Life on other planets, sex determination in marsupials, the links between genetics and mental health—that’s the breadth of research spanned by the four Australians and one New Zealander, life scientists all, who have become L’Oréal Laureate fellows since the awards were inaugurated in 1998. In 2009, one of these women, Elizabeth Blackburn, went on to win Nobel Prize in Medicine.
The Laureate fellowships, worth $US100,000, are awarded annually in each of five geographic regions—Africa and the Arab States, Asia-Pacific, Europe, North America, and Latin America. They acknowledge women at the peak of achievement and the forefront of science, and partner the L’Oréal For Women in Science Fellowshipswhich help early career women scientists to stick with research.
Two Australians and one New Zealander have become L’Oréal Laureate fellows for the Asia-Pacific region:
- Prof Margaret Brimble (2007) of the University of Auckland makes antibiotic, antiviral and anticancer compounds by mimicking molecules from plants, animals, and microbes;
- Prof Jennifer Graves (2006) of La Trobe University, Melbourne opened the way to understanding gender-related disorders in humans by comparing the genes of Australia’s vast range of mammals; and
- Prof Suzanne Cory (2001), president of the Australian Academy of Science and former director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, has demonstrated the significant role genes play in cancer and the immune system.
Another two scientists, who were born in Australia, have won L’Oréal Laureate fellowships in the North America region:
- Prof Jillian Banfield (2011) of the University of California, Berkeley (born in Armidale, NSW) works out how to recognise alien life forms and remediate contaminated soil by studying microbes in extreme environments;
- Prof Elizabeth Blackburn (2008) of the University of California, San Francisco (born in Hobart) showed how the way that cells protect the ends of their chromosomes during division can lead to cancer;
Prof Jillian Banfield (2011)
While solving problems of cleaning up contaminated soils, Jill Banfield is helping NASA recognise alien life forms. She studies the interactions between microbes in extreme physical environments, such as in highly acidic mines.
Using cutting-edge techniques, Banfield and her students have sequenced the genomes of extremophile bacteria and catalogued the proteins they produce.
Her work has improved the understanding of how life survives in the most unlikely places, and thus can assist us in finding the signature of life on other planets.
Find out more at the offical L’Oréal site here.
Prof Elizabeth Blackburn (2008)
Elizabeth Blackburn and her colleagues not only discovered the DNA sequences which make up the telomeres that form the ends of chromosomes, but also recognised their importance in cell replication.
Without intact telomeres, cells cannot divide and tumours cannot prosper. The researchers also discovered the enzyme, telomerase, that is responsible for building telomeres.
Telomeres hold pairs of chromosomes together during cell division and are important in organising the genetic material during replication. In each cell division a little of the telomere is lost, so the cell eventually can replicate no more.
But tumour cells retain the capacity to keep dividing and that depends on active telomerase. This area of study has become so significant to medical research that Blackburn and her co-workers won the Nobel Prize in 2009.Find out more at the offical L’Oréal site here.
Prof Margaret Brimble (2007)
Margaret Brimble has become a leader in New Zealand’s biopharmaceutical industry by working hard at making shellfish toxins. In humans, these poisons are responsible for conditions ranging from diarrhoea to extreme heart attacks and paralysis.
Most of them regulate the function of ion channels and thus are useful for the design and development of drugs to treat pain, epilepsy, hypertension, stroke and cancer.
Shellfish toxins are also some of the most complex molecular structures known, and often take more than 30 steps, each posing a unique challenge, to prepare in the laboratory. So projects can take years to complete.
Find out more at the offical L’Oréal site here.
Prof Jennifer Graves (2006)
By comparing the genomes of marsupials, egg-laying and placental mammals—that is, exploiting the genetic diversity of Australia’s unique mammals—Jenny Graves has provided valuable insights into mammal development, reproduction, genetic disease, disease defence mechanisms, and species survival in general.
Her contribution to understanding the evolution, function and organization of the mammalian genome has had a major impact. Much of her career has been devoted to exploring the varied sex determination mechanisms of mammals, work which has paved the way for the diagnosis of gender disorders and gender-related disease in humans.
She was heavily involved in the recent publication of the first marsupial genome, of the Tammar wallaby.
Find out more at the offical L’Oréal site here.
Prof Suzanne Cory (2001)
Suzanne Cory works on the interactions between genes, the immune system and cancer. Initially she and her husband and research partner Jerry Adams puzzled out how the body makes the myriad antibodies needed to fight diverse infectious agents.
They found antibody genes are encoded as bits and pieces which can combine in many different ways, thereby creating the variety needed to fight infection. Then they showed how damage to chromosomes can activate cancer-promoting genes.
And their latest research is on how cells decide whether to live or die. This should lead to the development of more effective therapeutics for cancer and degenerative diseases.