Australian Biochemist - ASBMB · PDF fileHeparanase Regulates Natural Killer Cell Invasion of...

VOL 48 NO 3 DECEMBER 2017 PAGE 1AUSTRALIAN BIOCHEMIST

Australian BiochemistThe Magazine of the Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Inc.December 2017, Volume 48, Number 3

ISSN 1443-0193

VOL 48 NO 3 DECEMBER 2017AUSTRALIAN BIOCHEMIST


4 Editorial Committee Members5 Publications with Impact

Heparanase Regulates Natural Killer Cell Invasion of Tumours An Unexpected Journey to the Molecular Basis of Sengers Syndrome ‘Priming’ Pancreatic Cancer to Response to Therapy

8 ASBMB Education FeatureInterview with an Education Focused Academic Learning Artefacts: Building a Portfolio for Science Students3D Printing Biomolecules for Biochemical EducationRiding on Both Sides of the Track: Balancing Teaching and Research Seven Tips for a Successful Demonstrator

15 SDS PAGETop Ten Tips to Increase Your Chances of Getting a Fellowship

16 Why I disagree with Nobel Laureates when it comes to career advice for scientists18 News from the States23 Competition: Nobel Prize Codeword24 OfftheBeatenTrack From Bench to Business25 Science&TechnologyAustralia:SuperstarsofSTEM26 Great Expectations ADifferentPath31 ASBMB Medallists and Awardees at ComBio201732 Report on ComBio2017 Adelaide35 ComBio2017 Career Development Forum36 ComBio2017 Education Symposium37 Adelaide Protein Group: an ASBMB Special Interest Group39 Report on East Coast Protein Meeting 201740 Intellectual Property Patent Myth Busting Part 2: Freedom to Operate44 FAOBMB Award for Research Excellence 201745 ASBMB Award Reports: LabGear Discovery Science Award, Shimadzu Education

Award,BeckmanCoulterEducationAwardandASBMBFellowships52 ASBMB Welcomes New Members53 ASBMB Annual Reports58 Our Sustaining Members64 Forthcoming Meetings65 Directory

Table of Contents

Australian Biochemist – Editors Suresh Mathivanan and Tatiana Soares da Costa, EditorialOfficerLiana Friedman © 2017 Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Inc. All rights reserved.

Front CoverASBMB Grimwade Keynote Plenary Lecturer Michael Hall (University of Basel, Switzerland) presents at ComBio2017.


Australian Biochemist Editorial Committee Members

Dr Doug FairlieOlivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute and La Trobe UniversityHeidelberg VIC 3084Email: doug.fairlie@ onjcri.org.au Phone: (03) 9496 9369

Dr Natalie SpillmanBio21 Institute, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology University of MelbourneParkville VIC 3010Email: [email protected]: (03) 8344 2312

Co-EditorDr Tatiana Soares da CostaDepartment of Biochemistry and GeneticsLa Trobe Institute for Molecular ScienceLa Trobe UniversityBundoora VIC 3086Email: [email protected]: (03) 9479 2227

Associate Professor Susan RowlandInstitute for Teaching and Learning Innovation (ITaLI)University of QueenslandSt Lucia QLD 4072Email: [email protected]: (07) 3365 4615

Dr Nirma SamarawickremaDepartment of Biochemistry and Molecular BiologyMonash UniversityClayton VIC 3800Email: nirma.samarawickrema@ monash.eduPhone: (03) 9902 0295

Dr Sarah HennebryFPA Patent Attorneys101 Collins StreetMelbourne VIC 3000Email: [email protected]: (03) 9288 1213

Co-Editor Dr Suresh MathivananDepartment of Biochemistry and GeneticsLa Trobe Institute for Molecular ScienceLa Trobe UniversityBundoora VIC 3086Email: [email protected]: (03) 9479 2565

Dr Erinna LeeLa Trobe Institute for Molecular Science and Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research InstituteHeidelberg VIC 3084Email: [email protected]: (03) 9496 9369

Shaun GaskinDepartment of Biochemistry and GeneticsLa Trobe Institute for Molecular ScienceLa Trobe UniversityBundoora VIC 3086Email: [email protected]

EditorialOfficerLiana FriedmanEmail: [email protected]


PublicationswithImpactisanewfeaturethatprofilesrecent,highimpactpublicationsbyASBMBmembers.Theseshortsummariesshowcasesomeofthelatestresearchfromourmembersbypresentingtheworkinabriefbutaccessiblemanner.Ifyourworkhasrecently

beenpublishedinahighprofilejournal,[email protected].

Heparanase Regulates Natural Killer Cell Invasion of Tumours

PutzEM,MayfoshAJ,KosK,BarkauskasDS,NakamuraK,TownL,GoodallKJ,YeeDY,PoonIK,BaschukN,Souza-Fonseca-GuimaraesF,HulettMD*,SmythMJ*.NKcellheparanasecontrols

tumor invasion and immune surveillance. J Clin Invest 2017;127(7):2777-88.*Correspondingauthors:[email protected],mark.smyth@qimrberghofer

Theroleoftheheparinsulphate-degradingenzymeheparanase in tumour immune surveillance by natural killer (NK) cells has been investigated in acollaborationbetweenMarkSmyth’sgroupatQIMRBerghofer Medical Research Institute and MarkHulett’sgroupattheLaTrobeInstituteforMolecularScience.

NK cells play an important role in controlling cancer metastasis. However, in solid tumours, the extracellular matrix (ECM) creates a barrier that is difficult for NKcells to breach, limiting their anti-tumour activity. Tumour cells contend with ECM by expressing heparanase, an enzyme that acts in concert with metalloproteinases to degrade ECM and allow tumour cell proliferation and vascularisation. However, the importance of heparanase in promoting NK cell invasion and elimination of tumours hasnotbeendefined.Toaddressthis issue, theHulettlab, which has had a long-term interest in the role of heparanase in the tumour microenvironment, joined forces with the Smyth lab and their strengths in NK cells and tumour immune surveillance. Using mice genetically deficient in heparanase, the collaborativeteam demonstrated that NK cells depend on heparanase to mediate recruitment to the site of tumours and their

metastases.AlthoughspecificlossofheparanaseinNKcellsdidnotaffect theirdevelopmentandmaintenancein tissues, loss of NK cell-intrinsic heparanase impaired anti-tumour activity against chemically-induced and transplanted carcinomas. In addition, NK cell-specificheparanase deficiency compromised the efficacy of acombined checkpoint blockade immunotherapy against lung metastases.

These results identify heparanase as an important facilitator of the anti-tumour activity of NK cells and have important implications when considering the systemic treatment of cancer patients with heparanase inhibitors, sincethepotentialadverseeffectontheinfiltrationofNKcells might limit their anti-tumour activity.

MarkHulettLaTrobeInstituteforMolecularScience

La Trobe Institute for

Molecular Science

members involved in the

study. From left: Mark Hulett,

Alyce Mayfosh, Nikola Baschuk and Ivan Poon.

QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute members

involved in the study were Mark

Smyth, Eva Putz, Deborah

Barkauskas, Liam Town, Kevin Kos,

and Fernando Souza-Fonseca-

Guimaraes.

Publications with Impact

NK cells upregulate heparanase to enable ECM degradation and invasion into tumours to elicit NK cell-mediated tumour cell lysis.

NK cell

Tumour cell

ECM

NK cell-mediated tumour cell lysis

HPSE

ECM degradation


Sengers syndrome is a mitochondrial disease causedbymutationsinthelipidkinase,acylglycerolkinaseAGK.Themolecularbasisforthepathologyof Sengers syndrome has been elusive. TheStojanovski labhas identifiedAGKasasubunitofa mitochondrial translocon, the TIM22 complex,providinganunexpectedlinkbetweenmitochondrialprotein import and Sengers syndrome.

Mitochondria are iconic structures in biochemistry and cell biology. Mitochondrial function is dependent on the ‘import’ of the majority of organelle’s proteome, which is nuclear-encoded. Mitochondrial protein import mechanismsandmachineshavechieflybeendelineatedusing model organisms like Saccharomyces cerevisiae and investigation of these systems in human cells have been sporadic. Consequently, how mitochondrial protein import pathways influence cell physiology in healthand disease remain ill defined.As a stepping-stone toaddressing these questions, we identified a need toobtain a more complete picture of the machineries that oversee these processes in human cells.

Our journey started by focusing on the TIM22 complex, an inner membrane machine responsible for the assembly of multi-spanning membrane proteins. We purified TIM22 from isolated mitochondria by tagginga conserved subunit of the complex, Tim10b. Mass spectrometric analysis, performed by the lab of Dr Suresh Mathivanan, revealed the presence of a novel metazoan specificsubunit, theacylglycerol kinase (AGK). I recallseeingthisMSdataforthefirsttimeandalmostfallingoffmychairbecauseitwasbeautifulasitconfirmedthatour

hypothesiswasvalid–yestherearespecificmetazoansubunits!

AGK had already been described as a mitochondrial lipid kinase contributing to the production of phosphatidic acid and lysophosphatidic acid. Furthermore, mutations in AGK were known to cause Sengers syndrome, a metabolic disorder characterised by congenital cataracts, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, skeletal myopathy and lactic acidosis. We were perplexed why this lipid kinase was physically associated with TIM22. With Professor Mike Ryan and Dr David Stroud, we created an AGK CRISPR/Cas9 knockout and established that AGK functions in a kinase-independent manner with TIM22 to facilitate the import of mitochondrial carrier proteins. Carrier proteins are tunnel like proteins that exchange metabolites across the inner membrane and are crucial to cell metabolism. The next lucky break came from our location at the Bio21 Institute, where Metabolomics Australia is co-located. We walked from our first floor lab to thebasement of Bio21 and with the team at Metabolomics Australia, including Professor Malcolm McConville, Dr Dedreia Tull and Dr Dave De Souza, and we uncovered that cells lacking AGK had profound defects in central carbon metabolism with an inhibition in the TCA cycle.

Inafinalandcriticaltwisttothetale,wewerefortunateto be located down the road from the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute and the lab of Professor David Thorburn. David’s team had previously identified theAGK gene as the cause of Sengers syndrome and he

AGK has a role in the import and assembly of mitochondrial carrier proteins into the inner membrane.

metabolites

TOM

carrier precursors

InnerMembrane

CARRIERS

AGK

TIM22

29

Outer Membrane

An Unexpected Journey to theMolecular Basis of Sengers Syndrome

KangY,StroudDA,BakerMJ,DeSouzaDP,FrazierAE,LiemM,TullD,MathivananS,McConvilleMJ,ThorburnDR,RyanMT,StojanovskiD*.SengersSyndrome-associatedmitochondrialacylglycerolkinaseisasubunitofthehumanTIM22proteinimportcomplex.Mol Cell

2017;67(3):457-70.e5.*Correspondingauthor:[email protected]


2017 Stojanovski Lab Group, clockwise from left:Catherine Palmer, Tom Jackson, Yilin Kang,

Diana Stojanovski and Laura Fielden.


‘Priming’ Pancreatic Cancer to Response to TherapyVenninC,ChinVT,WarrenSC,LucasMC,HerrmannD,MagenauA,MelenecP,WaltersSN,Del

Monte-NietoG,ConwayJR,NobisM,AllamAH,McCloyRA,CurreyN,PineseM,BoulghourjianA,ZaratzianA,AdamAA,HeuC,NagrialAM,ChouA,SteinmannA,DruryA,FroioD,Giry-LaterriereM,HarrisNL,PhanT,JainR,WeningerW,McGheeEJ,WhanR,JohnsAL,SamraJS,ChantrillL,GillAJ,Kohonen-CorishM,HarveyRP,BiankinAV;AustralianPancreaticCancerGenome

Initiative(APGI),EvansTR,AndersonKI,GreyST,OrmandyCJ,Gallego-OrtegaD,WangY,SamuelMS,SansomOJ,BurgessA,CoxTR,MortonJP,PajicM,TimpsonP*.Transienttissuepriming

via ROCK inhibition uncouples pancreatic cancer progression, sensitivity to chemotherapy, and metastasis. Sci Transl Med 2017;9(384):eaai8504.*Correspondingauthor:[email protected]

Using intravital Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) technology, the Timpson group atthe Garvan Institute of Medical Research recently uncovered a new way to treat highly aggressive pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic cancer relies on dense surrounding tissue knownasfibrosis toprotect it fromchemotherapy.Thisdense matrix also serves as a protective niche for the tumour to grow. This stiff, highly crosslinked matrix isalso used as a highway by cancer cells and facilitate their spread to distant sites of the body, such as the liver. Lastly, this dense matrix also compresses blood vessels within the tumour and therefore impairs drug delivery to this solid mass. Rho-kinase (ROCK) controls force generation via regulation of actomyosin cytoskeleton and promotes matrix remodeling, tissue stiffness, butalso responds to mechanical forces of the surrounding matrix and provide cancer cells with vital positive signals to grow or spread to other organs.

There has been a large level of controversy regarding the clinical benefits of targeting the surrounding tissuein pancreatic cancer, as chronic targeting of the matrix oftenshowedadverseeffects.Inthisstudy,theauthorsused multiphoton-based FRET imaging technology to tackle this problem. Multiphoton imaging allowed the researchers to see deep within live tumour tissue and thus watch in real-time how the surrounding tissue is beingaffectedbyasubtleROCK‘priming’approach.

Here, the authors demonstrated that transient manipulation of the surrounding tissue, using the clinical ROCK inhibitor fasudil, allowed the matrix and blood vessels to open and relax, rather than break away, thereby exposing the tumour to more chemotherapy. Relaxation

of the tissue and loss of mechanical signalling between the tumour and surrounding tissue was measured using atomic force microscopy (AFM), and live imaging of a FRET biosensor demonstrated that pulsed manipulation oftissuestiffness,ratherthanablationofthetissue,couldhavesignificantbenefitsontumourresponsetotherapy.Secondly, relaxation of the vasculature upon priming with fasudil was also revealed in the study by using quantum dot imaging. Here, the authors were able to readily see blood vessel relaxation following ‘priming’ and the subsequent increase in vascular patency allowing for more drug delivery to this solid tumour mass.

Following cancer cell dissociation from the primary tumour, cells need to survive within the blood system and to subsequently attach to secondary sites such as the liver to form metastases. The authors therefore combined biophysics and shear stress analyses to mimic how circulating cancer cells would behave within the blood vasculature, and found that ROCK inhibition renders cancer cells more sensitive to shear stress found


Timpson lab members.

provided us with rare tissue samples from two patients with Sengers syndrome. These tissue samples displayed a complete loss of the TIM22 complex and impaired carrier protein import. The circle was now complete! Until this point, Sengers syndrome was believed to be a defect of lipid biogenesis and our research resulted in a paradigm-shift revealing that defects in protein import via TIM22 was the most probable reason leading to this

disease. Another ecstatic moment for all in the lab! This work is a powerful illustration of how basic science

can lead to medically-relevant breakthroughs, but more importantly, the power of our local research community andcollegialeffortstosolvingbiologicalproblems.

DianaStojanovski Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology,

Bio21 Institute, University of Melbourne


Publications with Impactin thebloodsystem,and thiswasconfirmed in vivo by intrasplenic injection of pancreatic cancer cells followed by monitoring of metastatic burden within the liver using intravital FRET imaging in metastases. In addition to increased death during circulation, ‘priming’ with the ROCK inhibitor also altered the ability of cells to attach, spread and form a metastatic niche in the liver, thereby revealinga global benefit ofROCKprimingatmultiplestages of the disease.

Lastly, to translate this work more rapidly from mouse-to-man, the group used patient-derived tumours from the Australian Pancreatic Genome Initiative (APGI, >200 human samples). Intravital FRET imaging of stratifiedpatient-derived xenografts demonstrated a graded

response to the ‘priming’ strategy that was relative to the initial ECM content of the tumour. The authors further developed an in-house custom built automated Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) image analysis to predictwhichpatienttumourwouldbenefitmostfromourpriming regimen.This isafirst in termsof repurposingSHG imaging technology to determine how label-free patient biopsy material could be used to tailor which patientmaybenefitfromthistherapy.Thisisasignificantachievement both in the application of FRET technology but also for the public since the global goal for pancreatic cancer is to double the current survival rates by 2020.

PaulTimpsonGarvan Institute of Medical Research


ASBMB Education FeatureTheASBMBEducationFeatureiscoordinatedbySusanRowland([email protected])and

NirmaSamarawickrema([email protected]).Wewelcomeyourcontributions!

Professor Janet Macaulay is an education focused academic with over 25 years experience in higher education. Janet’s roles encompass leading and supporting quality improvements in teaching and learning and enhancement of the student learning experience. Janet’s research and scholarship focuses on biomedical, health and medical education, specificallyhowtoengagestudentswiththeir learningand provide high quality learning environments. Many of her projects are integrated into curriculum and assessment development work.

What led you into science and biochemistry?I enrolled in a BSc at Monash University. When I encountered biochemistry, I really liked the content and the lecturers inspiredme; itwas one of the first areasI found really engaging. I majored in biochemistry and went on to a biochemistry research project for Honours.

Can you describe a standout educational moment in your science training?As an undergraduate, it was a series of lectures on endocrinology; I ended up completing Honours with the lecturer, Associate Professor Frank Ng. I loved Honours, being in the lab, having my own project, and being part of the research team. I also met my husband during Honours.

Whatkeepsyoupassionateabouteducating?As a high school student, I never expected to become a teacher but I love teaching! I enjoy seeing those ‘light bulb’ moments, when things just click for students – when you actually see the learning process occurring and the students understanding the challenging concepts. Now, I really enjoy engaging in curriculum design and researching on learning and teaching. I like the deep thinking aspects of this research area and measuring the impact of the changes we make to our teaching.

What changes or big trends do you see in modern biochemistry teaching?We have been delivering lectures in higher education since its inception and we are moving from traditional didactic lectures, where the lecturer worked hard to transfer their knowledge to their students, to a place where the lecturer works to facilitate active learning by their students. Now we ask students to apply their knowledge and put their knowledge into context. The

lecture spaces are changing and we are seeing more progressive spaces that work well for active learning and fewer large tiered lecture theatres.

What advice do you have for new academics trying to balance research and teaching?The traditional teaching–research academic roles are changing. There are always challenges in securing grant funding and balancing the competing priorities of teaching and research, but now there is also a greater expectation on academics to modernise curricula and adjust their teaching. Traditionally, teaching was very individualised but I encourage my colleagues to work collaboratively, just as you would in your research, to investigate what

Interview with an Education Focused AcademicTracey Kuit, School of Biological Sciences,

University of Wollongong, interviews Janet Macaulay

ProfessorJanetMacaulayBSc(Hons)MScPhDGCHE,DirectorofEducation,SchoolofBiomedical Sciences, Monash University

National and International Education Committees• Chair, Committee for Education and Training,

IUBMB (2015–present)• Member, National Committee for Biomedical

Sciences, AAS (2017–present)• Member, Education Committee, FAOBMB

(2012–2014)• Education Representative, Council of ASBMB

(2014–2016)• Chair, Education Special Interest Group, ASBMB

(2011–2015)• Editorial Board, Biochemistry and Molecular

Biology Education (2012– present)

National and International Awards• 2013 FAOBMB Education Award• 2010 ASBMB Invitrogen Education Award


An important part of my role as a third year coordinator in Biochemistry is supporting undergraduate students’ transition into work or postgraduate study. To this end, I attend and organise career guidance sessions, and have discussions with prospective employers. A common expectation of prospective employers is for students to be able to demonstrate a variety of skills they have acquired.

Students in disciplines such as art, graphic design, journalism often showcase their work through portfolios. Many undergraduate Science courses also use e-portfolios, primarily as an educational tool where studentscancollectevidenceoflearningandreflectonthis through blogs or journal entries.

Less attention has been focussed on enabling Science students to build portfolios for an external non-Science audience. Over the years, my colleagues and I have designed assessment tasks, which enabled students to showcasespecificskills sets.Through thisexperience,wehaveidentifiedkeyfeaturesofane-portfoliotobe:

• Demonstrable, featuring actual artefacts created by students

• Authentic relating to real-world problems• Understood easily; it should be able to convince

another person of the quality of the work in a short window of time

• Relevant and applicable across multiple disciplines and situations.

We use several activities that students can place in their e-portfolio. These include:• Medical information pamphlets for Biomedical

Science students (pictured)• Instructional videos on techniques and experimental

details for laboratory classes• Automated Excel spreadsheets to demonstrate data

processing skills• Short ‘Nature News and Views’-style article focusing

on a recent article that relates to lecture material• Student-created webinars on emerging technologies

in biotechnology In this last activity, student teams engage with current research to create a webinar detailing the scientificcontext, challenges of implementation, and implications of aspects of biotechnology in digital format using One Button Studios: http://www.latrobe.edu.au/ed-tech/1bs. These briefwebinars effectively demonstrateresearch and communication skills, and digital literacy to employers. Many of the presentations are of professional standard, and their high quality means they form ideal supplements to online lessons for courses.

We make it clear to students that these activities can be used to showcase their skills when seeking employment. Thisisagreatmotivator,particularlytofinalyearstudents.

In a competitive tertiary sector, universities have to place more emphasis on career outcomes for students. With increasing student numbers and pressure on staff resources, it is important thatweplace emphasison developing authentic assessment tasks, which are student-centredandeffectivelyshowcasetheirskills.

Learning Artefacts:Building a Portfolio for Science Students

Julian Pakay, Department of Biochemistry and Genetics,La Trobe Institute of Molecular Science, La Trobe University

ASBMB Education Featureothers have done and seek new ideas and new solutions. There are many resources and sources of expertise to tap into across and outside the institution. Education-focused academics have specialist knowledge that can support traditional teaching-research academics. Talk to them, and to your other academic colleagues, educational designers, and professional colleagues in industry.

Whatareyoulookingforwardtointhefuture?At Monash University, we have a new purpose-built

Some of the medical information brochures produced by Biomedical Science students would

not appear out of place in a doctor’s rooms.

biomedical sciences teaching building opening in 2019. The building will house state-of-the-art laboratory facilities and informal student learning spaces. This new space willhelpuschangethelearningexperiencesweofferourstudents.ThisisthefirsttimethatalldepartmentsintheSchool of Biomedical Sciences can come together and teach out of the same building! There’s a real opportunity for colleagues, both academic and technical, to work together on this new project.


ASBMB Education Feature

3D printing is a technology rapidly growing in popularity in many areas of education, including mathematics, engineering, and biochemistry. Wherever physical models can enhance understanding, there is a potential role for 3D printing.

A 3D printing library of biological moleculesWorking in the field of macromolecular structure and

observing the decreasing cost of 3D printers led me to consider their use in structural biology education; to this end I have created a growing collection of printable macromolecular structures. The collection began with cartoon models of small proteins such as thioredoxin, and now it contains larger, more ambitious models, such asgreenfluorescentprotein.

There are now over 50 models in the library, with proteins chosen based on biological importance, ease of printing and, in some cases, the fruits of my own research. These can be downloaded as STL (STereoLithography) filesnativetoCADsoftware,awidevarietyof3Dprintersand other 3D design systems, from this Thingiverse site: https://www.thingiverse.com/aarono.Each librarySTL file is accompanied by photographsshowingthefinishedmodel,adescriptionofthemoleculeand its biological role, instructions for optimal printing strategies, and links to relevant Protein Data Bank entries. Every design is tested prior to inclusion in the library.

Educators can use this library for the purpose of demonstrating the topology of proteins (for example, the classic thioredoxin fold), the nature of protein symmetry and inhibitor binding (for example, the C4 symmetry of influenzaneuraminidasewithRelenzabound).

Howtoprintin3DIn producing this collection, I

have sought to ensure that the designs are printable on the widest variety of 3D printers. The most economical and popular 3D printers use the STLfilesand fuseddepositionmodelling (FDM) to make objects from suitable plastics. These include acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) or polylactic acid (PLA). Briefly,plastic filament is fed into aheated, moving print head, which melts and extrudes it onto a build platform. The desired object is created one layer and one colour at a time.

