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ResearchReview
GENETICS TRIUMPH: TASMANIAN TIGER GENES SUCCEED IN MICE
CRIMINALISING CARTEL MISCONDUCT
FOREST FIRES AND THEIR IMPACT ON VICTORIA’S WATER SUPPLY
WHY GAMBLING IS PROVING TO BE A GROWING HEALTH PROBLEM
The University of Melbourne Research Review 2008
Published by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) through the Marketing and Communications Office
Level 3 – 780 Elizabeth Street The University of Melbourne Victoria 3010 ISBN 1441–3302
Enquiries for reprinting information contained in this publication should be made through:
The Editor Research Review Marketing and Communications Office Level 3 – 780 Elizabeth Street The University of Melbourne Victoria 3010 Tel: 613 8344 5267 Fax: 613 9349 4135
Editor: Silvia Dropulich
Writers: Silvia Dropulich, Maryrose Cuskelly, Nerissa Hannink, David Scott, Rebecca Scott, Janine Sim-Jones, Nina Rozenbes, Clare Newton, Genevieve Costigan, Katherine Smith
Views expressed by contributors to the Research Review are not necessarily endorsed or approved by the University. Neither the University nor the Editor of the Research Review accepts any responsibility for the content or accuracy contained in this publication.
ResearchReview
GENETICS TRIUMPH: TASMANIAN TIGER GENES SUCCEED IN MICE
CRIMINALISING CARTEL MISCONDUCT
FOREST FIRES AND THEIR IMPACT ON VICTORIA’S WATER SUPPLY
WHY GAMBLING IS PROVING TO BE A GROWING HEALTH PROBLEM
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05 Welcome
Feature Articles06 Genetics Triumph
World first: genes from Tasmanian Tiger succeed in mice
08 The Art of Making Sense An examination of art and mental illness
10 White Collar CriminalsCriminalising cartel misconduct
12 Cool FireForest fires impact on the quality of Victoria’s water supply
15 Mind Over MatterComputer modelling may predict treatment outcomes for epilepsy
16 An Infectious PersonalityProfile: Federation Fellow, Professor Bill Heath
20 Water Under the BridgeBreakthrough in irrigation technology
22 Drawing on ExperienceThe Melbourne Business School taps our beliefs about leaders
24 The Evolution RevolutionMalaria’s evolution could be its downfall
26 Building CommunitiesHelping transnational and temporary communities to function
28 Designing Smarter SchoolsThe influence of school design on students
30 Putting It All on the LineGambling is proving to be a growing health problem
32 Mum’s the WordPoor mental health outcomes shown for mums with no leave
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12 20
A complete listing of University of Melbourne research projects is available at:www.research.unimelb.edu.au/rpag/reports/research/
Contents
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News12 Knock On Wood
Genes for wood strength discovered in eucalyptus trees
12 Going With the GrainGM grains could produce boom times in Australia
13 Smart Pest ControlUnlocking the genome of the world’s worst insect pest
16 Off Your HeadA new study reveals long term cannabis use causes brain injury.
16 Air ControlFree radical pollution may be linked to asthma
18 Super ComputerVictoria to develop world’s largest Life Sciences supercomputing facility
36 When Work Gets You Down21,000 Victorians suffer from work-related depression
36 A Helping HandWorld first employment program helps the mentally ill find work
39 Research CentresNew Coasts / Climate Research Centre, Problem Gambling Research Centre
40 Academic AwardsRhodes Scholar. Nobel Peace Prize, US Scientific Award and Top Academic Prize
40 AppointmentsCSIRO, ANTSO and Independent Pulp Mill panel
Resources38 Citation Survey
40 At a GlanceUniversity facts and Figures
43 Find an ExpertReliable sources of information on almost any topic
Contents
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development of a revolutionary IT-based water management system for reducing water loss in irrigation.
In the humanities we look at art and mental illness; we investigate how and why we might criminalise cartel misconduct. There is research on how to develop smart ‘green’ schools to replace the building stock within Australia that need replacement or refurbishment. We also look at the growing health problems associated with gambling and the stress of mothers without maternity leave.
Our news reportage covers a tremendously exciting initiative for the University with the State Government’s announcement that Victoria will develop the largest supercomputing facility for life sciences research in the world. The new $100 million Victorian Life Sciences Computation Initiative, including $50 million in State funding for peak computing infrastructure, was announced by Victorian Premier John Brumby, at the BIO2008 conference in California. The potential for this project is unlimited and will allow for considerable expansion of the State’s and the University’s capacity in bioinformatics, computational biology and advanced biomedical image analysis.
As part of the initiative, the University of Melbourne will develop a Life Sciences Computation Centre to undertake the peak computing operations and provide computational biology expertise to the institutions throughout the Parkville Precinct.
The University of Melbourne is an exciting community, full of talented people from all round the world. This is an opportune moment for me to thank my predecessor, Professor John McKenzie FAA, an internationally renowned geneticist who is also a member of the Australian Academy of Science. Formerly the Dean of Science, and more recently Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research, Professor McKenzie joined the University in 1977 and retired last year.
Research Review is a stimulating and inspiring publication. There are wonderful opportunities to interact with us or to become part of the ‘Melbourne Experience’. I hope you will be as excited as we are about these opportunities.
Professor Peter Rathjen
Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research)
Welcome to the 2008 issue of Research Review
The University of Melbourne is committed to cross-disciplinary research, creating opportunities for the best minds to work together to tackle some of the world’s most challenging research problems and providing outstanding opportunities for training and developing a new generation of researchers.
In the pages ahead we bring you features and insights into the work of some of our researchers who are at the forefront of international research and scholarship. The stories illustrate the University’s focus on research and research training, on research collaboration and on developing and applying knowledge in partnership with industry, government and local communities.
We profile Professor Bill Heath who has taken up a Federation Fellowship in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. Professor Heath has also been elected to the prestigious Australian Academy of Science. Academy Fellows are elected on the basis of a career that has significantly advanced thew world’s store of scientific knowledge.
We report on a number of scientific world-first breakthroughs: the discovery that genes from the extinct Tasmanian Tiger can operate in a mouse; a new computer model that may predict the outcome of drug treatment on epileptic patients; and the
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Genetics TriumphWorld first - Tasmanian Tiger genes succeed in a mouse. See the international scientific journal PLoS ONE at www.plosone.org
The research team used thylacine specimens from Museum Victoria in Melbourne Australia to examine how the thylacine genome functioned.
The research team isolated DNA from 100 year old ethanol fixed specimens. After authenticating this DNA as truly thylacine, it was inserted into mouse embryos and its function examined.
