Listen to: Gold, Galahs and the Milky Way: unlocking the universe, on ABC Big Ideas

Additional menu

Science In Public

Science writers, communicators, media, training, and public relations

Operations

Growing ‘mini-lungs’ to find treatments to help kids breathe easier; What happens when cells stop talking?

Thursday 7 November 2024

Winners of the National Stem Cell Foundation of Australia’s Metcalf Prizes announced today

Scientists available for interviews, see below for contact details

Researchers working with stem cells to study lung diseases and cell-to-cell communication breakdown are the two winners of the 2024 Metcalf Prizes for Stem Cell Research, awarded by the National Stem Cell Foundation of Australia.

[Read more…] about Growing ‘mini-lungs’ to find treatments to help kids breathe easier; What happens when cells stop talking?

Growing ‘mini-lungs’ to find treatments to help kids breathe easier

Dr rhiannon werder

Dr Rhiannon Werder is growing ‘mini-lungs in a dish’ that mimic the complexity and function of lungs in living people.

The Team Leader at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) has already used stem cell-derived lung cells to create models of human genetic diseases, like cystic fibrosis, and acquired lung diseases and infections, such as the common cold.

Now she plans to grow 3 dimensional models of human lung tissue, or ‘mini-lungs’, in a dish to better investigate respiratory infections and drive new treatment discoveries.

In recognition of her leadership in stem cell research, she has received one of two annual $60,000 Metcalf Prizes from the National Stem Cell Foundation of Australia.

Lung diseases and respiratory infections rank among the top causes of morbidity and mortality in children globally.

“Every time we breathe in, we breathe in potentially horrible things, meaning our lungs are under constant attack – so, it’s no wonder things go wrong,” says Rhiannon matter-of-factly.

“Epithelial cells that line the lungs are our first line of defence, and the first cells that anything we breath in interacts with,” Rhiannon says. “It’s incredible that these cells that line our lungs are so well equipped – attacks are happening almost with every breath, and most of the time you don’t even know about it, because the epithelial cells just deal with it.

“But, of course, underneath those cells are many other cell types, and to better understand respiratory diseases, we need to persuade these other cells to grow in our models of human lung tissues, or ‘mini-lungs’.

“We’ve already had really nice success incorporating immune cells, and what we’re working towards is making mini-lungs in a dish that have full complexity of the lung so that we can study respiratory infections, including how they impact children with chronic lung diseases.

Rhiannon wants her work to lead to treatments that help children breathe easier. Her focus is on how we can teach the lung cells and the immune system to deal with invaders more effectively. This ‘host directed therapy’ contrasts with traditional disease directed therapies that target specific bacteria or viruses, which can then become resistant to treatment.

“We want to find therapeutics to harness the host immune system to treat and/or prevent respiratory viral infections in vulnerable children with chronic lung disease all the way through to anyone who might get a cold every year.”

She’s investigating a range of respiratory infections, from the common cold (rhinovirus) to Group A streptococcus and Mycobacterium abscessus, in tandem with observing how people with genetic lung diseases, like cystic fibrosis and Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, deal with respiratory viruses.

By growing her models of lung tissue using stem cells from health donors and from patients at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, she can start to understand what’s going wrong in both genetic disease and during infections.

“What’s also amazing to me is that when the respiratory system does get overwhelmed, and you have an infection, all the cells come in to help the epithelial cells get rid of whatever it is, and then repair themselves.

“It’s just the most beautiful, coordinated response between local immune cells, recruited immune cells and other structural cells that sit really close to the epithelial cells.

“Each phase of that response is very different and coordinated, and when things don’t go right in that response, that’s when we end up with potentially life-threatening disease.”

Rhiannon says the Metcalf Prize will help her start to address the ‘big question’ of how this diverse range of cells communicate following infection.

For her, the potential power of stem cells is the flexibility to use them at scale, for example in major drug screens, or to genetically manipulate them to find better therapeutics.

“Finding new therapeutics in the lung space has been very slow – and probably a big reason behind this is we’ve been using the wrong model for a really long time.

“Many of the diseases that we’re studying, which affect the lungs, are very human specific diseases, and mice don’t get them.”