For this kind of 3D printing technology, additional vertical support structures are needed for overhanging parts.

Others biochemists have made more sophisticated 3D protein designs. However, these require advanced (and costly) 3D printers generally found in specialist facilities. One example comes from Dr Masaru Kawakami of the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, who has developed protein molecular models with full-colour 3D printed structures embedded in a transparent body based on the molecule’s surface. You can see them here: http://aip.scitation.org/doi/full/10.1063/1.4739961.

FDM and more advanced printers can be used to print my models in the Thingiverse library. Importation of the STLfilesintoprintersoftwareisstraightforward,butthespecificprocesswilldependonthebrandandmodelofprinter. Several molecular graphics programs such as PyMolandVMDcangenerateSTLfiles,however,thesesometimes contain errors that may lead to bad prints, and need to be repaired. You are welcome to email me for a more complete explanation of how to generate printable files.

What can you and your students produce from the library?

Here are some examples of the items you can produce from the library.

InsulinThe mature insulin molecule consists of two chains held together by disulfide bonds. This cartoon modelrepresents the backbone and secondary structure with the disulphide bonds incorporated.

File: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:197731

Collagen triple helixThis collagen triple helix was printed as three separate modelsthatwerethenfittedtogether.

File: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:599102

3D Printing Biomolecules for Biochemical EducationAaron Oakley, School of Chemistry, University of Wollongong

A Me2 3D printer using white ABS plastic

filament from the spool at rear. This is a typical

fused deposition modelling printer.


ASBMB Education FeatureT4 DNA-clamp/clamp loader/nucleic acid complexMulti-subunit entitiesmay not fit together well due to

invaginations on the surface or poor complementarity. The most complex model of this kind I have created was the T4 DNA-clamp/clamp loader/nucleic acid complex. There are seven individual pieces that are printed separately and assembled. This model is like a 3D jigsaw and will test the abilities of students to think in three dimensions.

File: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:255626

You are welcome to use the model library in your teaching. If you have questions or comments about the models, please feel free to contact me at [email protected].

Academics often face the decision between prioritising research or teaching. Both are essential pillars of science – research for the acquisition of knowledge and teaching for the dissemination of knowledge. These aren’t necessarily exclusive roles. For example, researchers may take on mentorship of Honours/PhD students, while a teacher may conduct education based research. However, the reach of both can become limited. A researcher may be restricted to a narrower audience of a few students or their publishing field and a teachermay becomemoredisconnected from the primary science practice.Facing this decision myself was difficult. My intensepassionforscience,technologyandresearchconflictedwith the problems I observed in the research field. Iwas concerned about job security, my income, and an environment that sometimes encouraged controversial, high-impact research rather than reproducible fundamental work. I reached the end of my PhD lab work concerned also about becoming ‘part of the problem’ rather than contributing to science. I decided to instead try balancing research and teaching.

Working as an assistant lecturer as well as a researcher now gives me this balance and a positive outlook on science. My teaching role sees me lecturing Biomedical Science and Nutrition students, helping coordinate and organise unit tutorials, and doing hands-on teaching in medicine, biochemistry and molecular biology practicals and tutorials. I also manage the Biochemistry department’s teaching associates and exam marks. At the same time,

asaresearchassistant,Iworkonazebrafishmodelofalpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency – investigating signallingpathways using proteomics and transcriptomics. This heavily involves lab techniques, data analysis and animal handling, but also mentorship of Honours students.Sodoesthisbalancework?Formeitdoes. Ifind ita

worthwhile challenge to manage these roles and they do complementeachother.Staying‘fresh’inthesciencefieldallows me to teach up-to-date science and I incorporate my scientific/analytical side to optimise some of theprocedures we do in the classroom. Teaching reinforces my principles and concept of science, gives back to the communityandallowsmetopositivelyinfluencethenextgeneration of scientists. Perhaps best of all, both roles act as an escape from each other for those ‘rare’ bad days in the lab or classroom!

Riding on Both Sides of the Track:Balancing Teaching and Research

Brendan Wilding, Department of Biochemistryand Molecular Biology, Monash University


ASBMB Education Feature

MyfirstexperienceasademonstratorwasinthesecondyearofmyPhDdegree.Myfirsttutorial/laboratoryclasswas a blur of nervous energy: I did not know what to say, how to prepare myself, or what to expect from myself or the students. After three years of demonstrating, teachingseveralclassesacrossdifferentyearlevels,anda teaching award for a third year biochemistry subject, I feel like an old hand. Here are my seven tips on how to become a successful demonstrator:

1.TeachingisakintoexerciseTeaching is a ‘muscle’, the more you ‘exercise’ this

muscle, the better you will be. Be adventurous and experiment with various teaching tools and styles to see what works best in your class and for yourself.

2. Learn the group dynamicsGiven the diversity of our classes, it is important to

understand the dynamics of each group of students. The more outgoing students will be highly engaged in class discussions and therefore more demanding of your time and attention than those who are shy or less comfortable. It is important to tailor your teaching approach to the particular group being taught.

3. Engage with the studentsIt is really important that you are approachable to

the students and they know they can engage you in discussion both during class and via email (if your university allows this). Fostering a strong, professional relationship with students will naturally make them feel more comfortable and lead to increased participation. Humourisalwaysaneffectiveice-breaker!

4.Usedetailedmarkingcriteriatoteachimportantskillsandconcepts

Adherence to a clear and itemised marking scheme is a powerful way to teach important skills and concepts. In my experience, many students struggle writing practical reports; however providing them with a clear and detailed explanation of how their work aligns with the itemised marking scheme will motivate and empower them. Students will quickly learn to improve over the course of just one semester!

5.AlwaysprovidefeedbackIt is critical that we provide students feedback that is

detailed, clear and helpful on every aspect of their work during the semester. They need to know where there is potential for improvement and the only way of doing this is through feedback.

6.Donotbefrustratedby‘badeggs’Not all students want to learn. There will be disinterested

students who are anxious to leave class. There may be those who are competitive or disruptive. However difficult itmaybe, it is important todisconnectyourselffrom your emotions and focus on ways to improve their engagement and understanding of theory. But at the end of the day, don’t beat yourself up if you can’t!

7. Empower the studentsBe patient and ‘guide’ students to a solution rather than

blurting the solution out loud. By probing and making connections with previous activities you can enable students to arrive at a solution by themselves.

If you are a new demonstrator, I hope that these tips will help you in your teaching journey. Most importantly, smile and don’t take yourself too seriously!

Seven Tips for a Successful DemonstratorAlexei Ilinykh, Department of Biochemistryand Molecular Biology, Monash University


Securing a fellowship as an early career researcher can be key to a long-term career in academia. But with such high competition for research funding, it is important to understand how to increase your chances of being successful. I have put together ten tips that may help you when you next apply for funding.

1. Decide what you wantSpend some time looking for schemes you can apply

for. Do you have someone in particular in mind you want to work with? Do you want to spend some time overseas? What expertise do you want to gain? For fellowships, timing is critical. Have honest conversations with mentors/senior researchers about your track record and when you should (and shouldn’t apply). Fellowship applications can be very time-consuming so your time may be better spent getting papers published or obtaining preliminary data if you are not quite competitive yet.

2. Understand the schemeOnce you have decided which scheme you want to

apply for, it is time to get information from the grant agency. Read the guidelines and eligibility criteria carefully. Tailoring your proposal to the interests of the funding body is critical.

3.Picktherightresearchenvironment

Think of the best research environment to do your proposed work. Do they have the right facilities available to you? Does the fellowship guidelines mention that a move to a new institution would be looked upon favourably? If so, you may want to consider moving if your circumstances allow you to do so. Is your supervisor an expertinthefieldyouwanttoresearch?Doestheprojectinvolve good mentoring and training arrangements? You need to be able to justify why the work should be done at your chosen institution.

4. Publish or perishYou do need to have a publishing track record to be

competitive for fellowships. Try to wrap your PhD and postdoc results into papers whenever you can. Aim for firstauthorpaperssoyoucanshowyourreviewersthatyou can lead a research project. Although getting middle author papers through collaborations shows reviewers that you have valuable skills or techniques that are sought after. Remember that publication is not just a numbers

game;qualityandimpactonthefieldarealsoimportant.When you are putting a proposal together, highlight that you have published in the area you are proposing and you are playing to your strengths.

5.Network,network,network!Increase your profile by attending national and

international conferences. If you haven’t already done so, check out the SDS Page article from the August 2016 issue titled ‘Conference survival guide’. Present your work either as a poster or an oral presentation and apply for prizes and awards. You will also get to know new people who may be valuable mentors or future supervisors! In such a competitive environment, pursue every opportunity you can because you never know where it may lead.

6. Build your CVThere are number of ways to improve your CV, including

supervising/mentoring students and being a member of professional groups/societies like the ASBMB. It also looks good if you have had some media and community engagement. This shows that you are contributing not only to your scientific community but also the generalcommunity.

7. Sell yourselfSell your career vision and highlight what sets you apart

from other candidates. You may want to look through successful grant and fellowship applications to get ideas on how to sell yourself and your science. Securing a research fellowship award is a highly competitive process and you must demonstrate your potential to become an independent future research leader.

8. Clear proposalMy biggest tip is to start early! You want to communicate

your ideas clearly in a polished proposal with well-definedaims.Usediagramstoemphasiseyourpoint.Itis also key to understand your audience. They may not necessarilybeexpertsinyourfieldsominimisetheuseofjargon. Make it as easy as possible for the reviewers as they usually a number of applications to look at and you can be quickly ‘eliminated from the race’ if your proposal does not stand out. The ‘why’, ‘how’ and ‘impact’ should be obvious.

SDS Page: Short Discussions for Students Page

Top Ten Tips to Increase YourChances of Getting a Fellowship

Tatiana Soares da Costa, Australian Biochemist Co-Editor and NHMRC Early Career Fellow at the La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science


9. Review Have people from varied backgrounds provide feedback.Plantimetodevelopyourideasandrefineyourapplication based on the feedback received. In addition, mostinstitutionshaveagrantsofficethatcanhelpwithyourapplication,includinggettingtherightsign-offsandthey will often submit the application on your behalf.

10.Perseveranceiskey Ifatfirstyoudon’tsucceed…tryagain!Mostpeopleare

notsuccessfulthefirsttimetheyapplyforafellowship.Receiving the dreaded email about not being successful and not being given a reason as to why you weren’t awarded one is always hard to swallow. You start to think whether your application was competitive at all and whether it is worth your time applying for it again. If you do decide to apply again, make sure you evolve your idea to make your proposal even stronger. Also think about other schemes you can apply for. Learning how to cope with rejection is a key part of growing as a researcher!

SDS Page: Short Discussions for Students Page

The measures by which we judge scientists are always under intense scrutiny. For those who hit the peak of theirfield, there’stheNobel Prize. But across all levels of career progression, we publish research papers in journals whose importance or rank can be communicated via a number known as the Journal Impact Factor.

The much respected Nobel Prize Twitter site @NobelPrize recently tweeted an impressive video with four Nobel Laureates speaking out against Journal Impact Factors.

My view is that the Nobel Laureates are right in theory. But I cannot advise the junior researchers I mentor to ignore Impact Factors.

Although imperfect, Impact Factors retain some validity. But more importantly, deep down, I know that as the world of research expands and as people become increasingly specialised, the use of proxy metrics, like Journal Impact Factors and citations, will increase not decrease.

Criticism of Journal Impact FactorsNobel Laureates Peter Doherty, Bruce Beutler, Joseph

Goldstein and Paul Nurse aren’t alone in their criticism of Journal Impact Factors.

The widely supported San Francisco Declaration makes the same point – you can’t judge the quality of research by just looking at the Journal Impact Factor.

Australia’s major medical research funding body, the National Health and Medical Research Council is also officiallyopposedtoImpactFactorsandhasessentiallyoutlawed reporting them in grant applications.

The Australian Research Council once had a list of A star, A, B and C ratings for journals in its Excellence in Research Australia research assessment exercise but has now abandoned that list and recommends against

institutions continuing to use it.In theory all these august bodies are correct. Impact

Factors represent the average number of citations for each paper in the journal over a two year period. They are unreliable. They can be gamed in various ways, such as including a lot of reviews in a journal, and they can be heavilyinfluencedbyoneortwo“jackpot”papers.

In summary, Journal Impact Factors are a crude short cut to the proper job of estimating quality – they are a type of pre-judgement, a prejudice.

Picking a researcher or a grant application on the basis of Impact Factors is like selecting a basketball team on the basis of one single metric – like the height of the players.

It’s ridiculous.But hold on – have you ever looked at the heights of

Why I disagree with Nobel Laureates when it comes to career advice for scientists

You don’t have to be tall to be good at basketball.But it certainly helps. from www.shutterstock.com

https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/

http://researchguides.uic.edu/if/impact

https://twitter.com/NobelPrize

https://twitter.com/NobelPrize/status/877804020345262080

https://twitter.com/NobelPrize/status/877804020345262080

http://www.ascb.org/files/SFDeclarationFINAL.pdf

https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/_files_nhmrc/file/grants/peer/impact%20factors%20in%20peer%20review_1.pdf

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/end-of-an-era-journal-rankings-dropped/news-story/923b52a699c02a659bad88c20157fc0d

https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/520431253?src=ULmZ2z27FofFnjPl4jICmQ-2-62&size=medium_jpg


players in any professional basketball team?Nearly all the players are giants.

Standing tall among giantsI would love to take the Laureates’ advice, and read the

papers and judge the science on its own merits. But sadly I am only expert in a very small area. I am not capable of critically analysing most of the research I come across.

It is not that peer review doesn’t work. It works for publications.IonlyreviewpapersinthesmallfieldwhereI truly am an expert. But when it comes to grant review or making academic appointments I am often out of my field.

So I confess. I do look at Impact Factors. I look at citation metrics. I even count papers.

I regret to say that in reviewing perhaps a hundred grantsorjobapplicationsandtryingtofindthetengrantsto fund or one person to employ, I do not read every paper in the bibliography and assess the research on the basis of my limited understanding. I just don’t have the time or expertise to read and judge all the papers.

I pick my basketball team in part based on the player’s height and past match statistics. I want the people I appoint to get grants in the future and I suspect other grant reviewers also look at metrics too, so I can’t ignore them.

What is the best advice for young researchers?In their video the Nobel Laureates said that doing

sustained, solid, research was the best way to build a reputation. But with grant success rates falling to less than 20%, it is not clear solid research alone will be enough to sustain a lab. So while the advice to downplay Impact Factors is good for established researchers, this is not always feasible for junior researchers.

When I was starting out I also lamented the fact that those in authority seemed to want everything – lots of papers, and papers in journals with high Impact Factors,

as well as preliminary data prior to the grant even being funded.

A wise colleague looked at me with raised eyebrows andsaid,“Ithoughtyouweremeanttobesmart.You’remeant to work it out. You’re meant to balance your research so you deliver some solid work, and some high impact papers, and to manage your resources to produce preliminary data for new applications, while simultaneously delivering on the main research goals of yourcurrentgrantorstartupfunding.”

I think this was good advice. It is up to each of us to optimise our output. Aim as high as you can but don’t be silly and waste your career trying to lodge one paper in Nature at all costs.

Those in academic management do not want to make the wrong decisions and only use Impact Factors and other metrics as one indicator and often as a last resort. They, and you, should consider your whole portfolio. Concentrate on these things:1. Produce a number of first author papers in anyImpact Factor journal. New journals such as PLoSONE will publish solid work that isn’t world shattering in its significance.Theability to initiateandwrapupmultipleprojects is highly valued2. Establish a focus and academic reputation for being an expert in one area or technique, especially in something that is on the up3. Collaborate with one or perhaps two leading labs but do not spread yourself too thinly4. Do aim for high Impact Factor papers but know when to give up – knowing when to give up is actually more important than clinging to your dreams and never saying die (something that is dangerously over-rated in my view!)5. Most importantly, ask yourself whether you are enjoying it and whether you can handle the hard knocks that research delivers – others can sense this, and tend to support people who have resilience in their DNA.

Impact Factors and citations aren’t perfect, but nor are they worthless. Metrics are simply indicators or messengers; in themselves, they are not really the problem.

The problem is the rapidly escalating level of competition for grants and jobs. In our world, as it exists, one has to take many measures into account and my expectation is that hard, cold, imperfect numbers will continue to be important in science.

Merlin Crossley, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Education and Professor of Molecular

Biology, University of New South Wales.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Why I disagree with Nobel Laureates when it comes to career advice for scientists

Young scientists need resilience to keep their careers moving forwards. 86083886@N02/flickr, CC BY-NC

https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/grants-funding/outcomes-funding-rounds

http://www.arc.gov.au/selection-report-discovery-projects-2016

http://www.arc.gov.au/selection-report-discovery-projects-2016

http://www.nature.com/nature/index.html

https://theconversation.com/profiles/merlin-crossley-22601

http://theconversation.com/institutions/unsw-1414

http://theconversation.com/institutions/unsw-1414

http://theconversation.com

http://theconversation.com

https://theconversation.com/why-i-disagree-with-nobel-laureates-when-it-comes-to-career-advice-for-scientists-80079

https://www.flickr.com/photos/86083886@N02/20782393286

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/


Australian Capital Territory Contributed by Peter Mabbit and Matthew Johnson

It has been an exciting year for biochemistry and molecular biology in the ACT with the establishment of a Canberra Protein Group, which has been gathering for monthly meetings. The Protein group has been established at ANU and provides a platform for talks and open discussion. The group has attracted over 50 people from across the ANU, including many ASBMB members and is the first step towardsestablishinganACTwideprotein group. Simon Williams and Matthew Johnson have been instrumental in getting the Canberra Protein Group off the ground. The group has begun to attractsponsorship and will hopefully have a small conference early next year.

The ACT branch awarded undergraduate student prizes to Cara Stones, Caitlin Bradley (University of Canberra) and to Prince Sebastian (Australian National University). ASBMB wishes them well in their postgraduate studies.

The current ACT representative, Peter Mabbit, has stepped down. Dr Mabbit will continue his career at the University of Dundee. We thank him for his service and wish him the best of luck. Dr Matthew Johnson has accepted the nomination to be the next ASBMB ACT representative.

New South Wales Contributed by Katharine Michie

ASBMB NSW has sponsored the NSW Science Teachers Association Young Scientist Awards for several years now. The ASBMB Award is given for the best high school student project with a biochemistry or molecular biology theme. The judging has just taken place, however the results have not yet been announced. The competition this year was very strong; it is a pleasure to see such competent work each year – the standard keeps improving! The STANSW competition has become a very largeannualeventwithover50prizesofferedandisthemajor high school STEM competition in NSW, possibly Australia. Last year, Lakmali Edirisinghe of Gosford High School won the ASBMB prize for her project on ‘The effectofheatonenzymeactivity’.

In addition, ASBMB NSW has supported an ASBMB award of $300 given to the top biochemistry student at Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga.

It is with great regret that I will be stepping down as the NSW representative. I look forward to working with the new NSW representative to enable a smooth transition and continuing to support the activities of the ASBMB within NSW.

Queensland ContributedbyDominicChiHiungNg

In 2017, the ASBMB QLD branch remained a hive of activity continuing our sponsorship of state meetings, undergraduate student awards and outreach to primary and secondary science students.

We continued to sponsor prestigious biochemistry student prizes at QLD based universities, including GriffithUniversity,QueenslandUniversityofTechnologyand James Cook University. Earlier this year, at QUT’s annual Faculty of Health Awards, Professor Terry Walsh, a longstanding member and ASBMB ambassador presented the ASBMB prize to Mark Choong. I’d also liketohighlightthecontributionsandeffortsofProfessorNorelle Daly at James Cook University and Dr Alan Munn atGriffith,whowereappointedASBMBambassadorsattheir respective institutions.

Each year, the QLD branch supports the activities of Special Interest Groups, namely the East Coast Protein Meeting (ECPM) co-organised by the Queensland and Sydney Protein Special Interest Groups (QPG/SPG). Our sponsorship contributed to prizes for QLD members.

Compiled by Erinna Lee

News from the States

From left: Professor Andrew Roberts (Dean of the College of Physical and Mathematical

Sciences), ASBMB prize winner Prince Sebastian, Dr Peter Mabbit and Professor

Kiaran Kirk (Dean of the College of Science).

Caitlin Bradley (left) and Cara Stones (right)were jointly awarded ASBMB undergraduate

prizes at the University of Canberra.


Specifically, ASBMB QLD contributed to the QPGAward, which includes a symposium speaking slot and registration to ComBio2017, presented to Mian-Chee Gor fromtheGriffithInstituteforDrugDiscovery.Inaddition,the state branch also funded a best presentation prize at ECPM 2017, which was won by Sarah Piper from the University of Queensland. Congratulations Mian-Chee and Sarah on their awards.

Last year, the QLD branch initiated a partnership with Science Teachers Association of Queensland (STAQ) to sponsor the annual Queensland Science Competition. The state provided junior and senior awards to primary and secondary school students, respectively, with entries relevant to the discipline of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. The winner of the senior award was Isini Muthumuni and the junior award went to Loretta Carpenter, who submitted an entry detailing a DNA extraction method, which she used to compare DNA yields between common fruits. This is outstanding work for a Grade 3 student and certainly a future molecular biologist in the making!

Finally, my term as the QLD state representative has quickly come to an end and I’ll hand over the reins to Dr Benjamin Schulz from the School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, UQ, at the end of 2017. Time really doesflywhenyou’rehaving fun. It hasbeenan

honour and a pleasure to have been welcomed and supported by the QLD scientific community and toserve the society. In particular, I was fortunate for the opportunity to have been involved in the controlled chaos that was organising a ComBio meeting in Brisbane, which fell within my tenure in 2016. These experiences and more as state representative will be treasured and not quickly forgotten.

South AustraliaContributedbyStevenPolyak

This year, a diverse range of activities were supported by ASBMB SA, ranging from the promotion of science to school children and high school teachers, through to supporting our outstanding earlier career researchers.

The ASBMB SA branch once again supported the Oliphant Science Awards for South Australian School students (R-12) as a Bronze ($500) sponsor. The Oliphant awards have been running continuously since 1981 and the overall winner is presented with a perpetual trophy handcrafted by Sir Mark Oliphant. The ASBMB award is given for the best student project with a biochemistry or molecular biology theme. For the past two years, I have hadthedifficulttaskofchoosingawinnerfromthemanyhundreds of innovative and creative submissions. Emily Muggleton from Mitcham Primary School was awarded theASBMBsponsoredprizeforherprojectontheeffectofdifferentsugarsuponthegrowthofyeast.Emily,alongwith all the award winners, received prizes at the awards evening at Brighton High School. It was great to see the enthusiasm and joy from the young buddying scientists astheycollectedtheircertificates.

ASBMB SA continued its support of various Early Career Researcher Awards from biomedical research institutions in South Australia. Dr David Yeung from the Centre for Cancer Biology was awarded the ASBMB prize for his postdoctoral research. Dr Yeung is a clinician/scientist working on determining themost efficacious regimensfor the treatment of chronic myeloid leukaemia. Dr Yeung was presented with his award at the annual general meeting on 4 August at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. ASBMB also sponsored an award for the best publication by a PhD student from the School of Biological Science (University of Adelaide). Daniel Pederick was the winner for his paper in Scientific Reports on the role of thePcdh19 protein on brain development. Matthew Briggs and Parvul Mittal were also acknowledged for their efforts.ASBMBalsocontinuesitssupportoftheCentreof Neuroscience (Flinders University) research prize.