The thylacine DNA was resurrected, showing a function in the developing mouse cartilage, which will later form the bone.
“At a time when extinction rates are increasing at an alarming rate, especially of mammals, this research discovery is critical,” says Professor Marilyn Renfree, Federation Fellow and Laureate Professor in the University of Melbourne’s Department of Zoology, the senior author on the paper.
“For those species that have already become extinct, our method shows that access to their genetic biodiversity may not be completely lost.”
This research has enormous potential for many
applications
By Rebecca ScottIn a world first, researchers from the University of Melbourne, Australia, and the University of Texas, USA, have extracted genes from the extinct Tasmanian tiger (thylacine), inserted it into a mouse and observed a biological function.
The results released in the international scientific journal PLoS ONE, showed that the thylacine Col2a1 gene has a similar function in developing cartilage and bone development as the Col2a1 gene does in the mouse.
“This is the first time that DNA from an extinct species has been used to induce a functional response in another living organism,” said Dr Andrew Pask, RD Wright Fellow at the University of Melbourne’s Department of Zoology who led the research.
“As more and more species of animals become extinct, we are continuing to lose critical knowledge of gene function and their potential. Up until now we have only been able to examine gene sequences from extinct animals. This research was developed to go one step further to examine extinct gene function in a whole organism,” he said.
“This research has enormous potential for many applications including the development of new biomedicines and gaining a better understanding of the biology of extinct animals,” said Professor Richard Behringer, Deputy Head of the Department of Molecular Genetics, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, at the University of Texas, who is the corresponding author on the paper.
The last known Tasmanian tiger died in captivity in the Hobart Zoo in 1936. This enigmatic marsupial carnivore was hunted to extinction in the wild in the early 1900s.
Researchers say fortunately some thylacine pouch young and adult tissues were preserved in alcohol in several museum collections around the world.
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Thanks to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery for the kind permission to reproduce photograph by Benjamin A. Sheppard of the male Tasmanian Tiger.
Left: Two week old mouse fetus. The blue colour shows the expression / function of the thylacine Col2A1 gene promoter in the developing cartilage of the mouse.
Thanks to Marilyn Renfree and Andrew Pask.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT THIS ARTICLE, CONTACT:
Dr An � drew Pask – Department of Zoology, University of Melbourne, Mob: 0438 053 440;
Professor Marilyn Renfree – Department of Zoology, �University of Melbourne; Mob: 0414 716 460;
Rebecca Scott – Media Officer; �University of Melbourne, Mobile: 0417 164 791
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By Silvia Dropulich When we look at a painting by Van Gogh or Edvard Munch, or read a poem by Sylvia Plath, or ponder the ideas of Virginia Woolf, are we looking at the painting, ‘hearing’ the poem or narrative – or are we looking at a form of mental illness – a sign of sorts that the creator suffers from, or is likely to suffer from, a psychiatric disorder?
Art History Lecturer at the University of Melbourne, Dr Anthony White, believes that creative work by people with experience of mental illness should be approached with caution.
“Mental illness is a subject clouded by misunderstanding and prejudice,” Dr White told Research Review.
“Creative works by people with an experience of mental illness and or psychological trauma are often similarly misunderstood,” he said.
“There is a tendency to view all creative efforts by people with an experience of mental illness in reductionist terms.
“There has been a tendency to see the work in diagnostic terms, as ‘ah, that’s schizophrenia, or that’s manic depression’. Another tendency sees the work in purely artistic terms to the exclusion of all else. Neither perspective tells the whole story.”
Dr White is leading an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant project titled Framing Marginal Art: Developing an ethical and multi-dimensional framework for exhibiting the creative works of people who experience mental illness and/or psychological trauma.
Part of the project involves an exhibition entitled The Art of Making Sense, which focuses on The Cunningham Dax Collection. The collection, which comprises more than 12,000 creative works by people who have experienced mental illness or psychological trauma, provides researchers with a diverse range of material with which to conduct and test their research. The exhibition features a broad range of works including drawings, collages, textiles, and sculptures dating from the 1950s to recent acquisitions. Also featured are writings, historic photographs, and archival documents which provide a glimpse into daily life in Victorian asylum.
The Art of Making Sense exhibition has been developed to resolve some of the misunderstandings and prejudice associated with art created by those who have experienced some form of mental illness. Dr White believes that a ‘multi-dimensional’ framework such as that developed by the Cunningham Dax Collection is required for exhibiting, viewing and understanding such art.
The Art of Making SenseThe Art of Making Sense opened in May and runs until November 1, 2008, at The Cunningham Dax Collection, 35 Poplar Road, Parkville. For more details contact the Collection at (03) 9342 2394 or online at www.daxcollection.org.au
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“The central idea behind the multi-dimensional framework is that creative work by people with experience of mental illness and/or psychological trauma cannot be understood through one perspective,” Dr White said.
“The exhibition tests the validity of this idea bv demonstrating that such work can be viewed through several different interpretive frameworks, including, but not limited to, the personal, the medical, the ethical, the historical, and the creative,” he said.
The complex nature of this field of inquiry is reflected in the diverse range of institutions and the interdisciplinary team of investigators involved in the project. Partners in the project include: Dr Eugen Koh psychiatrist and Director of The Cunningham Dax Collection, Dr Nurin Veis, Senior Curator of Human Biology and Medicine, Museum Victoria, and Dr Karen Jones, Senior Lecturer, School of Philosophy, University of Melbourne.
A literature review and The Art of Making Sense exhibition represent the first and second stage
Grame Doyle, no title, 1990 oil on masonite, 50.5cm x 40.5cm. Image supplied courtesy
of the Cunningham Dax Collection
of the project partners’ research. Based on the findings of the research and the exhibition, the final stage of the project will be the publication towards the end of 2009, of a set of industry guidelines for the ethical display of artworks by people with an experience of mental illness and/or psychological trauma.
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White Collar Criminals
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Dr Caron Beaton-Wells is a Senior Lecturer with the Melbourne Law School and specialist in competition law.
See www.law.unimelb.edu/go/about-us/law-school-staff/
Photo: Dr Caron Beaton-Wells, by Jim Rule.
By Maryrose Cuskelly The widely-reported price-fixing charges levelled against Richard Pratt, his company Visy and its competitor Amcor, culminating in record-level penalties in late 2007, brought into sharp relief the issue of cartels and white-collar crime. Coming as it did in the lead-up to a federal election, the case also threw a spotlight on the attitude of government and other sectors to pursuing high-profile figures for these types of offences and the proposed legislation to criminalise serious cartel conduct (SCC).
