Biology Newsletter - The University of Sydney

FACULTY OF
SCIENCE
Biology News
ISSUE 24
OCTOBER 2013
Rick with a
cohort of his
students.at the
2012 graduation.
Photo by Malcolm
Ricketts.
EUREKA PRIZE IN
MENTORING FOR RICK SHINE
Professor Rick Shine has won the Eureka Prize for Outstanding Mentor of Young
Researchers. The award makes Rick the first Australian scientist to win a Eureka Prize in
three different categories, having won the 2006 Eureka Prize for Biodiversity Research
and the 2011 Eureka Prize for Promoting Understanding of Australian Science Research.
“I’m absolutely delighted to win this
award. It was terrific to win the
previous Eurekas – for research and for
communicating with the public – but
mentoring younger researchers is the
core of what I do,” said Rick.
The Eureka Prize recognises Rick’s
lifelong commitment to assisting young
scientists – during his career he has
supervised more than 70 research
students and 20 post-doctoral fellows.
Rick’s PhD student Joshua Amiel
has just handed in his thesis, so we
asked him for the inside truth of
Rick’s mentoring style. “His open-door
policy and enthusiasm for exploring
and discussing new ideas (like the
possibility of breeding hyper-intelligent
lizards) provided an extremely
rewarding research environment,” Josh
said. “His ability to adapt his mentoring
style to suit each student’s specific
needs is truly amazing.”
This sentiment was echoed by another
PhD student, Georgia Ward-Fear. “I
think Rick’s mentoring style is driven
by his ability to adapt to the needs
of his students and the desire to help
them succeed. This is underpinned
by his skill in people management, his
genial personality, his sense of humour
and his bright Hawaiian shirts - it is a
winning combination.” She said, “for
many of us, Rick is as much a personal
role model as a professional mentor
and I know this award is a career
highlight for him.”
“My students share my enthusiasm for
wildlife, and my desire to conserve
our unique animals – and I think that
has made it a lot easier for us to work
together,” said Rick. “They are a great
group of people, and spending time
with them in the field and the lab has
been enormous fun; I’m sure I’ve learnt
at least as much from them as they
have from me.”

IN THIS ISSUE
01 FEATURE ARTICLE
EUREKA WIN FOR MENTORING
02 HEADSPACE
03 SPOTLIGHT
WILL FIGUEIRA
04 LATEST RESEARCH
Koalas, bees and isopods
06 TEACHING NEWS
Kickstart on the Road and
Federal Government citations
07 ALUMNI PROFILE
BRUCE STILLMAN
08 EVENTS
Upcoming alumni social and a free
screening of More than Honey
DIARY DATES
FRIDAY 18 OCTOBER
Back to School
Annual biology alumni social
Macleay Building and Botany Lawn
4:30pm-7pm
THURSDAY 24 OCTOBER
More Than Honey
Documentary film screening
New Law LT 101, Law School
6pm-8pm
HEADSPACE
The School recently had the pleasure of welcoming one
of our distinguished alumni, Dr Bruce Stillman (BSc
(Hons) 1976), to deliver the 2013 Murray Lecture on the
mechanism of DNA replication. Dr Stillman also spent a
weekend down memory lane at Warrah with our research
students. He is currently Director of the prestigious Cold
Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York. You can read
more about Dr Stillman from the Alumni Profile in this
newsletter (page 7).
2013 has seen the continued roll out of our new Biology
curriculum. Our first year units continue to be very well received by students and
our record large classes in our new second year have received similar accolades
from students. Our staff have received recognition for both undergraduate
teaching and research supervision. Dr Danny Liu received an Office of Learning
and Teaching Citation for his innovative use of digital technology in Junior
Biology (page 6) and Professor Rick Shine won his third Eureka Prize, this time
for mentoring of young researchers (front page). Professor Shine continues to
mentor many of our alumni as they progress through their careers.
I hope to see you at our 2013 Alumni Function Back to School on 18 October (see
back cover for details). You can road test some of the laboratory experiences of
our current students, before relaxing on the Botany lawn with a well-earned drink.
