This year has been exciting for staff, students and science alike. We have been particularly successful in attracting external funds in 2001, which marked the first year of our application to the national competitive grants scheme. Funding highlights include a grant of $11.5M for a Phenomics Facility headed by Professor Chris Goodnow. A new laboratory will be established to build upon, and provide wide access to, new technology pioneered here for analysing perturbations in mammalian genes for their phenotypic effects.

Chris Goodnow was also awarded $3.3M for research into molecular analysis of pathways in diabetes from a joint Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and National Health and Medical Research Council initiative, as well as a large grant from the Wellcome Trust. Professor Stephen Redman won a Human Frontiers Science Program grant for functional analysis of genetically defined interneurons in the spinal cord, and this was ranked first of the 99 applications in Neuroscience. Professor Chris Parish and Dr Mark Hulett were successful in attracting an NHMRC program grant in association with Professor Colin Chesterman and colleagues at UNSW.

One of our very distinguished Visiting Fellows, Professor Gordon Ada, was selected as a 2001 Johns Hopkins University Society of Scholars inductee.

Our younger scientists also had substantial success. In addition to his program grant, Mark Hulett was awarded a Charles & Sylvia Viertel Fellowship. Simon Hogan won The AMRAD Post-Doctoral Award and Surendran Mahalingam was chosen as one of 16 fresh scientists to present their work at Science Now.

2001 also saw confirmation that the new Canberra Medical School would go ahead at ANU. Professor Alex Bune was appointed as interim Dean and Professor Paul Gatenby as founding Dean of the new undergraduate medical school. We are looking forward to working closely with the new School.

Ms Bea Brickhill came to us as Development Manager for the School with wide ranging experience and success in fundraising. The School has received a very generous bequest from the estate of Friedel Oster in memory of Madeleine Lustig for cancer research within Professor Board's group. Dr Joyce Fildes, a former staff member, has generously made a donation to the School to endow the Joyce Fildes Honours Scholarship. Her donation attracted matching funds from the Vice-Chancellor. Our Alumni association is up and running and our first newsletter was sent out in November.

Building plans have progressed and our refurbished Wing F was opened by the Vice-Chancellor in October. We have also upgraded the front foyer to provide a more attractive first impression to visitors.

A significant highlight for the School was the launch on November 15 by the Hon Dr Barry Jones of the history of the first 50 years of the School co-authored by former Directors Professors Frank Fenner and David Curtis. The publication was made possible by a generous donation from Frank Fenner.

A former Director of the School, Professor Kevin Lafferty, died on 21st July, 2001. Kevin was one of our most distinguished scientists, and his death caused much sadness. His spirit lives on both in the School's active engagement in diabetes research, and in the outstanding scientists he recruited to the School. We miss him.

Professor Judith A Whitworth
Howard Florey Professor of Medical Research

Research highlights include

Histone H2A.Z - David Tremethick
Histones are proteins that hold DNA in a compact structure called chromatin. One of the histones, H2A.Z, is highly conserved species from yeast to man. Our recent studies suggest that a major role of H2A.Z is to regulate chromatin fibres to promote chromosomal regions with specific functions in early embryonic development.

Diabetes susceptibility gene - Robyn Slattery
Experiments with mice that have an inbred susceptibility to diabetes have led to the identification of the first gene known to confer susceptibility to diabetes.

Targeting genes - Klaus Matthaei
Collaborative studies with Hugh Campbell (RSBS) have shown that the gene known as 'flightless' in fruitflies has a function as a key regulator of the cytoskeleton in early embryonic development in the mouse, remarkably analogous to its role in the fruitfly.

Structure of an important receptor protein - Ian Young
Three different cytokines involved in the regulation of blood cell formation and inflammation have a common receptor. Collaborative studies (with Ollis and Carr at RSC) have allowed us to define the three dimensional structure of the extracellular part of the signalling entity of the receptor. It has a novel double (or dimeric) structure which is clearly important to its function of binding cytokines.

Cancer vaccination - Chris Parish and Paul Foster
The discovery of a mechanism by which the immune system attacks lung metastases by a process involving eosinophils and the chemokine, eotaxin, has provided a basis for a new approach to cancer vaccination that is effective against cytotoxic T lymphocyte-resistant tumours.

Viral hepatitis - Eva Lee, Arno Müllbacher, Mario Lobigs
Experiments with gene-targeted or natural mutant mice have shown that the body uses different pathways in the immune system for fighting viral infections. Our findings suggest that we may be able to devise therapeutic means to either enhance recovery from viral infections or to prevent or minimise immunopathological consequences of the host's immune response.

Scrambled antigen vaccines - Scott Thomson
A new technology patented in 2001 will allow the development of more effective and safe vaccines using a totally synthetic approach to molecularly re-engineer whole pathogens or large numbers of antigens simultaneously. It can also be used to combine multiple cancer antigens safely into a single vaccine.

Unexpected effect of nitric oxide - Bill Cowden and Brett Charlton
In contrast to many reports in the scientific and medical literature we have discovered that nitric oxide (NO) may actually slow down or reverse the disease process. This finding may be important in devising treatments for autoimmune disease.

Brain receptor - Pankaj Sah
A novel type of receptor has been found in a region of the brain involved in fear and emotions, called the amygdala. This may provide a key target for the development of therapeutic drugs.

Congenital deafness - Bruce Walmsley and Sharon Oleskevich
Research on congenital deafness has revealed that disused nerve cell connections in the brain are more powerful in early development. This work provides insights into how the brain processes information generated by electrical stimulation of the auditory nerve (cochlear implant) in people deaf from birth.

Nerve cells in learning and memory - Greg Stuart
The role of the electrical properties of nerve cells in processing signals from other nerve cells has been investigated. The results have implications for the processes of learning and memory which may lead to better treatments for brain disorders (for example Alzheimer's disease).