ASBMB was excited to support a new initiative, the inaugural Flinders Aurora Photo Contest, open to female high school teachers of STEM. We have received submissions from public, private and independent school alike. Thank you to all the entrants and your teachers formaking this happen. Thewinner and finalists wereselected through a blind judging process. The judges were


Professor Terry Walsh presents an

ASBMB QUT biochemistry student prize

to Mark Choong.

Dr Dominic Ng presents ASBMB junior andsenior awards to Loretta Carpenter (centre)

and Isini Muthumuni respectively at the annualSTAQ Queensland Science Competition.


very impressed by the high quality of the submissions and awardedtheprizetoEricavanderWolfffromNorwoodMorialta High School for her submission entitled ‘Wine

glass’. Chris Picton MP, Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer and Member for Kaurna, presented the award to the winner and three commendations.

ASBMB SA continues its support of the Special Interest Groups in Adelaide. The Adelaide Protein Group (APG), led by Dr Melissa Pitman, has continued to be active throughout the year holding several events, including ‘Proteins in the Pub’, and their annual student and early career researcher award events. The best student presentation award went to Zarina Greenberg (Centre for Cancer Biology) for her studies on the 14-3-3 protein in neuronal development. Ms Greenberg’s prize was registration and a speaking slot in a symposium session at ComBio2017 in Adelaide. Andrew Thompson and Louise Robertson were joint winners for the poster prize.

Victoria Contributed by Erinna Lee

The 2017 Cell Signalling and its Therapeutic Implications (CSTI) meeting was held on the Mornington Peninsula in May. This series was originally established in honour of one of our leading researchers, the late Martin Lackmann, with the inaugural meeting in 2015 focusing on signalling and cancer. This year, the theme of the conference was signalling and inflammation and it featured topinternational and national scientists in sessions covering theinterfacebetweeninflammatorysignallingandareassuch as cellular metabolism, cell death, autoimmunity and cancer. It brought together researchers, students and clinicianswithaninterestininflammatorysignallingandhowdiscoveriesinthisareacanleadtotheidentificationof novel therapeutic targets and biomarkers. Some of the invited speakers included: Jen Morton (CRUK Beatson), Andrew Cox (Peter Mac), Mark Febbraio (Garvan), Sandra Nicholson (WEHI), Phil Darcy (Peter Mac), Kate Stacey (UQ), Ashley Mansell (Hudson), Stuart Pitson (Uni of SA), Meredith O’Keefe (Monash BDI), Erica Sloan (MIPS), Belinda Parker (La Trobe Uni), Matthias Ernst (ONJCRI), Shaun McColl (Uni of SA), Paul Hertzog (Monash Uni), John Silke (WEHI), Ben Kile (Monash BDI) and Brendan Jenkins (Hudson). The ASBMB VIC branch contributed $500 towards supporting the attendance of a key national speaker.ASBMB flyers were placedin satchels provided to over 120 researchers gathered together from around the country and across the globe. The 2017 Lackmann Award for Translational Research was bestowed upon Professor Fabienne Mackay, Head of the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Melbourne. Fabienne represented an outstanding and worthy awardee, and gave an exceptional plenary talk highlighting how the BAFF receptor/ligand system contributes to the development of other pathologies, including cancer.

The 16th Melbourne Protein Group Student Symposium was held in July at the Bio21 Institute. It was attended by 85 students and other scientists from across Melbourne.


Centre for Cancer Biology Early Career Researcher Award winner Dr David Yeung with

ASBMB SA state representative Dr Steven Polyak.

The Flinders Aurora Photo Contest winner, Erica van der Wolff (right) receives her prize

from ASBMB Secretary Briony Forbes.Her winning entry was titled ‘Wine glass’.

Dr Steven Polyak with Oliphant Science Award winners.


The program featured six student talks that were selected from abstracts as well as over 50 posters. We also had two keynote speakers (James Murphy, WEHI, and Natalie Borg, Monash University) as well as a career development speaker (Karen Scalzo, CSL Ltd) that culminated in a lively question and answer session. The MPG Student Symposium Organising Committee gratefully acknowledges the $500 funding provided by ASBMB, which was used for poster prizes and contributed

to the overall organisation of the event.On Wednesday 19 July, the Department of Biochemistry

and Genetics of La Trobe University hosted a symposium and reunion dinner to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the university. Guests were welcomed by Professor Robert Pike, Pro Vice-Chancellor of the College of Science, Technology and Engineering, while former Chancellor, Emeritus Professor Adrienne Clarke, opened thesymposium.Talks throughout thedayspannedfivedecades of science in Biochemistry and Genetics from foundation departments to recent discoveries. The talks, enjoyedbyalmost200peopleacrosstheday,confirmedthat the culture of excellence instilled here 50 years ago is alive and well today. The reunion dinner, attended by former and current staff and students, partnersand friends, capped offwhatwas a truly inspiring andmemorable day. Registration fees for the symposium were kept to a minimum ($10 per head) to encourage current students in the department to attend. The $500 sponsorship money provided by the ASBMB was therefore used to help cover the cost of catering for the day program and sponsor one of the sessions of the day.

In addition to these events, the ASBMB VIC branch has committed $1000 to supporting the annual Science Talent Search held at La Trobe University in October, as well as $500 towards AussieMit to be held early next year.


From left: Grant McArthur (2015 Lackmann Award winner), Hannes Lackmann, Beate Lackmann,

Fabienne Mackay (2017 Lackmann Award winner), Roger Daly (CSTI convenor).

Poster session at the MelbourneProtein Group Student Symposium.

Prize winners at the Melbourne Protein GroupStudent Symposium with invited speakers

James Murphy (left) and Natalie Borg (right).

Speakers and contributors to the 50th anniversary of La Trobe University celebrations held by the

Department of Biochemistry and Genetics.

From left: Nick Hoogenraad, Joan Hoogenraad, Robin Anders, Peter McIntyre and Dick Wettenhall at the Department of Biochemistry and Genetics

symposium at La Trobe University.


Western AustraliaContributedbyNicolasTaylor

During 2017, the ASBMB WA branch continued its support of the Annual Perth Combined Biological Sciences Meeting (http://www.cbsmwa.org.au) held on the 25th of August at the UWA University Club. This annual meeting promotes biological sciences research in Western Australia by encouraging the interaction of scientists, students and industry from all of the life sciences. This year we supported a $300 prize for the most outstanding student poster presentation on their biochemistry and molecular biology research. This year’s award winner was Courtney George from the Telethon Kids Institute for her poster entitled ‘Cell cycle checkpoint inhibition increases sensitivity to gemcitabine and enhances survival in mice with paediatric medulloblastoma’.

On 31 October, the ASBMB sponsored a speaker to attend the ‘Symposium on Multidisciplinary Insights into Higher Order Biological Complexes’ at UWA. The symposium includes three international speakers – Tetsuro Hirose (University of Hokkaido, Japan), Shinichi Nakagawa (University of Hokkaido, Japan), Tanya Shelkovnikova (Cardiff University, United Kingdom),and the ASBMB WA sponsored Danny Hatters (Bio21, University of Melbourne). A number of local speakers from Fellows to Professors and a range of UWA institutions will complement these guests.

With my tenure ending this year, I look forward to remaining involved with ASBMB activities. It has been a veryfulfillingexperienceandagreatlearningcurveandI’ve met some wonderful people along the journey. I will be handing over the reins to Dr Monika Murcha, who is a Future Fellow in the School of Molecular Science and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Plant Energy Biology at the University of Western Australia. I wish Monika every success in her new role.


ASBMB-sponsored speaker Danny Hatters at the Symposium on Multidisciplinary Insights

into Higher Order Biological Complexes.

Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology IncPUBLICATIONSCHEDULEFORAUSTRALIAN BIOCHEMIST, volume 49, 2018

Issue

April 2018 49 (1)

August 2018 49 (2)

December 2018 49 (3)

ASBMB Content

Profilesofmedal,awardandfellowshipwinnersNominations for Executive/Council

Nominations for medals, awards and fellowshipsNotice of AGM/proposed constitutional changes

Annualreports/financesComBio2018 reports

Copy Deadline

Monday 12 February

Monday 11 June

Monday 8 October

The Program for ComBio2018 (Sydney) will be placed on the ASBMB webpage (www.asbmb.org.au).The Proceedings of the Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology is published in conjunction with the

Annual Conference of the Society. The electronic version of the Proceedings (Volume 50) will be made available online.

Issue Date

Monday 2 April

Monday 30 July

Monday 3 December


Presenting the latest competition for the members of the ASBMB. All correct entries received by the Editors ([email protected])

before 12 February 2018 will enter the draw to receive a gift voucher. With thanks to Shaun Gaskin.

On 10 December, the ceremony honouring the 2017 Nobel Prize winners will be held. To coincide with the festivities, the puzzle in this edition of the Australian Biochemist reflects on past winners. To be in

the running to win the prize, you will need to obtain a codeword.

Below are the scrambled names of nine previous Nobel Prize recipients. Use the clue to help you unscramble the names, then

enter them into the corresponding row of the grid below, using one letter per square, written from left to right. Do not include spaces.The letters in the red column will reveal the winning codeword.

Scrambled names:1. enybyerdnsenr2. reettordhpey3. ytoyouuu4. dustheiecasretin5. ucbbeklbtarahzelin

Competition: Nobel Prize Codeword

6. yimsnaykhaanaa7. ofwerrodahly8. plsnraelaevaohn9. apnrisalehtmn Clue: Physiology or Medicine

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9


I am currently a Project Manager at the biotechnology firmHeximaLimited.WhatthismeansisthatwhileInolonger have the excitement of conducting experiments, I am still very connected to the discovery process, meaning I am able to satisfy the intellectual curiosity that drivesustostudyscienceinthefirstplace.Day-to-day,Ispend most of my time divided between discussions with team members, teleconferences with contract research organisations, reviewing data (internal and external) and learning. I feel that in my role I am also teaching, which I love. It certainly helps being surrounded by team members that are so committed to learning and developing.

Before joining Hexima, I was a research scientist. I hadareallyenjoyablePhD,largelyoffthebackofgreatlabmembersanda terrificsupervisor,MikeRyan,whogenuinely cared about my personal development. That certainly does not mean my PhD was ‘easy’, quite the contrary.Aftermyfirstyear,MikeandIdecidedthatmyproject was not moving in the right direction and together we decided to change the aims of my work. It was really tough going for a while, but the experience made me more resilient and taught me how important it is to acknowledge when something is just not working.

Determined to forge my career as a lab head, I undertook a postdoc in Cologne, Germany. Whilst I was completing my postdoctoral studies in Germany, I was exposed to a booming biotechnology sector that I had not witnessed in Australia. Furthermore, a significantpercentage of PhD students were completing their PhDs with no intention of continuing in academia. I was shocked and the environment had me asking some new and lateral questions about my own career path and about research in general. A question that stuck with me waswhyAustralia issogoodatscientificresearchandproducing high quality publications, but performs less well than other OECD countries at commercialising research efforts?AskingthesenewquestionsfeltstrangebecausethiswasthefirsttimethatIhadstoppedtoquestionmycareer trajectory. I am glad that I did however, because it helped me to realise that I was more interested in solving different puzzles, such as addressing the researchcommercialisation gap in Australia.

On my return to Australia in 2012, I made a very conscious and targeted decision to take steps to enter the world of industry and biotechnology in Australia.

Armed with this new focus, I embarked upon an MBA atMelbourneBusinessSchool,whichIrecentlyfinished.This was a life changing experience – I have accumulated a wealth of knowledge, developed lifelong friendships and I was even lucky enough to complete a subject in Shanghai and two subjects at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management in Los Angeles.

Without my scientific background and commercialtraining, itwouldbedifficult toperformmycurrentrole.Scientifictrainingprovidesmetheessentialbackgroundto have a deep understanding of the development program and the science involved. My commercial training in the form an MBA has equipped me with management skills, financial literacy and an ability tostep back and assess the bigger picture. I really enjoy the role, there are many positives and it is great working with talented and driven people. The positon certainly provides numerous challenges, such as dealing with ambiguity and for a biotechnology company, there can be periods of uncertainty as money and resources are always tight. For people that do not like continuous change, this is probably not the ideal role or sector. I like being able to implement new ways of doing things and knowing that the focus can rapidly change as we move throughtheprogramissomethingthatIfindexciting.

I have learned an enormous amount in my short career todate.IfIhadtopickthreepiecesofadvicetooffer,the

From Bench to BusinessMichael Baker, Project Manager, Hexima Limited

Written by former researchers who have now established careers outside of research,OfftheBeatenTrackisintendedtogivethereadersinsightsintotherange of alternative careers available to them. Authors describe the paths they havetakentoarriveattheirpresentcareerandprovideadetaileddescription

ofexactlywhatthejobentailsonaday-to-daybasis.

A proud and relieved moment for Michael Bakerafter his MBA graduation ceremony,

University of Melbourne, October 2017.

Off the Beaten Track


firstwouldbethattherearemanyopportunitiesavailableto PhD graduates. I would like to dispel the notion that there are few options outside of academia. For me a large part of the trap here is that people often seek advice on careers from those closest to them, such as their academic mentors or colleagues, who often have little experience with the opportunities that exist outside of academia. Spread your net wide and proactively seek out and attend workshops and presentations that are not necessarily related to your current industry. Also, be open to discussions with people who have successfully made the transition to an area that you are interested in. The second piece of advice is that the major skills developed during a PhD are transferrable to basically every career path. PhD graduates are resilient, analytical problem solving machines with exemplary written and

verbal communication skills. As scientists, we need to look at the evidence and it is right there telling us that PhD graduates are remarkable people. Sure, people might not be that fussed that you characterised MAP kinase, but your ability to bounce back and trouble shoot until you solve a complex problem will be of interest to recruitment managers. Lastly, your network is the most valuable resource that you will take with you. I like to think of networking not as asking people for help when you need but rather setting your brand image for what you believe in. In my opinion, networking is something that you are doing every day because people are watching you and how you react to situations. You have a choice to be recognised as a person that produces the bare minimum or the person that goes over and above to get things done.

Off the Beaten Track

Science & Technology Australia: Superstars of STEM

ASBMB member, Professor Rachel Burton, has beenchosentobeaSuperstarofSTEM.Superstarsof STEMwill smash society’s gender assumptionsabout scientists and increase the public visibility of womeninSTEM.

Science & Technology Australia (STA) is working with 30 of the nation’s most dynamic scientists and technologists to create role models for young women and girls, and work towards equal representation in the media of men and women in STEM.

STA is equipping the Superstars with advanced communication skills and providing them with the opportunities to use them – in the media, on the stage, and in speaking with decision-makers.

The program is connecting participants through a mentoring network, to encourage them to learn from womenwho have crafted a profile for themselves andwho already serve as role models.

Rachel moved from the UK to the Waite Campus, University of Adelaide in 1995 for what she thought was a four year postdoctoral position. In 2017, 22 years later, sheisstillthereandwhenaskedreplies,“whyleaveoneofthemostbeautifulcampusesintheworld?”

Rachel is a plant scientist and molecular biologist, passionate about plant cell walls and all the useful things they can do for us. She is interested in the ways that the parts of the cell wall are made and put together but even more intrigued by how they are disassembled or

fermented in the human gut, because they are the crucial dietary fibreelement of our diets.

She is also interested in renewable biofuels and believes that differentplant feedstocks will fundamentally underpin this industry.

Rachel runs a group in the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Cell Walls where the culture is one of inclusion, team work and appreciating diversity, and where achievements are celebrated as often as possible with cake! She served as Director of The Plant Accelerator, an NCRIS facility for plant phenotyping, from 2013 to 2015.

She loves participating in outreach and science communication events and has recently starred in a Pint of Science with giant DNA and an interpretive dance and a Science Nation event, For the Love of Science, where her poor partner got dragged into the proceedings. Rachel has two teenage kids, which has given her direct experience juggling parenting with career pressures. She can be found Tweeting at @porridgepusher.


Early career When I completed a

Diploma in Agriculture at Longerenong College in 1958, there was no room for a second son on the family wheat farm at Murtoa in the Southern Wimmera district of Victoria. Instead, I enrolled in the BAgrSc degree course at the University of Melbourne. Having failed to gain a Commonwealth Scholarship, I needed

financial help to go to university and so I applied fora cadetship with the Commonwealth Department of Territories.Thisrequiredmetospendfiveyearsworkingin the then Territories of Papua and New Guinea after completing my degree. I did spend a few months working asanAgriculturalOfficer inPNG; Ibecame fascinatedby the countryand itspeople, andworking in the fieldwas a great adventure, but I quickly realised that it was not what I wanted to do for the rest of my career. In my finalyearofundergraduatestudies,IalsorealisedthatIwanted to be a biochemist. Our principal lecturer, Frank Hird, was largely responsible for attracting a generation of Melbourne agricultural science students into postgraduate studies in biochemistry, and three of my class (myself, Terry Bellair and Tony Howells) completed PhDs in the Russell Grimwade School of Biochemistry at the University of Melbourne. After a few months working in the Department of Agriculture laboratories in Port Moresby, I returned to Melbourne to commence my PhD studies in February 1962.

My PhD supervisor was Dr Richard (Dick) Jago, who studied for his PhD as a mature age student after having fought in Papua New Guinea during World War 2. Dick had earlier worked in the dairy industry and when he returned to Melbourne after postdoctoral studies in Rochester, USA, he joined the CSIRO Division of Dairy Research, but was based in the newly built Russell Grimwade School of Biochemistry. The focus of the lab was the growth and metabolism of cheese starter organisms and I examined some of the pathways of carbohydrate metabolism that wereinvolvedintheproductionofflavourcompoundsbythesebacteriaandinfluencedbacterialviability.Dickwasenthusiastic about practical outcomes from the research in his laboratory and this was an approach to research that I enjoyed.

TenyearsinPNGI was planning to return to the Agriculture Department

in PNG after completing my PhD but instead, at the endof1965,IwasrecruitedtotheteachingstaffofthePapuan Medical College, which had been established by the Department of Health a few years earlier. I enjoyed teaching and interacting with the Papua New Guinean students although they were not all well prepared for the basic sciences taught in the first two years of themedical course. Demonstrating in practical classes at the University of Melbourne while a PhD student had made me aware that medical students were often little interested in biochemistry in their understandable impatience to move on to the more clinically relevant subjects in their course. To help avoid this problem, I linked the biochemistry course I taught in Port Moresby to relevant clinical issues in PNG, such as the emerging problem of diabetes, endemic goitre and malnutrition.

My heavy teaching load did not allow much time for research but my friend and colleague, Robin Cooke, who was head of pathology at Port Moresby hospital, encouraged me to begin an investigation of the chemical nature of amyloid deposited in the tissues of the unusual number of patients admitted to hospitals in PNG with amyloidosis. At the time, the chemical nature of amyloid was unknown, and it was only seven years afterthefibrillarultrastructureofamyloidwasfirstseenin the electron microscope. In 1970, amyloid isolated from a patient with primary amyloidosis was shown to be composed of an immunoglobulin light chain fragment by George Glenner at NIH. The following year, amyloid from patients with secondary amyloidosis was shown to be composed of a novel protein (protein AA) unrelated

Robin Anders looks back on a long career starting in agricultural science and finishing in malaria vaccine research.

A Different Path

Great Expectations

Robin Anders.

Left: Orchid hunting near Tapini in the Owen Stanley Range, PNG, January 1962. Right: A species of the Dendrobium orchid which only grows in this region.


to immunoglobulins by Earl Benditt in Seattle. In Port Moresby and subsequently in Oslo, Norway, I established that the amyloid from all PNG patients examined was of the AA type and this included patients with amyloidosis secondary to leprosy as well as surprisingly young patients with no apparent predisposing condition.

About 50% of the amyloidosis cases documented in PNG in those years occurred secondary to the mycobacterial diseases leprosy and tuberculosis and this stimulated my interest in the immunology of leprosy. To learn more abouttherapidlyadvancingfieldofimmunology,in1972I attended a summer school at Cowes run by the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI). This was a transforming experience for me; world experts discussingthelatestfindingsonsuchtopicsasTcell–Bcell collaboration, the role of the thymus and graft-verus-host reactions. I returned to Port Moresby enthused about immunology but also with a desire to eventually get involved in research full-time.

Life in Port Moresby in the late 1960s and early 1970s was full of interest. The Territories of Papua and New Guinea were on track to become the independent nation of Papua New Guinea in 1975 and changes were happening almost daily. The University of Papua New Guinea was established in 1965 and after objections from Canberra were overcome, the Papuan Medical College became the UPNG Faculty of Medicine in 1970. Margot and I were married in August 1970 and we were both appointed to positions in the new Faculty of Medicine: Margot as lecturer in microbiology, while I was appointed senior lecturer in biochemistry. For much of 1971, I was acting head of the Department of Human Biology and for several years sub-dean of the Faculty. Fortunately, the appointment of Liz Dennis as Lecturer in Biochemistry considerably lightened my teaching load allowed time for some research together with Margot and Liz.

Our main collaborators in Port Moresby were Michael Price (physician), Ian Wilkey (pathologist) and Doug Russell (leprosy specialist); working with Keith McAdam, who was based in Goroka at the Institute of Human Biology, we showed that amyloidosis in leprosy was associated with the occurrence of erythema nodosum leprosum reactions.

Belated postdocs in NorwayThere were many dedicated and inspiring people working in themedicalfield inPapuaNewGuinea,butthere was no one to provide mentoring in the laboratory research we were interested in. In mid-1973, we decided that if we were to establish laboratory research careers we would need to leave PNG. I was keen to continue working on amyloid and one option was to join George Glenner’s laboratory at NIH in the USA. However, we werebothofferedpositionsattheInstituteforImmunologyand Rheumatology (IGRI) in Oslo and so in mid-1974, we left PNG bound for Norway, which was a dramatic

change in lifestyle and climate. The amyloid group at IGRI, including the Director Jacob Natvig, Gunnar Husby, Terje Michaelsen and their collaborator Knut Sletten (Biochemistry Department at the University of Oslo) had a focus on the chemical composition of amyloid associated with a variety of pathologies. Consequently, it was a good environment for me to continue my analyses of amyloid isolated from Papua New Guinean patients and also to commence an investigation into the nature of protein SAA, an acute phase protein that was assumed to be the serum precursor of protein AA. We enjoyed life and work in Oslo; IGRI was a small institute but with several groups involved in immunology research that was highly regarded internationally. I shared a laboratory with Terje Michaelsen while he was working out the unusual hinge structure of IgG3. My almost daily interactions with Terje and others in the institute provided me with the more formal training in immunochemistry and protein chemistry that I lacked having spent so many years in PNG.

Return to Melbourne

Although there was an opportunity to stay on in Oslo, we were missing ‘home’ so towards the end of 1975, we started to look for positions back in Australia.

I was fortunate to be awarded a fellowship from the Heiser Foundation for leprosy-related research, which enabled me to continue working on amyloid in the Clinical ResearchUnitatWEHIinMelbourne.Myfirsttwoyearsat WEHI were not very productive. I realised that if I continued to work alone on a project that my colleagues had little knowledge of, or interest in, this was unlikely to change, so in 1978 I joined the newly established immunoparasitology group headed by Graham Mitchell. Initially, I worked on a diverse range of parasites but after a couple of years decided to focus on malaria, the most important parasite disease, which I regretted not taking a greater interest in during my years in PNG.

In the early 1980s, our group at WEHI and groups in the USA and Europe were competing to clone Plasmodium falciparum genes in E. coli, with the aim of expressing parasite antigens that could be assessed for their potential as components of a malaria vaccine. Through David Kemp’s and Rob Saint’s connections at Stanford University, we gained early access to the

Great Expectations

Cross-country

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Oslo, January

1975.