You are also welcome to join us for the screening of the movie More than Honey
on 24 October (details also on back cover).
I wish you all the best for the remainder of 2013 and the upcoming festive
season.
Best wishes,
Robyn Overall
EDITORIAL
EDITOR:
Dr CECILY OAKLEY
ROOM 227, HEYDON-
LAURENCE BLDG,
THE UNVERSITY OF
SYDNEY
E: biologyalumni@sydney.edu.au
2

RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT:
WILLIAM FIGUEIRA
The events in Finding Nemo might seem
farfetched, but tropical fish do indeed travel
the East Australian Current to be found as far
as Sydney. Dr William (Will) Figueira studies
the movement of these tropical fish and
their potential to survive the winter in the
temperate zone.
“They typically die over the winter,” said
Will, explaining fate of the tropical fish
that make it to Sydney. “We look at the
mechanisms that kill them off as a way
of understanding when they’ll be able
to survive.”
A fish species’ distribution depends
on a number of environmental
and biological factors, including
temperature. “I look at benthic fish,
which stay in a particular area for
most of their lives. These are the ones
whose geographic distribution may
creep over time as a result of changing
climate and warming oceans.”
To study the tropical fish that venture
into temperature waters, Will has the
enviable task of swimming the waters
up and down the East Coast. “We do
lots of observational stuff - snorkelling,
diving and counting.” Along with David
Booth’s team at UTS, Will conducts
regular surveys around Sydney,
Merimbula and at other locations.
Data from these sites has been
collected since 2002. This long-term
monitoring enables them to look at the
consistency of tropical fish settlement
patterns from year to year.
But not all tropic fish species are found
south each summer. So which tropical
fish, and in what numbers, have been
appearing in temperate waters? “We’ve
had a paper recently with David Feary
at UTS looking at the characteristics of
the tropical fish we see here, relative to
the ones we don’t see. We asked the
question, what are the traits of animals
that disperse?”
Fishy physiology plays a role. It is not
fixed, as Will explained, “they have the
ability to adapt, either plastically within
a generation or evolutionarily through
multiple generations. That adaption
will change the speed of the range
expansion.”
Field-work - flying out to the reef
“To understand the fish’s tolerance
limits and acclimation ability, we take
them into the lab and look at how they
grow, how they swim, etc, when they
are held at different temperatures.”
Will’s group also uses computer
modelling to understand the range
expansion of tropical fish. “I’ve done a
fair amount of biophysical connectivity
modelling to understand how habitats
are connected by organisms.” He uses
oceanographic flow data and output
from models to simulate the movement
of the fish larvae. “The quality of the
modelling all comes down to how well
you understand how the larvae behave,
how they can swim, how they can
sense things, etc. My new PhD student
Steve Hawes is working on these
connectivity models.”
However range expansion is not a
concept that is restricted to tropical
fish. “Temperate fish and invertebrates
are also heading south and being found
in greater numbers in Tasmania.” Will’s
work may therefore be applicable
across latitudes, with the potential to
use the presence of these ‘vagrant’
fish as an index for climate change.
“We have funding to collect data all
along the coast at intensive temporal
and spatial resolutions. Once the data
has been analysed we will know how
often you need to sample in order to
say ‘the vagrant fish are becoming
more abundant’ and to link it to climate
change”.
So finding Nemo in Sydney Harbour
will become a common occurrence.
And Will’s research will be able to
tell us when to expect the clownfish
population to survive year-round.
3

KOALAS CHOOSE SHADE-
TREES TO COPE WITH
EXTREME WEATHER
BY JENNY EATHER
In the first study of its kind a research team,
led by Dr Mathew Crowther of the School
of Biological Sciences, found koalas are
choosing trees different to those in which
they feed in an attempt to survive higher
daytime temperatures and extreme events
such as droughts and heatwaves.
