Canberra-based medical researchers have completed the first comprehensive survey of the tiny cellular molecules found in the heart and which are essential for its healthy function. The work could lead to the development of targeted therapeutic treatments for heart disease.
The team used the latest sequencing technology to capture and identify thousands of microRNAs found in the cells of the heart. Even though they are tiny molecules, microRNAs are abundant in cells and act like an army of ants – individually making small changes to the expression of many genes, but in combination resulting in large changes to the cell. When these molecules are deregulated, or ‘not co-ordinating their efforts’, they can cause disease.
Prof Thomas Preiss, Dr Jennifer Clancy, John Curtin School of Medical Research, ANU
PLoS ONE; http://news.anu.edu.au/?p=13491
Rising human carbon dioxide emissions may be affecting the brains and central nervous system of sea fishes with serious consequences for their survival, an international scientific team led by Australians has found. Carbon dioxide concentrations predicted to occur in the ocean by the end of this century will interfere with fishes’ ability to hear, smell, turn and evade predators. In their latest paper the researchers report world-first evidence that high CO2 levels in sea water disrupts a key brain receptor in fish, causing marked changes in their behaviour and sensory ability.
Prof Phillip Munday, ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University
Nature Climate Change; http://www.coralcoe.org.au/news_stories/braindamage.html
Clearing vegetation close to houses is the best way to reduce the impacts of severe bushfires, according to a team of scientists from Australia and the USA who examined house loss as a result of Black Saturday. The research involving 12,000 measurements at 500 houses affected by the Black Saturday fires was only made possible by the sheer size of the devastation of February 7, 2009.
Dr Philip Gibbons, Prof David Lindenmayer, Australian National University
PLoS ONE; http://news.anu.edu.au/?p=13431
Queensland scientists have discovered that one of Australia’s best known folk remedies might help to alleviate the sheep industry’s biggest headache. Although indigenous Australians have long used the native tea tree (Melaleuca alternifolia) plant for medical purposes, only recently has tea tree oil been seriously considered as a natural, on-farm insecticide. In scientific trials the researchers demonstrated that lice were eradicated from sheep dipped in diluted tea tree oil, using concentrations of between one and two per cent.
Dr Peter James, senior research fellow, Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, University of Queensland
http://www.uq.edu.au/news/index.html?article=24352
A West Australian study has found that heavy smoking by fathers around the time of conception greatly increases the risk of the child developing Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL), the most common form of childhood cancer. The results indicated that when fathers smoked more than 15 cigarettes a day around the time conception the risk of ALL increased by 35%, when compared with dads who did not smoke. Tobacco is a known carcinogen and, in terms of childhood leukaemia, there’s a plausible biological pathway whereby paternal smoking could actually contribute to disease risk in the offspring, according to the researchers.
Dr Elizabeth Milne, Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, Perth
American Journal of Epidemiology; http://www.sciencewa.net.au/3879-childhood-leukaemia-study-points-to-fathers-smoking.html
Having a simple, easy-to-pronounce name is more likely to win you friends and favour in the workplace, an international study has found. The researchers analysed how the pronunciation of names can influence impression formation and decision-making. In particular, they demonstrated “the name pronunciation effect,” which occurs when people with easy–to-pronounce names are evaluated more positively than those with difficult-to-pronounce names.
The study revealed that: people with more pronounceable names were more likely to be favoured for political office and job promotions; political candidates with easy-to-pronounce names were more likely to win a race than those without, based on a mock ballot study, and; attorneys with more pronounceable names rose more quickly to superior positions in their firm hierarchies, based on a field study of 500 first and last names of US lawyers
Dr Simon Laham, University of Melbourne
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology; http://newsroom.melbourne.edu/news/n-751
The discovery by researchers from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of a molecule that is key to malaria’s ‘invisibility cloak’ will help to better understand how the parasite causes disease and escapes from the defences mounted by the immune system. The research team has identified one of the crucial molecules that instructs the parasite to employ its invisibility cloak to hide from the immune system, and helps its offspring to remember how to ‘make’ the cloak.
The team unravelled details about the first molecule found to control the genetic expression of PfEMP1. PfEMP1 plays two important roles in malaria infection. It enables the parasite to stick to cells on the internal lining of blood vessels, which prevents the infected cells from being eliminated from the body. It is also responsible for helping the parasite to escape destruction by the immune system, by varying the genetic code of the PfEMP1 protein so that at least some of the parasites will evade detection.
