cancer

The UN is coming to town, the real mining future, and L'Oréal

In two weeks Australia will play host to a major UN conference focusing on global health and the Millennium Development Goals. More than 70 countries and over 300 organisations will be represented. There will be many compelling stories that matter to Australia and our region. I’m holding briefings for ABC staff at Ultimo today at 3.30 pm and at Southbank on Monday at 12.30 pm. I’m happy to do the same for other major media.

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The UN is coming to town, the real mining future, and L’Oréal

In two weeks Australia will play host to a major UN conference focusing on global health and the Millennium Development Goals. More than 70 countries and over 300 organisations will be represented. There will be many compelling stories that matter to Australia and our region. I’m holding briefings for ABC staff at Ultimo today at 3.30 pm and at Southbank on Monday at 12.30 pm. I’m happy to do the same for other major media.

[continue reading…]

Aussie lizard reveals cancer secrets

A compound produced by a pregnant lizard may provide important information on the origins and treatment of cancer in humans, according to zoologist Bridget Murphy from the University of Sydney, who discovered the protein, which is pivotal to the development of the lizard placenta.

“Our egg-laying ancestors probably never got cancer, but things changed when we started having live young. Embryos need an extensive network of blood vessels to allow them to grow. So do tumours.  I found that the three-toed skink, which gives birth to live young, uses a particularly powerful protein to encourage the growth of blood vessels. The only other place where this protein has been found is in pre-cancerous cells grown in the laboratory,” she says.

The placenta of the three toed skink is highly vascular (photo: Bridget Murphy)

Future research on unlocking the secrets of how the protein works might well provide the basis of new therapies for cancer, and to promote wound healing or the regeneration of blood vessels in patients with heart disease. Bridget’s work is being presented for the first time in public through Fresh Science, a communication boot camp for early career scientists held at the Melbourne Museum. She was one of 16 winners from across Australia.

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Fellowship winners make cancer their focus

Two outstanding female scientists at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute have been awarded research fellowships worth $1.75 million to continue their cancer research.
The inaugural five-year Cory Fellowship, sponsored by the institute, has been awarded to Dr Clare Scott and the inaugural five-year Dyson Fellowship, sponsored by the Dyson Bequest, has been awarded to Dr […]