“Koalas need a combination of both the right kind of shelter
trees and food trees to survive,” Mathew said. “Our
research confirmed koalas shelter during the day in different
types of trees to the eucalypts they feed on at night.”
This research, published in the international biodiversity and
ecology journal, Ecography, shows that land management
practices must change to protect vulnerable koala
populations. “Ensuring a habitat has a good supply of feed
trees and protecting koalas from predators is not enough to
ensure their survival.”
Forty koalas were tracked using GPS over three years
on Liverpool Plains farmland around Gunnedah in northwestern
New South Wales. “We found the hotter it is during
the day the more koalas will tend to seek out bigger trees
with denser foliage to try to escape those temperatures.”
“The koalas studied also showed a preference for trees in
lower lying areas such as gullies which are often cooler than
trees on open plains or hilltops.”
An understanding of how endangered animals use their
resources is critical, especially as extreme temperatures can
be fatal. “One quarter of the koalas we studied perished in
a heatwave in 2009 and Australia has just experienced the
hottest year since climate records began,” he said.
But it’s not all doom and gloom. Mathew says that “unlike
their very narrow choice of feed trees, koalas chose
a relatively wide variety of trees for shelter, including
species such as Belah and Kurrajong.” These results give
conservationists direction on how to carry out their koala
preservation practices.
“The implication is that long-standing land management
practices of retaining and planting feed trees for koalas
needs to be expanded to include shelter trees within the
home range of each koala. This is especially important in
more protected gullies, to try to offset the impact of high
temperatures,” he said.
Mathew said his team’s research also highlights the need
for further investigation into the koala’s diet and how other
tree-dwelling species are affected by sustained changes to
climate.
4

CHEATING AND HOUSE HUNTING
IN HONEYBEE SWARMS
BY FREYA HORSWELL
MARINE ISOPODS
HAVE MICROSCOPIC
SATELLITE
DISHES ON THEIR
MOUTHPARTS AND
ANTENNAE
BY MURRAY THOMSON
Cirolana harfordi is a marine
crustacean that lives in shallow
water around beaches and rock
platforms and is a voracious feeder
on flesh from animals dead or
alive. It has been known for some
time that marine isopods such as
Cirolana harfordi are very skilled in
locating fish to eat during the low
light of night when it is safer for
them to swim away from shelter.
I have recently identified one of the
microscopic anatomical features of
this animal that may help it locate
food. Isopods do not have noses to
smell fish in the sea, instead they
have tiny bristles called setae about
100 times thinner than a human hair
on their appendages including the
mouthparts and antennae. Some
of these sensory setae have an
inner cavity called the lumen lined
with sensory cells. Using a scanning
electron microscope I found that
some of these setae have a pore at
the tip and inside this pore there is
a structure that looks like a satellite
dish termed a cupule.
The findings have recently been
published in the Journal of
Microscopy and I have proposed
that the the cupule may help collect
olfactory molecules and regulate
their entry into the sensory cell lines
lumen of the setae. These satellitedish
shaped structures therefore
may be an evolutionary adaptation
that allows marine isopods to
find food quickly before other
scavengers get to it.
Many heads are better than one
- at least where honeybees are
concerned. Colony-level problem
solving allows bees to combat
problems which an individual could
not. The Social Insects lab has been
investigating the complex behaviour
of honeybees in reproductive swarms
to answer some interesting questions
about reproduction and group
decision-making.
House hunting is just one of the hard
tasks faced by reproductive swarms
of honeybees (Apis mellifera). Scout
bees are sent out to find the best
site to establish the new colony. The
number of scouts sent is usually around
5% of the swarm size. So this begs
the question, does swarm size matter
when choosing a new home? Previous
models predicted smaller swarms
would be able to pick higher quality
nest sites because they were slower
and therefore more accurate. However,
these models were based on the
swarm’s ability to choose the better of
two sites presented. In reality, swarms
may come across many potential nest
sites.
This led post-doc Timothy Schaerf
and PhD student James Makinson to
use a model that included more nest
site choices as well as experimental
fieldwork. Their findings, published
in the Journal of the Royal Society
Interface, found that larger swarms
were better at finding and deciding on
a nest site than the smaller swarms.