Traditionally in Australia there has been resistance from a variety of sectors, including the political, legal and business communities, to the idea that business behaviour such as price fixing and bid-rigging should have criminal sanctions applied to it. Currently, conduct which involves agreements between companies not to compete is regulated by the Trade Practices Act and is subject to civil penalties. In the wake of a general global movement in support of the criminalisation of such behaviour, however, the Australian Government will intro- duce legislation into the Parliament this year which could mean that individuals face jail sentences for this type of behaviour.
For Dr Caron Beaton-Wells, Director of Studies in Competition Law at the University of Melbourne’s Law School, the move towards criminalisation presents an opportunity for multi-faceted, cutting-edge research that has the potential to make an important contribution to the design and administration of the law in this area.
Dr Beaton-Wells has recently been granted a Faculty Grant from the Law School to be used towards research assistance for a book she and Mr Fisse are writing entitled Cartel Regulation: Law, Policy and Practice to be published by Cambridge University Press. It will be the first book dedicated to this subject to be published in Australia and should be available in late 2009.
Dr Beaton-Wells’ research is also the subject of an ARC Discovery Grant application worth approximately $2.2 million for a four-year project. The other researchers on the multidisciplinary research team are from MU, Christine Haines and Fiona Haines, and David Round from University of South Australia. The project will explore the regulatory, economic and sociological dimensions of cartel criminalisation.
“It [the proposed legislation] takes competition law out of the realm of law and economics in which it traditionally has been entrenched to encompass various other disciplines (including sociology/criminology) and allows a fresh opportunity to look at what the objectives of the law are,” Dr Beaton-Wells said.
“By invoking the criminal law, an implication is that the objectives go beyond the original aim of deterring harmful behaviour.
It considers the possibility of punishing individuals for engaging in practices that society condemns from a moral standpoint.”
This shift to criminalisation for commercial activities traditionally punished by civil penalties is not universally accepted as desirable. Previously, it had been deemed that competition law dealt
with economic issues and was not concerned with notions such as morality, fairness and equity.
“You have to under- stand that for most competition lawyers such considerations require venturing into unchartered territory,” Dr Beaton-Wells explains.
“But this shift seems to suggest that comp-etition law is in fact entering into those domains and that, in part, is what makes it
so intriguing to a competition law scholar.”
In order to grapple with all the ramifications of the proposed legislation Dr Beaton-Wells has recruited researchers to her team from a variety of fields and institutions. Brent Fisse, eminent Sydney criminal law scholar, and Dr Beaton-Wells are working together on legislative design and policy issues.
“… the Australian Government will
introduce legislation into the Parliament this year which could mean that individuals face jail sentences for this type
of behaviour.“
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Free radical link suggested between pollution and asthma By Felicity Jensz
Free radical pollution in the air could be a cause of asthma, suggests Ms Duanne Sigmund, based at the University of Melbourne with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Free Radical Chemistry and Biotechnology.
In new research Ms Sigmund and Dr Uta Wille, both chemists at the University of Melbourne, have discovered that the atmospheric nitrate radical irreversibly damages amino acids, which are the building blocks for proteins in the human body. This, they suggest, could be a cause of some respiratory diseases.
The nitrate radical is formed by two common atmospheric pollutants; nitrogen dioxide, which itself is emitted from car exhausts, and ozone, which is an important greenhouse gas that is harmful to humans. During the day the sun’s UV radiation breaks down the nitrate radicals, but the concentrations rise as soon as the sun goes down.
We were very interested to see what these nitrate radicals do to the human body since we breath them in at night, says Sigmund.
The duo have found that the nitrate radical reacts with amino acids to form compounds such as beta-nitrate esters, beta-carbonyl, and aromatic nitro-compounds. Some of these compounds have been associated with increased immune response in some respiratory diseases, creating worse symptoms.
Our results suggest that the nitrate radical could be a real culprit for respiratory diseases, yet until this study the nitrate radical has been previously entirely overlooked in regard to causes for diseases such as asthma, says Sigmund.
We are now focusing our research on the cell membrane, to see if these radicals can migrate inside and cause damage to cells, adds Wille. If this is found to be significant, then health researchers might have to factor in the role of the nitrate radical when examining other respiratory diseases.
The duo’s work will be published in the upcoming issue of the U.K. Royal Society of Chemistry’s Chemical Communications.
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Scientists from CSIRO and the University of Melbourne in Australia, and the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, are on the brink of a discovery which will facilitate the development of new, safe, more sustainable ways of controlling the world’s worst agricultural insect pest – the moth, Helicoverpa armigera.
The Australian Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator the Hon Kim Carr, said – at the BIO 2008 International Convention in San Diego, California – that the team was expected to sequence the moth’s genome in about four months.
“This will allow the collaborating scientists and a worldwide consortium of specialists to work on new ways of controlling this pest,” Senator Carr said.
According to CSIRO’s Group Executive for Agribusiness, Dr Joanne Daly, these include: the molecular basis of resistance to chemical and Bt insecticides and population genetics related to the refuge strategies in place to help prevent Helicoverpa from developing resistance to Bt transgenic cottons.
“This moth is resistant to nearly every class of chemical pesticide and threatens the long-term viability of transgenic crops which are reliant on the biological pesticide, Bt,” Dr Daly said.
“The sequencing of the genome will greatly facilitate this research by improving the power, cost effectiveness and insights from the genetic work on this species and its American cousin H.zea,” University of Melbourne Associate Professor Philip Batterham said.
Senator Carr said that finding the moth’s Achilles heel was critically important to agriculture worldwide.
“The moth causes $225 million of damage a year in Australia – $5 billion globally – to crops such as cotton, legumes and vegetables,” he said.
“Our scientists are already world leaders in research on the genetics and ecology of Helicoverpa and its close relatives.
“This project – led by CSIRO Entomology’s Dr John Oakeshott and Associate Professor Batterham [from the University of Melbourne] – will build on Australia’s role. Working together with our partners at Germany’s Max Planck Institute and France’s National Institute for Agricultural Research, the project will help establish us as leaders in organising major insect genome projects.”
Unlocking genome of world’s worst insect pest
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Cool Fire14
By Silvia Dropulich Forest disturbances, particularly the aftermath of fires, can have a dramatic impact on both the quantity and quality of Victoria’s water supply, according to new research underway at the University’s Faculty of Land and Food Resources.
Forested landscapes are the headwater of most streams, and the source of much of the domestic, agricultural and industrial water supplies in Australia and elsewhere, explains Dr Patrick Lane, a research leader in a project examining ‘fire and water’.
Melbourne’s water is currently almost 100 per cent derived from native forest catchments.
