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

imb annual report 2010
30
The Molecular Genetics and Development
Division currently consists of ten groups
containing around 100 researchers and
students in total. A detailed description
of each group’s research can be found
in the following pages, but briefly,
the research focus of each group is:
the development and function of the
lymphatic vessels (Dr Ben Hogan); the
formation of the developing embryo,
particularly the gonads and blood
and lymphatic vessels (Professor Peter
Koopman); the development, repair and
regeneration of the kidney (Professor
Melissa Little); the role of nuclear hormone
receptors in metabolic disease (Professor
George Muscat); blood development
(Associate Professor Andrew Perkins);
the genetics of human pigmentation and
skin cancer risk (Associate Professor
Rick Sturm); the mechanisms by which
the innate immune system responds to
infection (Dr Matt Sweet); the genetics
of tissue repair and heritable cancers,
including basal cell carcinomas and
medulloblastomas (Professor Brandon
Wainwright); the molecular mechanisms
behind limb and craniofacial development
(Associate Professor Carol Wicking)
and the elucidation of the regulatory
mechanisms of embryonic development
(Dr Dagmar Wilhelm).
The division continues to sustain its
research through success in competitive
grant rounds. Our researchers received
$1.5 million in project grants from
the National Health and Medical
Research Council and $1 million
from the Australian Research Council
(ARC). These included IMB’s largest
grant across both schemes of $691k
to Professor Melissa Little. This grant
will fund Professor’s Little’s studies on
kidney development, which aims to
improve our understanding of chronic
kidney disease. Professor Little is also
one of the investigators on another large
grant, $627k, led by Professor Karen
Moritz of UQ’s School of Biomedical
Sciences. This grant will examine the
effect of lower oxygen levels on kidney
development. Professor Peter Koopman
and Dr Josephine Bowles received
$660k from the ARC to continue the
work described in their Developmental
Cell paper (see above). The other three
grants awarded to chief investigators
from the division in these funding rounds
went to: Dr Kelly Smith, a postdoctoral
researcher from the Wicking group, Dr
Ben Hogan, the institute’s youngest
group leader, who was awarded two,
and Dr Mathias Francois, a Koopman
group postdoc who shared one of
Dr Hogan’s grants. The latter two
researchers were also successful in
Fellowship funding rounds, with Dr
Hogan being awarded an ARC Future
Fellowship and Dr Francois receiving an
NHMRC Career Development Award. Dr
Matt Sweet was particularly successful
in these rounds, being offered both an
NHMRC Research Fellowship and an
ARC Future Fellowship. As always, it is
encouraging to see early- and midcareer
researchers achieving success.
The division’s researchers were not just
recognised for their work through the
awarding of competitive grants, but
also through prizes. Dr Ben Hogan won
a University of Queensland Research
Excellence Award, worth $70,000, to
identify genes critical to the development
of the lymphatic vessels through the use
of zebrafish models. Dr Kate Schroder
from the Sweet group was awarded
Postdoctoral Researcher of the Year
at the Queensland Health and Medical
Research Awards, the second year in a
row this prize was won by a researcher
from our division. Dr Schroder
completed the first comparison of mice
and human innate immune systems. In
our student cohort, Dr Ming Chang, also
from the Sweet group, was named on
the Dean’s Awards List for Outstanding
Research Higher Degree Theses. Only
the top ten percent of research higher
degree students are recognised in this
way each year. Vicki Metzis from the
Wicking group won several awards
in 2010, including the IMB and Inter-
Institute rounds of the Three-Minute
Thesis competition, and the People’s
Choice Award in the Inter-Institute round.
For a list of the remainder of Ms Metzis’s
awards, and for other student awards,
please see page 69.
Our researchers continued to interact
with the wider scientific community,
presenting at conferences and other
institutes, and hosting visitors to the IMB
in return. These visitors included four
national and international speakers in
IMB’s Friday Seminar Series: Dr Stephen
Cohen, Deputy Director of the Institute of
Molecular and Cell Biology in Singapore;
Professor Christopher Goodnow,
Director of the Australian Phenomics
Facility at the Australian National
University in Canberra; Professor Simon
Foote, Director of the Menzies Research
Institute at the University of Tasmania in
Hobart; and Professor Sharad Kumar
from Adelaide’s Institute of Medical and
Veterinary Science. Dr Dagmar Wilhelm
organised the Division’s fortnightly
seminar program, a forum for our staff
and students to present their work
to the rest of the division, and allow
each of us a wider understanding of
the research being undertaken across
our ten laboratories. We continued
to run the Brisbane Developmental
Biology Seminar Series, a monthly
seminar for all developmental biologists
in Brisbane. In October, Dr Dagmar
Wilhelm and Dr Kelly Smith organised
the inaugural Cell and Developmental
Biology Meeting. This symposium is one
of the few that allows junior scientists,
including postgraduate students, to
share the stage with senior researchers,
and was a huge success. Our division
also sponsored the 6th Australian
Developmental Biology Workshop in
Melbourne, a training ground for the next
generation of Australian developmental
biologists.
Last year I reported that the Division
had been reviewed by Professor Robb
Krumlauf and Professor Nancy Jenkins
from the IMB’s Scientific Advisory
Committee. As a result of feedback
from that review, this year we instituted
a divisional retreat aimed at improving
our collective sense of belonging and
gaining a better understanding the
division’s areas of research interest
and technical approaches. The retreat
was very successful, with participants
emerging with an increased awareness
of best practice in the field as a whole,
technology, equipment and services
available at IMB and emerging research
trends and technologies.