Why are our immune systems attacking us and causing autoimmune diseases and lifestyle diseases?
We’ll be able to ask individual immune cells what they’re doing and why, at the Centre for Human Systems Biology to be established by the Centenary Institute and The University of Sydney with a $1million Ramaciotti grant announced last night.
In Sydney and Queensland, meet one of the Australian women who helped find the Higgs boson.
Physicist Elisabetta Barberio is one of 30 Australians who contributed to the hunt for the Higgs. She’s touring Australia talking to students and the public about the Higgs boson, why it matters, and Australia’s small role in finding it.
- Five scientists and teachers will be awarded 2013 Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science in Canberra on Wednesday 30 October
- And an unsung hero of biomedical science will be awarded the 2013 CSL Florey Medal, in recognition of a career dedicated to improving human health.
We can brief you on embargo – contact me on niall@scienceinpublic.com.au for more details of both of those prizes.
A human systems biology centre for Sydney
Ramaciotti invests $1 million in a new approach to understanding human disease
The University of Sydney and The Centenary Institute will establish the Ramaciotti Centre for Human Systems Biology in 2014 following the announcement last night of the $1 million Ramaciotti Biomedical Research Award.
The award was made to the Centenary Institute’s Prof Barbara Fazekas de St Groth and her colleagues Prof Nicholas King, University of Sydney and Dr Adrian Smith, Centenary Institute. Barbara is also Assistant Director of the Centenary Institute.
The Centre will buy Australia’s first CyTOF (cytometry by time of flight) mass spectrometer which can track up to 100 different cellular processes simultaneously in a thousand cells each second. Prof Fazekas and her colleagues expect that their work will also lead to potential drug targets for improved approaches to allergies, organ transplant, vaccines and cancer therapy.
Prof Fazekas is also determined to ensure that the equipment and expertise of the new Centre is freely available to the wider NSW research community.
“We already have proposals from researchers who plan to use the Centre to explore:
- How individual human melanoma cells change as they migrate away from a tumour
- How cells become cancerous in response to UV radiation and potential new drugs to treat this
- The differences between the individual cells in a breast cancer tumour
- How viruses such as herpes and measles infect nerve cells and the damage that’s caused when our bodies respond.”
You can find the full media release at: www.scienceinpublic.com.au/centenary/cytof
For further information about Centenary Institute, Barbara and CyTOF, please contact Niall Byrne on 0417 131 977 or niall@scienceinpublic.com.au
For further information about the Ramaciotti Awards or Trustee Perpetual, please contact Anne-Marie Baker, Perpetual Limited on 0401 705 839 or anne-marie.baker@perpetual.com.au
What was the Higgs boson all about?
Chat with one of the Australian women who helped to find the Higgs boson – in Sydney, Brisbane and Toowoomba
Some 30 Australians were involved in the discovery of the Higgs boson, which was celebrated last week with the 2013 Nobel Prize for Physics.
But what is the Higgs boson? And why is it important?
Get the full story from Professor Elisabetta Barberio, who’s touring Australia as the Australian Institute of Physics ‘Women in Physics’ lecturer.
She’ll be in Sydney tomorrow and Queensland next week, talking to the public and students about the Higgs discovery – and she’s available for interviews.
“The discovery of the Higgs boson is a really important thing for particle physicists everywhere, but we feel it particularly strongly here,” Elisabetta says.
“Australia has had a long involvement with the ATLAS experiment, from data analysis to helping actually build the detector. To have a Nobel Prize mark this – no matter who received the actual prize – means that the thousands of physicists across the globe can share in the honour.”
As the AIP’s Women in Physics lecturer, Elisabetta is also keen to encourage women and girls to consider a career in physics.
“We often think that physics research is a purely male field, but it doesn’t have to be that way,” she says. “The ATLAS experiment was led for a long time by a woman, and women are doing some amazing research in this area.”
To set up interviews with Elisabetta, contact:
Margie Beilharz, Science in Public, margie@scienceinpublic.com.au, 0415 448 065
Sydney public talk
Girls Big Night Out of Science: the origin of mass in the Universe
Thursday 17 October, 6:30-8pm
Sydney Observatory, The Rocks
Brisbane public talk
Big Questions, Big Facilities: the discovery of the origin of mass?
Tuesday 22 October, 6.30-7.30pm
University of Queensland St Lucia
Toowoomba public talk
Big Questions, Big Facilities: the discovery of the origin of mass?
Wednesday 23 October, 11am
University of Southern Queensland Toowoomba
Celebrating Australia’s best at the Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science
Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science: Wednesday 30 October, Canberra
Later this month, the Prime Minister will announce the winners of the 2013 Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science at a formal dinner in the Great Hall of Parliament House, Canberra.
We’re helping again with the media program for the prizes, and we’ll have profiles, print-quality photos and broadcast-quality footage available for journalists.
If you need to know who’s winning this year drop me a line on niall@scienceinpublic.com.au. We welcome the opportunity to brief longer lead-time programs and publications.
There are five prizes for researchers and science teachers:
- The $300,000 Prime Minister’s Prize for Science, for an exceptional specific achievement in any area of science advancing human welfare or benefiting society
- Two $50,000 prizes outstanding achievement in life science and physical science, awarded to early or mid-career researchers
- Two $50,000 prizes for excellence in science teaching, at primary and secondary school level.
Past winners of the Prizes include Nobel Laureate Brian Schmidt, Australian of the Year Ian Frazer and inventor of the bionic ear Graeme Clark.
To find out more about the prizes and past recipients, go to: http://www.innovation.gov.au/pmsp
Advancing human health: the 2013 CSL Florey Medal
An unsung hero of biomedical science: Monday 28 October, Canberra
Sir Howard Florey took penicillin from an idea to a drug that has saved literally hundreds of millions of lives.
The CSL Florey Medal honours the Australian researchers who have followed in his footsteps.
Every two years, CSL and the Australian Institute of Policy and Science recognise an Australian researcher who has made significant achievements in biomedical science and/or in advancing human health.
This year’s winner will be announced at the Australian Association of Medical Research Institute’s annual dinner in Canberra on 28 October 2013 – but again, if you need details sooner, we’re happy to brief journalists on embargo.
Since 1998, the prize has been awarded to eight researchers, including:
- Nobel Laureates Barry Marshall and Robin Warren, for discovering that bacteria cause stomach ulcers
- Jacques Miller, who unravelled the role of the thymus in the immune system
- Colin Masters, for his pivotal work on Alzheimer’s disease
- Peter Coleman, who unveiled the structure of the flu virus, leading to the anti-flu drug Relenza
- Ian Frazer, for the development of the vaccine against cervical cancer
- Graeme Clark, the inventor of Australia’s bionic ear.