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lgt11 expression vector developed by Ric Young and Ron Davis. Graham Brown had earlier established cultures of P. falciparum from infected Papua New Guineans at WEHI. Using cDNA from these parasites, the lgt11 vector and human anti-P. falciparum antibodies we cloned, for the firsttime,thegenesofnumerousantigensoftheasexualblood-stagesofthe most important cause of human malaria. The detection of antibody-binding E. coli colonies in the second week of January 1983 was a day of great excitement, which determined the course of the rest of my career. The antigens were expressed as b-galactosidase fusion proteins often at sufficient levelstoallowisolationofabundantamountsoftheexpressedantigens.Theproductionofspecificantibodiestotheseantigensallowedthe corresponding parasite antigens to be characterised and this allowed ustoidentifyafirstgroupofpotentialvaccinecomponents.Someofthesewere sent to Bill Collins at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, who assessedthemforvaccineefficacyinnon-humanprimates.

These developments led to a dramatic expansion of the malaria vaccine work at WEHI with the setting up of a joint venture company (Saramane Pty Ltd), with the Queensland Institute of Medical Research as another academic party, and the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories and Biotech Australia as commercial partners. Dave Kemp and I found an increasing amount of our time was spent worrying about progress against Gantt charts andallmembersofthegrouphadtoprotectintellectualpropertybyfilingprovisional patents before publishing new results. Although this is routine in biomedical research today, it was a major change in practice for us in 1983 and caused some stress. Nevertheless, with ample funding from the joint venture, the National Biotechnology Program and a variety of other sources, our large collaborative group was very productive. In 1989, we formedalinkwithHoffmanLa-Rochewiththeaimofcommencingclinicaltrials with selected antigens. After early trials in Brisbane organised by Allan Saul,in1998–99theCombinationBvaccinewastestedforefficacyinPNGchildren by Blaise Genton, Inoni Betuela, Ingrid Felger, Michael Alpers and other collaborators at the PNG Institute of Medical Research. By this time, the joint venture had been wound up and the malaria vaccine program that I led had been transferred into the CRC for Vaccine Technology.

LaTrobeUniversityIn2000,after24yearsatWEHIandadifficultlastfewyears,Imovedto

the Department of Biochemistry at La Trobe University headed by my long-term friend and fellow Melbourne BAgrSc graduate, Nick Hoogenraad. This excellent department included laboratories involved in malaria research headed by Leann Tilley and Mick Foley. Mick had been a postdoc with me at WEHI in the late 1980s and it was very enjoyable to work closely with

From left: Ross Coppel, Dave Kemp and Robin Anders examining the autoradiograph showing expression of P. falciparum antigens in E. coli, January 1983.Image: Walter and Eliza Hall Institute.


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Great Expectationshim again and share some of the supervision of talented postgraduate students working on malaria projects.

As a result of my move, La Trobe University became a new party to the CRC for Vaccine Technology. My move also coincided with the establishment of the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI) in the USA as the vehicle through which funds from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation were applied to malaria vaccine development. Because the efficacy inducedby the Combination B vaccine was strain-specific, the MVI funded thedevelopment of the MSP2-C1 vaccine, which contained two isoforms of merozoite surface protein 2 (MSP2). After the antigens were produced in Adelaide by GroPep Pty Ltd and formulated in adjuvant by CSL Ltd, the MSP2-C1 vaccine was tested in a phase 1 study at Q-Pharm in Brisbane with James McCarthy, at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research, the principal investigator. The MSP2-C1 vaccine induced antibodies in the volunteers, which James Beeson and colleagues at the Burnet Institute showed were inhibitory for parasite growth in vitro, but unfortunately the formulation was too reactogenic for further development.

Collaboration with MIPSIn recent years, I have ceased any involvement in clinical trials of

malaria vaccine candidates but I have remained involved in studies of the structure of potential malaria vaccine antigens. This work has been largely carried out at the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MIPS) in the laboratory of my long-term collaborator, Ray Norton, and has been driven by the belief that a more detailed understanding of the structureoftheantigensisrequiredinordertodevelophighlyefficaciousrecombinant protein vaccines. These studies, involving Chris MacRaild and others with Ray Norton at MIPS, and Jack Richards at the Burnet Institute, have revealed MSP2 to be an intrinsically disordered protein that undergoes major conformational changes when it aggregates or interacts with membrane mimetics.

Lorne Conference on Protein Structure and FunctionMargotandIreturnedtoAustraliafromNorwaysixmonthsafterthefirst

Lorne protein conference was held at Erskine House in February 1976. In 1977, I was asked to join the organising committee and when Syd Leach, the founder of the conference retired in 1985, I took over as Chair, a position I held until 2000. My long-term involvement in the organisation of the Lorne Conference enabled me to get to know and establish friendships with a large number of Australia’s protein chemists. Prior to the engagement of ASN as conference organiser in the early 2000s, the committee was responsible for running all aspects of the conference and

Robin with collaborators

Ray Norton (left) and Chris

MacRaild (right) at the Monash

Institute of Pharmaceutical

Sciences.


I worked particularly closely with Lindsay Sparrow and Richard Simpson (long-term Treasurer and Secretary, respectively) through the year to ensure the success of each conference. We all take a lot of satisfaction knowing that we helped to create a conference that has become an internationally-recognised annual institution for protein chemists. I was particularly honoured to be asked to be the Conference Leach Lecturer in 2003, and again in 2016 to have the Young Investigator awards named in my honour.

ReflectionsLooking back on my career, I regret a few missed

opportunities and wrong turns but I do not regret spending almost ten years in PNG after completing my PhD, rather than taking the more usual path at the time of a postdoc in the USA or Europe. Being confronted with the health, social and many other problems of a developing country

changed my perspective on life in a major way and this led to me spending a large part of my career on malaria vaccine research. However, despite the unrealistic promisesofavaccineinthreetofiveyearswhenmalariaantigens were first cloned in the early 1980s, there isstill no vaccine licensed for widespread use. RTS,S, the most advance malaria vaccine, had disappointingly low efficacywhentestedinaPhase3trial inAfrica.RTS,Smay be improved by being combined with one or more asexual-stage antigens but our work, and the work of others, has shown the polymorphisms in these antigens are a major problem that needs to be overcome if they are to be included in a vaccine.

Despite the lack of a vaccine, there has been a very substantial reduction in malaria in PNG and the majority of endemic countries in Africa since 2000. It is important that these gains are maintained and that more progress is made tackling the many other health problems of developing countries. This will require an increased commitment from young scientists from Australia and other wealthy countries; it could make for a very rewarding career.

Great Expectations

Robin and Margot with their daughters Jackie (second left) and Katie (right), and granddaughter

Alexa, on a visit to Melbourne Zoo.

The organising committee of the 2000 Lorne Conference on Protein Structure and Function

with conference founder Syd Leach.Back (from left): Ian Smith, Jeff Gorman,

John Wade and Chris Browne.Front (from left): Bruce Kemp, Geoff Howlett, Lindsay Sparrow, Syd Leach, Robin Anders,

Richard Simpson and Leann Tilley.


ASBMB President Leann Tilley with Lemberg

medallist, John Mattick.

Monica Santese of Eppendorf South Pacific with Eppendorf Edman

awardee, Natalie Spillman (left).

Catherine Youloundas of Beckman Coulter with Beckman

Coulter Discovery Science awardee, Michael Lawrence.

Jamie Swaile of Shimadzu with Shimadzu Education awardee,

Heather Verkade.

Samuel Robinson (centre) receives the Fred Collins Award from ASBMB President Leann

Tilley and Stephen Collins, son of Fred Collins.

Jay Dickman of Merck with Merck Research medallist,

Lars Ittner (right).

ASBMB President Leann Tilley with Boomerang awardee, Yan Yan Yip.

ASBMB Medallists andAwardees at ComBio2017


Michael Michael reports on the recent ASBMB conference held in conjunction with ASPS and ANZSCDB.

ThefirstweekinOctoberfoundusmeetinginAdelaidefor ComBio2017, the joint meeting of three scientificsocieties, ASBMB, ASPS and ANZSCDB. Held in the recently extended Adelaide Convention Centre, the riverside venue provided a picturesque setting for three intensive days of science, inspiration, renewing old friendships and establishing new collaborations. Thescientificmeetingwascompressedfromtheregular

four-day format into an intensive three-day program, with a view to reducing the cost of attendance, both in registration and in accommodation for interstate visitors. Emphasis was placed on ensuring maximal opportunities for postgraduate students.

Venue availability dictated that the meeting would be held during a teaching week. Despite this, attendance was strong with 693 registrations. We received 497 abstracts in total. The program boasted 14 plenary speakers, 294 symposium presentations and 189 posters. On the preceding Monday, during a long weekend, a Career Development Forum ushered in the meeting, providing sound advice to our postgraduate students and early career researchers and encouraging them to visualise a broad horizon of possibilities.

The meeting was opened by Dr Leanna Read, Chief Scientist of South Australia, and a long-time member of the ASBMB. Dr Read drew upon her extensive background in research and biotechnology commercialisation to summarise the state of play for research environments both in South Australia andnationally.Sheemphasised thebenefitof cross-fertilisation within the biological sciences and the importance of emerging technologies to state and national economies.

A stellar list of international plenary speakers presented their research to eager audiences. We were particularly fortunate to have Michael Hall (University of Basel) join us, only a few weeks after receiving the Lasker Prize. MikecommencedthescientificprogramwithhisASBMB

Grimwade Keynote Lecture that described the emerging translational impact of his pioneering studies on the TOR pathway and metabolic signalling, with particular relevance to liver cancer.

Adam Frost (University of California, San Francisco) showed how the structural insights that arise from cutting-edge cryoEM imaging illuminate our understanding of cellular processes. His models, including those that explore the organellar constriction that accompanies mitochondrialfission,wereextraordinary.HannaMikkola(University of California, Los Angeles) presented her studies of haematopoetic stem cell development and differentiation,detailingthegeneregulationthatenablesstem cell self-renewal. Robert Hancock (University of BritishColumbia)firstscareduswiththethreatsposedbyantibiotic resistance, then sought to reassure us with the potential of several alternative antimicrobial strategies. Cathie Martin (John Innes Centre, Norwich) presented the anti-cancer benefits of consuming tomatoesengineered to overexpress anthyocyanins. In a related symposium, she also described the joys and frustrations

Report on ComBio2017

ComBio2017 Chair, Michael Michael (right) and plenary lectuter Michael Hall,

ComBio2017 Deputy Chair

Rachel Burton (left) and

plenary lecturer Cathie Martin.

Dr Leanna Read, Chief

Scientist of South

Australia, opened

ComBio2017.


thataccompanythecommercialisationofsuchfindings.Manel Esteller (IDIBELL, Barcelona) summarised the involvement of epigenetic processes in carcinogenesis, from the early focus on DNA methylation to more recent studiesencompassingchromatinmodificationandRNA-mediated processes. He concluded with examples of epigenetic drugs and novel therapeutic strategies. Jian-Kang Zhu (Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, and Purdue University, Indiana) also spoke on epigenetic processes, and the utility of new genome editing technologies, but with a view to understanding plant stresses. Clotilde Thery (Institut Curie, Paris) highlighted the issues associated with purifying and classifying extracellular vesicles, but also highlighted the therapeutic potential of exosomes. We are especially grateful to Christoph Englert (Fritz Lipmann Institute, University of Jena, Germany), who cheerfully travelled to Australia at exceptionally short notice, to present the establishment ofanelegantnewmodelsystem,theAfricankillifish,forstudying aging. We also thank Peter Currie (Monash University) for enabling Christoph’s participation and for presenting the ANZSCDB President’s Medal Lecture.

We had the opportunity to congratulate this year’s ASBMB award winners. John Mattick (Garvan Institute) was awarded the prestigious ASBMB Lemberg Medal and his plenary lecture, which described the central roles that RNAs play in regulating gene expression, development and disease, was overwhelming both in scopeandsignificance.LarsIttner(UniversityofNSW)received the ASBMB Merck Medal and detailed the mechanistic roles of Tau protein in neurodegeneration.

Fifty-nine symposia complemented the plenary lectures tocreateadynamicscientificprogram.Thesesymposiaaddressed seven key scientific themes: Plant Biology;Biotechnology and Sustainable Futures; Developmental, Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology; Proteins and Proteomics; Genomes, Epigenetics and Bioinformatics; Cell Biology; and Cell Signalling and Metabolism.

Education was also an important component of the meeting, and two Education Symposia were held on the Wednesday.

The theme leaders mapped out a framework that addressed key biological challenges. They appointed symposium chairs who, in turn, assembled an excellent program with speakers often at the vanguard of their fields. The emergence of new technologies, such asgenomeediting,werehighlighted in specific symposia,but also dispersed throughout the program, according to their relevance across the themes. Here we saw examples of how the broad biological scope of ComBio is particularlyinformative,juxtaposingtheutilityofspecifictechnologies across fields as diverse as improvedagronomic traits and cancer research. There was plenty of inspiration, especially for those willing to step outside their comfort zone.

The poster displays were again popular with a high standard of diverse research on offer. Following thesuccess of the poster teaser sessions at ComBio2016, this concept was embraced once again. Over two sessions, 37 early career researcher/student speakers highlighted their research and advertised their posters to the lively audience in a small auditorium constructed within the trade display hall.

The social program is a key feature of all meetings. A decision to replace the conference dinner with more extensive social drinks and networking opportunities was


A poster teaser session.

Poster exhibition.

Right:plenary lecturer

Adam Frost.

Left:plenary lecturer Hanna Mikkola.


popular, with around 530 people attending these sessions on each of the nights. Delegates then either attended Society dinners, or spilled out into many restaurants surrounding the venue.

ComBio is fortunate to receive generous support from a variety of trades that are associated with biological research. This year, 32 companies showed their products and services in the display hall, enticing delegates to sample new technologies. The passport prize competition was popular and encouraged delegates to visit all booths and develop relationships with suppliers. As always, thereweresubstantialprizesonoffer.

The organisation of a meeting as large as ComBio2017 involves significant backgroundwork.On behalf of theLocal Organising Committee (LOC), I would sincerely like to thank all the theme leaders and symposium chairs for volunteering so much time and energy, and for generatingsuchaninterestingandstimulatingscientificprogram. My personal thanks to the LOC executive for their diligence and I particularly applaud the herculean effortsofourprogramchairs.TheComBiomeetingsrunlike clockwork, and that is largely due to the expertise and corporate knowledge of Sally and Chris Jay, who are the heart and soul of this conference. With their team,


ComBio2017 ASBMB Poster Prize WinnersKofiStevens(CurtinUniversity,WA)Diminished Ost3 dependent N-glycosylation of the BiP nucleotide exchange factor Sil1 is an adaptive response to reductive ER stressGeorgia Atkin-Smith (La Trobe University, VIC)Plexin B2 is a novel regulator of monocyte apoptotic cell disassemblyEmily Crawley (Flinders University, SA)Application of shear stress mediated refolding technology to the oxidative refolding of recombinantly produced insulinJess Bridgford (University of Melbourne, VIC)The antimalarial activity of artemisinin is mediated by an accumulation of polyubiquitinated proteinsLinda Brain (La Trobe University, VIC)Characterisation of chitin synthases from Fusarium graminearumAndrew Thompson (University of Adelaide, SA)Activate site probes reveal a strategy for the inhibition of biotin biosynthesis in Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Social sessions.

From left: Terry and Kerri Piva with James Stangoulis.

they ensure that all goes smoothly and seems serene, while behind the scenes there is a blur of activity. We are in their debt once again.

We now await ComBio2018, which will be held in a brand new venue in Sydney. I wish Liz Harry and the LOC well with their planning, and look forward to joining everyone next year.


The ComBio2017 Career Development Forum was held at the new University of Adelaide Health and Medical Sciences Building, within Adelaide’s biomedical precinct. The event was convened by Geraint Rogers (South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute [SAHMRI], Flinders University) and Tara Pukala (University ofAdelaide) and offered a broad program,discussing the challenges and opportunities facing researchers pursuing a career in the biosciences. Approximately 70 delegates attended to hear from leading experts with diverse professional backgrounds, who presented their views and personal insights on possible career pathways and tips for progression for early to mid-career scientists.

Professor Keryn Williams (Flinders University) presented on the challenges and opportunities in obtaining competitive research funding. With extensive experience in both winning and reviewing bids for competitive funding, Keryn offered a wealth of adviceon how best to source grant funding opportunities and prepare an application with greatest chance of success.

She emphasised a number of practical points, including the importance of presenting a clear story for the reviewer to read easily.

Dr Leanna Read described her career pathway through research and industry, to her current role as the Chief Scientist for South Australia. She highlighted that her career had progressed by making the most of opportunities as they presented themselves, often outside of her main area of expertise and comfort zone. Leanna also provided advice for engaging industry and translating research to commercial outcomes.

Professor Deborah White is the Director of Cancer Research and Deputy Cancer Theme Leader at the SAHMRI in Adelaide. She spoke about challenges facing female research scientists, particularly as these often coincide with a transition to independent research. She also presented her views on approaches to encourage progression of early and mid-career female researchers.

Dr Justin Dibbins spoke about his role as a Consultant with Phillips Ormonde Fitzpatrick, presenting an insight into scientific careers alongside of research andacademia. He described the processes associated with protection of intellectual property and the commercialisationofscientificresearch,andhighlightedthevalueof scientific training inbestmanaging theseprocesses.

Associate Professor Geraint Rogers described his career path to date, in particular highlighting the opportunities that enabled his transition to independent research. His useful practical advice included the importance of developing relationships with good mentors to support career development.

Afternoon tea provided an opportunity for delegates to participate in an informal networking session, where extensive discussion continued both with invited speakers and between colleagues new and old. As Keryn Williams commented after the event, with such a talented group of participants, how can Australia fail to thrive?

TaraPukala,ComBio2017 Career Development Forum Co-convenor

ComBio2017 Career Development Forum

Career Development Forum speakers, from left: Justin Dibbins, Deb White, Geraint Rogers,

Leanna Read and Keryn Williams.


Two ComBio2017 Education Symposia were held on Wednesday 4 October, delivered in information-packed sessions focusing on ‘Student skill development’ and ‘E-learning approaches to education’. The chairs of the firstsymposiumwereAmberWillems-Jones(Universityof Melbourne) and Maurizio Costabile (University of SouthAustralia). The first speaker of the symposiumwas the winner of the ASBMB Shimadzu Education Award, Heather Verkade (University of Melbourne), who spoke about ‘Passive knowledge transfer is not a thing: gettingactivelearningintolargeclasses”.Thesecondspeaker, Jo Russell (University of Melbourne), spoke aboutthedevelopmentofascientificwritingmoduleinher talk titled ‘An interdisciplinary approach to promote lifelonglearningofscientificcommunicationskills’.Thethird speaker, Tracey Kuit (University of Wollongong), spoke about the benefits of developing employabilityskills through the use of e-notebooks in practical classes. The last speaker of the symposium was Jeanne Young (Flinders University), who spoke about the utility ofauthenticresearchinfirstyearclassestofosterthedevelopment of graduate attributes.

The second afternoon symposium was chaired by Tracey Kuit, and began with a fascinating presentation by Helen Abud (Monash University) on enhancing the

learning of key molecular and cell biology concepts through the use of an animation-based assessment task. The second presentation was a double-act by Priscilla Johanesen and Danielle Rhodes (both from Monash University), who presented on the development of online videos and interactive quizzes as pre-practical activities to promote student engagement and participation. The next speaker, Janet Macaulay (Monash University), discussed whether ‘technology was enhancing or transforming assessment’. Following on from this talk was a presentation by Amber Willems-Jones, who expanded on the use of technology in teaching in her talk on using an ‘inquiry based-learning module to foster critical thinking in a second-year biochemistry prac class’. Concluding the days’ presentations was the finaltalkbyMaurizioCostabilecontinuingthethemeofinteractive learning with his development of simulations and phone apps to enhance fundamental biochemistry laboratory skills. All in all, these were very informative and educational symposia.

Amber Willems-Jones and Maurizio Costabile,Education Symposia Co-convenors

ComBio2017 Education Symposia

‘Education II’ symposium speakers, from left: Helen Abud, Maurizio Costabile, Janet Macaulay, Danielle

Rhodes, Priscilla Johanesen and Amber Willems-Jones.

‘Education I’ symposium speakers, from left: Heather Verkade, Jo Russell, Jeanne Young and Tracey Kuit.


www.apg.asn.auThe year of 2016–2017 has been a busy and productive

one for the Adelaide Protein Group (APG). Our group has been fortunate to have built a strong following over the years with more than 70 registered members and has continued to run three annual events: Proteins in the Pub, the APG Student Awards, and the Early Career Researcher Awards. Support from sponsors has allowed us to attract high calibre national speakers to our events and to support our local protein researchers with several awards. We thank our generous sponsors: BMG Labtech, Thermofisher Scientific, Merck, BioStrategy, BeckmanCoulter, Eppendorf and, of course, the ASBMB.

Proteins in the Pub: Plasmodium parasites and proteins against humanity

Held in December at the British Hotel in North Adelaide, our highly popular annual Proteins in the Pub event

wastheperfectwaytosendoffasuccessful2016.Werecruited the world-renowned malarial biologist Professor Geoff McFadden from the University of Melbourne toprovide our plenary oration.Geoffwas an outstandingspeaker and kept the crowd glued to their seats with his creative and entertaining mix of science and topical anecdotes about the evolution of parasites. A solid tradition of proteins in the pub is the protein-themed party game, which acts as a social mixer and participation is rewarded with a free drink. This year we played Proteins Against Humanity, which proved to be very entertaining.

Student Awards event: presentations, posters and prizes in a room with a view

The next major event for the APG was the 2017 Student Awards event in June and we were lucky to hold this in the brand new University of Adelaide Health and Medical School building that provided a spectacular view of Adelaide. The keynote speaker for the student event was Associate Professor Michael Lawrence from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute. Michael took us through his research on the complex structural biology and biochemical functions of insulin. To encourage participation and to enable students to promote their research, the APG provides a generous award comprising a $750 travel bursary (for a conference other than ComBio as it was held in Adelaide in 2017), as well as registration for ComBio and the opportunity to speak in a symposium. This year there were more than 20 student abstracts, from which three students were selected to give short presentations at the event: Andrew Marshall, Yue Wu and Zarina Greenberg. The other students were invited to present posters on their work to compete for two $200 prizes. Michael Lawrence and two other judges evaluated the student talks. Zarina Greenberg (Centre for Cancer Biology, Univesity of South Australia) won the student talk prize and presented her research at ComBio2017. The APG awarded poster prizes to Louise Robertson and Andrew Thompson.

Zarina Greenberg, 2017 APG Student Talk Prize winner.

Adelaide Protein Group: an ASBMB Special Interest Group


Early Career Researcher Awards: fun new formatOur annual Early Career Researcher (ECR) Award

event got a facelift this year with a new afternoon timeslot and a shift to six short (seven minute) presentations by finalists,allowingustoshowcasemoreECRsandoffertwoawardstobeusedfortravel:firstplacereceives$1500and second place receives $750. The event was held at the Barr Smith Library at the University of Adelaide and was well attended. We had engaging presentations from our six ECR speakers: Claire Wilson (Centre for Cancer Biology, Univesity of South Australia), Danny Wilson, Andrew (Nan) Hao (University of Adelaide), Weasley (Bo) Xu (University of Adelaide), Sophie Wiszniak (Centre for Cancer Biology, Univesity of South Australia) and Lauren Thurgood (Flinders University). The talks were assessed by three judges. The winner was Sophie Wiszniak and

the runner-up was Lauren Thurgood. The introduction of a door prize and more networking time were both big hits and added to the collegial atmosphere. Overall, the feedback for the new event format was very positive.

Lookingforward:anewlookexecutiveteamAt our June AGM, Christopher McDevitt (Chairperson)

and Mark Corbett (Treasurer) stood down from the executive committee and were replaced by Melissa Pitman and Kate Wegener, respectively, by election. We thank Christopher and Mark for their numerous contributions to the APG in their leadership roles. With one event under our belt, the new executive team have hit the ground running with the excellent support from the APG committee members.

