David Leach, Southern Cross University
A wood extract has been registered as the first natural termiticide in Australia by the Australian Pesticide and Veterinary Medicines Administration.
David Leach and his colleagues from Southern Cross University and the University of Western Sydney identified the active extract in Eremophila mitchellii also known as budda, false sandalwood.
The achievement illustrates the potential to learn new tricks from Australia’s native plants and animals.
IUPAC Symposium 3A – Chemical Ecology and Crop Protection, Thursday 9:30am
Peter Gregg, Cotton CRC
A plant perfume that attracts female moths—a world-first attractant invented by the Cotton Catchment Communities CRC and its partner Ag Biotech Australia—is already reducing pesticide use by Queensland and NSW cotton growers.
Peter Gregg and his colleagues have developed a ‘moth magnet’ that attracts Helicoverpa, the cotton boll worm moth which causes billions of dollars of damage to agriculture world-wide.
IUPAC Symposium 1A – Resistance Management: Insect Disease Vectors & Agricultural Pests Tuesday 2:30pm
Hilary Ranson, The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
Pyrethroid insecticides are the front line weapon of choice against malaria-carrying mosquitos.
These are the only class of insecticide that can be used to treat bednets and they are being used extensively for indoor spraying (replacing DDT in many areas). These two interventions are being rolled out on a massive scale across Africa (the goal is to achieve 80% coverage).
Paul Miller, Waterborne Environmental, Inc
UK scientist Paul Miller will be presenting his work on modelling and thus minimising spray drift.
His work with field trials, wind tunnels and simulations have shown that boom height and the droplet size distribution from the nozzles are the most important variables influencing drift risk with changes in boom height having a greater effect than changes in wind speed.
IUPAC Plenary Four & Five, Tuesday 9:45am
Colin Berry, QML London
Sir Colin Berry will say that modern synthetic chemicals have contributed to giving each of us an extra 30 years of mostly healthy, active life.
Designing new dual action antibiotics
RACI Symposium – Antibacterials, Monday 9:00am
John Bremner, University of Wollongong
Matthew Cooper, University of Queensland
Multidrug resistant bacteria are a major health issue around the world and new effective drugs are clearly urgently needed.
John Bremner and his colleagues are presenting their approach to creating new antibiotics to fight against drug resistant strains of golden staph (Staphylococcus aureus) and other pathogens. They’ve created synthetic antibiotics inspired by vancomycin.
And Mathew Cooper and his colleagues at the University of Queensland have developed a novel strategy of linking an out-of-patent antibiotic, vancomycin, to small protein fragments to produce a new class of anti-bacterials.
IUPAC Plenary One & Two Monday 9:45am
Ian Baldwin, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology (MPICOE)
A native desert tobacco is revealing its secret weapons to chemist Ian Baldwin from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology (MPICOE) in Jena, Germany.
RACI Plenary Two Tuesday 2:15pm
Steve Haswell, University of Hull
A hand-held DNA testing device developed by UK scientists is set to change the way forensic analysis of DNA is conducted.
Normally, DNA samples have to be transported back to the lab and need trained people using expensive instruments to conduct the analysis. Steve Haswell and his team at the University of Hull have developed the lab-on-a-chip technology that will reduce the time it takes to produce results from days to hours.
A young Monash University chemist and her colleagues have successfully strengthened insulin’s chemical structure without affecting its activity. Their new insulin won’t require refrigeration.
They have just filed a series of patents with the support of their long term commercial partner ASX-listed Circadian Technologies who are now negotiating with pharma companies to start the long process of getting the invention out of the laboratory and into the homes of people with diabetes.
At the same time they’re using their new knowledge to develop a form of insulin that could be delivered by pill.
The tertiary structure of human insulin (image: Bianca van Lierop)
“Over two hundred million people need insulin to manage diabetes, but we still don’t how it works at a molecular level,” says Bianca van Lierop.
Her work will be presented for the first time in public this week at Fresh Science, a communication boot camp for early career scientists held at the Melbourne Museum. Bianca is one of 16 winners from across Australia.
The poor stability of existing forms of insulin complicates the management of diabetes, a condition which already affects 1.7 million Australians.
“Like milk, insulin formulations need to be kept cold,” Bianca says.
“At temperatures above 4 ºC, insulin starts to degrade and eventually becomes inactive. So supplying insulin in areas where fridges are scarce or difficult to maintain presents a real challenge.”
From this… (Photo: Sarah G)
The instability of insulin is closely related to its chemical structure, Bianca says.
“Insulin is constructed from two different protein chains which are joined together by unstable disulfide bonds. Using a series of chemical reactions, we have been able to replace the unstable bonds with stronger, carbon-based bridges. This replacement does not change the natural activity of insulin, but it does appear to significantly enhance its stability.”
These so-called ‘dicarba insulins’ are stable at room temperature. And, Bianca says, storage at higher temperatures for several years had not resulted in degradation or loss of activity.
… to this? (photo: doug88888)
The new insulins may also provide much-needed insight into how the molecule works. “Insulin acts like a key in a lock at its receptor. When insulin binds to the receptor the lock opens and allows sugar to be taken up into cells from the blood. But insulin is known to change shape inside the ‘lock’ (the receptor), and its final shape is currently unknown.”
“If we had that information, we might be able to design smaller, less complex, non-protein mimics of insulin.” Such molecules could one day become the basis of treatments taken in pill form, eliminating the need for injections.
Bianca van Lierop and her fellow Fresh Scientists are presenting their research to the public for the first time thanks to Fresh Science, a national program sponsored by the Australian Government. Her challenges include presenting her discoveries in verse at a Melbourne pub.
For further information, contact Bianca van Lierop at Bianca.vanLierop@monash.edu
Additional Images
Bianca van Lierop (photo: Mike Coulson)
Bianca van Lierop pitching her story (photo: Mike Coulson)
A young Tasmanian electrical engineer, Natalia Galin, has turned US technology into a robust helicopter-borne radar system that can accurately measure the thickness of snow on polar sea ice.
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