genetics

Solving the puzzle of complex inherited diseases

Centenary Institute Lawrence Creative Prize goes to young Brisbane researcher

Jian Yang, 2012 Centenary Lawrence Creative Prize winner (credit: Centenary Institute)

The winner of the Centenary Institute Lawrence Creative Prize is Dr Jian Yang, from the Diamantina Institute of the University of Queensland.

He has solved one of the great puzzles of human genetics—why the genes typically implicated in inherited diseases like schizophrenia, obesity and diabetes only account for a small amount of their heritability. [continue reading…]

Keeping our best young bioscience brains in Australia: Centenary Institute Lawrence Creative Prize

The winner of the Centenary Institute Lawrence Creative Prize will be announced at 12.30 pm, Thursday 15 November 2012, at a lunch at UBS in Sydney.

He will receive $25,000, and a glass trophy designed by Australian sculptor Nick Mount.

The 2012 finalists are:

  • Robert McLaughlin, a medical engineer from the University of Western Australia (UWA), who has developed an optical probe that fits inside a hypodermic needle and can help surgeons accurately determine the boundaries of breast cancer tumours.
  • Marc Pellegrini, from Melbourne’s Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI), whose discoveries about how the body regulates its immune system are being applied to clinical trials of cancer vaccines and treatments for HIV and hepatitis.
  • Jian Yang, from the Diamantina Institute at the University of Queensland, who has solved a major puzzle of missing heritability by developing software and methods to determine the multiple genes involved in conditions such as schizophrenia, obesity and diabetes.

Fresh Science 2012 state finalists

This year, thanks to funding from the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science, Research and Tertiary Education through the Inspiring Australia initiative, and partners in other states, we’ve expanded the program to include state finals in:

Here’s the state finalists – we’ll announce the national finalists in the next week or so. [continue reading…]

Forever young – growing old gracefully with science

Introducing the 4th Graeme Clark Orator, speaking Wednesday 18 July 2012 at the Melbourne Convention Centre.

Professor Dame Linda Partridge imagines a future in which we all stay young by taking a pill that reduces the impact of ageing.

She’s not promising immortality, rather she’s working toward a future in which we age gracefully – healthy, happy and active until the end.

[continue reading…]

How does our intelligence change through life

Nature paper reveals the genetic influence on our IQ as we age

Embargo 6 am AEST, Thursday 19 January 2012

Issued for the Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland.

Researchers from Brisbane, Edinburgh and Aberdeen have revisited about 2,000 people who had intelligence tests in 1932 or1947, and shown that genetic factors may account for about a quarter of the changes in intelligence over their lives.
[continue reading…]

Oz research of note, 16 January, 2012

A fly named in honour of Beyoncé; plum extracts as food preservatives; and the crucial role of social media during the 2011 Queensland floods are just some of the interesting stories that emerged from Australian research published in the last week. Find over a dozen other stories below.

[continue reading…]

One unlucky letter causes an infant epilepsy

A 20 year old mystery was solved this week with the discovery that an epilepsy that affects infants is caused by the change of a single letter in one gene. Seizures in infancy are not rare, but this familial epilepsy occurs in probably 60 families across Australia. It can also cause a movement disorder later in life.
[continue reading…]