Our end of year Proteins in the Pub event is locked in and we are very excited to have Sean O’Donoghue from CSIRO (Melbourne) to unveil the mysteries of the Dark Proteome. Please join us from 5–7pm on Wednesday 6 December at the British Hotel, North Adelaide, for an opportunity to partake in our annual ice-breaker game, enjoy a festive drink and interact with fellow protein scientists.

In the year to come we have a landmark ten-year anniversary of the APG. This occasion will not go uncelebrated and planning is in progress! We look forward to the continuing success of the APG program of events in the year ahead and aim to deliver a program that engages and supports protein scientists, fosters collaborative activities and showcases local, national and international talent.

Melissa Pitman, APG [email protected]

2017 Early Career Researcher Award finalists.From left: Claire Wilson, Weasley Xu,

Sophie Wiszniak (winner), Lauren Thurgood(runner-up), Danny Wilson and Andrew Hao.

Several changes to Council will occur in 2018. Five State Representatives will retire in 2017 – Steven Polyak (SA), Nicholas Taylor (WA), Kate Michie (NSW), Dominic Ng (QLD) and Peter Mabbitt (ACT) and the Council thanks each of them for their fantastic work in promoting supported ASBMB activities. They are replaced by Mark Corbett (SA), Monika Murcha (WA), Kate Quinlan (NSW), Ben Schulz (QLD) and Matthew Johnson (ACT).

WealsosaygoodbyetoTerryPiva(Treasurer)whohasservedontheCouncil forfiveyearsandhasdoneanamazingjobtobringtheASBMBfinancesintogreatshape.WenowwelcomeMarcKvansakul(LaTrobeUniversity) into this role. Mike Ryan will be leaving the Executive/Council as Past President and we thank him forhiscommitmentandsignificantcontributionstoASBMB.Hewillbegreatlymissed.WenowalsowelcomeJoel Mackay as President Elect.

Contact details for 2018 Council members can be found in the Directory on page 65.

Briony ForbesASBMB Secretary

Adelaide Protein Group: an ASBMB Special Interest Group

NEW FACES ON COUNCIL


The 2017 East Coast Protein Meeting (ECPM) took placeattheOpalCoveResortinCoffsHarbourfrom14–16 July. The ECPM is a joint initiative of the Queensland and Sydney Protein Groups. The focus of this meeting is on early career protein scientists who present their work alongside a few keynote speakers. This year, the meeting was organised by the Sydney Protein Group – primarily by Liza Cubeddu, Jason Low, Roland Gamsjaeger, Ann Kwan, Tara Christie, Alistair Stewart and Chandrika Deshpande.

Held over three days and with over 100 delegates, the conference atmosphere wasmost definitely very livelywith lots of protein science-related discussions. We had Associate Professor Margie Sunde (University of Sydney) kick off the conference on Friday evening with herplenary lecture on functional amyloids. Professor Mike Ryan (Monash University) rounded up the conference on Sunday with his plenary lecture on the assembly of mitochondrial supramolecular complexes. These presentatons were complemented by a miscellany of talks by young researchers. All talks were of high quality and highlighted some of the excellent work being carried out in Australia by young scientists.

Also, back by popular demand, we again held a Careers Forum at ECPM. We had the good fortune of having Dr SandraWissmueller(ScientificProjectLeaderatMinomicInc), Dr Chu Kong Liew (Medical Writer from Envision Pharma Group) and Dr Melissa Erce (Patent Scientist from Spruson & Ferguson) join Associate Professor Margie Sunde on the discussion panel to talk about their careers paths and take questions from members of the audience. The forum was very well-received, drawing plenty of questions from the audience.

On Saturday night, we held the inaugural ‘1 minute lightning talks’ featuring firemen and Ferraris followedby a lively poster session (as evidenced by the session going over time into the conference dinner!). A number of awards were handed out:• Posters – Enrico Monachino (University of

Wollongong, 2nd runner up), Megan Outram (University of Queensland, 1st runner up) and Jacqueline Heighway (IMB, best poster)

• Talks – Lisanne Spenkelink (University of Wollongong, best NSW talk) and Sarah Piper (University of Queensland, best QLD talk)

• ComBio Awardees–Mian-CheeGor(GriffithUniversity, QLD ComBio Award) and Carus Lau (Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, NSW ComBio Award). Each $850 travel award was awarded to the early career researcher that presented the best talk and had registered to go to ComBio.

Finally, sponsorship which made the meeting possible wasprovidedbyANSTO,ATAScientific,ThermoFisherScientific, Bio-Rad Laboratories, Millennium Science,Bruker, Bioline, BMG Labtech, Genesearch, Centenary Institute, Scientex, Monash FBDD Platform (Sydney Node), Minomic, APAF, Macquarie University Biomolecular Discovery and Design Research Centre and of course ASBMB, QPG and SPG.

Jason Low (Secretary) and Liza Cubeddu (President), Sydney Protein Group

http://sydney.edu.au/science/molecular_bioscience/spg/index.html

East Coast Protein Meeting 2017

SPG President Liza Cubeddu with ECPM awardees, clockwise from top: best poster

winner Jacqueline Heighway; best NSW

talk winner Lisanne Spenkelink; best QLD

talk winner Sarah Piper; ComBio NSW awardee

Carus Lau; ComBio QLD awardee Mian-Chee Gor.


A series of regular articles on intellectual property.

In this issue, Sarah Hennebry,PatentAttorney,

FPA Patent Attorneys, busts some myths about parents.

In the previous issue of the Australian Biochemist, we looked at some commonly held misconceptions about the patenting process. In this issue, we examine some of the myths associated with Freedom to Operate in the patent landscape.

Freedom to Operate (or FTO) generally refers to determining whether a particular act, such as using or selling a product can be done without infringing valid intellectual property rights of others.

Myth 1: Owning a patent entitles me to use my invention

Many people think that once they have a patent granted on their invention, they now have legal entitlement to use that invention.

The monopoly right conferred by a patent is not a positive right. A patentee therefore does not necessarily have a right to exploit the invention that they have patented. Rather, a patent gives the patentee the right tostopothersfromusing,making,selling(orofferingforsale) or importing the patented invention.

In other words, patents confer an exclusionary right. This is sometimes called a negative right.

Some context: let’s assume that an inventor (Inventor A)hasapatenttoanantibodythatspecificallybindstocertain cancer cells and is useful for diagnosing cancer. Inventor B later determines that the same antibody is useful for delivering cytotoxic drugs to cancer cells and obtains a patent to a particular drug conjugate of the antibody. (Inventor B is able to obtain this patent becausethespecificantibody-drugconjugateisnewandinventive).

If Inventor B wants to make her antibody-drug conjugate, shewillfirstneedtomakeInventorA’santibody(orelsebuy it, if it is available commercially). In making or buying the antibody for the purpose of making the antibody-drug conjugate, Inventor B would infringe Inventor A’s patent, if Inventor A’s patent is still in force (in other words, unless the patent has expired or has been invalidated). Thus, in order to use the antibody to make their conjugate, Inventor B will need to obtain a licence from Inventor A to ‘exploit’ Inventor A’s claimed invention.

This scenario may be a very simplistic illustration of the way patent rights operate, but it highlights that patents don’t clear the way for a patent owner to exploit their

own invention. For example, any patent that Inventor B might obtain for her antibody-drug conjugate cannot give Inventor B the right to make the antibody-drug conjugate. To assume so would mean that Inventor B is given some superior right over Inventor A’s right to exclude others (include Inventor B) from using Inventor A’s patented antibody. Clearly that’s just not the way that patent law works!

It won’t always be the case that the use of a new invention will infringe an existing patent. For example, if Inventor A’s patent had expired by the time of Inventor B’s development of her antibody-drug conjugate, Inventor B might be said to have Freedom to Operate at least in respect of use of Inventor A’s antibody.

Depending on the nature of the invention, it may well be the case that a patent owner can freely exploit their invention to the exclusion of others.

Conclusion: Owning a patent only entitles you to exclude someone else from utilising your invention – it does not entitle you to use your invention.

Myth 2: Patents provide a permanent monopoly preventing others from using the invention (and if someone owns a patent in my area of research so I should change research topics).

Many people are concerned that if they obtain a patent, or if someone else obtains a patent in their area of research, the result is a permanent monopoly preventing others from using the invention or working in the area.

In dispelling this myth there are a few concepts to unpack…(andsomemoremythstodispel!):

A. Patent termIn most cases, the term of a patent will be 20 years from the filing date of the patent. There are a coupleof exceptions to the ‘20 year rule’: certain patents to pharmaceutical compounds and ‘innovation patents’: • In some countries (e.g., Australia, the US, European

countries and Japan), it is sometimes possible to obtain an extension of the 20 year patent term. – This extension is to compensate the patent owner

for delays in obtaining regulatory approval of the pharmaceutical product (which may practically reduce the period of time in which the owner can exploit their own invention to the exclusion of others).

– The maximum period of patent term extension in Australiaforpharmaceuticalproductsisfiveyears.

– Not all pharmaceutical patents can be extended, and the extension is only provided if there is deemed to be a relevant delay in obtaining regulatory approval of the claimed compound.

Patent Myth Busting Part 2: Freedom to Operate


• Innovation patents are ‘second tier’ patents that are obtainable in Australia (and only a few other countries). Innovation patents are limited to an eight year term and may be useful for obtaining patent protection for an innovation in a rapidly moving area of technology and where the necessary quality of ‘inventiveness’ of the claims is not present.

B. Patent expiry, ceasing and invalidationWhile a patentee is entitled to a 20 year patent term,

(or perhaps 25), they only get this patent term if they pay the relevant maintenance fees. That’s right: patents cost money to maintain!

This means that if you get a patent but don’t keep payingmaintenance fees to the relevantPatentOffice,the patent will cease to be in force. The exact timing of this will vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. In the case of Australia, maintenance fees are due every 12 months, and a patent will cease if the fees aren’t paid within six months of being due.

Patent expiry simply refers to the end of the 20 year term. Of course, another party may invalidate a patent in order to clear the way for their own activities. An invalidated patent cannot be enforced against an alleged infringer.

C.Quidproquoandpatentclaimsvspatentspecification

Patent rights are provided in exchange for an inventor making their invention public (‘laying open for public inspection’). Thus, the quid pro quo of obtaining a patent is that in exchange for a limited monopoly, a patent owner must share their invention with the public. Importantly, the disclosure is made at the beginning of the patent monopoly, so that during the period of the monopoly, others can build from what is disclosed in the patent document.

This means that the advancement made by the inventor is inthepublicdomainshortlyafterfiling(publicationis18 months after the priority date) but the patentee has a monopoly in relation to the claims granted for that patent, up until the patent expires, or ceases to be in force. Theclaimsofapatentdefinethe legalmonopoly;notany other part of the specification. Many people getconcerned over the extensive disclosures found in patent documents (particularly those in the life sciences, which areoftenmuchmorelengthythanpatentsinotherfields)and the extent to which those statements may preclude them from undertaking certain work. However, the quid pro quo of patents includes enabling others to build from theentiredisclosureprovidedinthepatentspecificationduring the period of the monopoly. Importantly the patent specificationmaycontaininformationthatisvaluabletothe research community and which is not necessarily the subject of the patent claims.

Moreover, it is often the case that claims will be significantly narrowed during examination of a patentapplication. Claims also vary between jurisdictions (owing to the differences in patent law around theworld).Thismeans that the claims of a US patent might be quite differenttotheclaimsoftheAustraliancounterpartpatent.

D. Enforcement of patent rightsAnother myth associated with patent rights is that once apatentisgranted,therelevantPatentOfficewillenforcethe patent on behalf of the patentee. In fact, it is up to the patentee to identify a potential infringer, and then take steps to get them to stop infringing (such as for example, sending them a cease and desist letter and if that doesn’t work, suing them for infringement).

Litigation in relation to patents is expensive and many patentees will only be motivated to sue for infringement if they consider that they are suffering a significantcommercial disadvantage. This means that most patent litigation typically involves larger corporate entities suing other large corporates because of a perception of loss of income resulting from infringed patent rights and that someone else is money in the process.

It would be unusual to see a patent enforced by a large corporate entity against a researcher in a university or research institute. Moreover, patent infringement may be less of a concern if you are working in a purely academic research environment. Prior to 2013, there was no legislative provision in Australia to specifically exemptcertain experimental acts from patent infringement. Moreover, the common law that applied to this issue was unclear. However, in 2013, the Australian Patents Act was amended to make clear that acts relating to the subject of an invention, when conducted for experimental purposes, are exempt from patent infringement. Relevant acts which are exempt from infringement include:• determining the properties of the invention;• determining the scope of a claim of the patent;• improving or modifying the invention;• determining the validity of the patent or of a claim; and• determining whether the patent would be, or has

been, infringed by the doing of an act.Unfortunately, this section of the Act has not yet been

tested in an Australian court, so it is hard to know what acts would be exempt, in practice. And this brings me to my final point: being practical

about the risks of being prevented from doing your work, because a patent is enforced against you.

If you are genuinely concerned about your Freedom to Operate, you should speak to someone in your commercialisation team or to a patent attorney.

Conclusion: The monopoly granted by a patent is for a limited period of time, and is also limited to the specific claims allowed. Not all acts falling within the scope of a patent claim will constitute an



infringement.

ToptipsIt is beyond the scope of this article to undertake a

detailed consideration of all the issues associated with Freedom to Operate. In the meantime, here are some things to remember:• your patent can be used to prevent others from using

your invention: it does not entitle you to use your invention;

• theclaimsofapatent(nottheentiredocument)definethe legal monopoly;

• patents have a limited term and may cease to be enforceable before the end of that term;

• you can’t infringe a patent that isn’t in force;• the claim scope for related patents may not be the

same in all jurisdictions;• be respectful of the patent rights of others (in the

same way you would hope others to be respectful of your rights!) and if you are concerned about infringing a patent, speak with a patent attorney or raise your concerns with the commercialisation department at your institute/university.


PICK UP THE RIGHT SIGNAL

Where others fi nished, you begin. For your disease pathway research, count on over 90,000 highly characterized antibodies, extensively published results and unmatched expertise.

Search with Confi dence SigmaAldrich.com/antibodies

Where cell signals take you, depends on the antibodies where they start.

The life science business of Merck operates as MilliporeSigma in the U.S. and Canada.Copyright © 2017 Merck KGaA. All Rights Reserved. Merck and the Vibrant M are trademarks of Merck. Sigma-Aldrich is a trademark of Sigma-Aldrich Co. LLC. or its affiliates. 2017-05287 06/2017


PICK UP THE RIGHT SIGNAL

Where others fi nished, you begin. For your disease pathway research, count on over 90,000 highly characterized antibodies, extensively published results and unmatched expertise.

Search with Confi dence SigmaAldrich.com/antibodies

Where cell signals take you, depends on the antibodies where they start.

The life science business of Merck operates as MilliporeSigma in the U.S. and Canada.Copyright © 2017 Merck KGaA. All Rights Reserved. Merck and the Vibrant M are trademarks of Merck. Sigma-Aldrich is a trademark of Sigma-Aldrich Co. LLC. or its affiliates. 2017-05287 06/2017


ASBMB member Professor Jamie Rossjohn was awarded the 2017 FAOBMB Award for Research Excellence. He will deliver a lecture at the FAOBMB–ConBio2017 Conference in Kobe, Japan, in December.

Jamie Rossjohn is an Australian Research Council (ARC) Australian Laureate Fellow (2017–2021). He was previously a National Health and Medical Research Council Australia Fellow (2011–2016) and ARC Federation Fellow (2007–2011). He is the Head of the Infection and Immunity Program of the Biomedicine Discovery Institute at Monash University and Professor of Structural Immunology at the School of Medicine, CardiffUniversity.

Rossjohn travelled over the border from Wales to England to undertake his undergraduate degree and PhD at Bath University. During his PhD, Rossjohn trained in X-ray crystallography, where under the supervision of Professors Garry Taylor, Michael Danson and David Hough, he determined the crystal structure of glucose dehydrogenase. Subsequently, Rossjohn was awarded a Royal Society Fellowship (1995) to work at St Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research (SVIMR), Melbourne, in the laboratory of Professor Michael Parker. The environment of the institute, under the leadership of Professor TJ Martin and Professor BE Kemp, provided an ideal opportunity for him to pursue his initial research investigations in Australia, which centered on the structural basis of the pore-forming bacterial toxin, perfringolysin O.

In 2002, following the award of the Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellowship, Rossjohn relocated to the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Monash University, to design and establish the Protein Crystallography Unit under the mentorship of Professor Christina Mitchell. Subsequently, this Unit has expanded to encompass over 150 researchers, and greater than fifteen independent laboratory heads.As part of thesedevelopments, together with his colleague Professor James McCluskey at the University of Melbourne, Professor Rossjohn in 2002 launched the Monash–Melbourne Structural Immunology program. This collaboration was aimed at providing fundamental insight into the molecular bases of immune receptor mediated recognition events that are central to health and disease.

The main focus of Rossjohn’s laboratory has been on defining the key molecular interactions underlyingreceptor recognition events that are the primary determinants of innate and adaptive immunity, both from the aspect of protective immune control and with regard to the development of deleterious autoreactivity. Here, Rossjohn has provided profound insight into T-cell

biology, specifically defining the basis of key immunerecognitioneventsbyT-cells.Suchfindingsweremadepossible with close collaborations with leaders in the field, including JamesMcCluskey, Dale Godfrey, ScottBurrows, Andrew Brooks, Anthony Purcell, Stephen Turner, Katherine Kedzierska, David Price, Nicole La Gruta, Branch Moody, Richard Berry, Hugh Reid, Jerome Le Nours, Julian Vivian and Stephanie Gras.

Rossjohn has used structural biology to explain pre-T-cell receptor (TCR) self-association in T-cell development, and how the TCR recognises human leukocyte antigen (HLA) molecules in the context of viral immunity and aberrant T-cell reactivity. He has unearthed structural mechanisms of HLA polymorphism impacting on drug and food hypersensitivities, as well as natural killer cell receptor recognition. He has pioneered our molecular understanding of lipid-based immunity by T-cells, revealing that it can differ fundamentally frompeptide-mediated adaptive immunity. Recently he has provided a structural basis of how vitamin B metabolites can be presented and recognised by the immune system, thereby revealing an entirely new class of antigen in immunity.

To date, Rossjohn has published more than 340 papers including in generalist journals: Nature (9), Cell (5), Science (3) and PNAS (25), and in top-tier journals in the field, includingNature Immunology (31), Immunity (18) and Journal of Experimental Medicine (18). He has mentored numerous researchers towards obtaining higher degrees and nationally and internationally competitive fellowships. Collectively, Professor Rossjohn’s research on the immune system, how the body reacts to infection and what happens when the immune system fails has led toasustainedadvancementofknowledgeinthefieldofstructural immunology.

FAOBMB Award for Research Excellence 2017

Jamie Rossjohn.


Le Tour de StatisticsIn 2016, I was lucky enough to be awarded the LabGear

Discovery Science Award from ASBMB. This is a travelling lectureship that enables the awardee to present their work at a number of centres in Australia and/or New Zealand. Now, I would imagine that the award is generally used by the recipients to present seminars on their latest research. However, it struck me that it was the perfect opportunity to indulge my latest obsession – preaching to all and sundry about basic statistics for biochemists.

David Vaux is to blame. Ever since I’d read his 2007 feature in the Journal of Cell Biology – ‘Error bars in experimental biology’ – I’d realised that my understanding of basic statistics was nothing short of woeful. However, I sat on this somewhat uncomfortable piece of information for a few more years, until by chance someone in our school asked for a volunteer to present a short series of tutorials on statistics for the Honours students – because the ones being given by the Maths and Stats folks didn’t seem to have enough of a biochemistry context. So, I put my hand up to give these tutorials and it was *great*. It gave me the incentive to spend hours trawling the literatures and the net for tutorials, explanations and commentaries (I found the Kahn Academy videos particularly good as an introduction). I also discovered R, which is a fantastic tool for doing simulations – and simulations are one of the best ways to really get your head around this sort of thing.

Anyway, after a year or two honing my Honours tutorials, it occurred to me that, if I was as ignorant as I was, there might well be other people out there other than Honours students who could do with a refresher course. So, I trialled the tutorials as a single seminar – I think thefirstoutingwasat theQueenstownMolecularBiology meeting. The seminar is essentially a 50-minute confession about how poor my statistics has been for many years – starting with an homage to Professor Vaux andtoppedoffwithanepiphanyaboutthewobblinessofp values and the perhaps underappreciated role of prior probability. The first couple of seminars of this type seemed to

be greeted with much more enthusiasm and positive feedback than my research talks, so it seemed like it might make a good topic for the ASBMB-funded lecture tour. Accordingly, I lined up a number of seminars in Australian

universities,includingUWA,LaTrobe,GriffithandUNSW.It also seemed like it would be cost-efficient to do anend-to-end tour of NZ universities, and so I planned an epic tour of Aotearoa in April that would allow me to visit Otago, Canterbury, Victoria, Waikato and Auckland in a week or so – and also incorporate a three-day bike leg from Wellington to Hamilton (just to save the airfare). It all went smoothly until the weather in Wellington ended up delayingaflight,necessitatingmeskippingtheVictoriaseminar. You’ll be relieved to hear though that the bike trip was still conducted in good weather, and allowed me to take in the fantastic Forgotten World Highway (which includes a visit to the Republic of Whangamomona).

These talks all seemed to generate plenty of discussion (especially the part where I suggest that we might be betteroffnotusingerrorbarsatall) and I’vedefinitelyhad an enlightening time learning the material – and a great time delivering the seminars. Please let me know if you’d like to have me come and give the seminar to your department(orgroup,even)…

I’d like to thank the ASBMB again for this award – it’s been a great opportunity to spread the word – and to finally recommenda fewpapers toperuse if you’d liketo brush up on your statistics in the privacy of your own office:• Cumming et al. (2007) J. Cell. Biol. 177, 7• Vaux et al. (2012) EMBO Rep. 13, 291• Kryzwinski (2013) Nature Meth. 10, 921• Halsey et al. (2015) Nature Meth. 12, 179• Weissgerber et al. (2015) PLoS Biol. 30, e1002128• http://www.nature.com/collections/qghhqm –

a very useful collection of little articles on a range of aspects of statistics

JoelMackayisanNHMRCSeniorResearch Fellow and Chair of the Biochemistry, Cellular

and Molecular Biology Cluster in the Schoolof Life Sciences at the University of Sydney.

LabGear Discovery Science Award Report

Joel’s trusty titanium road bike loaded up for touring.

The Forgotten World highway windsits way through the rural North Island.


The New Conversation: Active Learning Works,But How Do We Make it Happen?

The American Society for Microbiology (ASM) is the largest biological society in the US, and so it has made a significantcontributiontotheadvancementofeducationin all areas of biology, including the biomedical sciences. The ASM Conference on Undergraduate Education (ASMCUE) is the place to take the pulse of Higher Education in the US.

What struck me most about this meeting was that the conversation about the best way to make learning happen in our classrooms has moved on! While I was expecting to hear that active learning is the best way to teach, I discovered that this is now an accepted fact. It is so accepted, it is implicit. The conversation now focuses on how we get active learning implemented wholesale across university science teaching. A few years ago now, a report was published called ‘Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education’ (visionandchange.org). It describes exactly what quality university teaching looks like, and is a blueprint for educational improvement fromwhichwecanallbenefit.Yousee,inactivelearningthe student is dynamically engaged rather than passively listening: for example, the students are working through a problem; carrying out an experiment; discussing an issue with a peer; debating or justifying an answer. A lecture can certainly be inspiring and interesting, but it is still passive. Students need to spend time turning ideas over in their head, or even better – talking through or explaining the concepts, so that learning is cemented.

