In this post are images and short profiles on the three 2013 Centenary Institute Lawrence Creative Prize finalists.
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Diabetes drugs must be precisely targeted
When enzyme inhibiting drugs to treat diabetes were being developed, Mark Gorrell warned that care was needed to ensure the drugs targeted a specific enzyme, leaving other members of the enzyme family unaffected.
Thankfully, his warning was heeded by drug companies.
Associate Professor Mark Gorrell and his team of liver researchers at Sydney’s Centenary Institute have now confirmed that the diabetes drugs and potential cancer therapies based on regulating the dipeptidyl peptidase (DPP) family of enzymes must be carefully targeted to avoid serious side effects such as skin and intestinal damage.
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Fixing the body’s leaky pipes
Centenary’s discoveries lead to a commercial agreement to create drugs to fix leaking blood vessels
Australian molecular biologists led by researchers at Centenary have made a synthetic compound that appears to allow them to control the leakiness of blood vessels. The work could lead to effective new drug treatments for strokes and tumours. Spinoffs may include an ability to reduce the side-effects of chemotherapy and inflammation.
Their lead drug candidate, known as CD5-2, was developed with the assistance of Mirrx Therapeutics, a privately owned Danish biotechnology company. Today Centenary has signed an agreement to develop this and other potential drugs with Mirrx. The agreement was facilitated by Bio-Link Australia Pty Ltd.
Connecting Australian researchers to Europe and Japan: EMBL Australia in November
In this month’s newsletter:
- Catalysing collaboration with Japan
- Travel to Europe with an EMBL Aus travel grant – Apply Now
- In other news
- Coming up this month
- Upcoming events and deadlines
- About EMBL Australia
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2013 Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science – photos
Photos from the Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science award ceremony. [Read more…] about 2013 Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science – photos
2013 Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science
The Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science were presented by the Prime Minister assisted by the Hon Bob Baldwin, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry at the Prize Dinner in the Great Hall of Parliament House on Wednesday 30 October.
More about the winners below.
2013 Prime Minister’s Science Prizes: responses from colleagues and experts
Below are comments provided by science leaders in Australia. They may be used when reporting on the Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science.
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Fighting cancer by the numbers: 2013 Prime Minister’s Prize for Science
Terry Speed
Terry Speed doesn’t expect to see headlines reading “Statistician cures cancer” any time soon. But he knows that the right mathematics and statistics can help researchers understand the underlying causes of cancer and reduce the need for surgery.
A mathematician and statistician, he has written elegant theoretical papers that almost no-one reads. But he has also testified in court, helped farmers and diamond miners, and given biologists statistical tools to help them cope with the genetic revolution.
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It’s not a jungle out there: rocking the ecological boat: 2013 Frank Fenner Prize for Life Scientist of the Year
Angela Moles
If you were a pharmaceutical company searching for a natural plant compound to use as the basis for a new line of drugs, where would you begin?
Until recently, this question was a no-brainer. Everyone knows that tropical forests contain the widest diversity of species, all fighting for survival and defending themselves physically and chemically against being invaded or eaten. So the tropics should naturally provide the greatest selection of biologically active compounds.
Quantum computing becomes more than just spin: 2013 Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year
Andrea Morello
People have speculated about the potential of quantum computers for decades—how they would make child’s play of constructing and testing new drugs, searching through huge amounts of data and ensuring that information was fundamentally secure.
But it all seemed like science fiction. No-one really knew how to build one, despite lots of clever ideas for using exotic materials and light. But 15 years of work at the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology and its predecessors have changed everything. The building blocks of a quantum computer have been created and tested in a high tech basement at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). And within a few years Andrea Morello and his colleagues expect to have a small working prototype.