2002 was a most successful and rewarding year for the John Curtin School of Medical Research.

Scientific highlights are listed below. Success with external grants We continued our success in attracting external grants. Ian Young, Paul Foster, Klaus Matthaei and Simon Hogan (together with Phil Thompson from WA) have been awarded a $4.8 million NHMRC Program Grant to investigate allergic disorders including asthma, skin problems and rhinitis. Professor Judith Whitworth

Chris Goodnow won US$2million from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) for a project on genes for tolerance and immunity, Ian Ramshaw and Alastair Ramsay US$400,000 from NIH for vaccine research, and Peter Gage was awarded a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Senior Principal Research Fellowship. School staff also won 15 NHMRC Project grants, 4 Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery grants, and 3 ARC Linkage Grants.

 

Staff achievements
The School celebrated some significant personal achievements, Professor Frank Fenner received the Ian Clunies Ross Lifetime Achievement Award, the Prime Minister's Prize for Science and was named ACT Australian of the Year for 2003. Dr Greg Stuart was presented with the German Government endowed Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Sofja Kovalevskaja award, Professor Philip Board was named the Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Lemberg Medallist for 2002, Professor Chris Goodnow was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, and Professor Judith Whitworth was named Telstra ACT Business Woman of the Year.

John Curtin School Prizes

The Howard Florey Young Investigators Award is made annually to recognise outstanding achievement in research carried out in the School by a scientist having no more than ten years postdoctoral research experience by 24 September (Florey's birthday) in the year of the award. The 2002 award was won by Dr Mark Hulett. Mark's field is cancer research and he was one of the team which cloned heparanase. Their overall goal is to better understand both the biology and structure of heparanase to enable the development of inhibitors of the enzyme, which will hopefully lead to new drugs to prevent cancer spread, angiogenesis, and inflammation.

Dr Mark Hulett displays his Howard Florey Young Investigators medal beside a bust of Lord Florey by John Dowie

The Fenner Medal is awarded for an outstanding PhD thesis by a student in the School. The purpose of the award is to encourage the PhD students in the School to strive for excellence, and to reward outstanding achievement at an early career stage. The 2001 Fenner medal was awarded to Dr Jade Forwood. Congratulations to these two outstanding young scientists.   Dr Jade Forwood with his Frank Fenner Medal in front of a portrait of Professor Fenner by Mathew Lynn

Graduating students
The following students graduated with their PhD in 2002:
Noorjahan Mohamed Alitheen, Jun Wang, Francis Willard, Marie Estcourt, Joanne Attema, Dimitrios Cakouros, Angus Scott Henderson, Torsten Juelich, Robyn Otway, Stephen Martin, Claudia Haarmann, Wei Hu, Michael Bunce, Nikki O'Brien, Nicholas Hamilton.

Community and alumni interactions
Highlights of the year included the School Open Day which attracted large numbers of visitors during the day and in the evening the hypothetical, arranged by Peter Jeffrey was a huge success. An international night was held in October where the School's research staff and students joined embassy representatives from many other countries. Over 40 nationalities are represented in the School. At this event the Alan and Elizabeth Finkel Prize was launched, to reward medical research, undertaken in the School, that assists developing countries. In December we welcomed Jackie Chan and his guests to the School for a viewing of a fascinating video of the Chan family history which encompassed much of the history of 20th century China. Jackie Chan presented a cheque for $145,000 to the Medical Genome Centre for the purchase of an Auto Analyser, in memory of his mother, Miss Lee Lee Chan.

The School celebrated Professor Gordon Ada's 80th birthday on 9 December with a School barbeque. Alumni functions were held at the JCSMR and also in Melbourne in conjunction with the ANU Alumni, and the year was completed with a very convivial town and gown celebration at University House.

Bequests, gifts, sponsorship
The School gratefully accepted from the following - the Estate of Friedel Oster $200,000; Alan and Elizabeth Finkel $50,000; Joyce Fildes $20,000; Frank Fenner $20,000; The Public Trustee for the ACT $10,000; Canberra City Dance Club $2,500, Gordon Ada $3,000; Judith Whitworth $2,000.

New building
The long awaited new School building is closer to being realised following a competition in which bids were invited from a short list of seven architectural firms. The successful tenderer was Melbourne firm Lyon|s. Building is expected to commence by late 2003 in the area currently occupied by the workshop and carpark. In the meantime our general staff are doing a magnificent job in keeping our present building functioning.