Students with best study practices tend to do this by themselves, but we also know that many students don’t, and instead assume they can learn by listening to lectures in a glassy-eyed daze, or possibly by pressing the textbook to their forehead for a few minutes before the exam. It’s like expecting to learn a new language by listening to the SBS radio foreign language service (I’ve tried it. It doesn’t work).

If the Vision and Change report is the blueprint for educational improvement, then at this ASMCUE meeting they were talking about the catalyst, ‘Partnership for Undergraduate Life Sciences Education’ (PULSE, pulse-community.org). PULSE is a National Science Foundation-funded network that provides mentorship and advice for university departments, and has experienced ambassadors for each US region, who can travel out to the departments and give workshops and training in the implementation of active learning. It is very interesting that they have decided that the unit of change is the department. They believe that at the department level there is scope for both a bottom-up (i.e. those annoying overly-enthusiastic eduspeaking colleagues of yours) and a top-down approach, in a manageable size. They have developed rubrics for good teaching based on the fiveconceptsoutlinedinVisionandChange.Importantly,these rubrics can also be used to encourage the top-down approach, because department heads can use these tools to evaluate and, with gaming-style motivation, rank their academic programs against their peers (and which department doesn’t love ranking themselves against others in comparable institutions). Perhaps we should be organising groups of experts to rate the teaching in our own departments! How would we go with topics such as: Interdisciplinary nature of science; Linkage of summative assessments to learning outcomes; Quantitative reasoning; Opportunities for inquiry, ambiguity, analysis and interpretation in coursework? It’s an interesting question, and one worth considering. Inaddition to theconference, Ialso tickedoffan itemon my bucket list: visiting the Clyfford Still Museumin Denver. Clyfford Still was a prolific artist in the firstgeneration of abstract impressionists in the 50’s and 60’s (think Pollock, Rothko, Malevich). I adore his paintings, and as they are created mainly with palette knife, they have three-dimensional relief, texture and complexity that simply can’t come through in pictures. You can get some appreciation of his art by looking at reproductions, but you gain so much more from actively observing his paintings.

HeatherVerkadeisaSeniorLecturerintheDepartment of Biochemistry and Molecular

Biology at the University of Melbourne.

ASBMB 2017 Shimadzu Education Award Report

Heather Verkade atMoraine Lake, Banff

National Park, Canada.

A stunning example of theart of Clyfford Still, at the Clyfford Still Museum in

Denver, Colorado.


Hanging Ten on the Higher Education Wave!I am very grateful to have been awarded the 2016

Beckman Coulter Education Award in recognition of my contributiontoeffectiveteachingandlearningpracticesinthe Biosciences. The award enabled me to attend the 7th Annual – 2017 STEAM & STEM Education Conference held in Honolulu, Hawaii, in June this year. I would like to sincerely thank the ASBMB for giving me this opportunity.

The conference was organised by the University of Hawaii and held at the Prince Waikiki Hotel on the island of Oahu, in a stunning location overlooking the marina, only minutes away from the world-famous Waikiki beach. The conference presentations showcased differentstrategies for enhancing students’ engagement and learning, and improving student outcomes. One example included the use of lectures presented as talk shows in a regional Australian university as a successful strategy for enhancing distance education student engagement and learning. Another example involved challenging, well-designed learning activities in an electrical engineering design studio course at a Canadian university where students were highly engaged in putting engineering principles into practice with hands-on activities and group work. A big emphasis was placed on interdisciplinary education in project-based learning programs, and multidisciplinary capstone projects strategically used to strengthen industry–university partnerships. A very successful example was the design and implementation ofgamifiedlabkitsinacourseofferedtostudentsinbothphysics and industrial design learning environments, the result of which was the commercialisation of the finalproduct.

The poster session was well attended and there

were many examples of active learning strategies implementedinavarietyofdifferentareas,suchastheimplementation of case studies, model labelling, group discussions and simulations to increase student learning and engagement in anatomy and physiology classes; the use of pre-lab instructional videos in an undergraduate organic chemistry lab that helped student learning and retention; the development and implementation of the Maths Skills project, a maths online support site for first year chemistry and biochemistry students. Manycolleagues showed interest in my poster presentation and the Australian MathBench website, a hub of educational resources developed to support quantitative skills and mathematical reasoning amongst our STEM students.

In addition to providing a valuable opportunity to hear aboutdifferenteducationalinitiativesinthesciencearenaand networking with other colleagues, the conference also provided plenty of opportunities to experience the Hawaiiancultureand traditions.On thefirstdayof theconference, we were greeted with a flower lei and abeautiful performance of traditional Hawaiian music by members of the Hawaiian Steel Guitar Association. On the last day, all the conference attendees were treated to an amazing ‘appreciation lunch’, which provided plenty of local food and another opportunity for networking in a very relaxing and enjoyable environment. I was also lucky enough to be in Hawaii during the 101st annual King Kamehameha day celebration. Kamehameha, theGreat, was the first Hawaiian king who united theHawaiian Islands and whose legacy is celebrated with marchingbandsandanamazingfloralparadethroughoutthe streets of Honolulu.

Overall, this was a fantastic opportunity to present some of my work at an international conference and to share a variety of teaching and learning experiences with other educators in such a beautiful location! Recurrent themes such as student engagement and motivation, long term learning, connection between learning in the classroom and its applications in the workplace, transfer of knowledge, were highlighted in many discussions amongst the conference attendees. This conference has allowed me to meet many people and establish new connections that hopefully will translate into fruitful collaborations. I would like to again thank the ASBMB for making this possible!

GiovannaDiTrapaniisaSeniorLecturerintheSchoolofNaturalSciencesatGriffithUniversity.

Sheisgreatlycommittedtohighqualitylearning and teaching practices especially

inlaboratoryclasses.Herresearchinterestsare in cancer biology and the use of novel

therapies for cancer treatment.

Jenny Di Trapani (left) and Dianne Watters at

a poster session.

ASBMB 2016 Beckman Coulter Education Award Report

Room with a view. STEAM & STEM Education Conference venue, Prince Waikiki Hotel, Honolulu, Hawaii.


A Little Mass Spec in the Big Apple

It was an honour to be awarded both an ASBMB Fellowship and the 2017 Fred Collins Award. These awards allowed me to spend time working in the lab of my collaborator, Dr Beatrix Ueberheide, at New York University, NY, USA.

Dr Ueberheide runs a state-of-the-art mass spectrometry laboratory, and is a world-renowned expert in comprehensive protein characterisation in complex mixtures. My research interest is in understanding the composition and mechanism of action of animal venoms. The primary goal of my visit to Dr Ueberheide’s lab was to run venom extracts from several species of marine snails on liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) and characterise the peptide composition of the venom. We used a top-down approach (direct analysis of venom components without prior digestion), where each of the venom samples (non-reduced;

reduced; reduced and alkylated – 72 samples in total!) were separated online by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography interfaced to an Orbitrap Elite mass spectrometer for acquisition of high-resolution MS/MS data. Using Byonic, a mass spectrometric search engine, we searched the MS/MS data against corresponding transcriptomic data that I had previously generated. We were able to sequence hundreds of peptides in these venoms, including some classes that I had specificallytargeted, eg venom insulins.

This information will be valuable in informing the synthesis of some of these peptides so that their biological activity can be investigated in detail. Spending time in this world-class mass spectrometry lab was an excellent opportunity to sharpen my skills and knowledge in mass spectrometry.

During my free time, I enjoyed exploring some of New York’s famous attractions. Highlights of the trip included: meeting up with my former colleague (and ASBMB Fellowship awardee) Dr Helena Safavi-Hemami and former supervisor Toto Olivera from the University of Utah, roaming around Central Park and one evening stumbling across a symphony orchestra concert, catching the train to Coney Island and getting sunburnt while I wandered thebeach,confidentlygivingincorrectdirectionstootherlost tourists, getting drenched in a summer thunderstorm, $1 pizza slices for dinner, and last but not least, enjoying the spectacular view of the Manhattan skyline from the lab window!

SamuelRobinsonhasbeenworkingasapostdoctoral researcher at the University of

Utah,USA.Thisyear,hereturnedtoAustraliaas a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for

MolecularBioscience,UniversityofQueensland.

Late nights in the lab were rewardedwith some amazing sunsets.

The spectacular view from my lab bench.

Sam Robinson, Beatrix Ueberheide and her Lumos Orbitrap Mass Spectrometer.

ASBMB Fellowship Report


Meeting Mitochondria on the Adriatic SeaIt was a great honour to be

awarded an ASBMB Fellowship in the third year of my PhD. This award provided me with the opportunity to attend the EMBO Conference on Protein Translocation and Cellular Homeostasis, held in Dubrovnik, Croatia, in March this year. It was the first international conference Ihave attended as a postgraduate student, which made it even more exciting.

The theme of this EMBO conference was to improve the understanding of the molecular mechanisms of protein translocationintodifferentorganelles.Inparticular,proteinimport into mitochondria in distinct model organisms was extensively covered in this conference. This is the major focus of my PhD research, where I aim to mechanistically and functionally characterise a mitochondrial inner membrane localised protein import complex, which mediates the insertion of polytopic transmembrane proteins. As a mitochondrial biologist, it was a fantastic opportunitytomeetdistinguishedresearchersinthefieldof mitochondrial protein biogenesis, including Professor Nikolaus Pfanner and Professor Peter Rehling, who are leadersinthefieldsofproteintranslocationandassembly.At this meeting, I presented a poster regarding my recent work on mitochondrial protein import. Networking with other students during this session provided me with an opportunity to promote my research to this community of investigators who share similar interests in protein translocation and to exchange ideas that stimulated new directionsforthefinalyearofmyPhDresearch.

During my visit to this historical city, I had the chance to explore this beautiful place.As a first-time visitor toDubrovnik, this place awed me with its beauty of the white limestone streets and endless baroque buildings located in its old town. Scrolling along the spectacular city walls together with some new friends from the conference provided us a great and complete view over the historic old town and the surrounding shimmering Adriatic Sea. The conference ended with an amazing dinner that served attendees with various selection of delicious seafood including fresh salmon and tuna, which are both my favourites.

In summary, attending this EMBO conference was truly a rewarding experience to me as a young researcher. It has engaged me with international researchers who share similar interests in protein translocation and more importantlyinspiredmewithnewideasforthefinalyearof my PhD research. I would like to thank the ASBMB again for this wonderful opportunity.

YilinKangiscurrentlyathird-yearPhDstudentinDrDianaStojanovski’slab,

Bio21 Institute, University of Melbourne.

The deep blue water

of the Adriatic

Sea.

Enjoying the view over the historic old town.


Yilin Kang.


From Arsenic to Zinc: It’s All About the MetalsI was incredibly grateful to be a recipient of an ASBMB

Fellowship this year. The funding allowed me to attend the Gordon Research Conference (GRC) Cell Biology of Metals (23–28 July) in Vermont, USA. Not only was the conference a fantastic mix of science, and socialising, but was also the perfect summer escape from a very cold Adelaide winter. For those that haven’t been, West Dover, Vermont, is a beautifully picturesque place. While commonly visited in winter for the excellent skiing, in summer,themountainousregionhasplentytoofferintheway of hiking and kayaking, and most recently, science!

The Cell Biology of Metals GRC is routinely attended by many of the great and emerging names in metallobiology, creating an unmistakable miasma of wisdom and experience. This year was no exception, with researchers from all over the world presenting their latest and greatest findings.

So, with a backdrop of the beautiful Vermont landscape, and copious amounts of the appropriately named Fog Buster coffee, we were ready to learn! The scientificprogram provided many fascinating and thought-provoking talks and poster sessions; followed every night by lively discussions and networking, allowing everyone to take full advantage of the drinks package. Among the many brilliant presentations, I was particularly enthralled by talks from Dennis Thiele, Alijandro Vila and Nigel Robinson, which in addition to presenting beautiful science,forcedyoutothinkjustalittledifferentlyabouthow metals function within biology. Also noteworthy was a fantastic talk from Vadim Gladyshev, who, in celebration of 200 years of selenium research, gave a wonderful overview of how our knowledge of selenium in human biologyhasprogressedsincetheelementfirstappearedon the periodic table.

In addition to the science, the opportunities for socialising and networking at the conference were abundant. For those who were feeling particularly keen,

earlymorningwalkswereonofferat 6:30am,allowingparticipants to jump start their day with a brisk stroll, or in most cases, attempt to blow away the remnants of the previous night’s ‘networking’. In between lunch and the evening sessions, free time was allocated for a variety ofsocialevents.MountSnowResortwasdefinitelytheperfect place for many invigorating outdoor activities, such as hiking or mountain biking, or grabbing a cheeky afternoonnap.I’mpleasedtoadmitthatthefirstactivityI (oh so enthusiastically) signed up for, was beer tasting. As it turns out, the microbrewery scene in Vermont is absolutely booming at the moment, and the many craft breweries of the region are producing some incredible and unique brews. This experience was only heightened (no pun intended) by fact that beer tasting was on top of a mountain, and required a chair lift (or some very dedicated leg muscles) to reach. Myself and the rest of the Australian contingent opted for the former, and took the opportunity to get some very scenic photos.

Beer tasting aside, this conference was also a great opportunity to catch up with our international collaborators and start planning the next phases of our projects. Being able to reconnect with our collaborative network in person has been invaluable for maintaining productive and fruitful collaborations, and needless to say, I’m now expecting the delivery of hundreds of samples in the next fewweeks…

For me, this conference was incredibly valuable, because it allowed me to get feedback on some of my more recent work from the people who are, realistically, probably going to be the ones reviewing the manuscript. This, coupled with the incredible science and much appreciated discussions, all contributed to this being a fantasticandhighlybeneficialconference.Iamincrediblegrateful to the ASBMB for awarding me this fellowship, which provided me with the opportunity to attend a fantastic Cell Biology of Metals GRC.

Stephanie Begg is a postdoctoral researcherin the Research Centre for Infectious

Diseases at the University of Adelaide.

Ready for beer-tasting!

Beautiful Vermont landscape.



EV’s and Chill

As Melbourne’s winters are just not cold enough, on 11May2017,IheadedofftobeautifulCanada,packingmy warmest clothes as well as the boyfriend to come along for the ride. A trip to Canada would not be the same without checking out the jaw-dropping scenery, sofirststop:Banff,Alberta.Tomentallypreparemyselffor the four-day conference ahead it was definitelynecessary to spend days within the snow-capped peaks of the Rocky Mountains, playing in snow, searching for Canadian wildlife and hiking hours on end each day. However, soon enough it was business time and we headed on over to the home of the Maple Leafs, Toronto, Ontario. The International Society of Extracellular Vesicles Annual Meeting (ISEV2017) began on 18 May at the Westin Harbour Castel and what a conference it was. There were just under 1000 attendees from all over the world – who would have thought that so many people studied extracellular vesicles! However, of the three types of vesicles (exosomes, microparticles

and apoptotic bodies), our small team from La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science under the supervision of Dr Ivan Poon, represented the minority with the only talks and posters directly covering apoptotic bodies. The conference was jam-packed with plenaries from the all-time greats, recapping the establishment and direction ofthefield.Althoughattimesthereisalotofconfusionbetween vesicle characterisation, methods and results, every single person could agree that the extracellular vesiclefieldisrapidlygrowinganditsimportanceiseverso clear. In particular, the roles of extracellular vesicles indisease,bothgoodandbad, isdefinitelyahot topicand becoming more apparent. Highlights and themes of the conference included the exponential development of vesicle purification approaches and therapeuticdevelopment of vesicles in many pathogenic conditions. Like most conferences, the main highlight was the conference dinner, which included an unlimited supply of delicious food, music, dancing and of course an alcoholic beverage or two. Additionally, a great initiative was the Featured Abstract talks that showcased approximately ten attendees who had outstanding abstracts and were able to give their talks in the main ballroom, like a plenary.

Fortunately, I was selected to give an oral presentation on my current PhD project on the second morning, and was pleasantly surprised with the interest from people with a wide range of backgrounds and expertise. Although very few people work on apoptotic bodies, it was highly beneficialtodrawcomparisonsandsimilaritiesbetweenother extracellular vesicle work, and gain ideas and direction for future experiments. Overall, attending ISEV2017 was an extremely beneficial experience todevelop new professional relationships, research ideas and enthusiasm to carry out the remainder of my PhD. This experience would not have been made possible without the support from the ASBMB, so a huge thank you for such an amazing opportunity.

GeorgiaAtkin-SmithiscompletingherPhDinBiochemistryattheLaTrobeInstituteforMolecularScience,LaTrobeUniversity.

Georgia and her partner Patrick atLake Louise in the Rocky Mountains.


ISEV2017 Conference

Ballroom afterGeorgia’s oral presentation.

More spectacular views at Lake Louise.


GERMANYDR SYLVIE CALLEGARI

NSWDR MEKKAWY ADMEDMR OLUWATOOSIN AGBAJEMS PRITA ASIHMS BRITT BERNINGMR DAVID CARDOSODR PATRICE CASTIGNOLLESA/PROF PAUL CURMIMR BENJAMIN EMMERTONDR DANIEL FAZAKERLEYDR ARNE ITTNERDR DAVID JACQUESMR CYRIL JAGARAJMR NAVIND JAYASOORIAHMS CLAUDIA KIELKOPFDR CARUS LAUMS MICHELLE MAKDR MARY McMILLANMISS NASIM MOHAMMADIMS REBECCA POULOSMS MAGDALENA PRZYBYLADR AUDREY RAGAGNINMR NEIL ROBERTSONMISS MARVAN SANAMR MEHDI SHARTFI TABARDR KATHRYN SKELDINGDR MORTEN THAYSEN-ANDERSONDR MATHEW TRAINIPROF ANTOINE VAN OIJENMISS MARTA VIDALDR JINGJING YOUMS YICHEN ZHONG

QLDMR MAHMOUD BAKRPROF KUM KUM KHANNAMR JOSHUA LIDR KATIA NONESDR ANNE-MARIE PATCHDR GAUTAM RISHIPROF JENNIFER STOWMS SHAN ZHENG

SAA/PROF CATHERINE ABBOTTMR ALEXANDER ABRAHAMMISS SAIRA ALIA/PROF PIRJO APAJAMISS MELISSA BENNETTMISS HANNAH BONHAMDR ANTHONY BORNEMANDR CAMERON BRACKENDR JOHN BRUNINGMR ALEX CAREY HULYERDR MAURIZIO COSTABILEDR PETER COSTELLOMS EMILY CRAWLEYDR IAN DODDMISS DEEPTI DOMINGOMS LARA ESCANEMISS REBECCA FRKICMISS ZARINA GREENBERGMISS LISA HARTMANNMR CAMERON DAVID HAYDINGERMISS ASHLEIGH HOCKINGMRS CHARLOTTE JORDANSMR ANTHONY LAIMR ALEXANDER LEWISMR ARIF MALIKMS ANNETTE MAZZONEMR DANIEL NEUMANNMRS AYLA ORANGMR MICHAEL PETRINOLISMISS CAROLINE PHILLIPSDR JASON POWELLMR JOSEPH ROSSIMS KAITLIN SCHEERDR RAMAN SHARMADR MASHA SMALLHORNMS NEGARA TAJBAKHSHDR MELINDA TEAMRS CHLOE THOMPSON-PEACHDR LAUREN THURGOODDR SINA VATANDOUSTDR BO XU

VICMR ISAIAH ABADMRS SUSHMA ANANDMR DANIEL BARRIGA

A/PROF ALYSSA BARRYMS LINDA BRAINDR KRISTIN BROWNDR ANNA CALKINMR CHRISTOPHER CHONGDR ANDREW COXA/PROF MAX CRYLEMR BRYCE DAVERNDR SIDONIA ECKLEMR DANIEL FRANKMR DONOVAN GARCIA-CERONMRS NEHA GAZDARMR DAVID GILLETTDR PRAJAKTA GOSAVIMR STEVEN HEATONDR ELIZABETH HINDEDR YUNING HONGMISS WENJING HUDR DANA HUTCHINSONDR ANDREW KELLERPROF GEOFFREY LINDEMANDR STUART LINTONMR CHRISTIAN MAKHOULMR BLAKE MAZZITELLIDR RUTH MITCHELLMS LAURA MOFFITTDR CRAIG MORTONMS KATELYN MROCZEKDR JASON PAXMANMR XAVIER PEARCEMS CATIA PIEROTTIDR MATTHEW PIPERDR BLAINE ROBERTSDR ADAM ROSEMR CHATHURA SURAWEERAMISS QI WANGMISS AMY WILSONDR JACINTA WUBBENDR HON YAN KELVIN YIP

WAMR MAXIME CORRALPROF MAGDY ELNASHARMR ABI GHIFARIDR CARL MOUSLEYMR CALLUM ORMONDEMR KOFI STEVENS

A warm welcome is extended to the following new members who joined ASBMB during the past year

ASBMB Welcomes New Members


Aims of the Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB)In preparing for this first Report for the Australian

Biochemist in my role as President of ASBMB, I have been reflecting on the Society’s stated aim: topromote research, new developments and education in biochemistry and molecular biology in Australia. We are working to encourage excellence in biochemistry and molecular biology and to disseminate information about biochemistry and molecular biology achievements to members of the academic, research and industry communities, and more generally to the public. We are also seeking to advise Government bodies on policies relevant to biochemistry and molecular biology. I am very pleasedtoreflectonhowsuccessfullywehaveworkedtowards this aim in the last year.

ComBio2017The showpiece of the Society is its annual conference.

ComBio2017 was an outstanding success, thanks to the excellent work of Convenor Professor Michael Michael (Flinders Centre for Innovation in Cancer), Deputy Chair, Professor Rachel Burton (University of Adelaide), Program Chair, Associate Professor Natasha Harvey (University of South Australia), Deputy Program Chair, Professor Matthew Gilliham (University of Adelaide), Committee Member, Associate Professor Briony Forbes (Flinders University), Treasurer Associate Professor Terry Piva (RMIT), and the 17 Stream Co-ordinators.

Our South Australian colleagues worked together really well and put together a fantastic three-day Program that featured outstanding international speakers alongside a range of high calibre Australian presenters, with good gender, age and regional diversity. There was a real buzz at the meeting and a feeling of friendly inclusiveness and excitement. I was extremely pleased that Professor Michael Hall, University of Basel, Switzerland (winner of the 2017 Lasker Prize), was able present the Grimwade Keynote Lecture on TOR (target of rapamycin), a protein kinase that controls cell growth in response to nutrients, growth factors and energy.

Congratulations to Professor John Mattick (Executive Director, Garvan Institute for Medical Research), who delivered a memorable 2017 Lemberg Lecture; to Professor Lars Ittner (UNSW, Merck Medal); Associate Professor Mike Lawrence (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, Beckman Coulter Discovery Science Award); Dr Natalie Spillman (University of Melbourne; Eppendorf Edman Award); Dr Heather Verkade (University of Melbourne; Shimadzu Education Award); and the Boomerang and ASBMB Fellowship awardees.

Thanks so much to Sally Jay for her team’s herculean efforts in the organisation of the ComBio2017 meeting,and for securing excellent support from Trade Exhibitors

and Sustaining Members. Congratulations to all of the organisers for keeping costs down, so that we were able to reduce the registration fee for Student Members from $395 (2016) to $250 (2017). The involvement of student members is critical to the success of any Society, and the interest in and quality of the e-poster talks and poster presentations attests to the vitality of the student base of ASBMB.

Future ComBio and ASBMB meetingsComBio2018 will be held in Sydney at the International

Convention Centre as a three-day meeting (24–26 September 2018; with a Career Development meeting on 23 September). Professor Liz Harry (Director, ithree institute, University of Technology Sydney) is already working energetically on the job as Convenor, with Annemiek Beverdam (UNSW) and Brent Kaiser (University of Sydney) co-Chairing the Program Committee. Randy Schekman (Nobel Prize 2013, for machinery regulating vesicletrafficking)hasagreedtobetheGrimwadeKeynotePlenary speaker, and will be a major drawcard. I thank the University of Melbourne for providing the Grimwade speaker support that enables us to attract such a high profilespeaker.