Probably because larger swarms are
faster and invest in more scouts.
Another interesting feature
of reproductive swarms is the
reproductive division of labour.
Reproduction in the colony is the
responsibility of the queen – not the
workers. This behaviour is described
by the kin selection theory, which
predicts that the worker’s inclusive
fitness is higher if they rear the
queen’s sons instead of their own.
But there is a catch; an advantage
does exist for individual reproducing
workers – despite the fact that it may
reduce the colony’s collective fitness.
So how does the colony stop selfish
workers from reproducing? By using
a Police force of workers to remove
any worker-laid eggs and harass
reproductive workers. Despite these
policing measures, some worker
reproduction occurs. PhD student
Michael Holmes sampled male pupae
and adult workers of seven different
colonies over the reproductive season.
His findings, published in Molecular
Ecology in August, showed that the
worker reproductive output was
forty times higher than in previous
studies. Worker reproduction peaked
when the colony was rearing new
queens... It appeared some worker
subfamilies were making the most of
this opportunity and producing welltimed
sons.
5

KICKSTART BIOLOGY WORKSHOPS GO WEST
Brains, eye-balls, embryos and live locusts! The Kickstart Biology
workshops engage final-year high school students in interactive
activities aligned to the HSC syllabus. Prohibitive distances mean many
regional schools can’t make the trip to Sydney. So this year we packed
up our equipment and drove west to Tamworth, Parkes and Wagga.
“I enjoyed dissecting the eye and the brain and looking
at different specimens under the microscope,” said one
student. While another student preferred the “blood type
testing.” But whatever their preference, it was rewarding
day for both the students and the staff who made the trip.
Whilst in town, the experiments were set-up for public
exhibition in the evening. This also allowed for non-HSC
activities like cocoa analysis (chocolate tasting) and liveanimal
displays (spiders, centipedes and stick-insects – not
for tasting).
Kickstart on the Road is a joint program with the School of
Physics and, with the support of a Widening Participation
Grant from the Social Inclusion Unit, we were able to take
our two most popular workshops, Blueprint of Life and
Communication, to year 12 students in regional areas of
NSW.
Other recent outreach activities have included an
arthropod-filled Gifted and Talented Discovery program
with the Faculty of Science and a strawberry-squelching
DNA-extraction extravaganza at the Australian Museum
National Science Week Expo.
sydney.edu.au/science/outreach/kickstart/biology
Photos L-R: Francesca van den Berg dissects a cow’s eye; a student searches for the
locusts ‘ears’; the public exhibition at Parkes attracts a budding biologist.
EXEMPLARY TEACHERS
The Federal Government’s Office of Teaching and Learning has this year awarded three
citations for ‘outstanding contributions to student learning’ to our staff – past and present.
Dr Matthew Bulbert (Technical officer 1996-97) – Now at
Macquarie University. For designing an innovative teaching
and support framework that enhances student participation,
resourcefulness and creative critical thinking
Dr John Harper (Post-doctoral fellow and lecturer
1994-2001) – Now at Charles Sturt University. For an
interdisciplinary science team teaching initiative for oncampus
and distance education students: fostering student
engagement in first year microbiology
Dr Danny Liu (Associate lecturer 2012-present) – University
of Sydney. For development of innovative technologyenhanced
and inquiry-based teaching practises and curricula
that inspire and motivate a new generation of scientists
6
L-R: Dr Danny Liu, Dr John Harper and Dr Matthew Bulbert

ALUMNI PROFILE:
BRUCE STILLMAN
Dr Bruce Stillman (BSc(Hons) 1976,
DSc(honoris causa) 2008) has devoted
his research career to understanding the
inheritance of the human genome.
Dr Stillman is President of Cold
Spring Harbor Laboratory as well
as Director of their Cancer Centre.
His studies into the packaging,
duplication and segregation of
chromosomes, and the cancerinducing
mistakes in the process,
have yielded many accolades.
