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Centenary Institute Lawrence Creative Prize – photos and short profiles

In this post are images and short profiles on the three 2013 Centenary Institute Lawrence Creative Prize finalists.

Diabetes drugs must be precisely targeted

When enzyme inhibiting drugs to treat diabetes were being developed, Mark Gorrell warned that care was needed to ensure the drugs targeted a specific enzyme, leaving other members of the enzyme family unaffected.

Thankfully, his warning was heeded by drug companies.

Associate Professor Mark Gorrell and his team of liver researchers at Sydney’s Centenary Institute have now confirmed that the diabetes drugs and potential cancer therapies based on regulating the dipeptidyl peptidase (DPP) family of enzymes must be carefully targeted to avoid serious side effects such as skin and intestinal damage.

Fixing the body’s leaky pipes

Centenary’s discoveries lead to a commercial agreement to create drugs to fix leaking blood vessels

Australian molecular biologists led by researchers at Centenary have made a synthetic compound that appears to allow them to control the leakiness of blood vessels. The work could lead to effective new drug treatments for strokes and tumours. Spinoffs may include an ability to reduce the side-effects of chemotherapy and inflammation.

Their lead drug candidate, known as CD5-2, was developed with the assistance of Mirrx Therapeutics, a privately owned Danish biotechnology company. Today Centenary has signed an agreement to develop this and other potential drugs with Mirrx. The agreement was facilitated by Bio-Link Australia Pty Ltd.

Connecting Australian researchers to Europe and Japan: EMBL Australia in November

In this month’s newsletter:

2013 Prime Minister’s Science Prizes: responses from colleagues and experts

Below are comments provided by science leaders in Australia. They may be used when reporting on the Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science.

Fighting cancer by the numbers: 2013 Prime Minister’s Prize for Science

Terry Speed

Terry Speed doesn’t expect to see headlines reading “Statistician cures cancer” any time soon. But he knows that the right mathematics and statistics can help researchers understand the underlying causes of cancer and reduce the need for surgery.

A mathematician and statistician, he has written elegant theoretical papers that almost no-one reads. But he has also testified in court, helped farmers and diamond miners, and given biologists statistical tools to help them cope with the genetic revolution.

It’s not a jungle out there: rocking the ecological boat: 2013 Frank Fenner Prize for Life Scientist of the Year

Angela Moles

If you were a pharmaceutical company searching for a natural plant compound to use as the basis for a new line of drugs, where would you begin?

Until recently, this question was a no-brainer. Everyone knows that tropical forests contain the widest diversity of species, all fighting for survival and defending themselves physically and chemically against being invaded or eaten. So the tropics should naturally provide the greatest selection of biologically active compounds.

Quantum computing becomes more than just spin: 2013 Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year

Andrea Morello

People have speculated about the potential of quantum computers for decades—how they would make child’s play of constructing and testing new drugs, searching through huge amounts of data and ensuring that information was fundamentally secure.

But it all seemed like science fiction. No-one really knew how to build one, despite lots of clever ideas for using exotic materials and light. But 15 years of work at the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology and its predecessors have changed everything. The building blocks of a quantum computer have been created and tested in a high tech basement at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). And within a few years Andrea Morello and his colleagues expect to have a small working prototype.

Using a motor race to fuel interest in science: 2013 Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Secondary Schools

Sarah Chapman

Each year in early July, when its 700 students are on holiday, Townsville State High School becomes the headquarters for one of the races in Australia’s V8 Supercar series. But before and after the race the Year 11 science students are hard at work, slopping their way through the nearby mangroves, and wading into the estuary that borders the school.

They are taking measurements to assess the impact of the race on the surrounding environment. Afterwards, the students report their results and pass them on to the local council and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. The data is also assisting a program in which the biology students are collaborating with James Cook University as part of the National Estuary Restorative Study.

A teacher’s laboratory becomes a primary source of inspiration: 2013 Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Primary Schools

Richard Johnson

Model pterosaurs flying overhead, a new insect in the terrarium by the window, a cool video on non-Newtonian fluids on the SMART board down the front—every time the students of Rostrata Primary School in Perth’s southern suburbs enter Mr Johnson’s science lab, there’s something new. Nothing keeps them away from school on science days.

The laboratory is the realisation of something Ric Johnson recognised in more than 30 years as a primary school teacher—the power of science to engage children in the classroom. The problem, says Ric, is that primary teachers are typically not confident in their own knowledge and ability to teach science. Many simply avoid it.

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