Following consultation with the ASBMB membership, we are implementing a change to a two-yearly, three-day formatforComBio,witheffortstoincludemoresocietiesin the biannual ComBio meetings. Stand-alone Society meetings will be held in the alternate years. The 2019 meeting will represent the first of the new style, stand-alone, more focussed ASBMB meetings. It will be held in Freemantle, and promises to be an exciting meeting. I thank Nic Taylor (University of Western Australia) for drivingtheinitialorganisationalefforts.

Councilmatters–thanksandchangesOn behalf of the Society, I would like to thank Professor

Mike Ryan for his fantastic work as President of ASBMB, 2015–2016, and as past-President, 2017. As President, he implemented a number of new initiatives and ideas. He instigated plans for revitalising ComBio and many of the Society’s activities and implemented a number of gender equity initiatives. I am sure I speak for Council and the Society in general in congratulating him on his achievements, and promising to continue work on the initiatives that he set in motion. I am very pleased that

ASBMB Annual ReportsPresident’s Report

ASBMB President

Leann Tilley.


Professor Joel Mackay (University of Sydney) has agreed to take up the position of President Elect in 2018.

I am extremely grateful to Associate Professor Terry Piva (RMIT) for his excellent and dedicated work as Treasurer overthelastfiveyears.TerryservedasTreasurernotonlyfortheSociety’sbusiness,butalsoforeachthelastfiveComBiomeetings. Heworked very hard to find budgetsavings and to generate new income streams, so as to secure the Society’s financial position. Terry’s term willfinishthisyearIwouldliketoextendourheartfeltthankson behalf of the ASBMB Council. I am very pleased that Associate Professor Marc Kvansakul (La Trobe University) has been agreed to accept the role of Treasurer in 2018 and has already been working with Terry to learn the ropes.

I am particularly pleased to welcome Dr Suresh Mathivanan (La Trobe University) to the position of Editor and as a member of Council Executive. Suresh has some exciting and innovative ideas for reimagining the role of Editor, so as to serve the evolving needs of Society members, and is working with co-Editor Tatiana Soares da Costa, and Members of the Editorial Committee to reinvigorate the Australian Biochemist. The first issueproduced by the new team (August 2017) was really exciting. Featuring a cover depicting a performance art interpretation of the 20 amino acids, the issue included a new ASBMB Education Feature edited by Susan Rowland (our new Education Representative) and Nirma Samarawickrema, as well as a new feature profilingrecent, high impact publications by ASBMB members.

I would like to thank Associate Professor Briony Forbes asSecretaryofASBMBforhertirelesseffortsindealingwith the flow of ASBMB-related queries and activities,particularly forfielding reportsandfinalising theASBMBawards, and for organising meetings of Council and the Executive.

I welcome the new State Representatives who commenced in 2017, Kate Brettingham-Moore (TAS) and Erinna Lee (VIC). I thank outgoing State Representatives, Dominic Ng (QLD), Steven Polyak (SA), Peter Mabbitt (ACT), Nic Taylor

(WA) and Kate Michie (NSW). I welcome incoming State Representatives Matthew Johnson (ACT), Kate Quinlan (NSW), Ben Schulz (QLD), Mark Corbett (SA), and Monika Murcha (WA). We are very keen to involve the State Representativesineffortstorevitalisethemembershipandto articulate the activities of the Society to members.

What’saheadforbiochemistryandmolecularbiology in Australia?

Large-scale research endeavours, such as the genome projects, have yielded an enormous wealth of biometric information about living organisms. However, it is becoming clear that many pieces of the puzzle of life are still missing. We are far from understanding the molecular basis of complex cellular behaviours. It is increasingly evident that answering the major biology and biotechnology questions of the 21st century will require a deep understanding of molecular mechanisms, driven by expert biochemists and molecular biologists. These molecular scientists will employ a range of exciting new technologies to probe the structure and function of cellular components, and will increasingly embrace integrative, information-driven, quantitative and holistic approaches.

The new approaches available to molecular scientists areexemplifiedbythecurrentrevolutionincryo-electronmicroscopy, which was recognised by the 2017 Nobel PrizeinChemistry.Forthefirsttimeweareabletodirectlyimage the cell’s machinery, at molecular resolution, without the use of crystals or labelling methods. Coupled with the new techniques for gene editing, such as CRISPR, we can anticipate enormous advances in the near future in health care and agri-bioscience, leading to innovative bioengineering, biomedical, agri-food and biomaterials products. ASBMB is proud to be a Society that sits at the core of these amazing new technologies and proud to play a role in disseminating information about new advances to colleagues, to the next generation of scientists, and to the public more broadly.

ProfessorLeannTilley,President

Relevant summaries of the full audited report (1 July 2016 to30June2017)and thecomparativeprofitandloss statements should be read in conjunction with this statement.

The overall position of the Society is similar to that of 2016. A small operating loss of $4,821 was recorded during this year,whilein2015-2016wemadeasmallprofitof$3,946.Both year’s results are a considerable improvement to the losses sustained in the three years prior to this ($94,574 in 2014-2015; 84,646 in 2013-2014; $88,567 in 2012-2013). Themajorreasonwhywedidnotrecordaprofitduringtheyear was that the income from ComBio2016 in Brisbane was greatly reduced to the income generated from

ComBio2015 in Melbourne. It should be noted that the conference was held a week after the common university break and this would have contributed to the reduced attendance. This was unavoidable due as the Convention

Treasurer’s Report

ASBMB Annual Reports

ASBMB Treasurer Terrence

Piva.


Centre was unavailable during the midsemester break. ComBio2017, held in Adelaide, is the first three-dayconference we have run, and like Brisbane in 2016, was held a week after the common university break. While this may have an impact on attendance numbers, the pleasing aspect of the meeting is that student registration costsweresignificant lower. It ishopedthat in2018theSydney conference will be more successful as it will be held in the common university break. Apart from relying on conferences as our major sources of income we need to ensure our membership numbers stay high or even increase, as we have trimmed all costs to ensure we can maintaintheNationalOffice,StatebranchesandSpecialInterest Groups, and be able to fund our awards. While in the past year we recorded a small loss, the Society needs to ensure that it maintains its healthy reserve and does not lose income as it did between 2009-2015.

The major sources of income for ASBMB are membership revenue,ComBio profit and bank interests, all ofwhichdecreased during the 2016-2017 financial year. Overallour revenue for 2016-2017 was down $43,060 from 2015-2016. Although membership revenue has been a major source of income for the Society (69% total income in 2016-2017) there was a drop in both membership (down 4%) and Sustaining Membership (down 30%) income. Advertising income continues to fall and now represents <1% of the year’s income. Sally Jay is to be commended for maintaining ASBMB’s strong relationship with the large number of companies who exhibit at ComBio, as their presence contributes to the success of this conference. ComBio2016 in Brisbane generated income of $29,381 (our profit sharewas $16,380), whichwas a significantdecrease ($45,179) to that generated by ComBio2015 in Melbourne.TheComBio2016auditwasfinalisedinMarchand the profit has sincebeendistributed to allmembersocieties. Corporate support for our named awards remains strong and on behalf of the Society I thank them for their support of these awards. Interest on our accounts fell again in 2016-2017 by 8%, due to reductions in the officialinterestrate.Net expenditure in the 2015-2016 financial year was

down $25,400 compared to the previous period (2015-2016), which was a major reason why the Society only sustained a small loss during this year. Expenses incurred inrunningtheNationalOfficewerelessthanthatin2015-2016. We are fortunate that Sally and Chris Jay manage the National Office with a high degree of effectivenesswhile keeping their costs relatively stable. Our flagshippublication is the Australian Biochemist and it is available tomembersasadownloadablePDF.Thishassignificantlyreduced the cost of publishing this magazine. Both Chu Kong Liew and Suresh Mathivanan as the Editors of the Australian Biochemist, alongwithEditorialOfficer LianaFriedman are to be commended for their work in putting the magazine together. Reduced meeting costs were achieved by the Executive and Council holding teleconferences. The distribution of funds to the State and Special Interest

Groups in 2016-2017 was similar to payments made during 2015-2016. There was a reduction in the number of symposium speakers to four per conference (total cost $8000), and the number of Fellowships to four ($2500 each). I would argue that the Society abolish its support for symposium speakers which will save it $8000 each year.The overall financial position of the ASBMB remains

similar to that recorded in 2015-2016. As the balance sheet indicates, we enjoy total assets of $535,197 and a total equity of $417,132 when liabilities are taken into account. These are slightly less than that recorded in 2015-2016. During the past year, we have maintained our asset base, and while this year we made a small loss ($4,821), it should be noted this followed many years of losses from 2008 to present. As indications are that ComBio2017 will return a smallprofit,weneedtoensurethatwedonotsufferalargefinanciallossduringthiscomingfinancialyear.Therefore,inordertoensurethattheSociety’sfinancesremainstrongI recommend the following items to be debated by the Council, that (1) there be a 2% increase to membership fees for the next membership year (corresponding to the CPI increase in 2016-2017), (2) that the ASBMB no longer fund symposium speakers at conferences it runs, and (3) the Society through its State and Special Interest Group representatives undertake an active recruitment drive to attract more members.

As this year’s conference was a three-day meeting in Adelaide,whileitishopedtogenerateasignificantprofit,being held a week later than usual may reduce this. This will place a strain on the Society’s budget as income derived from ComBio is used to support many of its activities. While most aspects of the Society’s expenditure have been minimised, to ensure we do not place a strain on our reserves, we must look at ways we can generate newsourcesofincomeinordertomaintainourfinancialbase. One way we can help the Society as members is that weshouldactivelypromotetheASBMBanditsbenefits,and encourage colleagues and postgraduate students to become members of this Society.

In my role as the ASBMB Treasurer I have many people to thank. Members of the ASBMB Executive who are always constructive and supportive, Sally and Chris Jay (ASBMB National Office), Ian Price (ASBMBBookkeeper), Priestleys (ASBMB accountants), and Mr Brian Hiley (ASBMB auditor). This is the last report I will make toCouncil asmy five-year termconcludesat theend of the year. I would also express my thanks to all State and Special Interest Group representatives, as well as the ComBio local organising committees that I have worked with during this period. I will hand the cheque book onto the new treasurer, Marc Kvansakul, who will look after the financesoftheSociety,andwillbetheretoassistiftheyneed any help. I am indebted to you all for your help and thank you all for the assistance you have given me during this past year as well as for the period of time I have been the ASBMB Treasurer.

AssociateProfessorTerrencePiva,Treasurer



REPORTONTHEFINANCIALSTATEMENTSWehaveauditedtheaccompanyingfinancialstatements

of the Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Incorporated (the association) which comprises thestatementoffinancialpositionasat30June2017,thestatementofprofitorloss,statementofcomprehensiveincome, statement of changes in equity and statement ofcashflowsfortheyearthenended,notescomprisingasummaryof significantaccountingpoliciesandotherexplanatoryinformation,andthecertificationbymembersof the committee on the annual statements giving a true andfairviewofthefinancialpositionandperformanceofthe association.

EXECUTIVEOFFICERS’RESPONSIBILITYTheExecutiveOfficersoftheAssociationareresponsibleforthepreparationandfairpresentationofthefinancialstatements in accordance with Australian Accounting Standards – Reduced Disclosure Requirements and the Associations Incorporations Act 1991, and for such internal control as the directors determine is necessary toenablethepreparationofafinancialreportthatisfreefrom material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

AUDITOR’SRESPONSIBILITYWe conducted our audit in accordance with Australian

Auditing Standards. Our responsibilities under those

standards are further described in the Auditor’s Responsibilities for the Audit of the Financial Report section of our report. We are independent of the association in accordance with the ethical requirements of the Accounting Professional and Ethical Standards Board’s APES 110: Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants (the Code) that are relevant to our audit ofthefinancialreportinAustralia.Wehavealsofulfilledour other ethical responsibilities in accordance with the Code.

We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for ouropinion.

AUDITOPINIONInouropinion,theaccompanyingfinancialreportofthe

Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Incorporated is in accordance with the Associations Incorporation Act 1991 including:

(i) giving a true and fair view of the association’s financial position as at 30 June 2017 and of itsperformance for the year then ended; and(ii) thatthefinancialrecordskeptbytheassociationaresuchastoenablefinancialstatementstobepreparedin accordance with Australian Accounting Standards – Reduced Disclosure Requirements.

MC Andreassen (Partner) Priestleys Chartered Accountants

Your Executive Officers submit herewith the financialstatements of the Association for the year ended 30 June 2017, together with the Auditors’ Report thereon and in accordance with Section 73 of the Associations Incorporation Act 1991 report as follows.

EXECUTIVEOFFICERSThe Executive Officers throughout the year were:

Professor Michael Ryan (Past President, until 6/10/16); Professor Leann Tilley (President); Professor Briony Forbes (Secretary); Associate Professor Terrence Piva (Treasurer); Dr Chu Kong Liew (Editor, until 30/3/17); Dr Suresh Mathivanan (Editor, from 30/3/2017); Professor Paul Gleeson (FAOBMB Representative).

PRINCIPALACTIVITIESThe principal activity of the Association in the course of thefinancialyearwas theadvancementof thescienceand profession of both biochemistry and molecular biology.

OPERATINGRESULTSDuring the year, the Association produced an operating lossof$4,821(2016:operatingprofit$3,946).

STATEMENTBYEXECUTIVEOFFICERSIn the opinion of the Executive Officers the financialstatements, consisting of the Statement of Profit andLoss and other Comprehensive Income, Statement of Financial Position, Statement of Changes in Equity, Statement of Cash Flows and Notes to and forming part of the Financial Statements:(a)Presents a true and fair view of the financial

position of the Association as at 30 June 2017 and its performance for the year ended on that date in accordance with Australian Accounting Standards – Reduced Disclosure Requirements.

(b) At the date of this statement, there are reasonable grounds to believe that the Association will be able to pay its debts as and when they fall due.

Signed in accordance with a Resolution of the Executive Officers.

ProfessorLeannTilley,PresidentAssociateProfessorTerrencePiva,Treasurer

ASBMB Annual ReportsExecutive Officers’ Report

Independent Auditor’s Report


AUSTRALIANSOCIETYFORBIOCHEMISTRYANDMOLECULARBIOLOGYINCORPORATEDSTATEMENTOFFINANCIALPOSITIONAT30JUNE2017

2017 2016$ $

CURRENTASSETSCash and cash equivalents 452,363 480,539Trade and other receivables 79,961 65,682Other current assets 2,873 286TOTALCURRENTASSETS 535,197 546,507

NON-CURRENTASSETSProperty, plant and equipment - -TOTALNON-CURRENTASSETS - -

TOTALASSETS 535,197 546,507

CURRENTLIABILITIESTrade and other payables 118,065 124,554TOTALCURRENTLIABILITIES 118,065 124,554

TOTALLIABILITIES 118,065 124,554

NETASSETS 417,132 421,953

EQUITYRetained surplus 417,132 421,953

TOTALEQUITY 417,132 421,953

STATEMENTOFCASHFLOWSFORTHEYEARENDED30JUNE2017

2017 2016$ $

CASHFLOWSFROMOPERATINGACTIVITIESReceipts from members 95,473 88,266Conference income 6,477 10,593Other income 13,141 46,973Payments to suppliers and employees (154,120) (162,330)Interest received 10,853 11,868Net cash provided by/(used in) operating activities

(28,176) (4,630)

CASHFLOWSFROMINVESTINGACTIVITIESPayment for property, plant & equipment - (159)

Netcashprovided(used)byfinancingactivities

- (159)

Net increase/(decrease) in cash held (28,176) (4,789)Cashatthebeginningofthefinancialyear 480,539 485,328

Cashattheendofthefinancialyear 452,363 480,539

REVENUE2017 2016$ $

Operating activitiesAdministration FundSubscriptions – ordinary, student, retired and Sustaining Members

86,103 88,463

Conference income 16,380 45,180Advertising and insert in proceedings and magazines

800 1,930

Other Income 10,600 11,740113,883 147,313

Non-operating activitiesInterest received – Administration Fund 10,640 11,468Donations 546 475

11,186 11,943TotalRevenue 125,069 159,256

EXPENSES2017 2016$ $

Other expenses from ordinary activitiesAffiliatememberships 15,020 5,932Awards and medals 13,900 20,645Conference support costs 10,370 8,116Council expenses 5,316 4,272Insurance 1,116 1,119NationalOfficecosts 42,270 44,310Magazine costs 6,974 18,749Other costs 3,659 6,393State allocations 11,892 17,917Website expenses 6,523 12,668Remuneration of auditor - audit or review services 2,150 1,500 - other services 2,200 1,900ASBMB Fellowship – Research Fund 8,500 11,500

129,890 155,021

CASHANDCASHEQUIVALENTS2017 2016$ $

Cash at bank – Administration Fund 452,363 480,539452,363 480,539

TRADEANDOTHERPAYABLES2017 2016$ $

CurrentAccrued expenses – Administration Fund 2,336 2,549

ComBio/OzBio conference receivables 41,925 31,433Advances to state committees 35,700 31,700

79,961 65,682

RETAINEDSURPLUS2017 2016$ $

Administration FundRetained surplus at beginning of the year 414,595 399,624

Netsurplus(deficit)attributabletotheFund 2,537 14,971

Retained surplus at the end of the year 417,132 414,595

Research FundRetained surplus at beginning of the year 7,358 36,688

Netsurplus(deficit)attributabletotheFund (7,358) (18,305)

Retained surplus at the end of the year - 18,383

Total Retained surplus at the end of the period

417,132 421,953

All sums given in Australian Dollars.



DisclaimerThe Australian Biochemist is published by the Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Inc. The opinions expressed in this magazine do not necessarily represent the views of the Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Inc.

GlyphosateStripTestKitsThe Abraxis Glyphosate Strip Test is

a rapid immunochromatographic test designed solely for use in the qualitative screening of glyphosate in water and food samples. For food samples such as honey, lentils, baby food, wheat/oat cereal, a simple sample extraction is necessary although the kits do not require any additional materials and can be performed by users with no laboratory experience.

Glyphosate, a broad-spectrum systemic herbicide, was introduced in 1974 by Monsanto under the trade name Roundup®. Glyphosate is the largest selling agrochemical in the world and is marketed under dozens of trade namesbymanydifferentmanufacturers.Glyphosate is used for vegetation control of perennial and annual plants, broad-leaf weeds, grasses, woody plants, and aquatic weeds, as well as grain desiccation to increase harvest yield. The introduction of genetically modified crops resistant to glyphosatehas caused an increased use of glyphosate, allowing farmers to control weeds without harming their crops. Due to its widespread use, glyphosate has become ubiquitous in the environment and food supply.

Glyphosate can adsorb to soil and is highly water soluble, which can cause surface and ground water contaminationfromrun-off,soilerosion,and leaching. The long-term impact on the environment and human health are growing concerns worldwide.

United Bioresearch ProductsKirrily SmithPhone (02) 4575 [email protected]

Addressing the Current Needs of Drug Discovery Using Microcalorimetry

Isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) and differential scanning calorimetry(DSC) are two powerful techniques that can provide insight into a biomolecule’s behaviour and stability in formulation.

ITC directly measures the heat released or absorbed during a biomolecular binding event. This allows accurate determination of binding constants (KD), reaction stoichiometry (n), enthalpy (∆H), and entropy (ΔS).DSC measures heat changes that occur in the biomolecule during a controlled increase or decrease in temperature and is used for understanding the stability of biomolecules.

Malvern MicroCal PEAQ-ITC is thegold standard for measuring binding affinitiesofmoreinteractionsthananyothertechnique.New software makes it easy for anyone to use this system. The fast response time of the instrument has asignificanteffectonsensitivityallowingfor lower sample consumption and reducing the experimental time. A KD can be determined in less than 30 minutes including all the analysis. The instrument can also be fully automated for complete ‘hands-free’ operation.

MalvernMicroCalPEAQ-DSC is thegold standard for reproducible stability dataforallproteinsinallbuffers.The new MicroCal PEAQ-DSC Automated system delivers high throughput, highly sensitive protein stability analysis with low sample consumption. New integrated software facilitates non-subjective data analysis, performance qualification andcompliance with 21 CFR Part 11 and Annex 11 regulations.

For further details contact ATAScientificPtyLtd(02) 9541 [email protected]

ASBMB welcomes the followingnew Sustaining Members:Personalbio, ChinaTaylor & Francis Group, NSW

HumanProteinAtlasProject-Validated Antibodies for the Subcellular Proteome

In 2015, the Human Protein Atlas project presented a complete map of the human proteome expression in human tissues. The Tissue Atlas and Cancer Atlas includes data for 17,500 Prestige Antibodies.

The newest addition to the HumanProtein Atlas is the Cell Atlas – a fantastic tool for anyone working with antibodies for ICC-IF or in cell biology in general. The Cell Atlas presents data for more than 10,000 Prestige Antibodies.

A key to better understand the mechanisms of living cells is to determine the subcellular localisation ofproteinsactive in thecells.Differentorganelles offer environment withdifferent physiological conditions,constituents and interaction partners, which determine protein function.

The Cell Atlas part of the Human Protein Atlas visualises the spatial distribution of proteins in the human cell. For each protein there are immunofluorescent staining’s fromtarget specific antibodies in severalhuman cell lines, annotated subcellular locations and target gene RNA expression in a vast number of cell lines. For many of the proteins, there are also results of different validationassays performed, such as siRNA knockdown, GFP co-localisation and cell cycle dependency analyses.

Learn more at sigmaaldrich.com/antibodies

Read more about the Cell Altas project on page 43 of the Australian Biochemist.

Our Sustaining Members


Fisher Biotec Celebrates 20 YearsinBusiness

Fisher Biotec is celebrating 20 years of providing an exceptional range of products and customer service to the life science research market. We are very proud to have reached this milestone, and we look forward to continuing to be of service for the next 20 years and beyond.

To celebrate this achievement Fisher Biotec is offering 20% savings on theentire range of Favorgen Biotech DNA andRNAExtractionandPurificationkits.Favorgen manufactures a large range of kitsfortheextractionandpurificationofDNA and RNA from many sources.

Favorgen’s business is focused on the life science research market (pharmaceutical and biotechnology), standardized testing (including forensic human identification, paternity testingand food testing), molecular diagnostic, and biopharmaceutical industry.

Favorgen kits offer versatility, highrecovery, high purity and save you time. The extensive range includes Genomic DNA Extraction, RNA Extraction, Viral Nucleic Acid Extraction, Plasmid DNA Extraction and Gel/PCR Purificationskits.

Their state-of-the-art manufacturing facility is ISO certified to ensure theproduction of high quality molecular biology products and clinical chemical reagents at competitive prices.

Further information:Fisher [email protected] - 1800 066 077

Solida Biotechnology Bioreactors and Fermenters

Scientex has been appointed Distributor for Solida Biotechnology (Germany). The range includes bench and pilot scale systems. The management and engineering team has depth of experience in fermentation, cell culture and renewable applications to form the basis of continuous products development. All of Solida Biotech’s bioprocess equipment meets the latest GLP, cGMP, GAMP, FDA and SFDA standards for worldwide distribution.

Solida Biotech is pleased to announce its state of the art, next generation range of benchtop bioreactors and fermenters in the Bio Bench Pro Advanced series as well as the user-friendly Bio Bench Compact version. All Bio Bench bioreactors and fermenters integrate modern, open-source industrial technologies with a unique concept of intelligent modularity, expandability, and robustness. All Bio Bench bioreactors and fermenters feature industrial design with stainless a steel front, back, and utility panel. All modules are connected to the master controller through industry standard Ethernet communications protocols, while the modular design enablesuserstoconfigurethesystemsaccording to own lab space needs within the most compact footprint.