Including fellowship of the Royal
Society and the Australian Academy
of Science, election to the US
National Academy of Science and
appointment to Officer of the Order
of Australia.
This year, Dr Stillman was the School
of Biological Science’s annual Murray
lecturer. In addition to the public
lecture, he spent time in discussions
with academic staff and a weekend
away with students at Warrah.
What drew you to Biology and
Medicine?
I became interested in medicine when
I was 11 or 12, and later joined St. John
Ambulance in Glen Waverley, Victoria.
There I learnt advanced emergency
medical training and even worked in
hospital emergency rooms on weekends.
But later, in my second year at the
University of Sydney, I had to choose
between medicine and science. It
was a hugely difficult choice, but
made easier because I had decided to
pursue a career in research. Professor
Spencer Smith-White, a great Australian
geneticist, advised me that I would not
learn much science while training to
become a physician and thus my path
was set.
It was also made easier by the huge
enthusiasm displayed by Dr Keith Brown
who was a faculty member in the
School of Biological Sciences, one of
the few at the University keyed into the
then new recombinant DNA discoveries.
I worked in his laboratory in the Macleay
Building during my Honours year – even
though he spent much of the time on
sabbatical leave at Stanford University,
where Paul Berg, Stan Cohen and
others had discovered recombinant
DNA technology. I learned directly
about these developments and their
application to cancer research. These
events eventually led me to Cold Spring
Harbor.
What are your memories from your
time at the School of Biological
Sciences and in the Biological
Society?
The best memories were the weekend
trips to Warrah at Pearl Beach. Even
though I did not study botany, ecology
or zoology, I had friends who did and
they went there on field trips. Somehow
I spent many weekends bush walking
and thinking. Later, through connections
with the School’s marine biologists, I
was able to work for two summers at
the University of Queensland research
station on Heron Island in the Great
Barrier Reef, working on Green and
Loggerhead Sea Turtles. It was so
different from molecular biology in the
lab in Macleay!
Your research has focused on how
DNA is duplicated in the cell. In broad
terms, what have you learnt?
I started research in 1976 at the
Australian National University and later
at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in
New York, beginning in 1979. During
the second year of my PhD at the John
Curtin School of Medical Research,
I spoke at the Cold Spring Harbor
Symposium in New York, which
celebrated the 25 th anniversary of the
discovery of the double helix structure
of DNA (we have just had the 60 th such
celebration). It struck me that despite
25 years of DNA, little was known about
how our genome was duplicated. Now
we know a great deal more and together
with my current and former students
and postdocs, we have contributed to
understanding all major steps. We now
know in great detail how the enzyme
machineries work and how DNA
replication is controlled, as well as how
it goes wrong and induces the initial
stages of cancer.
What are you working on now? Do you
still have a chance to do research?
Even though my role as President of
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory keeps
me busy, I still run an eight-person lab
that focuses on the machinery that
replicates DNA and how it integrates
with processes such as chromosome
segregation. We also study how the
proteins bound to DNA are duplicated
and how they influence epigenetic
inheritance.
What have been the highlights of your
career to date – either in research
or in your role as President of Cold
Spring Harbor Laboratory?
Perhaps the major highlights, and
there have been quite a number, have
been discovering completely unknown
biological processes and proteins in
cells. Coupled with the chance to work
with amazingly talented students and
postdoctoral fellows, the excitement
of discovery still drives me today. As
president I get to meet some of the
world’s most interesting people, but that
cannot top discovering something.
7

EVENTS
ANNUAL ALUMNI SOCIAL - FRIDAY 18 OCTOBER
Come Back to the School of Biological Sciences - take a
class, refresh your knowledge, run an experiment and then
relax with a drink.
Do you remember the fun of dissections? The thrill of peering down the
microscope? The buzz you get from grasping a new idea? Re-live your University
days and join us in the lab for the annual alumni social. Bring along family and
friends and share your experiences. Lab work is more fun when there are drinks
at the end (and no exam)!