Rhiannon received a PhD in Immunology from the University of Queensland, in 2017, uncovering novel antiviral mediators regulating responses to respiratory viral infections. She was then awarded a NHMRC CJ Martin Early Career Fellowship and an Australian Government Endeavour Research Fellowship to undertake post-doctoral work at Boston University’s Centre for Regenerative Medicine. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, her research led to significant findings, including the first discovery of how the lung epithelium responds to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. She joined Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in October 2022.

Photos for media use

Dr rhiannon werder
Dr rhiannon werder
airway_epithelium cells

How do cells work together to create organs?

And what happens when they stop talking?

Dr william roman

Dr William Roman is growing human muscles on a chip. He’s using them to understand how the skeletal muscle cell, the largest cell in a human body, connects with neurons and tendons to create working muscles.

William is using his ‘mini-muscles’ as a model to understand the fundamental principles of intercellular communication, and hopes this work will enable researchers to better mimic organs outside the body.

He is also studying what happens when communication between neurons and muscle cells breaks down as we age, and in degenerative diseases such as motor neuron disease (MND).

His team’s research at Monash University’s Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute (ARMI), will lead to stem cell technologies for disease modelling, drug screening, cellular agriculture, and biorobotics.

Next week, William will receive a $60,000 Metcalf Prize from the National Stem Cell Foundation of Australia in 2024.

William says: “Researchers around the world are mimicking organs, growing mini- kidneys, mini-hearts, even mini-brains. However, a key challenge with these organ-on-chip models is that different cell types do not naturally interact to form the mature connections seen in real organs. We first need a deep understanding of how stem cells communicate in space and time during development.”

Why muscle cells?

Growing up in France, where Duchenne muscular dystrophy was discovered, William watched annual Téléthon fundraising events, which helped shape his quest to understand how muscles work, and ultimately to improve the lives of people living with a range of neuromuscular and general muscle disorders.

He also credits the influence of his grandmother, who taught him “communication is the most important thing in life”.

His focus is on skeletal muscle cells, also known as muscle fibres. They are two to three centimetres long, which makes them easier to work with.

Following his PhD he founded and led MyoChip, a multinational project to build a muscle on a chip. Now he plans to go further and persuade the muscle fibres to connect with tendons forming a complex structure, known as a myotendinous junction, that transmits force from our muscles to our tendons.

“We can already put two cells next to each other in a dish, but it doesn’t seem like they’re interacting the way they should,” William says.

“So, what we’re trying to understand is how good relationships naturally form. And then we want to reproduce that in a dish, providing the right factors or ambience, for two cells to want to interact, at the right time and place in their development process, to form stable, long-term relationships.”

To achieve this, his team is first focused on understanding the cross-talk between cells – aka “good communication” – which contributes to stable relationships in the development of a healthy myotendinous junction. 

“This approach will serve as proof of concept to determine if mapping intercellular communication can be used for tissue engineering,” he says.

“And, if we can do that in muscles, it can then be applied to engineer next-generation organ-on-chip systems, using a controlled, bottom-up approach akin to building cars – starting from scratch and piecing together all the different components to recreate organs.”

Then he hopes to teach his ‘muscles’ to connect with neurons to form a neuromuscular junction, in which a neuron forms synaptic connections with a muscle cell. And that would transform research into debilitating muscular and neuromuscular disorders – including MND in which people lose control over skeletal muscles that allow them to move, talk, eat and, ultimately, breathe.

“Modelling a neuromuscular junction will allow us to tackle neuromuscular diseases that are poorly understood and for which there’s no cure,” William says.

“We’re still trying to form a mature neuromuscular junction that better mimics what happens in our bodies. Right now, nobody has been able to do this in a dish.”

MND is a difficult disease to model given 90 per cent of cases are ‘sporadic’, involving random, non-hereditary gene mutations; and 10 per cent ‘familial’, involving inherited, known gene mutations.

Every day in Australia, two people die from MND and another two people are diagnosed with the disease, which has an average life expectancy of two to three years from diagnosis. Yet the disease is still poorly understood, with ongoing debate about the biggest contributor.

“We still don’t really know if it’s just a neuron disease, and the muscle is kind of an unlucky bystander or if the muscle actually plays a role,” William says.