“Both the quality and quantity of that water can be jeopardised by disturbance in forests,” Dr Lane said.
“Fire represents the most dramatic disturbance forested landscapes can experience,” he said.
“This is because of the area of forest that can be disturbed and the speed of the disturbance.
“Although we know that fire can result in immediate changes to water quality due to the increased erosion potential of denuded slopes and bare soil, research in Australia on this topic has been extremely limited.
“In particular the ability to predict the severity, longevity and constituents of water quality pollution has been lacking.”
The threat to water is emphasised by the more than 2.5 million hectares burnt in southeast Australia in 2003 and 2006/07.
According to Dr Lane, in an ominous prelude to a post climate-change era with predictions of more frequent fires – more than 100,000 hectares burned in the 2003 fires were re-burnt in 2006.
The 2006/07 fire was stopped on the boundary of the Thomson River catchment, which represents 60 per cent of Melbourne’s water storages.
INITIAL FINDINGS INCLUDE:
Water quality impacts across the state �are characterized by extreme variability due to climatic variability, highlighting the need to approach the research problem probabilistically.
Forest runoff and erosion prediction �models, the starting point for water quality models, were found to be completely at odds with observations.
While modelling showed decades long �water yield reductions (to rivers and reservoirs) following fire, it also revealed critical knowledge gaps in researchers’ ability to model impacts for different forest types and fire intensities
The management of fuel reduction �burning was identified as an emerging area of water quality concern, as annual burn quotas have been increased in response to heightened wildfire risk.
Following the 2003 Alpine fires, the Forests and Water research group within the School of Forest and Ecosystem Science began a program of research into both the water quality and water-yield effects of wild and prescribed fire. The almost complete lack of Australian literature in this area meant the initial research effort focused on high resolution measurement of catchment-scale impacts and the physical and chemical processes involved.
The mutidisciplinary research project led by Dr Gary Sheridan and Dr Lane combines modelling of fire behaviour dynamics with hydrologic measurement and modelling and statistical modelling, and involves researchers from all three research disciplines.
The results of the research will be used for managing Melbourne’s water catchments for fire, and for developing statewide decision making on fire and water management.
The fundamental work on post-fire hydrologic processes will be used to develop risk models for water managers. For example Melbourne Water is currently evaluating options for ensuring water security following fire, based on this research.
New research looks at the effect forest fires have on the quality of Victoria’s water supply. For further information on this research contact Dr Gary Sheridan ([email protected]) or Dr Patrick Lane ([email protected]) at the school of Forest and EcoSystem Science, Faculty of Land and Food Resources.
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Air Control
Free radical pollution in the air could be a cause of asthma, suggests Ms Duanne Sigmund, based at the University of Melbourne with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Free Radical Chemistry and Biotechnology.
In new research Ms Sigmund and Dr Uta Wille, both chemists at the University of Melbourne, have discovered that the atmo-spheric nitrate radical irreversibly damages amino acids, which are the building blocks for proteins in the human body. This, they suggest, could be a cause of some respiratory diseases.
The nitrate radical is formed by two common atmospheric pollut-ants; nitrogen dioxide, which itself is emitted from car exhausts, and ozone, which is an important green-house gas that is harmful to humans. During the day the sun’s UV radia-tion breaks down the nitrate radi-cals, but the concentrations rise as soon as the sun goes down.
We were very interested to see what these nitrate radicals do to the human body since we breath them in at night, says Sigmund.
New ground-breaking research shows long-term, heavy cannabis use causes significant brain abnormalities resulting in psychotic symptoms and memory loss equivalent to that of patients with a mild traumatic brain injury. The study is the first to show that long-term cannabis use can adversely affect all users, not just those in the high-risk categories such as the young, or those suscep-tible to mental illness, as previously thought.
The research, conducted by ORYGEN Research Centre and Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre at the University of Melbourne in collaboration with researchers at the University of Wollongong was published in the prestigious American journal Archives of General Psychiatry.
The researchers used brain imaging to dem- onstrate for the first time that the hippocampus and the amygdala, brain regions thought to regulate memory and emotional processing, were significantly reduced in cannabis users compared to non-users by an average of 12 per cent and 7 per cent, respectively.
According to lead researchers Dr Murat Yücel and Dr Nadia Solowij the new evidence plays an impor-tant role in further understanding the effects of cannabis and its impact on brain functioning.
“The study shows that long-term cannabis users were more prone to a range of psychotic experi-ences, such as persecutory beliefs (paranoia) and social withdrawal,” said Dr Yücel from ORYGEN Research Centre and Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre at the University of Melbourne.
The duo have found that the nitrate radical reacts with amino acids to form compounds such as beta-nitrate esters, beta-carbonyl, and aromatic nitro-compounds. Some of these compounds have been associated with increased immune response in some respi-ratory diseases, creating worse symptoms.
Our results suggest that the nitrate radical could be a real culprit for respiratory diseases, yet until this study the nitrate radical has been previously entirely overlooked in regard to causes for diseases such as asthma, says Sigmund.
We are now focusing our research on the cell membrane, to see if these radicals can migrate inside and cause damage to cells, adds Wille. If this is found to be signifi-cant, then health researchers might have to factor in the role of the nitrate radical when examining other respiratory diseases.
The duo’s work will be published in the upcoming issue of the U.K. Royal Society of Chemistry¹s Chemical Communications.
Off Your Head
Free radical pollution may be linked to asthma
A new study reveals long term cannabis use causes brain injury
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Mind OverMatter
By Genevieve Costigan A new computer model which may predict the outcome of drug treat-ment on epileptic patients has been developed by a student from University of Melbourne.
The student, Slave Petrovski, recently graduated from his honours year in Medicine, in a research department of the University at the Royal Melbourne Hospital.
Under the joint supervision of Dr Cassandra Szoeke and Associate Professor Terence O’Brien, Mr Petrovski brought his unusual background in Information Systems and Science to a project investigating pharmacogenomics (the tailoring of a medicine regime to take into account the particular genetic make-up of a patient) in Epilepsy treatment.
This project is of major international significance for the field of pharmacogenomics as it is the first time such a model utilizing multiple genetic markers has been applied to successfully predict the outcome of drug treatment for any disease. It represents an important step on the road to the development of clinically useful biomarkers of treatment outcome.
“Although the model was developed for epilepsy it is generic enough so that it could be used for other conditions,’ Mr Petrovski says.
The methodology Petrovski developed to identify predictive genetic markers from over 4,000 possibilities also has the potential to identify important genetic determinants of diseases and treatments.
