EMBL Australia

EMBL Australia group leader Dr Michelle Boyle has been awarded a prestigious fellowship to advance her work in boosting the immune response to malaria, with the aim of improving vaccines for malaria and other chronic diseases.

In the face of the difficulties brought on by the ongoing pandemic, 2021 demonstrated, perhaps more than ever before, the need for strong research networks and access to advanced services, training and tools in the life sciences in order to rise up to the challenges that this pandemic created. EMBL Australia researchers continued to deliver cutting-edge science in an array of fields, from innovative COVID-19 research, to battling superbugs, breakthroughs in tissue repair and more.

New research by the EMBL Australia Node in Single Molecule Science at UNSW reveals the mechanical processes used by T cells to kill cancer cells more efficiently.

News this quarter:

• What exactly is EMBL Australia? A 60-second video to explain.
• Biotech start-up receives funding for muscular dystrophies
• Grants won to fight obesity and study cell size regulation
• 2022 PhD Course inspires attendees
• Talking mRNA with the PM
• Max Cryle wins Tregear Award
• Get to know… Ville-Petteri Mäkinen

And more:

• Job opportunities
• Student opportunities
• Upcoming events
• Recent publications

A new biotech company led by Professor Peter Currie and Associate Professor Mikaël Martino, will receive more than half a million dollars to develop much-needed new therapies for the treatment of debilitating muscular dystrophies. 

A/Prof Robert Weatheritt was awarded an RNA Future Leaders grant to develop drugs to fight obesity and Dr Senthil Arumugam won a Team Science grant to further investigate cell size regulation.

Associate Professor Ville-Petteri Mäkinen is an EMBL Australia Group Leader, based at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute and the University of Adelaide.

An $857,000 grant will enable critical research in tissue regeneration to be conducted by a multidisciplinary team, led by EMBL Australia and ARMI’s Professor Peter Currie and Associate Professor Mikaël Martino and Dr Ryan Hicks from AstraZeneca.

EMBL Australia group leader Associate Professor Mikaël Martino has been awarded a coveted Senior Medical Research Fellowship from the Sylvia and Charles Viertel Charitable Foundation to develop novel regenerative medicine technologies.

Genes in the human genome are made of DNA. Upon gene expression, a segment of DNA is copied into another molecule called RNA. When gene regulation goes wrong, diseases like cancer can occur. Therefore, knowing how enzymes — highly efficient protein nanomachines — work to switch genes on and off enables the development of new drugs and diagnostics.