Bosch Institute News - January to March, 2007
NH&MRC Equipment Grant round for 2007
Congratulations to a number of Bosch Institute members who have been successful in obtaining funds from the newly-announced NH&MRC Equipment Grant round for 2007.
Professor Des Richardson, granted $74K to purchase a new Corbett Rogor-Gene quantitative PCR apparatus with HRM. This equipment will be located in the new Molecular Biology Facility in the Blackburn Building that is being developed as a joint initiative with the Discipline of Surgery and which should be operational in the second half of this year.
Dr Frank Lovicu, who was granted $48K for a Tecan Infinite Microplate Reader.
Dr Bing Yu, who was awarded $15K for a NanoDrop Spectrophotometer.
Professor Georges Grau, awarded $73K for an Odyssey Infrared Imaging System. This equipment will service the gel imaging needs of the laboratories in the Medical Foundation Building, most of which are Bosch Institute member laboratories.
Associate Professor Arthur Conigrave, who was awarded $94K for a EnVision Xcite multilabel reader.
Congratulations to these Bosch Institute members for maintaining our excellent record of competitive grant success.
Nature Article
A review article on "The machinery of colour vision" written by Sam Solomon, Bosch Institute, and Peter Lennie, University of Rochester, is the Featured Article (and cover) of April's issue of Nature Reviews Neuroscience.
Executive Assistant Appointed
Kathleen Evans has joined the team at the Bosch Institute. Kathleen commenced on Monday 19 March and comes with a wealth of experience in the area of administration and conference/event management. Kathleen’s previous roles have included Course Coordinator, Continuing Education Program, Faculty of Dentistry as well as positions within the clinical research/trial divisions for GlaxoSmithKline and Eli Lilly. Kathleen's most recent role was that of new mother. Kathleen will be the key contact person for the Bosch Institute.
Visiting Professor
Professor Suat-Cheng Peh from the University of Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur spent a very productive two days at the Bosch Institute in March 2007.
The main purpose of her visit was to explore opportunities for research collaboration in areas such as stem cell biology, cancer, cardiovascular science and tissue engineering. A likely outcome is that some Malaysian students will carry out part of their research training at the Bosch Institute in future
Rebecca L Cooper Awards Dinner
On Saturday 17 March 2007 the Rebecca L Cooper Awards Dinner was held at the Crowne Plaza Coogee. Research Scientists from the Bosch Institute continue to be very successful in this competitive grant award scheme which operates at a national level. This year's recipients included Judith Black, Tailoi Chan-Ling , Louise Cole, Irina Dedova, Michelle Gerke, Georges Grau, Clive Harper, Chris Murphy and Michael Weible.
2007 Honours Students
The 2007 Honours Students attended an orientation program on 5 & 6 March. The program was convened by Dr Frank Lovicu (seated), PG student coordinator. Students were presented with a Bosh Young Investigator T Shirt to commemorate the inaugural intake of Bosch Young Investigators.
NHMRC Equipment Grants
NH & MRC Equipment Grants were awarded to Professor Des Richardson ($74,000), Dr Frank Lovicu ($48,000), Dr Bing Yu ($15,000), Professor George Grau ($73,000), and Associate Professor Arthur Conigrave ($94,000).
CURE CANCER GRANTS
Dr Robert Sutak, Department of Pathology University of Sydney
Dr Robert Sutak has been awarded the Macquarie Bank Foundation 2007 Fellowship in cancer research
Molecular mechanisms involved in inhibition of prostate cancer by targeting the growth and metastasis suppressor gene, Drg-1, with novel anti-tumour agents.
Recently Drg-1 gene was identified in many cancers which prevents tumour spread and progression. The regulation of Drg-1 expression and its biological role(s) remain.
It has been demonstrated that Drg-1 is regulated by intracellular Fe (iron) and that novel Fe chelators (which remove iron from tissues) markedly and selectively inhibit tumour growth in vivo and up-regulate Drg-1.
The regulation and role of Drg-1 in tumours will be examined, and this may lead to novel therapies.
Dr Xiao Huang, University of Sydney
Supported by MasterCard and the Young Cure Cancer Committee Carnivale 2006
Lack of expression of hOGG1 in basal layer of epidermis predisposes to UVA-induced skin carcinogenesis in humans (Skin Cancer)
Traditionally UVB was thought to be the dominant carcinogen in sunlight. However, more and more evidence suggests that UVA has approximately equal contributions to development of cancer. In this project, we will investigate the roles of DNA repair enzyme hOGG1 in inhibition of UV-induced p53 mutation which is an early event in skin carcinogenesis.
Bosch Young Investigator receives Promega Award
Helena Mangs, a PhD student in Professor Morris’ Lab won the Promega Award at the 2007 Lorne Genome Conference.
ARC Discovery Grants
Professors Maria Byrne, David Cook, Georges Grau and Des Richardson obtained new Discovery Grant funding commencing January 2007.
ARC LIEF Grants
Bosch researchers Jurgen Reichardt, Ron Trent, Nick Hunt, Chris Murphy and Cris dos Remedios were Chief Investigators on LIEF Grants for 2007.
NH&MRC Research Grants
The Bosch Institute congratulates its members on their success in NH&MRC funding for 2007:
Professor Des Richardson’s Research Fellowship was renewed.
Project Grants were awarded to the flowing Bosch members: Associate Professor Tailoi Chan-Ling, Professor Bogdan Dreher, Dr Michelle Gerke, Professor Georges Grau, Dr Kevin Keay, Professor Nicholas King, Dr Frank Lovicu, Professor Des Richardson, Dr Samuel Solomon, Associate Professor Stephen Twigg and Associate Professor Robert Vandenberg.
Australia Day Award
In recognition of Professor Brian Morris’s work in public health advocacy and scientific achievement he was awarded a ‘Scroll of Honour' Australia Day Award by the Waverley Council.
University Fellowship
Professor Roland Stocker was awarded a University of Sydney Professorial Research Fellowship.