“Research showed us that clusters of patients reacted to the same drugs under the same circumstances which made us wonder which genes were making the difference. What was really new in our approach was that we decided to look at combinations of genetic markers rather than individual genetic markers,” Mr Petrovski says.
“What was also unique to our study was that our cohort of patients was newly diagnosed so they hadn’t been on anti-epileptic medication before. This is important as the fact that the patients have previously never been exposed to anti-epileptic medication allows us to control and look at the specific effects of the various anti-epileptic drugs.”
“We also followed up our patients at intervals of three months, then at the one and two year interval to find out what side-effects they had experienced on the medication, such as weight gain, skin rashes and neurocognitive side-effects like depression, anxiety, memory loss or lack of concentration,” Mr Petrovski says.
“The ultimate benefit of this line of research and model is that in the future a patient could turn up at a hospital, have a genetic test run which would predict whether they are likely
to respond well to treatment with a particular medication and then the most effective drug treatment and care regimen could be tailor- made to the patient’s individual genetic make-up.”
Epilepsy is one of the most common serious neurological disorders in the community and one of the most complex. It is characterised by recurrent seizures resulting from abnormal electrical activity in the brain.
Epilepsy affects more than 400,000 Australians according to the National Coalition of Epilepsy Organisations in Australia and more than 200,000 of these people take anti-epilepsy drugs.
Petrovski’s work has formed a major component of a patent application which has sparked significant interest from international biotechnology and medical diagnostics companies.
Petrovski has been awarded a place on the Deans Honour roll for his efforts in 2007 and recently received the prestigious Larkins prize, an award granted annually to the top achieving honours student within the department of Medicine (Royal Melbourne Hospital).
Computer modelling may predict treatment outcomes for epilepsy. Slave Petrovski’s work has formed a major component of a patent application, which has sparked significant interest from international biotechnology and medical diagnostics companies. See www.neuroscience.org.au
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Victoria is set to develop the largest supercomputing facility for life sciences research in the world. A new $100 million Victorian Life Sciences Computation Initiative, including $50 million in state funding for peak computing infrastructure, will accelerate major ground-breaking medical research – taking the fight to cancer and other life-threatening diseases, said Victoria’s Premier John Brumby at the BIO2008 conference in California.
The program, a joint initiative with the University of Melbourne, is to be centred in Melbourne’s Parkville Precinct, the home of a number of globally recognised health and medical research institutes.
“By providing this funding, we will enable Victoria’s medical researchers to, for example, predict the likely resistance path of viruses to existing drugs, enabling researchers to stay one step ahead in the design of better and more effective treatments” said Brumby.
“This is the first facility of its scale and kind in Australia, and we intend it to be the leading computational biology facility world-wide, confirming Victoria’s position as a global leader in biomedical and scientific research” said Victoria’s Minister for Information and Communication Technology Mr Theophanous.
As part of the initiative, the University of Melbourne will develop a Life Sciences Computation Centre to undertake the peak computing operations and provide computational biology expertise to the institutions throughout the Parkville Precinct.
Researchers from the Parkville Precinct, Monash University and other Victorian research institutions will have access to the peak computing facility, encouraging a collaborative approach to medical research.
University of Melbourne Vice-Chancellor, Professor Glyn Davis said life sciences research was being transformed by the application of rapid advances in computational biology, powered by innovations in very high performance computers and data management. This will lead to major improvements in public health outcomes - particularly in the areas of cancer, cardiovascular and neurological disease, chronic inflammatory diseases, bone diseases and diabetes. The University of Melbourne intends to release initial expressions of interest for the peak computing facility (PCF) in 2008, with the major PCF installations planned for 2009 and 2011.
Victoria to develop world’s largest Life Sciences supercomputing facility
Super Computer
Photo: NASA
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Advert
19
By Maryrose CuskellyIn the face of a listener clearly struggling to keep up with the finer points of his research into the body’s response to infection, Professor Bill Heath offers the following advice: “Just remember killer T cells. People like to hear they’ve got killer cells that attack viruses.”
Professor Heath is the first to admit that 2008 has been a good year for him. In addition to taking up a Federation Fellowship in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, he was recently elected as a Fellow to the Australian Academy of Science. Fellows are elected to the prestigious Academy on the basis of ‘a career that has significantly advanced the world’s store of scientific knowledge’.
Under the Federation Fellowship, Professor Heath will continue his long collaboration with Dr Frank Carbone, a professor and reader in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, researching the body’s response to infection.
“My research is about the analysis of the basic steps in initiation of immune responses and the maintenance of immunological tolerance to the bodies own structures (self),” Professor Heath explains.
Much of this research relates to the behaviour of cytotoxic T cells, or killer T cells: how they are generated in response to pathogens, or how they are ‘switched off’ if they are active against the body itself.
Another major aspect of Professor Heath’s research is the function of dendritic cells and their role in presenting potentially harmful material to the T cells in order for an immune or tolerance response to be initiated. Before Dr Carbone and Professor Heath’s research into dendritic cells, the general view was that they had to be infected with a virus for the process of generating masses of T cells with a particular specificity to combat that virus.
“We’ve provided evidence that it’s possible for these dendritic cells to grab bits of infected cells, contain the material within a kind of stomach and take that to the lymph node,” Professor Heath said.
“So the virus isn’t growing inside the cell, it’s just contained in this ‘stomach’.
“The dendritic cells are special because they can reach into to this area and show what’s in
that “stomach” [to the killer T cells in the lymph node], without becoming infected.”
Professor Heath’s research will continue under the Federation Fellowship although the direction will change slightly. To date it hasn’t been possible to visualise the processes of the body’s immune response. It has only been able to be observed indirectly through various experimental approaches. Now Professor Heath hopes to directly visualise the process of the initiation of immune responses by killer T cells and their effector phase as they attack virus infections.
“One of my aims, as part of the Federation Fellowship, is to set up two-photon microscopy for analysis of infection and autoimmunity in live animals,” he said.
Two-photon microscopy is a relatively new imaging technology that will allow Professor Heath to observe immune responses in living animals at a cellular level as they occur.
“In a way it’s like coming home,” Professor Heath says of taking up the Federation Fellowship at the University, referring to the fact that he completed his PhD here in the Department of Microbiology under the supervision of Dr Bill Boyle.
After being awarded his PhD, Professor Heath spent time at the Scripps Institute in San Diego, one of the largest, private non-profit research organisations in the US. In 1990 he came to the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI) to work with Professor Jacques Miller whom he acknowledges as one of his most significant mentors.
“He (Professor Miller) discovered the function of the thymus,” Professor Heath said.
“The thymus is what makes T cells.
“Jacques is probably the last person to discover a function of an organ of the body.
