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Merlot-making microbes, health tech, hangry, fifty shades of cray, and more

Tuesday 14 August 2018

Highlights from day four of National Science Week

347 events and exhibitions, 20 online activities, and dozens of great stories and talent.

National and international talent, researchers, experts, and other interesting people available for interview around the country. Plenty of photo opportunities.

Adelaide

How do microbes turn grape juice into wine?
Why giant cuttlefish do so well in the water near Whyalla

Canberra

How are mobile devices and apps affecting our mental health and how can they be used as a force for good?
How will climate change affect whisky?

Gene editing, superbugs, wine as medicine: a healthy dose of Science Week

How will apps, mobiles and sensors transform healthcare? Harvard professor in Melbourne
Wine as medicine and why vineyards were planted in lunatic asylums, Sydney
Hangry? Ask an expert how hunger influences behaviour, Melbourne
Technology: good or bad for your mental health? Canberra
What’s the latest in cancer research and can we find a cure? Adelaide & Sydney

Dozens of interesting health stories, people and events around Australia for National Science Week this August, including:

Gene editing is as simple as cutting and pasting, Adelaide
Superbugs: what we need to do to become resistance fighters, Sydney
The beauty of killers and cures under the microscope, Melbourne
Assessing your own health in a pop-up laboratory, Darwin
Recipes to feed yourself and your gut bacteria, Perth
Young scientists with healthy advice for senior Australians, Adelaide
Talk about your health for the Health Box Stories podcast, Hobart.

More on these highlights below, and others at www.scienceinpublic.com.au/science-week, and on Twitter at @SciWKMedia. [Read more…] about Gene editing, superbugs, wine as medicine: a healthy dose of Science Week

Could nose cells treat spinal cord injuries?

Scientists developing robust method to treat spinal cord injuries using nose cells

Researchers have designed a new way to grow nose cells in the lab heralding hope for sufferers of spinal cord injuries, including those who are wheelchair bound.

Griffith University’s Mr Mo Chen grew nose nerve cells in the lab, which can treat mice with spinal cord injuries.

“My colleagues placed the nerve cells into mice that were suffering from spinal cord injuries,” says Mr Chen. “The mice quickly recovered and could walk again, but we’re still working on improving the therapy”.

One of the difficulties of this kind of research is growing cells effectively in the laboratory.

“Our bodies are 3D not 2D so the best way of growing cells in the lab, is 3D,” says Mr Chen. “With our method we can grow healthier 3D cultures in a shorter time.”

$6.9 million quest for new antibiotics from Australia’s unique microbiome

Macquarie University and UWA scientists will join forces with two Australian companies to search for new antibiotics in 500,000 species of Australian microbes.

Background information below.

The project will be supported by a $3 million CRC-P grant announced by Australia’s Assistant Minister for Science, Jobs and Innovation, Senator Zed Seselja.

“We have samples of over 500,000 Australian microbes,” says Dr Ernest Lacey, Managing Director of Sydney-based company, Microbial Screening Technologies (MST), and the leader of the project.

Microbe-covered plates. Image credit: Andrew Piggott

“We’ve collected them from the soil in backyards, in paddocks, and forests. We’ve collected them from insects, plants and animals. We’ve gone everywhere to find Australia’s unique microbiome.”

“Each microbe contains a unique cocktail of metabolites. When we find an interesting new molecule, we’ll be relying on Macquarie University researcher Dr Andrew Piggott and his team to help us to work out its structure and mode of action.”

“Then Dr Heng Chooi from UWA will use genomics to unravel how the microbes assemble these metabolites and then boost their productivity.”

“Advanced Veterinary Therapeutics (AVT) is led by Dr Stephen Page and will focus on animal health potential,” says Dr Lacey.

“The CRC-P Program helps businesses, industries and research organisations to work together on short-term projects to develop practical solutions to challenges in key industry sectors,” Assistant Minister Seselja said at the project launch.

The three-year project, “BioAustralis, towards the future”, will harness MST’s unique collection as a source of next-generation antibiotics capable of overcoming microbial resistance. [Read more…] about $6.9 million quest for new antibiotics from Australia’s unique microbiome

Physical sciences (alone) can’t save us: we need to understand human behaviour, too.

Science is important in solving the world’s biggest problems.

But can the social sciences solve our planet’s biggest issues on their own?

Last month’s Woolworths’ and Coles’ plastic bag ban is a perfect example: environmental scientists have known for decades that plastic is harmful to the environment but changing habits at the individual level has not been simple.

Nature Sustainability’s Australian launch with (L-R) Tanya Ha, Rebekah Brown, Kath Rowley, Veena Sahajwalla and Robyn Schofield. Image credit: *Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute/Claire Denby*

Relying on the physical sciences alone to fix the world’s problems is futile. So the leaders of Springer Nature have decided it’s time for a journal that is broad based and cross-disciplinary. Nature Sustainability publishes research about sustainability from the natural and social sciences, as well as engineering and policy, and was launched in Australia on July 17 by Monica Contestabile, the Chief Editor of the new journal.

Academics are traditionally siloed into research areas and often forget to think about how the research will be embedded into society. Yet understanding human behaviour and how the public may respond to research can be the difference between failure and success in policy.

There is a need for academia and policy, along with the social sciences, to work together, so science can be developed with society in mind. And when these three things work together, real change can happen.

NASA scientists, Vitamania, colliding galaxies, gut health, and dancing with science

August is a prime time to talk innovation and science—National Science Week kicks off Saturday 11 August

It’s time to plan your coverage of 2,000+ events across Australia for National Science Week, 11-19 August.

