The International Congress of Genetics returns to Australia

Today

• 4 pm: Evensong celebrating science and faith at St Pauls Cathedral – more below
• 6 pm: Congress opening ceremony with Victorian Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas, and Congress Chair Kathryn North, Melbourne Convention Centre

Monday

• Capturing the genetic code of every species in the Tree of Life.
• Nobel Laureate Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, African Biogenome Project leader Anne Muigai, Science Executive Editor Valda Vinson on Women in Science – unique journeys to different peaks, with Jen Martin.

Media welcome

“Nothing about us, without us”

National Indigenous genomics initiative launch

Sunday 16 July 2023 10 am

Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre

A national centre launched today will bring the benefits of genomics medicine to Indigenous Australians, who still have a life expectancy 10 years less that the general population.

“80 per cent of this life expectancy gap is due to chronic disease,” says Alex Brown, Lead of The Australian Alliance for Indigenous Genomics (ALIGN) and Professor of Indigenous Genomics at the Telethon Kids Institute and the Australian National University. Alex is a member of the Yuin Nation and grew on the NSW South Coast.

“Australia is on the cusp of a new era in personalised medicine that will bring deeper insights into common diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and cancer,” he says.

“ALIGN is a commitment designed by Indigenous people, for Indigenous people, to offer the benefit of genomic medicine to all,” he says.

“Its basic premise is ‘nothing about us, without us.’ This is critical to ensure equity is achieved in health outcomes,” he says.

Innovation winners from Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane

Six Excellence in Innovation awards were presented last night at the Collaborate Innovate 2023 conference in Adelaide, held by Collaborative Research Australia. The awards are sponsored by UNSW.

“The winners have each shown how Australian research can be transformed through collaboration into impactful organisations and businesses, creating jobs and improving lives,” says Jane O’Dwyer, the CEO of Cooperative Research Australia.

• Sleep for bushfire survivors
• Cane waste to rebuild soil health
• The real carbon cost of your travel
• Creating tri-sector careers

Four early career researchers from Canberra, Newcastle, Sydney, Melbourne recognised by Cooperative Research Australia for their innovative research and their ability to present it clearly and simply.

“These researchers illustrate the difference that deeply collaborative research can make for Australia,” says Jane O’Dwyer, the CEO of Cooperative Research Australia.

International Genetics Congress returns

• When will genetics deliver on the hype and truly guide your healthcare?
• It’s in the air and water – a campaign to find and protect Australia’s missing plant and animal species
• Growing rice without paddies and other plant breeding tricks
• Life in the most extreme environments
• How flies solve the riddles of rare human diseases
• Catch-22: perils, promises, and profit from indigenous peoples’ DNA

Plus

• Celebrating genetics at St Pauls
• Counting peas: Mendel’s 201^st birthday
• An oratorio on the Origins of the Universe, of Life, of Species, of Humanity 
• Are super athletes born or made? Genetics vs Sport 

Some of the hundreds of stories to be discovered at the 23^rd International Genetic Congress, 16 to 21 July at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. The media are welcome.

The idea that Australian can lead in research, but can’t capture the benefits will be challenged in Adelaide this week.

Cooperative Research Australia’s 2023 conference at the Adelaide Convention Centre will reveal how Australian researchers are successfully turning research into innovations that are transforming society and creating jobs and wealth.

Speakers include State and Federal science ministers and chief scientists.

Media welcome, contact Niall Byrne, niall@scienceinpublic.com.au for accreditation.

Macquarie University researchers have demonstrated a new way of linking personal records and protecting privacy. The first application is in identifying cases of rare genetic disorders. There are many other potential applications across society.

The research will be presented at the 18th ACM ASIA Conference on Computer and Communications Security in Melbourne on 12 July.

A five-year-old boy in the US has a mutation in a gene called GPX4, which he shares with just 10 other children in the world. The condition causes skeletal and central nervous system abnormalities. There are likely to be other children with the disorder recorded in hundreds of health and diagnostic databases worldwide, but we do not know of them, because their privacy is guarded for legal and commercial reasons.

But what if records linked to the condition could be found and counted while still preserving privacy? Researchers from the Macquarie University Cyber Security Hub have developed a technique to achieve exactly that. The team includes Dr Dinusha Vatsalan and Professor Dali Kaafar of the University’s School of Computing and the boy’s father, software engineer Mr Sanath Kumar Ramesh, who is CEO of the OpenTreatments Foundation in Seattle, Washington.

Media are welcome. 
For more information and accreditation contact:
Niall Byrne niall@scienceinpublic.com.au +61-417-131-977

Twenty years ago, Australia hosted the International Congress of Genetics. It marked the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the Double Helix, explored the impact of the recently completed human genome project, and discussed how the genetics revolution would transform health, agriculture, food, sport, even the law.

Today, we’re seeing the genetics revolution in action:

• mRNA is transforming vaccine and drug development,
• mysterious genetic disorders are being unravelled and even cured,
• plant and animal breeding is being transformed by CRISPR and other technologies,
• pests, diseases and biodiversity are being monitored by eDNA,
• synthetic biology is offering ways of turning agricultural waste into biofuels.

The Congress will be back in Australia, in Melbourne, from 16-21 July 2023.

A path to cognition

Five major changes in the computational capacity of brains have led to the world of intelligent life around us.

That’s the conclusion of Professor Andrew Barron from Macquarie University with Dr Marta Halina from the University of Cambridge and Professor Colin Klein from the Australian National University (ANU), in a paper published today in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

They say that one billion years of evolution has led to five fundamentally different types of brains, each suited to its purpose.