Science In Public
Science writers, communicators, media, training, and public relations
Most vaccines need a ‘magic’ booster or adjuvant to boost our immune response to the vaccine. But the best adjuvants are too toxic for human use.
Now NZ scientists believe they have created a powerful and safe adjuvant and are trialling it as part of a new cancer vaccine. [Read more…] about A clean, safe vaccine booster
How many viruses are there in your blood? How many dangerous nano-particles in your car exhaust?
qViro is a revolutionary New Zealand invention that offers the potential to quickly and cheaply answer these questions. It’s a feature of Ausbiotech – the national biotechnology conference – being held in Melbourne today. [Read more…] about Counting viruses and mustering molecules
Follow this link to Ian Frazer’s acceptance speech: http://www.uq.edu.au/news/?article=16238
Ian Frazer has created four vaccines to fight cervical cancer. Two of them-Gardasil and Cervarix-are now on the market. Both prevent infection with the virus responsible for most cervical cancers. The other two vaccines are in clinical trials and are designed to treat women who have already been infected.
And Ian isn’t finished-he’s already working on the next generation of cervical cancer vaccines. But his greatest challenge is to get the vaccines to where they can do most good, in developing countries where screening programs are not widely available and 200,000 women die every year from cervical cancer.
Only then will his battle against cervical cancer be complete.
[Read more…] about A hero of women and science: 2008 Prime Minister’s Prize for Science
Milk is complex, and understanding its molecular biology is a difficult but rewarding challenge.
Not only are human and cow milk of huge social and economic importance, the milk of other animals reveals much about the evolution and development of mammals – including us.
Victorian researchers have created a unique computing resource to share information about their discoveries of milk’s molecular biology.
Why don’t elephants (and humans) have thousands of little babies instead of one big one?
[Read more…] about Big babies and small families make evolutionary sense
The world’s fastest growing abalone—the tropical donkey’s ear abalone, Haliotis asinina—can be bred to grow rapidly and reliably for aquaculture, Queensland biologists have found. And that makes it potentially a high value alternative crop for struggling prawn farmers.
The researchers looked at whether they could speed up breeding of abalone for aquaculture using modern technology to identify and select genes that are activated in fast-growing animals. By linking the abundance of specific genes with fast growth rates, they have now shown their proposal is practical.
Read full story here
Jamie RossjohnProteins are the molecular machines of all life. Their shape is the key to understanding how they function, or malfunction. We can use this knowledge to understand the natural world, and to guide the development of tests, vaccines and drugs to fight disease.
Jamie Rossjohn is one of Australia’s leaders in structural biology and X-ray crystallography, a burgeoning field of science built around understanding the shape and function of proteins and other biological molecules. [Read more…] about 2004 Science Minister’s Prize for Life Scientist of the Year