong has two starters in the race to develop stem cell therapies for heart failure, to repair damage and provide alternatives to heart transplants. His research is exploring both the potential for transplanted stem cells to regenerate new heart tissue and how to repair a patient’s heart by rejuvenating their own heart stem cells.

“In Australia, 54,000 people suffer a heart attack and 20,000 die from chronic heart failure each year,” says James.

Heart attacks and chronic heart failure damage and kill heart muscle. For the people who don’t die, their hearts are permanently weakened, some to the extent of needing a heart transplant to survive.

“I want to develop stem cell treatments that can save the lives of the thousands of people who miss out on heart transplants.”

James has already shown that human stem cells can produce new beating heart muscle cells, repairing heart damage in an animal trial. But the test group developed abnormal heart rhythms.

He believes modifying the stem cells using gene therapy can overcome the heart rhythm irregularities and wants to test the approach in a further animal trial to pave the way for human trials.

James has also discovered a population of stem cells that naturally reside in the heart, but decline with ageing and disease. He is developing ways to reawaken these stem cells to repair the damaged heart.

James will use his Metcalf Prize to help advance his work on both fronts towards human trials.

Tracy Heng wants to make cancer treatment gentler and more effective for elderly patients with blood cancer and other blood disorders.

“Bone marrow transplants have transformed survival rates for blood cancers. They replace a diseased blood system with healthy blood-forming cells, but first, doctors have to wipe out a patient’s immune system, which takes a big toll on elderly patients. My goal is to change that,” says Tracy.

Tracy’s research aims to make the treatment less harsh by lowering the dose of chemotherapy or radiotherapy used to reset a patient’s immune system before a blood stem cell transplant.

To make this possible, she’s working to stop donor blood stem cells from being rejected by a patient’s body following a bone marrow transplant, by mixing them with other stem cells that can suppress the immune system.

The Prizes are named for the late Professor Donald Metcalf, AC, who transformed cancer treatment and transplantation medicine, and paved the way for stem cell therapy in the treatment of many other conditions.

“Don Metcalf’s research on blood cell formation led directly to the development of bone marrow transplantation,” says Dr Graeme Blackman OAM, Chairman of the Foundation.

“Tracy’s work builds on these foundations to make a huge difference to the lives of elderly patients with blood diseases.”

Professor Peter Doherty will present the 2016 Metcalf Prizes for Stem Cell Research at a special event in Melbourne, 7:45am on Wednesday 27 July 2016 at The Westin Hotel, Collins Street Melbourne

Contact details

An Apple legend, a biohacker, and robots in space for National Science Week

sciweek bannerNational Science Week is less than one month away, from 13 to 21 August. 

We’ll be helping to promote the best stories and talent of the Week. Here’s a taste:

International guests coming to Australia:

  • Apple co-founder and innovator Steve Wozniak
  • BBC presenter and rock star of astrophysics Brian Cox
  • biohacker Ellen Jorgensen, bringing biotech and open science together
  • space historian and retro rocket science enthusiast Amy Shira Teitel
  • Harvard University physicist and education revolutionary Eric Mazur
  • Italian experimental nuclear physicist Catalina Curceanu
  • American astronautics expert Randii Wessen, on the future of robots in space.

Key initiatives:

  • a huge National Innovation Summit in Sydney
  • a tech-savvy schools theme of ‘Drones, Droids and Robots
  • local events bringing science to the people – from face-to-face with virtual reality dinosaurs at Mt Annan to tech for the electric highway at the Perth Science Festival; from Antarctic inspired art to laser shows highlighting a North Queensland-born Nobel hero.

Over 1,400 events are already registered—from the Cocos Islands to the Australian Antarctic Division research bases—with dozens being added daily.

Organisers are registering local event details online at www.scienceweek.net.au and we’ll let you know about events and stories relevant to your round/area in coming days.

Writing from the heart: Australian cardio journalism award

Victor Chang cardio-science media awards open for submissions

The Victor Chang media awards are open for submissions from health journalists who have done a cardio-related science story in the last year. If that’s you, read on. Or, consider encouraging your favourite health journalist to enter.

Full details are available at victorchang.edu.au/home/news-events/media/media-award/

AAAS science journalism awards go global

Call for international nominations for American science journalist awards

Are you a science journalist working on stories other than medical and health science?

The science journalism awards of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) were opened up to science journalists worldwide last year.

The Kavli Science Journalism Awards recognise excellence in scientific journalism, outside of the fields of health science and medical science.

For the 2016 awards, the nominated works must have been published between 16 July 2015 and 15 July 2016. The entry deadline is 1 August 2016.  There are separate categories for newspaper (large and small), magazine, TV (in-depth and spot news), radio or podcast, online, and children’s science news.

More information here: rulesguidelinesFAQ.

More about Science in Public

We’re always happy to help put you in contact with scientists. Our work is funded by the science world – from the Prime Minister’s Science Prizes to Nature. We’re keen to suggest interesting people and stories – and not just those of our clients.

If you’re looking for ideas or people for features we know hundreds of science prize winners past, present, and future and are always happy to chew the fat about the developing themes in Australian science.

Feel free to pass these stories along to colleagues. And between bulletins, you can follow me on Twitter (@scienceinpublic) for more science news and story tips.
Kind regards,
________

Niall Byrne

Creative Director
Science in Public

82 Hudsons Road, Spotswood VIC 3015
PO Box 2076 Spotswood VIC 3015

03 9398 1416, 0417 131 977

niall@scienceinpublic.com.au
twitter.com/scienceinpublic
www.scienceinpublic.com.au