 

Research highlights

Dr Greg Stuart
Neurological basis of memory
Investigation of the cellular mechanism underlying long term changes in the strength of nerve connections in the brain has shown that repetitive activation of nerves in the cortex of the brain enhances the activation of certain receptors. This research increases our understanding of how our brain makes memories with the potential to help in the development of therapies to treat conditions associated with memory loss (eg Alzheimer's disease).

Dr Pankaj Sah
A new GABA receptor in the amygdala
The central nucleus of the amygdala (an almond-shaped organ in the brain) contains receptors that are inhibited by benzodiazepines, for example valium. We have found a new type of receptor which is a potential target for new classes of drugs to manage anxiety.

Professor Chris Parish
Cancer immunotherapy
We have found that secondary cancers in the lung can be cleared by tumour-specific immune CD4+ Tcells in a process dependent on blood eosinophils. This work, a collaborative study with Dr Paul Foster, provides the basis for a new approach to cancer vaccination.

Dr Keats Nelms
Mining the genome for disease genes
A process we have developed, called genome-wide chemical mutagenesis, subtly alters the DNA code of hundreds of genes simultaneously in a laboratory mouse using the chemical ethyl-nitroso-urea (ENU). The ENU has its effect on genes by inducing random point changes or mutations in the chemical sequence of DNA across the genome. Using this approach we have identified over 50 new strains of mice that exhibit phenotypes directly related to human disease. These include late and early obesity, diabetes, neurological disorders and cancer. The information derived from this genetic excavation will be critical in the development of new therapeutic strategies for the treatment of a number of human diseases.

Professor Chris Goodnow and Mr Stephen Martin
Molecular basis of immunological memory
Our ability to resist infection stems from a cardinal property of the immune system, namely an ability to muster a much higher and faster antibody response when the proteins that make up a virus or bacteria are seen for the second time. We have defined a key role for a 'Tail sequence ' of amino acids in the tail of the antibody. Steve Martin has shown that the memory-type antibody tail dramatically increases the number of progeny cells that are formed. This finding has wide implications for vaccination, allergy and autoimmunity, where cells bearing the memory tail are formed.

Dr Arno Müllbacher, Dr Eva Lee and Dr Mario Lobigs
Mechanism of encephalomyelitis
The mechanism by which encephalic flaviviruses enter the brain to inflict a life-threatening encephalomyelitis is obscure. We have shown that the cell-destroying cytotoxic functions play a crucial role. Mice deficient in pathways of cytotoxicity showed delayed and reduced mortality and were resistant to a low dose peripheral infection with the virus.

Professor Peter Gage
New antiviral drugs
The antiviral drug Amantadine blocks the ion channel formed by a protein of the influenza A virus and depresses replication of the virus. We have discovered a group of drugs that block the ion channels formed by a protein from HIV and also depress HIV-1 replication in some cultured cells. Our hypothesis is that blocking ion channels formed by some other viruses may depress their replication also. Ion channels formed by virus proteins represent a novel potential target for antiviral drugs.

Dr David Tremethick
Turning genes on and off
Gene regulation is connected to the three dimensional structure of the genome. The basis for this structural organization is chromatin, a specific complex of proteins and DNA. It has been established that chromatin plays a fundamental role in maintaining regulated gene expression but the process is not well understood. We have recently discovered that major chromatin remodelling events occur during early mammalian development with the essential histone protein variant, H2A.Z, being specifically targeted to and compacting regions of the genome that are not activated.

Professor Philip Board
GSTs
We have made a knockout mouse that is deficient in a protein called glutathione transferase Zeta. The deficiency is not lethal but the mice suffer from liver disease when they are exposed to high levels of dietary phenylalanine. Studies of the GST proteins may be of importance in understanding the mechanisms by which their over production contributes to drug resistance.

Dr Simon Hogan
GM plants may be good for you.
One major health concern of genetically modified plants in the human food chain is their potential enhanced allergenicity and their ability to predispose to allergic disease. We have been developing models to assess the potential impact of consumption of genetically modified plants in health and disease, in particularly allergic diseases. We have demonstrated possible benefits to the immune system in consuming genetically modified plants.