2010 Annual Report - Institute for Molecular Bioscience - University ...

imb annual report 2010
10
IMB HIGHLIGHTS 2010
RESEARCHERS DELVE INTO
GENETIC CODE OF TUMOURS IN
HUNT FOR CANCER THERAPIES
Australian scientists are playing a vital
role in a worldwide search for cancer
therapies, described in top scientific
journal Nature. The scientists are part
of the International Cancer Genome
Consortium (ICGC), a group of
researchers from 22 countries who are
conducting large-scale studies on the
genomes of different tumour types.
The ICGC members will together
sequence the genetic codes of 25,000
tumours from 50 different types of
cancer over five years. Professor Sean
Grimmond is leading the Australian
team, responsible for sequencing
pancreatic and ovarian tumours.
“We have identified changes in the
genetic code from normal tissues to
tumours, but we don’t yet know if these
changes are responsible for disease,”
Professor Grimmond said. “Our next
step is running tests in the lab to
determine if these genetic changes have
a biological effect. We will do this for
every tumour we sequence over the fiveyear
project.”
SOWING THE SEEDS OF MALE
FERTILITY
Australian scientists have discovered
the chemical signals that ensure men
produce sperm instead of eggs. Dr
Josephine Bowles and Professor Peter
Koopman led a team that found that
a protein called FGF9 promotes the
production of sperm in males while
suppressing the development of eggs.
“It sounds obvious, that men produce
sperm and women produce eggs,”
Dr Bowles said. “But sperm and eggs
start out as identical cells, and it’s only
through a complex process of signals
that these cells end up as sperm in men
and eggs in women.”
GENOME EXPLORATION FINDS KEYS TO GENE REGULATION AND
DISEASE
A deep genome exploration has
found tens of thousands of tiny
pieces of genetic material, less that
one percent of the length of the
average gene, that may regulate
gene expression and disease.
Professor John Mattick and Dr Ryan
Taft (pictured) from IMB, and Dr Cas
Simons from the Queensland Facility
for Advanced Bioinformatics, showed
that these ‘tiny’ RNA molecules are
abundant at the start of genes and
discovered they are also found at
gene splice sites, where genes are
turned on or off.
The work was published in the
premier scientific journal Nature
Structural and Molecular Biology,
and led to Dr Taft being named a
finalist in the Eureka Prizes Early
Career Research and People’s
Choice Awards.