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Powerful new network to ensure Indigenous Australians can benefit from genomic medicine

Media release from the Australian Alliance for Indigenous Genomics (ALIGN)

A national alliance of the brightest minds in genomic science, academia, policy makers, industry and Indigenous leaders will work to break down barriers to ensure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people can benefit from advances in genomic medicine if they choose.

The Australian Alliance for Indigenous Genomics (ALIGN) has been formed to ensure Indigenous Australians are considered and included in the application of genomic medicine – where information from DNA is used to better inform patient risk, diagnosis and care. Supported by Telethon Kids Institute, the Australian National University and 28 other key partners, ALIGN will be governed by an Indigenous Council to ensure every ‘gift’ of DNA provided by Indigenous Australians is treated with respect.

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Today: from $3 billion genome to the $1,000 genome. Tomorrow: your code on your phone?

The International Congress of Genetics returns to Australia

Today

  • 4 pm: Evensong celebrating science and faith at St Pauls Cathedral – more below
  • 6 pm: Congress opening ceremony with Victorian Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas, and Congress Chair Kathryn North, Melbourne Convention Centre

Monday

  • Capturing the genetic code of every species in the Tree of Life.
  • Nobel Laureate Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, African Biogenome Project leader Anne Muigai, Science Executive Editor Valda Vinson on Women in Science – unique journeys to different peaks, with Jen Martin.

Media welcome

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Precision medicine for Indigenous communities

“Nothing about us, without us”

National Indigenous genomics initiative launch

Sunday 16 July 2023 10 am

Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre

A national centre launched today will bring the benefits of genomics medicine to Indigenous Australians, who still have a life expectancy 10 years less that the general population.

“80 per cent of this life expectancy gap is due to chronic disease,” says Alex Brown, Lead of The Australian Alliance for Indigenous Genomics (ALIGN) and Professor of Indigenous Genomics at the Telethon Kids Institute and the Australian National University. Alex is a member of the Yuin Nation and grew on the NSW South Coast.

“Australia is on the cusp of a new era in personalised medicine that will bring deeper insights into common diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and cancer,” he says.

“ALIGN is a commitment designed by Indigenous people, for Indigenous people, to offer the benefit of genomic medicine to all,” he says.

“Its basic premise is ‘nothing about us, without us.’ This is critical to ensure equity is achieved in health outcomes,” he says.

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Transforming Melbourne, transforming the world

International Genetics Congress returns

  • When will genetics deliver on the hype and truly guide your healthcare?
  • It’s in the air and water – a campaign to find and protect Australia’s missing plant and animal species
  • Growing rice without paddies and other plant breeding tricks
  • Life in the most extreme environments
  • How flies solve the riddles of rare human diseases
  • Catch-22: perils, promises, and profit from indigenous peoples’ DNA

Plus

  • Celebrating genetics at St Pauls
  • Counting peas: Mendel’s 201st birthday
  • An oratorio on the Origins of the Universe, of Life, of Species, of Humanity 
  • Are super athletes born or made? Genetics vs Sport 

Some of the hundreds of stories to be discovered at the 23rd International Genetic Congress, 16 to 21 July at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. The media are welcome.

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Australia can turn research into innovation, jobs and companies

The idea that Australian can lead in research, but can’t capture the benefits will be challenged in Adelaide this week.

Cooperative Research Australia’s 2023 conference at the Adelaide Convention Centre will reveal how Australian researchers are successfully turning research into innovations that are transforming society and creating jobs and wealth.

Speakers include State and Federal science ministers and chief scientists.

Media welcome, contact Niall Byrne, niall@scienceinpublic.com.au for accreditation.

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Solving rare disease mysteries and protecting privacy

Macquarie University researchers have demonstrated a new way of linking personal records and protecting privacy. The first application is in identifying cases of rare genetic disorders. There are many other potential applications across society.

Professor Dali Kaafar (Credit: Macquarie University)

The research will be presented at the 18th ACM ASIA Conference on Computer and Communications Security in Melbourne on 12 July.

A five-year-old boy in the US has a mutation in a gene called GPX4, which he shares with just 10 other children in the world. The condition causes skeletal and central nervous system abnormalities. There are likely to be other children with the disorder recorded in hundreds of health and diagnostic databases worldwide, but we do not know of them, because their privacy is guarded for legal and commercial reasons.

But what if records linked to the condition could be found and counted while still preserving privacy? Researchers from the Macquarie University Cyber Security Hub have developed a technique to achieve exactly that. The team includes Dr Dinusha Vatsalan and Professor Dali Kaafar of the University’s School of Computing and the boy’s father, software engineer Mr Sanath Kumar Ramesh, who is CEO of the OpenTreatments Foundation in Seattle, Washington.

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Media welcome – International Congress of Genetics

Media are welcome. 
For more information and accreditation contact:
Niall Byrne niall@scienceinpublic.com.au +61-417-131-977

Twenty years ago, Australia hosted the International Congress of Genetics. It marked the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the Double Helix, explored the impact of the recently completed human genome project, and discussed how the genetics revolution would transform health, agriculture, food, sport, even the law.

Today, we’re seeing the genetics revolution in action:

  • mRNA is transforming vaccine and drug development,
  • mysterious genetic disorders are being unravelled and even cured,
  • plant and animal breeding is being transformed by CRISPR and other technologies,
  • pests, diseases and biodiversity are being monitored by eDNA,
  • synthetic biology is offering ways of turning agricultural waste into biofuels.

The Congress will be back in Australia, in Melbourne, from 16-21 July 2023.

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Five steps to a world of intelligent life

A path to cognition

Five major changes in the computational capacity of brains have led to the world of intelligent life around us.

That’s the conclusion of Professor Andrew Barron from Macquarie University with Dr Marta Halina from the University of Cambridge and Professor Colin Klein from the Australian National University (ANU), in a paper published today in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

They say that one billion years of evolution has led to five fundamentally different types of brains, each suited to its purpose.

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Don’t know what you got (‘til it’s measured)

Global knowledge inequality threatens ecosystems across the Global South

Images available

Abstract and authors

An international research team has revealed a knowledge gap that threatens our capacity to understand and protect tropical forests and other ecosystems from climate change.

In a paper published in the journal New Phytologist, researchers from the University of Buffalo, Western Sydney University (WSU), Aarhus University and UNSW show a lack of measurement of plant traits across the Global South and call for action to integrate regional and global data to fill the gap.

In the paper, they demonstrate how they more than doubled the information available globally about Australian plants by integrating the AusTraits database, an initiative supported by the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC), with the global TRY database.

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Bees make decisions better and faster than we do

Research reveals how we could design robots to think like bees

Bees available to film at Macquarie and Sheffield, video overlay and graphics available.

Image Credit Théotime Colin.

Honey bees have to balance effort, risk and reward, making rapid and accurate assessments of which flowers are mostly likely to offer food for their hive. Research published in the journal eLife today reveals how millions of years of evolution has engineered honey bees to make fast decisions and reduce risk.

The study enhances our understanding of insect brains, how our own brains evolved, and how to design better robots.

The paper presents a model of decision-making in bees and outlines the paths in their brains that enable fast decision-making. The study was led by Professor Andrew Barron from Macquarie University in Sydney, and Dr HaDi MaBouDi, Neville Dearden and Professor James Marshall from the University of Sheffield.

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