This variation lends the parasite the ‘cloak of invisibility’ which makes it difficult for the immune system to detect parasite-infected cells, and is part of the reason a vaccine has remained elusive.
Prof Alan Cowman, Infection and Immunity Division, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute
Cell Host and Microbe; http://www.wehi.edu.au/site/latest_news/unveiling_malarias_cloak_of_invisibility
A new international study involving Queensland researchers has found more than 1.2 million people died from malaria worldwide in 2010 – twice the number estimated in the most recent comprehensive study of the disease. But the number of deaths has fallen rapidly as efforts to combat the disease have ramped up. Deaths from malaria have been missed by previous studies because of the assumption that the disease mainly kills children under 5. “Our study identified that 42 per cent of malaria deaths occur in older children and adults.”
Dr Alan Lopez, head School of Population Health, University of Queensland
The Lancet; http://www.uq.edu.au/news/index.html?article=24332
Exercise is the key to overcoming the adverse metabolic effects passed on to offspring by their overweight mothers, a Sydney study has found. The research showed for the first time these effects can be almost completely reversed through physical activity.
Being an obese mother can have a powerful impact on the next generation, altering central appetite circuits and contributing to increased fat deposits, glucose intolerance and metabolic disease in offspring. But the study in rodents found exercise was able to dramatically improve these detrimental impacts, with the reversal most pronounced in juveniles who both exercised and consumed a low-fat diet.
Prof Margaret Morris, Sultana Rajia, School of Medical Sciences, University of New South Wales
Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Disease
http://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/health/exercise-can-reverse-negative-effects-maternal-obesity
They can stop the world’s biggest warships, cripple power stations and kill humans with a single sting but jellyfish are not about to take over the world and turn our oceans to slime, as some reports have claimed. A team of international marine scientists – including an Australian – said they found no hard evidence to support claims that jellyfish numbers are increasing worldwide at an alarming rate. Despite widespread media reports of such claims, the lack of a comprehensive database of jellyfish numbers had prevented a reliable scientific assessment of global trends.
Prof Carlos Duarte, Director, Oceans Institute, The University of Western Australia
BioScience; http://www.news.uwa.edu.au/201202024308/research/jedi-scientists-repel-jellyfish-invasion
Just like the popular Muse album Black Holes and Revelations, an international research team led by a Sydney astronomer has found that a newly discovered type of black hole – an intermediate mass black hole – reveals clues on how galaxies are formed. The first intermediate mass black hole, called HLX-1, was discovered in 2009. The latest work examines how they form, which furthers our understanding of how galaxies themselves may form. Focusing on HLX-1 as the prototype of the new class of black hole, the research team has detected the presence of a very young massive cluster of stars around it.
Dr Sean Farrell, Sydney Institute for Astronomy, University of Sydney
Astrophysical Journal
Heart disease may kill brain cells, say West Australian researchers. Their findings suggest that heart disease may affect a part of people’s brains governing mentally demanding tasks. The work showed that with heart failure and ischaemic heart disease (reduced blood supply to the heart) may suffer impaired memory, reasoning and planning. Heart disease could also affect emotions and mental activity.
Prof Osvaldo Almeida, Director of Research, Western Australian Centre for Health and Ageing, the University of Western Australia
European Heart Journal; http://www.news.uwa.edu.au/201202064315/research/ailing-heart-link-grey-matter-loss
Melbourne scientists led an international research team which has cracked the genetic code and predicted some high priority drug targets for the blood parasite Schistosoma haematobium, which is linked to bladder cancer and HIV/AIDS and causes the insidious urogenital disease schistosomiasis haematobia in more than 112 million people in Africa. The team sequenced the genome of Schistosoma haematobium from a single pair of tiny worms using an advanced approach.
Dr Neil Young, Prof Robin Gasser, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Melbourne
Nature Genetics; http://newsroom.melbourne.edu/news/n-737
Sex plays a much more important role in the reproduction of vitally important seagrasses than previously thought, according to important new findings by researchers from Western Australia. It forms a major re-think of the way seagrass populations spread and is regarded as critically important to help conserve and restore endangered seagrass meadows.