“He should have won a Nobel Prize for that, but hasn’t. I don’t know why. In his lab we were interested in asking questions about maintenance of self-tolerance: how T cells are controlled if they happen to respond to components of the body.”
When Professor Miller retired in 1998, Professor Heath continued his research at WEHI into the immune response as head of his own team of researchers.
An InfectiousPersonality
As for the possible applications of his research, Professor Heath explains: ‘If we properly understand how immunity is induced or how tolerance is induced we can intervene in situations where one or the other is required.’ This might result in the production of more effective vaccines for killer T cell responses to HIV or for halting autoimmune responses like diabetes, where the body is under attack by the immune system.
Photo: Professor Bill Heath, Federation Fellow.
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By Nina RozenbesA revolutionary IT-based water management system for reducing water losses in irrigation has been developed by engineers at the University of Melbourne and Rubicon Systems Australia.
To distribute large volumes of water from dams through open channels, they have developed a novel approach that combines IT systems with civil infrastructure; the result is an automated large-scale management network, a modern solution that brings water distribution into the 21st century.
The water saving technology, known as Total Channel Control®, is a key component of Victoria’s $2 billion plan to modernise ageing irrigation infrastructure in the Goulburn-Murray water irrigation districts. It is the outcome of a longstanding collaboration between researchers and engineers at the University of Melbourne, UniWater, NICTA Victoria Research Laboratory and industry partner Rubicon Systems Australia.
Much of the research work focused on accurate water flow measurement and precision flow control. The teams designed a radio network integrated sensor that provides irrigation managers with detailed information about the behaviour of the distribution system and enables water trading markets to operate efficiently. The system is automated to manage water movement across the entire irrigation network from a single point of command and control. Unlike manually operated systems, Total Channel Control can respond to problems such as leaks, equipment failure and water storms, and quickly respond to changes throughout the channels.
Engineers have investigated the problem of water losses in irrigation for decades with varying degrees of success. Total Channel Control is an important innovation that has been commercialised by Rubicon Systems Australia. It has been attracting significant attention overseas, with the irrigation market in the US warming to the potential of this technology.
Research leader and Dean of Engineering, Professor Iven Mareels, says this breakthrough technology will significantly improve the efficiency of water distribution.
“It brings open channel water distribution as close to a pressurised distribution system as is physically possible without changing the canals into pipes,” Professor Mareels says.
Break-through technology will improve the efficiency of water distribution. See www.bme.unimelb.edu.au/about/staff/i_mareels.html
Water Under the Bridge
“We anticipate that at least 70 billion litres of water (a fifth of what Melbourne uses) will be saved annually in Victoria through the implementation of this technology.
“It is a cost-effective solution that is so important in a country where water supply is not abundant in view of climate changes and demand for water increasing with population growth.”
Professor Mareels says researchers hope to explore the integration of all aspects of water distribution across an entire river basin.
“Our ongoing work will focus on the integration and expansion of the sensor network technology across the vast time and spatial scales inherently associated with water supply and demand in a basin.”
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Are you a Captain Marvel, a frustrated idealist, or a Joe Jerk? Melbourne Business School (MBS) researchers are drawing on the experiences of executives to help create influential cartoon images of leaders in organisations.
At Mt Eliza executive education, a part of MBS, ‘archetype’ development is an innovative method being used to help some clients shape organisational understanding and provide an impetus for change.
Story fragments of executives within the organisation (brief stories referred to as narrative) are captured and recorded in a group forum by a facilitator. Participants listen to one another’s stories from the organisation and then record in two or three words a label the story brings to mind.
The labels are sorted several times, in a multi-stage emergent process, distilling the essence of the story in the minds of the participants. The distillation results in a set of qualities which are then interpreted by a cartoonist for illustration. The cartoon represents a unique character of the quality being explored. The nature of this character is an ‘archetype’.
The archetype is a generic, idealised model of a person, which includes some of the essential qualities of a person. All archetypes involve a set of qualities, stories created around the qualities and the final cartoon illustration created by the cartoonist.
Imagine you could capture some of the imaginings that your family has of yourself and connect them together in one cartoon image. This might contain some nice and some nasty, some obvious and some obscure bits of information which are then shaped by a cartoonist.
This is a process of extracting from the unconscious depths of a number of minds the imaginings they contain about the quality of leadership, being discussed. A simplified collage of elements truly represents what exists rather than a more complex rational description.
There are very few ways to tap the lurking beliefs about groups of people except indirectly through stories about them that people can and do tell. We use these stories to derive images created from participants’ ideas and interpreted by a cartoonist.
Drawing onExperience
Cartoons by Bill Green.
For more information, contact Phill Boas, Director, Design and Learning Methods, Mt Eliza Executive Education, Melbourne Business School email: [email protected]
The Melbourne Business School taps into our unconscious beliefs about leaders
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By Nerissa HanninkThe quirks of evolution are still giving our species cause for complaint, wisdom teeth, sore backs and the appendix being prime examples. Nevertheless, most of us muddle through life just fine with what we have become over millions of years.
Professor Geoff McFadden is hoping that this won’t be the case for the malaria parasite, because its evolutionary legacy might just be its downfall.
During a fortuitous trip to the library, Professor McFadden recognised that the genes perplexing malarial researcher Ian Wilson, were the same genes he was working on in plants.
“At some stage, malaria (Plasmodium falciparum) seems to have switched from being a microscopic plant and converted to an animal cell-like parasite,” said Professor McFadden.
This is thought to happen via endosymbiosis where an early animal-like cell engulfs a bacterial cell to become a more
advanced cell type; the McFadden group also study this evolutionary process.
As these genes are not present in humans they provide a much needed new drug target for a parasite that kills three million people a year and costs $12 billion in lost productivity.
The malarial plant genes belong to an ancient form of the chloroplast, the structure required for plant photosynthesis but it does not serve this purpose any longer in malaria.
It is still not clear what function the ancient chloroplast has in malaria, but the fact that it is still present, and will die if its genes are inactivated, provides hope that it is involved in an essential metabolic process, which if knocked out could kill it.
“The key to this research was the lateral thinking that we could adapt herbicides to attack this plant-like structure,” Professor McFadden said.
The parasite needs to spend part of its life cycle in the mosquito to reproduce, and part of it in the human body to replicate. While a vaccine is still in development, anti-malarial drugs are vital so McFadden and his team want to kill off the parasite in the human body.
With 500 ancient chloroplast genes as targets to choose from, their approach is looking promising.
“What we do is find out which gene the herbicides are actually going after, and whether the malaria parasite has that gene. If it does, we test the compound against cultures of the parasite that we have in the lab. We get blood donations from the Red Cross and we grow the parasites in a laboratory dish,” Professor McFadden said.