“What we do know is the motor neuron, which controls muscle contraction, detaches from the muscle, causing the neuromuscular junction to become unstable. And, when the neuron no longer touches the muscle, people with MND lose voluntary muscle mobility.

“Little by little, they lose the ability to move and do activities until eating becomes difficult, speaking becomes difficult, and then breathing, which usually leads to death.

“Our hope is to delay or completely prevent the detachment of the neuron from the muscle by improving communication between the cells, enabling people living with MND to keep control over their movements.”

William obtained a Master of Science (Physiology) from Montreal’s McGill University, before completing his PhD in muscle cell biology, split between Paris Descartes University and Berlin’s Freie University, focusing on nuclear positioning during skeletal muscle development. He undertook post-doctoral research on induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), in Kyoto; stem cell biology, in Barcelona; and spatial genomics at California’s Stanford University – all while leading the tissue engineering MyoChip team in Lisbon.

William joined the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute in June 2023 as an EMBL Australia Group Leader.

Photos for media use

Dr william roman
Dr william roman
Dr william roman and the roman group

Where are all the sawfish?

Australia is home to some of the last significant populations of sawfish on the planet. We need your help to find out how many are left?

  • In December 2023, the world’s five sawfish species were reassessed as ‘critically endangered’ on the IUCN Red List.
  • Four of the five species – Freshwater sawfish, Narrow sawfish, Dwarf sawfish and Green sawfish – are found in north Australian waters, but ‘proof of life’ is limited to isolated pockets in Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
  • During National Sawfish Sighting Week 2024 (26 October – 2 November), citizen scientists are needed to help spot these rare and endangered creatures or, just as importantly, report back if they are nowhere to be seen. Registration closes Friday 25 October: https://www.sharksandraysaustralia.com/sawfish-week-registration/.

Forty years ago, sawfish were regularly spotted in Australia’s tropical and subtropical waters, as far south as Sydney Harbour. Today, the shark-like rays, easily distinguished by their saw-like snouts which can extend up to two metres (about the length of a Queen-size bed), are rarely seen outside the Gulf of Carpentaria, Northern Territory and the Kimberley.

“With sawfish habitats disappearing globally, we’re in a race against time to find out where these magnificent creatures still exist, and in what numbers,” says zoologist and sawfish expert Dr Barbara Wueringer.

The founder and principal scientist of Sharks And Rays Australia (SARA), a nonprofit research organisation headquartered in Cairns, is calling for citizen scientists across Australia’s north to step up during National Sawfish Sighting Week (26 October – 2 November). Register here.

The event is open to participants in Western Australia (from Perth, up the west coast), Northern Territory and Queensland (as far south as Brisbane). Public sightings can also be submitted throughout the year via SARA’s website.

“For four out of five sawfish species, north Australian waters may contain their last populations, and we can’t let them quietly disappear,” Dr Wueringer says. “This is why we want as many people as possible to register and join the search party during National Sawfish Sighting Week.”

Participants who register by Friday 25 October will go in a draw to win “a trip of a lifetime”, joining SARA scientists on a 2025 expedition through Queensland’s wild north, up to Cape York Peninsula.

SARA expedition: skardon river, mapoon. Photo by johnny gaskell
[Read more…] about Where are all the sawfish?

Kids should play outside more to reduce the risk of short-sightedness and potential adult blindness

Children’s eye health is the theme of World Sight Day on 10 October.

  • We are in the grips of a ‘myopia epidemic’: more than 20 per cent of Australians have myopia or short-sightedness, tipped to rise to 50 per cent by 2050.
  • The condition typically develops during school years and, in severe cases, can lead to blindness.
  • Children with early-onset myopia are at highest risk.

For most people, with myopia, being short-sighted is an inconvenience. However, for some, myopia can lead to blindness. Ahead of World Sight Day (10 October), researchers at the Lions Eye Institute have some eye-opening advice.

While many parents are forever telling kids to get off their mobile phones, evidence reveals spending time on small screens isn’t the critical issue. Rather, it’s the lack of outdoor time, alongside time spent glued to larger computer screens or reading books.

Research by the team at the Lions Eye Institute also shows people who have had skin cancer are half as likely to have myopia. Their advice is to responsibly balance myopia and skin cancer prevention by aiming to safely increase time outdoors, early or late in the day.

