Professor Elizabeth Rakoczy, the University of Western Australia

Molecular ophthalmologist developing new treatments for eye diseases wins $50,000 CSL Florey Medal for lifetime achievement

Professor Elizabeth Rakoczy is modifying viruses to use their powers for good. She’s created a new gene therapy for wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) that is reversing vision loss in clinical trial patients. Her treatment means one injection instead of several per year.

Modified viruses are gene therapy’s delivery vehicles, taking genes directly into cells. Elizabeth first showed that they could carry a healthy replacement for a mutated gene that causes degeneration of the eye’s retina. She then showed they can deliver instructions for eye cells to form a bio-factory to produce their own treatment for wet AMD, a more complex eye disease. [continue reading…]

Professor Elizabeth Rakoczy, winner of the 2017 CSL Florey Medal (Photo credit: Lions Eye Institute, UWA)

Professor Elizabeth Rakoczy with Molecular Ophthalmology team colleagues Dr Aaron Magno and Assistant Professor May Lai (Photo credit: Lions Eye Institute, UWA)

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Mark Kendall, Minister Sussan Ley, and AIPS Director Peter McMahon (Credit: AAMRI/Andrew Taylor Photographer)

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After 160 years, it’s time to throw away the needle and syringe
Nanopatch starts clinical trials in Brisbane, with Cuba next

Rocket scientist Mark Kendall (UQ) reinvents vaccination and wins $25,000 CSL Young Florey Medal

Press materials available:

• Media release and backgrounder below
• Full profile here
• Video on YouTube
• HD footage (with and without sound)
• Photos of Mark and his technology
• Photos from the award night

The 2016 CSL Young Florey Medal was presented at the Association of Australian medical Research Institutes (AAMRI) dinner at on Wednesday 9 November in the Great Hall, Parliament House, Canberra

• Professor Mark Kendall helped create a small rocket for vaccine delivery.
• Then he invented a radically simpler concept that could replace the needle and syringe we’ve been using for 160 years.
• A small square of silicon with 20,000 microscopic spikes delivers vaccines directly to the skin’s immune cells.
• It’s painless, requires a fraction of the dose, doesn’t need refrigeration, and eliminates needle phobia.
• Now human clinical trials are underway in Brisbane, and the WHO is planning a polio vaccine trial in Cuba in 2017.

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Professor Mark Kendall, University of Queensland

2016 CSL Young Florey Medal

Professor Mark Kendall is planning to dispatch the 160-year-old needle and syringe to history. This Queensland rocket scientist has invented a new vaccine technology that’s painless, uses a fraction of the dose, puts the vaccine just under the skin, and doesn’t require a fridge.

Human trials of Mark’s Nanopatch are underway in Australia, and the concept has broad patent coverage. It’s being supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Merck and the WHO. A polio vaccine trial is being planned for Cuba in 2017.  

But it’s not been an easy path. Mark has had to push the science and business worlds to see the value of a new approach to vaccine delivery. It took 70 presentations before he secured funding for the UQ spin-out company Vaxxas.

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Professor Mark Kendall (UQ) winner of the CSL 2016 Young Florey Medal

Mark Kendall (Photo credit: AIBN/The University of Queensland)

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The ageing brain can repair itself

National honour for pioneer who found brain stem cells and is now waking them up with exercise

Professor Perry Bartlett from the Queensland Brain Institute at UQ received the 2015 CSL Florey Medal for his discoveries that have transformed our understanding of the brain, and for his leadership of neuroscience in Australia.

Media opportunities

Perry is available for interview in Canberra on Wednesday 11 and Thursday 12 November

The award was presented by Health Minister the Hon. Sussan Ley on Wednesday in the Great Hall, Parliament House, Canberra

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National honour for pioneer who found brain stem cells and is now waking them up with exercise

Media release

Full profile, photos, and HD footage available at: www.scienceinpublic.com.au/floreymedal

The award was presented by Health Minister the Hon. Sussan Ley on Wednesday 11 November in the Great Hall, Parliament House, Canberra

• Professor Perry Bartlett broke the dogma that the adult brain can’t change and regenerate
• He built the Queensland Brain Institute to expand our knowledge of what the brain can do
• Now he’s starting a trial to put people with dementia on treadmills, in the hope that their neurons will regrow
• Perry  will receive the 2015 CSL Florey Medal at the Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes (AAMRI) Dinner in Parliament House for his discoveries that have transformed our understanding of the brain, and for his leadership of neuroscience in Australia.

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Professor Perry Bartlett is putting people with dementia on treadmills. He has already reversed dementia and recovered spatial memories in mice through exercise. During the next year he’ll find out if exercise will have the same impact on people with dementia. Then he’ll look at depression.

Underpinning these projects is the idea that the brain is constantly changing and that learning, memory, mood and many other brain functions are, in part, regulated by the production of new neurons. When Perry started exploring the brain in 1977, the mature brain was regarded as static and unchangeable. He challenged this dogma and his work has led to a transformation in our understanding of the brain. [continue reading…]