Bosch Institute News - April to June, 2007
Bosch Annual Scientific Meeting
The Bosch Annual Scientific Meeting was held in the Eastern Avenue Complex on Friday 29 June 2007. This year it was agreed to have a more "inwardly focussed" approach and take the opportunity to showcase the research within the Bosch as well as presenting our research strategy for the next 3-5 years.
Pictured left: Bosch Young Investigators discuss their posters with Bosch Chair, John Stumbles.
Read more
Bosch Young Investigators – Kioloa Retreat 2007
The inaugural Bosch Institute Young Investigators Retreat took place at the Kioloa Coastal Campus of the ANU on June 26 through to June 28, 2007. There were over 30 registrants, predominantly postgraduate students, a handful of postdoctoral researchers and one Honours student. Six academic staff members also attended.
On arrival, after everyone formally introduced themselves, much of the first afternoon was focused on presentations by staff, providing open discussions on career development relevant to postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers. Areas covered included career options after a PhD (academia vs industry). The session wound up with discussions on effective mentoring, grant writing and applying for fellowships. This generated a lot of discussion from the young investigators and based on student feedback, this was the one of the most informative aspects of the retreat.
The students were asked to coordinate the second day. The morning commenced with a range of oral presentations by some of the postdoctoral researchers. A late morning game of soccer allowed many of the students to interact at a more social level and effectively proved to be as good an introduction and team building exercise as any. A lengthy poster session followed in the afternoon and students had an opportunity to discuss their work with all those in attendance. Staff managed to talk to each of the presenters. This session finished with a short interactive discussion of what makes a good poster by the staff, and based on the criteria established a poster prize was awarded to Ms Rebecca Cole (conferred at the Bosch Annual Scientific meeting on June 29, on the main campus).
Overall, based on student feedback, the retreat was a great success. Everyone got involved and worked effectively together. Special acknowledgment should go to the Bosch Young Investigators committee who organised much of the retreat, including the accommodation, catering, transport and all the social activities. A special thanks also to our staff members for giving their time to support our young investigators.
Dr Frank Lovicu, BYI Coordinator
New alternative to pap smears
Professor Brian Morris is head of the Basic & Clinical Genomics Laboratory in the Bosch Institute. In association with Polartechnics Ltd Brian has been involved in the development of an alternative to the pap smear for women.
This self sampling kit involves women collecting their own specimen on a tampon and sending it to a Path Lab for testing for high-risk types of human papillomavirus (HPV).
Virtually all cervical cancer is caused by human papillomavirus (HPV). HPV can be easily detected by a molecular test that is so sensitive it can be used on tampons. According to Australian experts, providing women the opportunity to collect their own sample using the “Tam-Pap” method so it can be screened for HPV has the potential to improve cervical cancer prevention.
It is anticipated that this new kit will lead to an increase in the proportion of women participating in cervical screening, where currently 40% of women do not get screened (because of an aversion to the pap smear process, isolation in outback regions or religious/cultural factors). This is the first time in the world that self-screening will be implemented.
Professor Brian Morris said that the new cervical cancer vaccine and ongoing Pap smears played important roles in helping women avoid cervical cancer, but accessible home sampling for HPV testing might help provide women with an additional important weapon.
This issue has received wide coverage from the media with over 35 TV items, 3 studio interviews with Brian Morris and approximately 40 radio broadcasts and many newspaper reports.
For more information see Professor Morris’s analysis on the topic in a large review article published in the current issue of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine.
Nature article - “Heme moves to centre stage in cerebral malaria”
Executive Director of the Bosch institute, Professor Nicholas Hunt and colleague Professor Roland Stocker, head of the Vascular Research Laboratory of the Bosch Institute, were invited to submit a News and Reviews article on “Heme moves to center stage in cerebral malaria” in Nature Medicine, Volume 13, Number 6 June 2007. Read article (pdf format).
Sir Zelman Cowen Universities Fund
The Sir Zelman Cowen Universities Fund has awarded $30,000 to the Bosch Institute to support exchange visits between researchers from the Institute and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem over the next 12 months. The purpose of these visits is to establish research collaborations, as part of the internationalisation strategy of the Bosch Institute.
PhD Student Recruitment
One of the key objectives of the Bosch Institute is to position itself as the preeminent centre for the training of future researcher. There is currently spare capacity for Research Students to be trained and carry out their research within the Bosch Institute. Together with the Office of the DVC (Research), Nick Hunt has worked to develop a new campaign to attract more PhD students to the University in the area of biomedical research. Given the quality of research within the Bosch Institute we can predict that there will be an increase in the number of research students within the Institute from 2008 onwards.