The Perth-based institute is investigating eye growth and genetic factors in children to develop population-based measures for use in standard preschool health checks to predict which children need early intervention to protect their sight.

Lead researcher, Professor David Mackey AO says: “Preschool and primary school children at greatest risk will need interventions, which include increased time outdoors, low-concentration atropine drops, peripheral defocus lenses and possibly other treatments being investigated.”

[Read more…] about Kids should play outside more to reduce the risk of short-sightedness and potential adult blindness

Fingerprints of one million stars unlock the history of the Milky Way

Australian-led GALAH project releases the chemical fingerprints for almost 1,000,000 stars on the 50th birthday of the AAT, Australia’s largest optical telescope.

Australian scientists have released data from a massive, stellar mapping survey that has analysed nearly 1 million stars in the Milky Way. The data will form the basis for decades of research into the origins and development of our galaxy, as well as providing a valuable training set for the next generation of huge artificial intelligence-driven astronomical surveys.

[Read more…] about Fingerprints of one million stars unlock the history of the Milky Way

Let’s get COP to Australia and the Pacific in 2026

  • Critical to guiding the world to a better future
  • Critical to the survival of many Pacific nations
  • A driver for faster transition in Australia
  • 150 world leaders, 85,000 delegates, bigger than four AFL Grand Finals

The UN Climate Change Conference (COP) is the critical annual event that’s guiding the world through the climate crisis to a better future.

Over 85,000 delegates attended COP last year in Dubai. They included more than 150 Heads of State and Government. As an event, it’s the equivalent of four AFL Grand Final weeks.

Delegates at the Better Futures Forum in Canberra heard why COP should come to Australia and the Pacific in 2026 with the release of Winning bid: The Pacific partnership that can power our security and prosperity, a new report by the Climate Council and Smart Energy Council.

Pacific island nations are facing the brunt of climate change while Australia is the world’s third-largest fossil fuel exporter.

But Australian families are world leaders in adopting solar, with Australian innovation driving the development of cutting-edge solar and battery technologies globally.

And Australia’s mining industries are working hard to transition to sustainability and to create the green iron, green steel, and other green minerals that China, Japan, Korea and our other trading partners will demand, so they can meet the expectations of their global customers, and their communities.

And we have endless sun, to fuel the transition.

“Azerbaijan, as the incoming COP presidency, faces a heavy lift this year—especially with the finance agenda. Brazil is bringing nature and adaptation visions to the table as it prepares for COP30,” says Natalie Unterstell, President of the Talanoa Institute in Brazil.

“Australia may have a crucial role to play in ensuring that we don’t drift away from the destination we’ve agreed upon as a global society—a 1.5ºC-aligned future. Australia must help us anchor a safe and just future in the arc to COP 31,” she says.

The new report (released 11 September) details how co-hosting COP31 would showcase Australia’s own long-term net zero transition. It would bring representatives of national delegations, civil society, business, Indigenous Peoples, youth, philanthropy, and international organizations.

It will encourage more investment, growth and job creation within key industries like clean energy, green hydrogen, and critical minerals.

It will provide the greatest chance of cutting climate pollution around the globe coming at the middle of the ‘make or break’ decade for limiting temperature rise.

Our region’s collective wellbeing, safety and prosperity depends on how quickly we can drive down climate pollution this decade. Hosting United Nations climate talks is an opportunity to recast Australia’s trading relationships in Asia and secure our economic future as a clean energy powerhouse.

Co-hosting the UN Climate Conference in Australia and the Pacific in 2026 is key to turning our nation away from fossil fuels and fully into renewables.

Hosting the entire world in Sydney, Brisbane or even Adelaide for COP31 and sharing that Presidency with the Pacific, will bring a level of scrutiny and accountability that we have never had before.

Co-hosting is directly in line with Australia’s economic interests in selling a Future Made in Australia to Asian trading partners and in line with its security interests in being the partner of choice for the Pacific.

Salā Dr George Carter, Climate Council Fellow, said: “For the Pacific, climate change is the greatest threat to their security and livelihoods; like many Australians, they are living with climate impacts. From Sydney to Suva to Majuro, all our communities are being pushed to their limits by worsening heat, bushfires, floods, storms, and rising seas. No household or community is immune.