Malaria’s evolution could be its downfall, according to Professor Geoff McFadden. See www.botany.unimelb.edu/botany/aboutus/staff/mcfadden.html
The Evolution Revolution
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Approximately 75 per cent of the compounds tested actually do kill the parasites, so the team are methodically matching each herbicide to a gene and working with a medicinal chemist to try and specifically modify the herbicides as medicines.
After promising results in mice, which also get malaria, the team went on to a human trial in Thailand.
“Our tests gave good results, about the same as what we were getting in the lab, which is really encouraging as these were multi-drug resistant parasites in the real world,” Professor McFadden said,
The team don’t have clearance for human trials yet, so they tested the compounds against parasites in the infected blood extracted from Thai patients.
“We were delighted to see that when the herbicide was added to the infected blood, the parasite died,” Professor McFadden said.
“What we really want to do is develop a collection of drugs, ideally 10 really good ones and we’ll rotate these so that if the parasites do become resistant, we’ll withdraw that drug before the resistant parasites become the dominant form, we need to keep moving the goal posts so the parasite doesn’t get the upper hand.”
Since returning to Australia as a Federation Fellow and Howard Hughes Medical Institute international Scholar, Professor McFadden is based at the University of Melbourne’s School of Botany. His group works closely with the Professor Alan Cowman’s lab in the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, in order to refine their malaria-handling skills.
Image of the malaria parasite in red blood cell, supplied courtesy of Professor Geoff McFadden
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Transnational and Temporary
– Building Communities
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RESEARCHERS
Professor Ruth Fincher, SAGE �
Professor Paul Carter, ABP �
Associate Professor Paolo Tombesi, ABP �
Dr Kate Shaw, Postdoctoral Fellow �
Andrew Martel, PhD Candidate, ABP �
Gerard Pinto, Master by Research candidate, ABP �
Michele Lobo, Research Assistant �
Vrushti Mawani, Research Assistant �
Department of Victorian Communities �
Department of Sustainability and Environment (four �executives)
City of Melbourne, (eight executives) �
Academic Services, Melbourne University �
RMIT University �
The steering group consisted of Ruth Fincher, Paul �Carter, Paolo Tombesi, Kate Shaw, Austin Ley (CoM), Christine Kilmartin (DSE) and Gabrielle Castellan (Department of Victorian Communities).
By David ScottLiving as part of a community is something many of us take for granted. Take a moment to think about where you live. Without realising it, you are probably more than in tune with your surrounds. Where do you go to play sport? Do you know who to ask if you’re rubbish bin isn’t being picked up? How about finding a short course, child care facilities or a health care centre? And how about locating a good cup of coffee?
But what if you weren’t part of that particular community originally? What happens if you’ve just shifted in from out of town, overseas or (perhaps even more challenging) only planning to be in town for a short period of time?
It’s an issue facing an increasing number of Melbourne’s inner-city residents. (Recent figures show as many as one third of the City of Melbourne’s population are students, many from overseas.) And it’s an issue experts at the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning (ABP) have been working hard to overcome.
The result is Transnational and Temporary, a multi-disciplinary research project funded with an ARC Linkage Grant, the aim of which was to propose an innovative and broad based place-making strategy for the northern fringe of the City of Melbourne. Associate Professor Paolo Tombesi, one of the three Chief Investigators with Professor Ruth Fincher and Professor Paul Carter, says the project aims to investigate the question of how one fosters a community in a place when many members of that community are both transnational and temporary, such as international university students.
“Our interest was in exploring the notion that public-private interactions, both in built spaces and in social relations, define the experience of place for those who are new to a locality and community, or temporary members of it, more than they may do for long-term residents who are settled in their networks of belonging,” Associate Professor Tombesi said.
Associate Professor Tombesi, who is also leading a research program at the Polytechnic of Turin in Italy, is joined on the steering committee by fellow ABP academics Professor
Paul Carter and Dr Kate Shaw, as well as Professor Ruth Fincher (Faculty of Land and Food Resources), Austin Ley (City of Melbourne), Christine Killmartin (Department of Sustainability and Environment) and Gabrielle Castellan (Department of Victorian Communities). The group also drew on the research expertise of RMIT.
The team started from a strong research base. As well as having access to an archive of town planning applications through its collaboration with the City of Melbourne and DSE, researchers could draw on Professor Fincher’s previous expertise in student housing and high density living; Professor Carter’s experience in the design and use of public space, and Dr Tombesi’s many years of teaching design studios on medium density housing.
The preliminary results will provide important information for the formulation of the City of Melbourne’s response to the housing concerns of international students, the use of public space, and of international student well-being in general. “The research has produced data that has shed light on the typologies of the new student accommodation in Carlton and the CBD, and how these have (or have not) been integrated into the existing communities,” Associate Professor Tombesi said.
“In addition, a series of interviews and mapping exercises conducted with international and local students has produced a wealth of information regarding the student’s complex relationship with the city, and also how universities may support their international student bodies when they are ‘out of the classroom.”
The feedback from the project’s external partners has been overwhelmingly positive. The City of Melbourne through its Melbourne Conversation’s series hosted a public discussion on the project at the Town Hall involving more than 300 members of the community. “It provided an excellent debate about the contribution of international students to Melbourne’s economic and social life,” says researcher and PhD candidate Andrew Martel.
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DesigningSmarterSchools
“ Education is changing from classrooms into learning and information environments. ”
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Investigating the influence of school design on students. For further information about this research project see: www.abp.unimelb.edu.au/research/funded/green-schools.html
By Clare NewtonA substantial part of the school building stock within Australia needs replacement or refurbishment.
School buildings embody our society’s attitude to youth and education – they are a significant community asset. Effective ‘smart green schools’ will address the educational needs of future students without compromising environmental imperatives.
Environmental imperatives and the rapid pace at which the virtual world is pervading and enriching student learning both require appropriate design responses. Education is changing from classrooms into learning and information environments.
Today’s students are natives in a world of information technology. They are adept at using digital media. Schools are therefore shifting from teaching institutions to learning organisations through increased connectivity between students and their local and global environments. In particular, knowledge is increasingly being constructed across disciplines rather than within the traditional subject ‘silos’.
This necessitates a rethinking of how space can support this interaction. Cost effective solu-tions also need to respond to issues such as embodied energy, environmental impacts, operating costs and life-cycle costs.
Researchers at the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning have received an ARC Linkage Grant funding for $340,000 to investigate the influence of innovative and sustainable school building designs on the education of middle years school students.