VENUE Macleay Building and Botany Lawn, University of Sydney
TIME 4:30pm-7:00pm
RSVP Register at backtobiology.eventbrite.com.au by Monday 14 October.
For more information call 02 9351 4543 or email biorsvp@sydney.edu.au
MORE THAN HONEY - THURSDAY 24 OCTOBER
A FILM BY MARKUS IMHOOF
Einstein once said,
if bees ever die out,
mankind will die out
4 years later.
BUCH UND REGIE MARKUS IMHOOF SCHNITT ANNE FABINI KAMERA JÖRG JESHEL (BVK) MAKROKAMERA ATTILA BOA TON DIETER MEYER SOUNDDESIGN NILS KIRCHHOFF TONMISCHUNG BERNHARD MAISCH CO-AUTORIN UND REGIE 2. UNIT KERSTIN HOPPENHAUS MUSIK PETER SCHERER SPRECHER ROBERT HUNGER-BÜHLER
HERSTELLUNGSLEITUNG TASSILO ASCHAUER KATHARINA BOGENSBERGER PRODUZENTEN THOMAS KUFUS HELMUT GRASSER PIERRE-ALAIN MEIER MARKUS IMHOOF REDAKTION URS AUGSTBURGER (SF) HUBERT VON SPRETI (BR) SONJA SCHEIDER (BR) HEINRICH MIS (ORF) EINE KOPRODUKTION VON ZERO ONE FILM ALLEGRO FILM THELMA FILM ORMENIS FILM
IN KOPRODUKTION MIT SRF SCHWEIZER RADIO UND FERNSEHEN / SSR SRG BAYERISCHER RUNDFUNK MIT UNTERSTÜTZUNG VON BUNDESAMT FÜR KULTUR (EDI) SCHWEIZ BUNDESAMT FÜR UMWELT BAFU AARGAUER KURATORIUM GEORGE FOUNDATION KULTURFONDS SUISSIMAGE G + B SCHWYZER-WINIKER STIFTUNG ERNST GÖHNER STIFTUNG ZÜRCHER FILMSTIFTUNG FONDS REGIO FILMS
AVEC LA LOTERIE ROMANDE ET LE CANTON DU JURA SUCCÈS CINEMA SUCCÈS PASSAGE ANTENNE FREDI M. MURER FRENETIC FILMS FILMFÖRDERUNGSANSTALT FILMFERNSEHFOND BAYERN DEUTSCHER FILMFÖRDERFONDS ÖSTERREICHISCHES FILMINSTITUT FILMFOND WIEN ORF FILM/FERNSEH-ABKOMMEN EURIMAGES UND DEM MEDIA PROGRAMM DER EU WORLD SALES FILMS BOUTIQUE
www.morethanhoney.ch
Film screening and forum
Worldwide, millions of honeybee colonies are dying each year. We do not fully
understand all the factors responsible but we know that there’s more at stake
than just a bit of honey. Searching for answers, More than Honey takes us around
the world to meet people living with and off honeybees. We meet almond growers
in California, a Swiss mountain beekeeper, a neuroscientist investigating bee
brains in Berlin and a pollen dealer in China. The amazing macro footage allows us
to meet the bees face to face and experience their life in a hive up close.
Join us for a screening of the film (95 mins) followed by a panel discussion with a
range of biologists working in this crucial area of research - including Madeleine
Beekman, Ben Oldroyd and Nathan Lo from the School of Biological Sciences -
and Boris Baer and Barbara Baer-Imhoof from the University of Western Australia.
VENUE New Law LT 101, Law School, Eastern Avenue, University of Sydney
TIME 6:00pm-8:00pm, refreshments provided
REGISTRATION whatson.sydney.edu.au/events/published/sydney-ideasmore-than-honey-film-screening
FACULTY OF
SCIENCE
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT
T +61 2 9351 4543
F +61 2 9351 4119
E biologyalumni@sydney.edu.au
sydney.edu.au/biology
8