“Presiding over COP31 in partnership with Pacific nations will show Australia’s genuine commitment to tackling this challenge head-on. Our future safety and prosperity depend on driving down climate pollution this decade by shifting from fossil fuels to renewable energy, and ensuring climate finance reaches communities and households who are uniquely vulnerable to climate impacts. Together, we can lead the global charge for urgent climate action.”

The Hon Annastacia Palaszczuk, International Ambassador of the Smart Energy Council said: “As the Queensland Premier who kicked off the Jobs and Energy Plan that’s transforming the Sunshine State’s economy, it’s clear to me that co-hosting the COP can do the same for our nation.

“Making the most of hosting the COP requires having a two-year runway, meaning the Australian Government must do all it can to lock the bid in this year.”

Smart Energy Council International Director Richie Merzian said: “Australia has everything it needs to become a renewable energy and critical minerals superpower, and the best global platform to demonstrate this transition is through co-hosting COP31 in 2026.

“As the biggest international trade fair and most influential talks on climate change, securing the event here will deliver enormous economic and security benefits for Australian interests immediately, and into the future.”

The Better Futures Forum (10-11 September) is Australia’s largest multi-sectoral gathering on climate. The third forum at Canberra’s National Film and Sound Archive has showcased significant strides in community-based climate solutions and share insights on scalable solutions in the global race to net zero.

[Read more…] about Let’s get COP to Australia and the Pacific in 2026

We can cut energy bills for everyone everywhere

And banish energy poverty

Renew Australia For All has called for an initial $5 billion investment, backed up by $50 billion over ten years to repower homes and communities everywhere with rooftop solar, batteries, electric appliances and thermal improvements, so that all Australians reap the benefits.

More than 3 million Australian households have already reduced their power bills by installing rooftop solar, saving an average of $1,390 per year. However, many renters, apartment dwellers, social housing tenants, and those unable to afford the upfront costs have missed out.

“All Australians, whether they’re homeowners, apartment-dwellers or renters, should be able to access the benefits of the cheapest delivered energy in the world,” says Dan Cass, Co-Founder of Rewiring Australia.

[Read more…] about We can cut energy bills for everyone everywhere

First Nations have the knowledge and leadership to scale-up climate action

9 September 2024

Tomorrow, First Nations-led organisations and climate advocates from across Australia join a gathering of 260+ public and private sector leaders from every corner of society at the third Better Futures Forum (10-11 September), including:

  • Uncle Ray Minniecon, Indigenous Peoples’ Organisation Australia Co-Chair
  • Caleb Adams, sustainable investment specialist and proud Wulli Wulli man
  • Tishiko King, ocean and climate activist and proud Kulkalaig woman
  • Christian Hampson, urban designer and proud Woiwurrung and Maneroo Aboriginal man
  • Rikki Dank, Gudanji For Country Director and Nimiringki (decision maker) from the Karanjini Rrumburriya clan of the Gudanji nation
  • A Talanoa to discuss climate effects on Pacific nations moderated by ‘Alopi Latukefu and Thelma Raman with Pacific Island representatives.

For 65,000 years Australia’s First Nations peoples have taken care of Country. They have the knowledge and leadership to help Australia and the global community scale-up climate action.

They join delegates from finance to faith, cities and states, businesses large and small, agriculture, resources and energy sectors, health and social services, unions, think tanks, charities, and higher education – to collectively demonstrate how communities, from the ground up, are acting faster and with greater climate ambition than the Australian Government.

[Read more…] about First Nations have the knowledge and leadership to scale-up climate action

First Nations, footballers, Councils, the SA government are all moving faster than the Australian government

Find out what’s possible at day 1 of the Better Futures Forum 2024
National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, Canberra

Tuesday 10 September

Australian communities, industries and subnational programs are driving the renewable-powered, net-zero future – acting faster and with more ambition than the federal government.

Keynotes: Building better, equitable futures for Australia

  • Reece Whitby, WA Minister for Energy, Environment, and Climate Action
  • Brendan French, CEO, Energy Consumers Australia 
  • Michele O’Neil, President, Australian Council of Trade Unions
  • Christian Hampson, CEO and First Nations Design Lead, Yerrabingin
[Read more…] about First Nations, footballers, Councils, the SA government are all moving faster than the Australian government