Solida Biotech offers a completerange of pre-assembled pilot SIP (in situ sterilisable) bioreactors and/or custom made solutions based on detailed customer requirements. BioSip automation and software are based on leading supplier PLC’s that runs under an advanced intuitive operating system. Software comprises a PLC with local visualization platform, human interface (HMI) touch screen and custom made configuration. BioSip Controller architecture can hold and simultaneously manage up to two or more Lab and Pilot bioreactors. Automation design and

functionality allow the interchange of vessel’s size without modifying PLC or softwareconfiguration.

For further information contact:-Scientex Pty Ltd Tel 03 9899 6100Fax 03 9899 6122Email [email protected]

LabGear Australia is the exclusive distributor for the Implen range of NanoPhotometers from Germany. The top of the range NP80 Nanophotometer provides the power of standard spectroscopy combined with the convenience of a lightweight portable instrument with a built-in 7 inch LCD glove compatible touchscreen and flexible unit control options. A built-invortex unit provides sample uniformity for the highest degree of accuracy with the smallest sample volume with as little as 0.3ul. Illuminated quartz sample surface allows for easy sample application. The patented Sample Compression Technology™ keeps the liquid samples shaped into a precisely defined flat layer of even thicknessholding the sample in place and free from evaporation in a sealed and protected micro-environment allowing for reliable protein measurements and for the analysis of samples in volatile solvents. With its built-in computer and full lightweight portable design the NP80 NanoPhotometer is the ideal versatile unit for the most demanding laboratory and field applications. For moreinformation or an obligation free trial please call 1800-LABGEAR or email [email protected]



95%QEBackIlluminatedScientificCMOSCamera

The new Prime 95B Back Illuminated Scientific CMOS (sCMOS) camerafrom Photometrics with 95% Quantum Efficiency (QE) is an ideal choicefor Super-Resolution Microscopy, Confocal Microscopy, Single Molecule Fluorescence and Light Sheet Microscopy.

The Photometrics Prime 95B sCMOS camera is the first sCMOS camera tooffer 95% Quantum Efficiency (QE)and Back Illumination (BI) in the same camera and it now outperforms EMCCD cameras.

The Prime 95B’s sensor converts up to 95% of incident photons into a measurable signal.

The back illuminated sensor brings light into the pixel photodiode from behind, avoidingstructuresthatreflectorabsorblight.Combinedwithlarge11μmpixels,the Prime 95B camera can deliver over 300% more signal than other sCMOS camerasat100Xmagnification.

The extreme sensitivity not only allows fainter signals to be detected, it provides the flexibility to increase frame rates,or turn down the excitation intensity to reduce cellular photo-damage.

Key features include 95% QE, 16 bit dynamic range, large 11μm x 11μmpixel area, 1.3e- read noise (rms), 41fps @ 16-bit/82fps @ 12-bit, regulated air cooling to -10oC, single cable connection rather than a dual camera link, large fieldofview,CMountinterface,multipleexpose out triggering and SMART streaming.

SciTechPtyLtd(03) 9480 [email protected]

using two 3.2 mm chrome steel beads. A leading UK contract genomics lab has tested the plates and found that they could survive 4 minutes of bead beating with barley seeds, a notoriously hard carpel to crack, using a 6 mm steel grinding ball.

Alternative Mini-Beadbeater models also available for single vials, and up to 16 x vials or 24 x vials at a time

For information please contactMurdoch or Moina MacaskillDaintreeScientificAustraliaPhone (03) 6376 3335Email [email protected] www.daintreescientific.com.au

BiotixxTipforRaininLTSPipettes

Rainin LTS users have even greater choice when it comes to selecting tips for their pipettes. The new Biotix xTip has been manufactured for maximum compatibility with LTS pipettes with all the great features that tip users expect and rely on.

The FlexFit feature allows for a secure seal of the tip onto the pipette without needing to force the fit, improvingergonomics and reducing strain.

The naturally low retentive X-Resin provides a non stick tip surface, promoting accuracy and precision when pipetting with no sample loss.

Eliminating theneed for tip touchoff,the Blade feature delivers increased reproducibility and reliability.

Available in filtered and unfilteredversions, in sizes of 20µl, 200µl and 1000µl, the Biotix xTip for Rainin LTS pipettes also comes with complete certificationofRNase,DNase,Pyrogen,Endotoxin, Nucleic Acid and Trace Metal free status.

For further information or a trial, please contact your Interpath Services Sales Representative.

Interpath Services(03) 9457 [email protected]

DAINTREEs c i e n t i f i cAUSTRALIA

Update on BeadbeatingBioSpec (USA), manufacturers of the

well known Mini-Beadbeater range of homogenisers have improved their high capacity model 96. The enhanced model retains all of its great original features and attributes, but now adds a newdigital controller offering timingcycles from 0 to 5 minutes, including RPM control from 1400 to 2400 rpm, plus presets for up to three time/speed combinations to be stored for easy retrieval.

Designed for high-throughput analytical screening, the Mini-Beadbeater-96 efficiently and safely disrupts multiplesamples of spores, microorganisms, plant and animal tissue or soil samples at a time. Forty-eight 2 ml vials, a 96 well microplate or 24 x 7ml vials are filled with sample and a largenumber of small ceramic beads, then violentlyshakenforup tofiveminutes.Better than 95 percent cell disruption is achieved. The plates or vials and beads are disposable, thus making the method ideal for PAGE, PCR, and probe applications where cross contamination between samples cannot be tolerated. The non-foaming, aerosol-free method preserves enzymes and organelles. Compatible with phenol, Gu-SCN, or various commercial kit solutions, RNA/DNA is quickly recovered in the highest possible yields by doing the cell disruption and nucleic acid extraction simultaneously. The Mini-Beadbeater can also be used for dry grinding. Here, steel beads are added to hard samples such as hair, bone, teeth, seeds and minerals and are completely powdered in 10–60 seconds of operation. Softer materials such as biological tissue, rubber or plastics can be powdered by pre-freezing the sample to liquid nitrogen temperatures (cryo-grinding).

Additionally, new Porvair microplates are a great match for those looking for the highest level of processing throughput from their Mini-Beadbeater-96. The Porvair plates and mats withstand powdering samples of human hair



Ultrasensitive Digital Detection of Proteins and Nucleic Acids

Quanterix Single molecule arrays (Simoa) enable the detection of biomarkers previously difficultor impossible to measure due to concentrations beyond the level of detection of standard immunoassays. Simoa utilises arrays of 216,000 femtoliter-sized wells capable of holding a single bead per well. If a target analyte is captured and an immunocomplex forms, the enzyme cleaves its substrate yielding a fluorescent product. Byconfining the flurophores generatedby individual enzymes to extremely small (40fL) volumes, a high local concentrationoffluorescentmoleculesis created over time. The ratio of the number of wells containing an enzyme labelled bead to the total number of wells containing beads corresponds to the analyte concentration in the sample, and enables each well to be read as either ‘on’ or ‘off’. Single moleculemeasurements are thus digital in nature, and this technology results in a 1000x increase in sensitivity.

The Simoa technique can also be used to detect multiple microRNAs (miRNAs) in an ultra-sensitive multiplex sandwich assay without pre-amplification.miRNAs can be detected at femtomolar concentrations (with LODs of 1–30fM) andwithhighspecificity(distinguishingmiRNAs with a single nucleotide mismatch).

For more information, please contact:Dr Brenton Short GeneWorksPtyLtdPhone (08) 81596250Email [email protected] www.quanterix.com

Each year the Biochemical Society makes a series of prestigious awards that recognize excellence and achievementinbothspecificandgeneralfields of biomolecular science. The2019 Biochemical Society Awards will recognize established researchers as well as scientists in the early stages of their career. Nominations are welcomed from around the world, until 6pm (GMT) on Wednesday 31 January 2018. Find out more: www.biochemistry.org/awards

To raise awareness of the biochemical basis of cardiovascular disease (CVD), Portland Press, the publishing arm of the Society, designed a quiz for World Heart Day. Test your knowledge now: www.qzzr.com/c/quiz/448010/how-well-you-know-your-heart

We are delighted to have supported a number of Australian meetings this year. These were Lorne Infection and Immunity Conference 2017, Mantra Lorne, Australia, where Portland Press sponsored the speaker lunch with David Drew (Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Stockholm University). At the 42nd Lorne Conference on Protein Structure and Function, Mantra Lorne, Australia, the Biochemical Journal poster prize was awarded to Sashika Richards, Australian National University. And Clinical Science supported the 2017 HBPRCA (High Blood Pressure Research Council of Australia) Annual ScientificMeeting. If you are interested in talking to us about poster prizes at your next meeting, contact [email protected].

Website: www.biochemistry.orgTwitter: @BiochemSoc Facebook: www.facebook.com/ biochemicalsociety

NewCheck&Go!ConjugationTestKits

The Innova Biosciences Check&Go! Conjugation Test Kits allow scientists toconfirmthesuccessoftheirantibodyconjugation in one easy step.

The key component of the kit is a nitrocellulose membrane containing a ‘test line’ of immobilized Protein A and Protein G called a ‘half strip’.

Both Protein A and Protein G have a highaffinityfortheFcregionofavarietyof IgG molecules. The ‘half strips’ also contain an absorbent pad to promote andcontrol theflowofsample throughthe nitrocellulose. This simple qualitative lateralflowassaydoesnotrequireanyspecialised or costly equipment.

Three versions of the kits are available:• ConjugateCheck&Go!–toconfirm

the successful conjugation of a coloured label to your antibody

• BiotinCheck&Go!–toconfirmthesuccessful biotinylation of your antibody

• HRPCheck&Go!–toconfirmthe successful conjugation of horseradish peroxidase (HRP) to your antibody

Simple, quick and easy to use:• Quickly check the success of your

conjugation in only minutes!• Easy to use• No costly equipment required• Requires only small volumes

(between 20 to 40µl of diluted conjugate)

• 30 tests per kit and all components to run the tests are provided in the kits

• Unique to Innova Biosciences

BioNovus Life SciencesPh: (02) 9484-0931Email: [email protected]: www.bionovuslifesciences.com.au


http://www.biochemistry.org/Awards

www.qzzr.com/c/quiz/448010/how-well-you-know-your-heart



http://www.lorneinfectionimmunity.org/

http://www.lorneinfectionimmunity.org/

http://www.lorneproteins.org/

http://www.lorneproteins.org/

http://www.cvent.com/events/hbprca-annual-scientific-meeting-2017/event-summary-9467a0cace4d4d47ae17d721a685920d.aspx



mailto:editorial%40portlandpress.com?subject=

mailto:editorial%40portlandpress.com?subject=


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CubeRackScannerforSBSRacksandCryoboxes

The Cube is a fast camera-based scanner suitable for scanning SBS racks and cryoboxes. Using patented technology, the Cube can image and decode a rack in under 2 seconds. Its smallest in-class size and ability to integrate with any LIMS or automation system, make it a logical upgrade for your lab.It caters toalmostanyworkflowand

is compatible with all SBS plates (24, 48 and 96 well), cryoboxes (81 and 100 well) and even non-standard racks. It will also read any 2D barcodes you can throw at it.

It also features high speed intelligent scanning that is able to discern a correctly scanned tube, damaged barcode or missing tube. The DataPaq™ software also allows for easy data export in multiple formats including Excel, JSON, XML or direct to your database. TTP Labtech will also provide free lifetime software updates.

Their cryoprotective coating also overcomes disruptions due to condensation on barcodes that have been taken directly from cryogenic storage, ensuring maximum throughput and sample integrity. The optional linear rack scanner enables you to operate the Cube hands-free.

Your Cube will come pre-calibrated. All you need to do is plug it in, download the software and you are up and running!For more information contactAXTPtyLtd02 9450 1359 [email protected]

RoutineCytokineServicesNow Available

You routinely outsource your DNA sequencing, so why not your cytokine and protein biomarker analysis too? We can offer ‘per sample’ pricing withno minimum sample numbers on our regular fortnightly runs. If you’re interested in a range of cytokines, but don’t have the resources to invest in full multiplex kits, our new Routine Cytokine Service might be just for you!

Forhumansamplesweareofferinga10-plex and a 25-plex, and for mouse samplesweareofferinga10-plexanda 20-plex. If you have more than 20 samples,orworkonadifferentspecies,speak to us about our Custom Multiplex Service. We have years of experience tailoring custom multiplex experiments formanysatisfiedresearchers.

Crux Biolab is the new name of elisakit.com, which has been making ELISA kits here in Australia since 2011. Since 2014 we have also been helping researchers

by running multiplex protein assays, which are now the focus of Crux.

For more information please contact usCrux [email protected] 941 991

Patent for Linear Variable Filters

BMG LABTECH, a leading manufacturer of microplate readers, recently received a patent for their revolutionary dual monochromator technology using Linear Variable Filters (LVF). This unique technology offersunmatched flexibility and sensitivityfor fluorescence and luminescenceapplications.

LVFs have variable coatings along their lengths that can reject or pass certain wavelengths of light. They consist of two quartz slides (a linear variable long pass and a linear variable short pass), that when properly aligned, separate light into distinct wavelengths. BMG LABTECH’s CLARIOstar® microplate reader features two LVFs, one for excitation and one for emission. A unique Linear Variable Dichroic Mirror slide is used to separate emission from excitation light, optimising the light path but also reducing background signal. The unique optical system uses a free-air optical path to direct the light into the microplate well, reducing autoflourecense and significantlyincreasing light transmission. The LVF Monochromators also have continuously adjustable bandwidths ranging from 8 to 100 nm, with larger bandwidths allowing increased light for excitation and emission. In addition, the unique design eliminates internal loss of light and avoids stray light that occurs with conventional monochromators.

For more information or to book a demonstration visit www.bmglabtech.com, email [email protected] or call (03) 5973 4744.



Recombinant Rabbit Monoclonal Antibodies

Abcam have combined the advantages of our RabMAb® rabbit monoclonals with recombinant technology to deliver industry-leading antibodies. In order to provide you with antibodies that have excellent sensitivity with the highest degree of consistency, we have engineered recombinant versions of our RabMAb rabbit monoclonal antibodies. This combination delivers a number of unique advantages. We currently provide over 10,000 recombinant RabMAb antibodies that provide low background, high specificity, highaffinity (10-12 kD possible) and diverse epitope recognition, with recombinant technology adding high consistency and reproducibility, improvedspecificityandanimal-free production.

In addition to the benefits ofrecombinant RabMAb antibodies, we validate each one in key applications (WB,IHC,ICC/IF,IPandflowcytometry)and species (human, mouse, and rat). Theyareaffinitypurifiedtoremoveanyimpurities that could otherwise lead to non-specificsignal.Abcamprovideover3,000 directly conjugated recombinant RabMAb antibodies, including your favourite dyes and enzymes. Abcam further include knockout validation via CRISPR technology for a growing number of antibodies as well as our Abpromise risk-free guarantee.

View our range of recombinant RabMAb® antibodies at www.abcam.com/recombinant or email us at [email protected].

The culmination of years of innovation, the LI-6800 Portable Photosynthesis System is part of a new era of photosynthesis learning and discovery. The sensor head design gives you automated control over all of the environmental conditions to which the leaf is subjected – temperature, CO2

options to scan and track barcoded tubes, as well as multiple tube options tofiteverytypeofsampleinyourlab.

All Ziath and LVL Technologies products are manufactured and designed to the highest quality by people who have extensive experience in the development, maintenance and implementation of laboratory automation and associated software and consumables. This is coupled with the expertise and support you can expect from Pathtech; your firstchoice in biobanking and sample management.

For further information on any of our Biobanking and Sample Management solutions, contact the Pathtech Team at [email protected] or call 1800 069 161.

concentration, humidity, light, and flowrate – for unprecedented measurements of plant physiology. Improved plumbing in the sensor head, along with tighter tolerances on gas analyzers and the CO2 mixer, are all part of Rapid Sensing™ Technology. These advancements unlock new research possibilities for you, including:

Fast Survey MeasurementsSystem achieves stability in as

little as 45 seconds, for the fastest survey measurements of any portable photosynthesis system – without sacrificingdataaccuracyorprecision.

Rapid Response CurvesApatentedair flowdivision inside thesensor head reduces diffusion andallows for a rapid exchange of air from the leaf chamber to the gas analyzers, making new techniques like the Rapid A-Ci Response (RACiR™) Method possible.

Integrated Gas Exchange and Fluorescence

The LI-6800 is capable of making simultaneous gas exchange and chlorophyllfluorescencemeasurementsover the same 6 cm2 leaf area, making it possible to study the role of alternative electron sinks and more accurately estimate mesophyll conductance.

For further information contact www.licor.com

Pathtech – First Choice in BiobankingandSampleManagementPathtech is your first choice for

biobanking and sample management. Our team of qualified scientists canadvise on the best products, with brands like Ziath and LVL Technologies, to manage every stage of sample management, or biobanking within your laboratory or facility.

From software to track where your samples are in the laboratory, which can be interfaced to your existing LIMS, or barcode scanners, to a full suite of



ComBio201823–26 September 2018International Convention Centre Sydney

Early Registration/Abstract Submission Deadline:Friday 22 June 2018

The conference is the combined meetings of the ASBMB, ASPS, ANZSCDB, NZSPB and NZSBMB with the International Society of Differentiation (ISD) partnering with the ANZSCDB.

ComBio2018 will be held at the brand new spectacular International Convention Centre Sydney on the Darling Harbour waterfront, which is within walking distance of the city, Harbour Bridge and a variety of reasonably priced restaurants, hotels and apartments.

The keynote speaker is Randy Wayne Schekman, a Nobel Prize-winning American professor of molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley. The program will

24th IUBMB–15th FAOBMB Congress4–9 June 2018Seoul, KoreaThis is a triennial Congress of IUBMB, combined with the FAOBMB Congress when held in our region. A Young Scientist Program will be held in conjunction with the Congress, 2–4 June 2018.Further information:Email: [email protected]: www.iubmb2018.org

feature a number of other overseas plenary presentations from some of the best international scientists together with a number of society speciality lectures. Two poster sessions are also planned.Thescientificprogramoftheconference will include the themes:• Plant Biology• Developmental, Stem Cell and

Regenerative Biology• Immunology, Infection, Host• Proteins and Structural Biology• Omics, Epigenetics and

Bioinformatics• Cell Biology and Signalling• Biochemistry and Metabolism• Emerging Technologies• Education

Further information:www.combio.org.au/combio2018

Conference Chair:Liz [email protected]

Registration/ExhibitionSally [email protected]

27th FAOBMB Conference19–22 August 2019Kuala Lumpur, MalaysiaThe 27th FAOBMB Conference will have the general theme of ‘Biomolecules: Networks and Systems’ with a focus on mosquito-borne illnesses.Further information:Email: [email protected]: www.faobmbkl2019.com

Forthcoming Meetings

‘Who Am I?’ ResultThe winner of the August competition is Nicola Ferreira,Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research.Congratulations to Nicola, who will receive a gift voucher.

Walter and Eliza Hall Institute; Structural biology; BCL2;BAK; BAX; Apoptosis; BH3 domains; I am Peter M Colman


COUNCIL FOR2018PRESIDENTProfessorLeannTilleyDepartment of Biochemistry and Molecular BiologyUniversity of MelbournePARKVILLE VIC 3010Ph (03) 8344 2227Email: [email protected]

PRESIDENTELECTProfessorJoelMackaySchool of Molecular BioscienceUniversity of SydneySYDNEY NSW 2006Ph (02) 9351 3906Email: [email protected]

TREASURERDrMarcKvansakulDepartment of Biochemistry and GeneticsLa Trobe UniversityBUNDOORA VIC 3086Ph (03) 9925 6503Email: [email protected]

SECRETARYAssociate Professor Briony ForbesMedicinal BiochemistryFlinders UniversityBEDFORD PARK SA 5042Ph (08) 8204 4221Email: [email protected]

EDITORand CHAIROFCOMMUNICATIONSDr Suresh MathivananLa Trobe Institute for Molecular Science Department of BiochemistryLa Trobe UniversityBUNDOORA VIC 3086Ph (03) 9479 2565Email: [email protected]

EDUCATIONREPRESENTATIVEAssociate Professor Susan RowlandInstitute for Teaching and Learning Innovation (ITaLI)University of QueenslandST LUCIA QLD 4072Ph (07) 3365 3089Email: [email protected]

FAOBMBREPRESENTATIVEProfessor Paul GleesonDepartment of Biochemistry and Molecular BiologyUniversity of MelbournePARKVILLE VIC 3010Ph (03) 8344 2354Email: [email protected]

SECRETARYFORSUSTAININGMEMBERSSally Jayc/-ASBMBNationalOfficePO Box 2331KENT TOWN SA 5071Ph (08) 8362 0009Email: [email protected]

STATEREPRESENTATIVESAUSTRALIANCAPITALTERRITORYDr Matthew JohnsonResearch School of BiologyAustralian National UniversityACTON ACT 2601Ph (02) 6127 0049Email: [email protected]

NEWSOUTHWALESDrKateQuinlan School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular SciencesUniversity of New South WalesSYDNEY 2052 NSWPh (02) 9385 8586Email: [email protected]

QUEENSLANDDrBenjaminSchulzSchool of Chemistry & Molecular BiosciencesUniversity of QueenslandST LUCIA QLD 4072Ph (07) 3365 4875Email: [email protected]

SOUTHAUSTRALIADrMarkCorbettAdelaide Medical SchoolUniversity of AdelaideNORTH ADELAIDE SA 5006Ph (08) 8161 6272Email: [email protected]

TASMANIADr Kate Brettingham-MooreSchool of MedicineUniversity of TasmaniaHOBART TAS 7008Ph (03) 6226 4609Email: [email protected]

VICTORIADr Erinna LeeOlivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute145 Studley RdHEIDELBERG VIC 3084Ph (03) 9496 5726Email: [email protected]

WESTERNAUSTRALIADrMonikaMurchaARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy BiologyUniversity of Western AustraliaCRAWLEY WA 6009Ph (08) 6488 1749Email: [email protected]

ASBMBNATIONALOFFICEPO Box 2331KENT TOWN SA 5071Ph (08) 8362 0009Fax (08) 8362 0009Email: [email protected]://www.asbmb.org.au

SPECIALINTERESTGROUPSADELAIDEPROTEINGROUPContact: Dr Melissa PitmanCentre for Cancer BiologySA PathologyADELAIDE SA 5005Ph (08) 8313 0413Email: [email protected]

AUSTRALIANYEASTGROUPChair: Dr Alan MunnGriffithUniversityGoldCoastPMB 50, Gold Coast Mail CentreSOUTHPORT QLD 9726Ph (07) 5552 9307Email:[email protected]

BIOCHEMICALEDUCATIONChair: Associate Professor Susan Rowland School of Chemistry and Molecular BiosciencesUniversity of QueenslandST LUCIA QLD 4072Ph: (07) 3365 4615Email: [email protected]

MELBOURNEPROTEINGROUPPresident: Dr Douglas FairlieOlivia Newton John Cancer Research InstituteAustin HospitalHEIDELBERG VIC 3084Email: [email protected]

METABOLISMANDMOLECULARMEDICINE GROUPChair:DrNigelTurnerSchool of Medical ScienceUniversity of New South WalesKENSINGTON NSW 2052Ph (02) 9385 2548Email: [email protected]

QUEENSLANDPROTEINGROUPChair: Dr Brett CollinsInstitute for Molecular BioscienceUniversity of QLDST LUCIA QLD 4072Ph (07) 3346 2043Email: [email protected]

RNANETWORKAUSTRALASIAChair: Dr Archa FoxHarry Perkins Institute of Medical Research6 Verdun StreetNEDLANDS WA 6009Ph (08) 6151 0762Email: [email protected]

SYDNEYPROTEINGROUPChair: Dr Liza CubedduSchool of Science and HealthUniversity of Western SydneyPENRITH NSW 2751Ph (02) 4620 3343Email: [email protected]

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