Bulletin

Issue: August 2005

News

Significance of Suiciding Cells

La Trobe University's Faculty of Science and Technology has been successful in attracting one of Australia's elite scientists – Federation Fellow Professor David Vaux.

Professor Vaux: bringing new life to
cell death research.

A member of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, Professor Vaux is a world expert on the molecular mechanisms of programmed cell death. He joins La Trobe in 2006 to take up the prestigious five-year fellowship.

Funded by the Federal Government, the Australian Research Council's Federation Fellowships are worth quarter of a million dollars a year. They attract top research talent to Australia and help local world-leading researchers to continue their work in Australia.

Dean of Science and Technology, Professor David Finlay, says Professor Vaux will be based in La Trobe's Department of Biochemistry, but will be working closely with researchers across a range of disciplines.

To inform other La Trobe scientists and the wider community about his research, Professor Vaux delivered a public seminar in July, at the University's Institute for Advanced Study, detailing one of the most exciting research areas in biochemistry today – the reasons why millions of cells in our bodies are produced and die every second.

He said cell death and survival are vital elements in the quest for the causes and treatment of different forms of cancer and other diseases. He discussed the significance of the process of programmed cell death in normal development and the consequences of failures in this program in disease.

'A million cells are produced every second by cell division. At the same time a million cells commit suicide by a process called apoptosis,' he said. 'When cells fail to die when they should, they can develop into cancers. In heart attacks, stroke or neurodegenerative diseases, many cells appear to activate their self destruct mechanism to die unnecessarily.

'Drugs that can cause cancer cells to kill themselves, or drugs that prevent cells from dying when they shouldn't, would make a major impact on many important diseases. Understanding the molecular mechanisms of cell death is the first step towards developing these drugs.'

Professor Vaux has made seminal discoveries to assist understanding of the molecular mechanisms of programmed cell death that has important implications in the treatment of diseases resulting from defective cell death.

While a postgraduate student, he discovered the first molecular component of the cell death mechanism. The resultant paper in the scientific journal Nature in 1988 has been the most highly cited paper from Australia in the last 20 years. This discovery was followed by many others that have illuminated the role of apoptosis in normal development and disease.

Professor Vaux has won many prizes, culminating in the 2003 Victoria Prize.

Four of this year's Federation Fellowships were awarded to expatriate Australians returning to Australia from leading positions at international organisations, including Harvard and Oxford universities.

Fifteen Fellowships, including Professor Vaux's, went to researchers living in Australia who have 'demonstrated excellence and conducted outstanding and ground-breaking research', and five to foreign nationals who will bring their research talent and experience to Australia.

These research projects, and their practical applications and outcomes can be expected to deliver long-term benefits to the Australian community.