Healthy seagrass populations are extremely important for coastal stability and carbon sequestration. They grow predominately via vegetative growth or cloning, using rhizomes that spread under the seabed, then sent out roots and shoots. But the researchers found that seagrasses also relied a great deal on sexual reproduction involving male and female flowers, pollen, seeds and seedlings.
Prof Gary Kendrick, Oceans Institute, School of Plant Biology, University of Western Australia
Bioscience; http://www.news.uwa.edu.au/201201164278/research/secret-sex-life-help-save-worlds-endangered-seagrasses
A pioneering therapy that uses magnetic pulses to stimulate the brain to treat conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, depression, schizophrenia, epilepsy and stroke is now better understood thanks to Western Australian researchers. The researchers tested the therapy – known as repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) – on mice to find out how it can be applied to treating human neurological disease. The work demonstrated for the first time that pulsed magnetic fields promote changes in brain chemicals that correct abnormal brain connections, resulting in improved behaviour and brain function.
A/Prof Jennifer Rodger, School of Animal Biology, University of Western Australia
FASEB (Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology); http://www.news.uwa.edu.au/201202024309/research/magnetic-research-better-brain-health
Oceanographers have identified a series of ocean hotspots around the world generated by strengthening wind systems that have driven oceanic currents—including the East Australian Current—polewards beyond their known boundaries. The hotspots have formed alongside ocean currents that wash the east coast of the major continents and their warming proceeds at a rate far exceeding the average rate of ocean surface warming, according to an international science team, including an Australian. The authors say that while the finding has local ecological implications in the region surrounding the hotspots, the major influence is upon the ocean’s ability to take up heat and carbon from the atmosphere.
Dr Wenju Cai, CSIRO
Nature Climate Change; http://www.csiro.au/en/Portals/Media/Warming-in-the-Tasman-Sea-a-global-warming-hot-spot.aspx
A weapon invented by a West Australian farmer to smash and destroy weed seeds is nearing commercial production. The Harrington Seed Destructor was trialled and demonstrated during last year’s harvest in South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales after extensive WA testing.
The destructor, based on mining technology, is towed behind a header at harvest. The header separates the chaff fraction containing weed seeds from the straw and fed into a cage mill. This pulverises any weed seeds in the chaff and returns it to the paddock. In studies using dyed seed, up to 95 per cent of ryegrass seed was destroyed.
Associate Professor Michael Walsh, Australian Herbicide Resistance Initiative, University of Western Australia
http://www.news.uwa.edu.au/201202074316/business-and-industry/smash-and-destroy-weapon-wage-war-against-weeds
Climate change models must be reworked in a bid to save some of the world’s smallest and slimiest creatures from extinction, a South Australian biologist argues. The majority of current global warming research is driven by air temperature, which does not necessary reflect the body temperature of animals, such as mobile organisms on rocky beaches like snails – and their capacity to survive the predicted rise in extreme conditions such as heatwaves. The work showed that rock and snail temperatures were strongly connected, suggesting snail body temperatures are largely determined by the temperatures of the rocks they are crawling on.
Ms Coraline Chapperon, PhD student, Biological Sciences, Flinders University
http://blogs.flinders.edu.au/flinders-news/2012/02/07/global-warming-could-kill-off-snails/
Researchers in Melbourne and the US have made a breakthrough in energy storage and power generation. The team was working on measuring the acceleration of a chemical reaction along a nanotube when they discovered that it generated power. And the power generated relative to the energy source size is three to four times greater than what is currently possible with the best lithium-ion batteries.
A/Prof Kourosh Kalantar-zadeh, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, RMIT University
IEEE Spectrum; http://www.rmit.edu.au/browse;ID=jhlwnzrxhy8g1;STATUS=A
New and better ways of measuring high-tech energy consumption could lead to significant environmental and economic gains, an international study has found. The researchers completed the first systematic profile of microprocessors – the integrated computer chips that act as a central processing unit in electronic devices like smart phones, computers and giant data centres.
They say their findings could help lower the energy costs of electronic devices ranging from small mobile devices, supercomputers to massive server farms.
Dr Steve Blackburn, College of Engineering and Computer Science, ANU
IEEE Micro; http://news.anu.edu.au/?p=13521
