EMBL Australia

On 9 June, many of the 74 EMBL alumni now living in Australia, as well as their colleagues and networks, congregated at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney for the first EMBL alumni event to be held in Australia.

Dozens of life science leaders from across the nation – and several from across the globe – travelled to Melbourne to share their expertise with sixty hand-picked young scientists at the 4th EMBL Australia PhD Course.

Professor Ada Yonath is not one to back away from a challenge. It was this grit and determination that saw the Israeli crystallographer - and Nobel Laureate - overcome injury and jet lag to spend more than two hours entertaining and inspiring students at the EMBL Australia PhD Course.

EMBL Australia Group Leader Associate Professor Cryle co-led a team of researchers who have identified a key part of the process by which a common clinical antibiotic is formed – a finding that could potentially pave the way for novel compounds to tackle the problem of bacterial resistance. With 'superbugs' responsible for around 700,000 deaths globally a year, new types of antibiotics are urgently needed.

The EMBL Australia group is growing, with two renowned research institutes – the Garvan Institute of Medical Research and QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute – joining our Partner Laboratory Network.

Opportunities are available for students interested in the EMBL Australia PhD Course, travel grants for PhD students and postdoctoral fellows and financial support for the 19th EMBL PhD Symposium in Heidelberg.

Dr Yannick Schwab, team leader and head of electron microscopy core facility at EMBL, will travel from EMBL Heidelberg to join us and 60 first and second-year PhD students at the EMBL Australia PhD Course in July at Monash University.

Alex Ma, Katharina Gaus and their colleagues have developed a fluorescence membrane charge sensor (MCS) that reports changes in electrostatic interactions at the inner leaflet of the plasma membrane in live cells.

Professor Alan Cooper, the 2016 South Australian Scientist of the Year and prominent ancient DNA researcher, will give a plenary address to the students at our PhD Course in July.

His passion for regenerative medicine has seen him work all over the world and now Dr Harald Janovjak is bringing his expertise to EMBL Australia as a group leader based at the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute at Monash University either later this year or in early 2018.