Bulletin

Issue: November/December 2007

News

Malaria, cancer, crop loss and water crisis

New research grants

The University has received almost $10 million in the latest rounds of majorFederal Government research grants.

Seven La Trobe University research teams – working on projects related to cancer, malaria and cerebral palsy as well as community, refugee and mental health – have been awarded more than $4.2 million in the 2008 National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) grants.

An additional 15 University projects have won $4.7 million from the Australian Research Council (AR C). These range from studies to help fight plant diseasesthat cause devastating crop losses and food spoilage world-wide, to research into more effective allocation of water resources between rural and urban sectors.

The ARC grants also support the design of pure carbon-based materials for frontier nano-electronics industries using the new Australian Synchrotron, and a major six-nation maths project. The maths research plays a central role in modern physics, biology, chemistry, astronomy, meteorology, and geoscience – and will also strengthen Australia’s links with the mathematical software industry.

A further $1million has been awarded for five AR C Linkage grants. These will be used to establish a facility to help develop electronic devices of the future that rely on emerging materials such as diamonds, fullerenes and magnetic molecules – and to study the safety and effectiveness of family mediation where violence is present.

The NHMRC projects include:

Refugees: Dr Ignacio Correa-Velez from the University’s Refugee Health Research Centre has received $420,250 for a study into adult refugee men.

Relationships: $1,575,250 has been awarded to a group from La Trobe’s Australian Research Centre for Sex Health and Society for its Longitudinal Study of Health and Relationships. The study began in 2005 and involves more than 8,000 people throughout Australia. Researchers include Professor Anthony Smith, Professor Marian Pitts and Dr Julia Shelley.

Cancer: $535,500 went to biochemists Dr Hamsa Puthalakath and Dr Li Wu for research into an important mechanism associated with cell-death known as apoptosis. Understanding that process is essential for developing drugs that can make cancer cells kill themselves, or prevent other cells from dying when they shouldn’t.

A further $452,750 has been awarded to another project for the design and development of new anti-cancer drugs which are more efficient at killing cancer cells. This work is led by biochemists Dr Suzanne Cutts and Professor Don Phillips.

Malaria: $416,625 was awarded for malaria research designed to inhibit the invasion of red blood cells by a plasmid involved in spreading malarial infection. Malaria kills more than one million people a year – one child every 30 seconds – most of them in Africa. The research team, led by Dr Michael Foley and Dr Andrew Coley, is studying the structure of the plasmid’s membrane antigen as a possible way of blocking infection.

Some of the ARC projects are:

Plant diseases: $315,000 over three years for research into a plant defensin that has been shown to protect transgenic cotton against fungal infection and has potential for broad-spectrum fungal disease control in other crops. The grant was awarded to Professor Marilyn Anderson, Biochemistry, and Dr Kim Plummer, Botany.

Water crisis: $259,083 over three years for research into allocating water resources between rural and urban sectors by R esearch Fellow, Mr Joel Byrnes and Dr Lin Crase, Associate Professor in Economics and Director of the Albury-Wodonga campus.

Nano-electronics: $368,000 over three years for research into carbonbased materials, which will play an important role in nano-electronics industries in an attempt to place Australia at the forefront of a new area of surface and device science. The project will employ facilities at the new Australian Synchrotron and is led by physicists Dr Chris Pakes and Professor John Riley.

Global maths: $825,000 over five years for an international project involving seven world experts from six countries in new ways of solving differential equations. The equations play a central role in modelling scientific phenomena in physics, biology, chemistry, astronomy, meteorology and geoscience. The work, led at La Trobe by Professor Reinout Quispel and Dr Will Wright, will also significantly strengthen Australia’s links with the mathematical software industry.

Violence and mediation: A $129,800 grant will support a study into the safety and effectiveness of family mediation as the favoured method of resolving disputes involving violence. More than 20 per cent of women are estimated to experience family violence, with far-reaching effects on emotional well-being, health, family stability and child development. The project is being carried out by Dr Helen Cleak, Social Work and Social Policy, in conjunction with Relationships Australia.