Bosch attends the Rotarians Against Malaria Conference
Leia Hee and her supervisor, Professor Nick Hunt, recently attended the Rotarians Against Malaria Conference in Brisbane.
Rotary Clubs in Australia have long supported a multi-pronged campaign against malaria, particularly in Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. Leia is the recipient of the only PhD Scholarship for malaria research so far given by Australian Rotarians. This is to support her research into the causes of lung complications in malaria. At the conference she updated Rotarians on progress in her studies, which are carried out in the Molecular Immunopathology Unit of the Bosch Institute.
Pictured: Here Leia is seen with Peter Thomas, outgoing Chairman of Rotarians Against Malaria, and Michael Gregory, Governor of Rotary District 9600, after her presentation.
Bosch Distinguished Seminar
The second Bosch Distinguished Seminar in the 2006/2007 series, entitled "An Iron Key for unlocking the treatment of Cancer and neurodegenerative disease", was held on Friday 18 May in the Anderson Stuart Seminar Room. The presentation was attended by 119 members and students of the Institute. (further details - PDF)
Nature Article - “Cortical reorganization”
Joshua Young, a student in the Bosch Institute, and his supervisor Professor Bogdan Dreher, published a paper titled “Cortical reorganisation consistent with spike timing – but not correlation–dependant plasticity” in Nature Neuroscience in May 2007.
Invited speaker
Professor Stocker has been invited to give "The Paul Nestel" Lecture at the 2007 Annual Scientific Meeting of the Australian Atherosclerosis Society. This meeting will take place in October 2007.
XIIIth NSW Cell and Developmental Biology Group Meeting - April 27, 2007
Associate Professor Frank Lovicu is the state representative of the Australian and New Zealand Society for Cell and Developmental Biology (ANZSCDB) and he had the pleasure of organising and hosting the XIIIth NSW Cell and Developmental Biology Group Meeting, with the support of the Bosch Institute.
This venture was independently sponsored by trade and was held in the Auditorium of the Medical Foundation Building on Friday, April 27, 2007.
Invited speakers came from a number of local research Institutes, with representatives from the Bosch Institute, RNS, VCCRI, CMRI and the Children's Hospital, Westmead. Seminars were followed by drinks allowing social interaction. At this meeting we had an attendance of 60-70 researchers.
These meetings are usually held twice a year and we have decided to alternate future meetings between the Garvan Institute and The Bosch Institute, as these two venues appear to be the most central locations for the cell and developmental biologists working in Sydney. Based on this we anticipate that the Bosch Institute will be hosting these meetings at least once a year on the University campus. In fact the next scheduled meeting will be held at the Medical Foundation Building on Thursday, September 18, 2008. Since our last series, the society has agreed to support the invitation of one interstate speaker for each of the meetings, so we anticipate increased exposure of the Bosch not only to the local community but to a more national community. Frank's term as state representative for the society terminates in 2009 but he plans to continue supporting and assisting with Bosch's involvement in this forum.
Bosch Researchers Awarded Cancer Institute NSW Infrastructure Grant
Newly appointed Research Theme Leader Des Richardson was delighted to receive the news that his submission for a Cancer Institute, NSW infrastructure grant had been successful.
The funds awarded total $340,450 which includes $124,666 for physical infrastructure (PHERAstar and POLARstar Optima Multi-functional Plate Readers with Robotic High Throughput Screening System) with the remainder to be used as part salaries for support and training over four years. Other financial contributions towards the equipment have been committed by The Bosch Institute, the Faculty of Medicine and the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research).
The grant was a joint submission from the cancer researchers within the Cancer, Cell Biology and Development Theme of the Bosch Institute. Des Richardson acknowledged the significant support and assistance he had received from the other members of the theme and in particular from the Bosch Molecular Biology Officer, Donna Lai.
Executive Director of the Bosch Institute Nicholas Hunt commented that "This is extremely good news for the Bosch Institute and demonstrates the value of working together in a cohesive manner to attract additional funding and grow capacity in biomedical research." He congratulated all involved.
Medical Foundation Fellowship
Professor Roland Stocker was awarded the University of Sydney Medical Foundation Fellowship for the years 2007 – 2009. This award was for his work on “New Frontiers in Vascular Medicine” and comprised $600,000 for the three years.
Bosch Young Investigators – Harbour Cruise
The Bosch Young Investigators (BYIs) continue to be enterprising in their activities. Their monthly seminar series continued throughout 2007 and their traditional Welcome Harbour Cruise took place on 13 April 2007. Late in June 2007 a “ BYI Retreat” was held in Kiola.
The further development of a “Bosch Student experience” is a priority for the Institute.
