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Building bioexcellenceHundreds of Monash researchers spend their days at laboratory benchtops, in clinics and in offices working on scientific research and techniques that could take a lifetime to perfect. PENNY FANNIN reports on how this research is contributing to the growing reputation of Monash as Australia's centre of bioexcellence.
The dream of Professor John Bertram is to use stem cells to make a kidney. He knows such a prospect is some years away and that it might turn out that it is possible only to use stem cells to generate parts of a kidney, such as nephrons, glomeruli (filters) or certain tubules. But Professor Bertram, the head of Monash's Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, knows it is important to find alternatives to the dialysis and kidney transplantation that are presently used to treat the thousands of people worldwide with chronic kidney failure. "Dialysis is expensive, and it results in a poor quality of life for the patient and a high yearly death rate," he says. "And although kidney transplantation is preferable to dialysis, the number of kidney donors worldwide is falling." Professor Bertram's aspirations received a boost in October, when he became part of a team of Monash researchers that shared in a $4 million grant from the United States' National Institutes of Health. The grant will allow Professor Bertram and his colleagues to explore whether stem cells can be coerced into becoming different parts of the kidney. The research grant is one of several the university has received this year from state, federal and international funding agencies. Monash's vice-chancellor Professor Peter Darvall sees the grants as an acknowledgement of the years of hard work and innovative thinking the university's scientists have put into their research. "Over four decades, Monash has been committed to building up expertise in a number of research areas, from biomedical sciences through to materials engineering and information technology," he says. "It's wonderful to see that the years of effort are paying off and that the university and its staff are gaining national and international recognition for their achievements." The largest research grant received by the university this year was $43.5 million from the federal government to establish Australia's first Biotechnology Centre of Excellence - the National Stem Cell Centre. The centre will be based at Monash's Clayton campus and is an acknowledgement of the university's strength in stem cell science. The Monash Institute of Reproduction and Development will be a leading player in the centre, as will many other research groups from the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences. Monash University researchers also shared in $14 million of National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) program grants this year and will use the grants to undertake research into cures and treatments for diseases such as cancer and diabetes and also to improve reproductive health. In collaboration with the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute, Monash researchers received $6.55 million for a research program aimed at understanding the immune system's role in human disease. Dr Dale Godfrey, a senior research fellow in the university's Department of Pathology and Immunology and part of the research team, said he hoped the five years of funding would allow the team to better understand how the immune system recognises and responds to different types of cancer and to autoimmune diseases such as diabetes and lupus. "We want to find out how a person's immune system recognises when something has gone wrong with the body's tissues such as when tumours develop," Dr Godfrey said. "We will also investigate how the different parts of the immune system work together to mediate a tumour rejection response. This will help us work out what's gone wrong when a tumour is not rejected so we can develop better ways of targeting cancers in the future." Also in the field of medical research, Prince Henry's Institute of Medical Research, which is affiliated with Monash University, received $7.425 million in NHMRC funding to better understand the role of hormones in infertility and diseases of the reproductive organs. Professor Darvall said the university's success in securing government funding for research was contributing to the exciting scientific environment that was growing in and around the university. In October, the university and the Victorian Government held the site launch for Australia's first synchrotron. Vibration testing and geological testing have been completed at the site on the corner of Blackburn and Wellington roads in Clayton, and site works are due to begin early in 2003. Also proceeding apace is construction of stage one of the Monash Science Technology Research and Innovation Precinct (STRIP), which is due for completion early in 2003. Deputy vice-chancellor (Resources) Ms Alison Crook said plans for stage two of the five-stage Monash STRIP on the Clayton campus were under way and that negotiations for who would take up tenancy of the first building were almost finalised. Tenants will include the National Stem Cell Centre, the National Centre for Advanced Cell Engineering, Biota Holdings Ltd, the Centre for Green Chemistry, Computer Science and Software Engineering and Micromon Limited. "The STRIP promises to be a dynamic research environment where scientists can work alongside commercial partners and take important discoveries from the benchtop to their final application," Ms Crook said. "There has been a great deal of interest from industry and researchers who are very positive about coming to Monash." Professor Darvall said progress on the Monash STRIP and the university's involvement in the Alfred Medical Research and Education Precinct (AMREP) were just the beginning of more exciting times ahead. "Significant infrastructure projects such as the Monash STRIP and the synchrotron have been complemented by Monash University being a partner in 10 of the 16 consortia that were awarded Science, Technology and Innovation Infrastructure grants by the Victorian Government this year," Professor Darvall said. "The grants will be used to build world-class facilities that will enhance Victoria's involvement in nanotechnology, materials manufacturing, drug and vaccine development, oral health and mathematical sciences." Monash will share in $42.55 million of the $59 million the state government made available for round two of the infra-structure grants. The university will lead two of the consortia - Nanotechnology Victoria, which received funding of $12 million, and the Centre for Drug Candidate Optimisation, which received $4 million. The director of Nanotechnology Victoria, Professor Barry Muddle, head of Monash's School of Physics and Materials Engineering, said the project would consolidate and increase the research base for nanotechnology in Victoria, particularly its interface with the biotechnology community. "Three of the areas where Nanotechnology Victoria will contribute most are materials and sensing devices for biodiagnostics, drug delivery and tissue therapy," Professor Muddle said. "For tissue therapy, there will be a lot of emphasis on the development of substrates and scaffolding for tissue engineering." The Centre for Drug Candidate Optimisation will fill the critical gap that falls between drug discovery and drug development by identifying better drug candidates with a greater chance of clinical and commercial success, according to the centre's co-directors, Professor Bill Charman and Dr Susan Charman from the university's Department of Pharmaceutics. "The centre will build upon our existing strengths in the field of pre-clinical drug candidate optimisation and will allow our current activities to be significantly upgraded and expanded to meet the increasing needs of local commercial groups and research institutes," Professor Charman said. "It will also provide an important and much needed training ground for students and postdoctoral fellows in critical areas of pharmaceutical development." Action box |
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