We have national touring speakers, and local events everywhere from the Tiwi Islands to Hobart:

NASA scientists touring Australia, including Aussie astrophysicist Jessie Christiansen, Silicon Valley astronomer Geert Barentsen, and influential planet hunter Natalie Batalha
using dance to teach STEM— US dancer and algebra teacher Yamilee Toussaint visits Perth
are vitamins worth it? Ask Derek Muller, the Canadian-Australian host of the new film Vitamania
what will happen when our galaxy collides with Andromeda? Astrophysicist, author and Stargazing Live TV presenter Lisa Harvey-Smith on the future of the night sky, in Sydney and Melbourne
actor and comedian Lawrence Leung does stand-up for science in Hobart

When will stem cells save more lives?

Melissa Little and her colleagues worked for six years to bring the world’s largest stem cell meeting to Melbourne this week.

What did she learn? What are the next big steps should we should be watching for in curing diseases and saving lives with stem cells?

Melissa can also talk about her own research at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. She’s made mini-kidneys that are a step towards stopping a silent killer, chronic kidney disease.

The International Society for Stem Cell Research 2018 Annual Meeting closes today. 2,500+ stem cell scientists from 53 countries heard from 150+ speakers.

Treating haemophilia and eye disease with gene therapy

Katherine High (USA) will report today on an FDA approved gene therapy for a form of blindness, and on a clinical trial in people with haemophilia. [Read more…] about When will stem cells save more lives?

Manufacturing a cell therapy peace-keeping force, and more

20-23 June 2018 at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre

International Society for Stem Cell Research 2018 Annual Meeting: 2,500+ stem cell scientists from 50 countries will hear from 150+ speakers including:

Lab-grown mini-brains make new connections

Fred ‘Rusty’ Gage (USA) is making mini-brains from human stem cells in the lab. But in order for these new tissues to function, they need to become well-connected.

Fred is pioneering research to explore how transplanted human neural organoids (mini-organs) can mature into tissues with blood vessel and nerve connections. This work could lead to methods of replacing brain tissue lost to stroke or disease, and repairing spinal cords damaged by trauma.

Tracing blood back to its beginnings to tackle leukaemia

Right now, the stem cells in your bone marrow are making one billion new red blood cells per minute. Andrew Elefanty (Australia) is studying both embryonic stem cells and more specialised blood-forming stem cells to reveal how our body makes blood and what leads to leukaemia and other blood diseases. He will reveal his team’s latest insights. [Read more…] about Manufacturing a cell therapy peace-keeping force, and more

Key day 100 survival outcomes for graft versus host disease trial: 2018 ISSCR Annual Meeting

New York, USA; June 20, 2018; and Melbourne, Australia; June 21, 2018:

Mesoblast Limited (ASX:MSB; Nasdaq:MESO) today announced key Day 100 survival outcomes of its Phase 3 trial for remestemcel-L, an allogeneic mesenchymal stem cell product candidate, in children with steroid refractory acute Graft Versus Host Disease (aGVHD). The results are being presented today at the 2018 annual meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR), being held in Melbourne from June 20-23.

The open-label Phase 3 trial enrolled 55 children with steroid-refractory aGVHD (aged between two months and 17 years) in 32 sites across the United States, with 89% of patients suffering from the most severe form, grade C/D aGVHD. The trial was performed under an United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Investigational New Drug Application (NCT#02336230). [Read more…] about Key day 100 survival outcomes for graft versus host disease trial: 2018 ISSCR Annual Meeting

Treating diabetes; turning skin cells into brain cells; hearts in a dish

20-23 June 2018 at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre

International Society for Stem Cell Research 2018 Annual Meeting: 2,500+ stem cell scientists from 50 countries will hear from 150+ speakers including:

Treating type 1 diabetes with stem cells

A Harvard team has shown they can control glucose levels in mice using a transplant of insulin-producing cells made from human stem cells. Doug Melton presents his research today.

His effort to fight diabetes involves a 30-person lab at Harvard and a start-up company, Semma Therapeutics, which he named after his children. His son Sam and daughter Emma both have type 1 diabetes.

Skin cells become brain cells to solve a mystery

Queensland researchers have taken skin cells from a young patient with a rare genetic brain condition and turned them into stem cells that are coaxed to become brain cells. Massimo Damiani has now passed away, but his legacy of growing brain cells in the lab could help others with this rare condition.

Hearts in a dish helping personalised medicine

Christine Mummery and her Dutch research team have discovered that heart cells made from patient stem cells with known mutations predicted the electrical heart problems and drug sensitivities observed in the patients themselves.

Christine is co-author of the book Stem Cells: Scientific Facts and Fiction.

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Operations

Tuesday 14 August 2018

Highlights from day four of National Science Week

Scientists developing robust method to treat spinal cord injuries using nose cells

Macquarie University and UWA scientists will join forces with two Australian companies to search for new antibiotics in 500,000 species of Australian microbes.

Science is important in solving the world’s biggest problems.

August is a prime time to talk innovation and science—National Science Week kicks off Saturday 11 August

Treating haemophilia and eye disease with gene therapy

20-23 June 2018 at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre

Lab-grown mini-brains make new connections

Tracing blood back to its beginnings to tackle leukaemia

New York, USA; June 20, 2018; and Melbourne, Australia; June 21, 2018:

20-23 June 2018 at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre

Treating type 1 diabetes with stem cells

Skin cells become brain cells to solve a mystery

Hearts in a dish helping personalised medicine

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