A teacher and architect have been awarded APAI scholarships and have begun to work on the research topic in collaboration with five Chief Investigators from the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning. The research is unusual in that it sits at the intersection of education and architecture. The Chief Investigators Clare Newton, Senior Lecturer in Architectural Design and Practice, Dr Dominique Hes, Dr Sue Wilks, Dr Kenn Fisher and Professor Kim Dovey respectively come from the diverse fields of architecture, sustainability, education, facility management, and urban design.
The research began as a fledgling idea in 2005. Architectural academic, Clare Newton, was completing the newly instigated Graduate Certificate in University Teaching and was curious that the design of learning environments was largely absent from educa-tional discourse. Concurrently she was researching and teaching in the area of environmental design in collab-oration with academics from various disciplines. While undertaking AusIndustry funded research on the high-tech environmentally designed Council House 2, she agreed with directors of the architecture firm H2o that school designs should be researched for their potential as exemplars of a more low-tech approach to environmental design.
During the following year the research topic gained momentum as the Chief Investigators collaborated with nine industry partners inc- luding the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, the Office of the Government Architect, and seven design firms with expertise in schools.
The engagement of middle-year students is a key focus of this research. School students will help collect environmental data and learn more about climate and energy. In this proactive research methodology, students, teachers and architects will collaborate to manipulate the curriculum and learning spaces to suit different learning modalities. Students will participate within teams to further their problem solving, communication and organisational skills. Teachers will learn to effectively manage space both environmentally and pedagogically. Partner architects will have the unusual opportunity of experiencing and critiquing their designs through the eyes of users.
The research aims to evaluate recent school designs that are perceived as exemplars of emerging environmentally responsible and pedagogically sensitive design. Do teachers recognise the importance of the environment as a key part of their overall thinking and practice? Do principals hire more staff rather than ask whether investing in the environment might achieve equal impact? Are schools incorporating the most cost effective environmental initiatives?
Effective smart green schools will address the educational needs of future students without comp-romising environmental imp- eratives. In addition, school buildings embody our society’s attitude to youth and education. They are a significant community asset.
INDUSTry PArTNErS
The Victorian Department of Education and �Early Childhood Development.
The Victorian Government Architect’s Office �
Rubida Design �
Mary Featherston Design �
Hayball Leonard Stent �
H2o architects �
McGauran Giannini Soon �
McBride Charles Ryan �
SBE Melbourne �
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Puttingit all on the line
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By Katherine SmithProblem gambling in some cases may be a health issue, symptomatic of depression and anxiety in the gambler, and often associated with hazardous use of alcohol and other drugs, a new report has warned.
“A lot of effort is put into helping people manage problem gambling, and public health messages are all about advising people to gamble sensibly, or stay in control of their gambling” according to Professor Alun Jackson, Director of Melbourne’s Problem Gambling Research and Treatment Centre (PGRTC), located in the Melbourne Graduate School of Education at the University of Melbourne. The Centre is a joint initiative of Melbourne and Monash universities, and the Victorian Department of Justice.
“Education programs that appeal to a gambler’s rational decision-making are not going to be as effective if the real problem is associated not with behavioural choices, but with underlying depression or other mental health problems.”
Professor Jackson and Monash University colleague and PGRTC Co-Director Professor Shane Thomas are the authors of the recently released report, Risk and Protective Factors, Depression and Co-morbidities in Problem Gambling, prepared for beyondblue: the national depression initiative.
“When we compared the incidence of co-morbidities – that is health or social problems present in conjunction with problem gambling behaviours – with non problem gamblers and low or moderate risk gamblers, we found some important variations,” Professor Jackson said.
The study of more than 2000 Victorians presents compelling evidence that problem gamblers have high rates of psychological disturbance, use alcohol and nicotine in hazardous amounts, and have high rates of depression in combination with other social and family problems.
Professor Jackson said the biggest difference was in relation to severe psychological distress, where problem gamblers were 18.8 times more likely to experience severe psychological distress. They were also 4.3 times more likely to show hazardous alcohol use and 2.4 times more likely to be depressed, than non problem gamblers.
He concedes that it is difficult to know which came first – whether problem gambling was a result of or precipitated by the depression and alcohol abuse – but he says recent evidence from the US and Canada suggests that a majority of problem gamblers with co-occurring mood and anxiety disorders say that these problems preceded their gambling problems.
“People gamble to escape bad relationships, or work pressures – a range of perceived problems, but some are
obviously gambling in an attempt to escape from the sadness, anxiety and other troubling thoughts that are the symptoms of a mental illness,” he said.
“Gambling to escape is a key defining criteria of diagnosing problem gambling.
“We know that depression affects a lot of people, and is very often responsive to treat-ment so where this study can be very helpful is in clarifying what we know about the relationship
between gambling and depression. Then, when people present to their doctor with depression, a simple question about whether they have ever had a problem with their gambling can make a critical difference.”
Similarly, when people present for assistance with problem gambling behaviour, asking whether they have ever felt persistently depressed may open up options for treatment that are more likely to have lasting results.
Gambling is proving to be a complex and growing health problem, according to a recent study available at www.beyondblue.org.au under ‘research’.
“… some are obviously gambling in an attempt
to escape from the sadness, anxiety and
other troubling thoughts that are the symptoms of
a mental illness”
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By Janine Sim-JonesLack of paid maternity leave can have negative health impacts for prospective mothers and their babies, according to two recent studies led by the University of Melbourne.
As Australia’s Productivity Commission conducts its inquiry into the introduction of paid parental leave, research led by Amanda Cooklin from the Key Centre for Women’s Health in Society, has shown that lack of paid maternity leave can have a negative impact on the mental health of pregnant women and cause an early end to breastfeeding.
The first study, Employee Entitlements during Pregnancy and Maternal Psychological Well-being, finds lack of access to maternity leave and workplace discrimination is contributing to poor mental health in pregnant women.
Published in the November 2007 issue of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, the study surveyed 165 pregnant women in Australia – all of whom were employed during pregnancy.
Ms Cooklin and colleagues Associate Professor Jane Fisher and Dr Heather Rowe, also from the Key Centre for Women’s Health in Society, found that one fifth of women had been discriminated against as a result of their pregnancy.
The researchers found that women who were discriminated against in pregnancy, and/or have no access to either paid or unpaid maternity reported more distress, fatigue, anger and anxiety.
Ms Cooklin said the results were a concern because poor ante-natal emotional health was a known risk factor for mood disturbance after childbirth.
“About 80 per cent of Australian women are employed prior to the birth of their first child, making employment conditions an important factor in women’s psychological wellbeing during pregnancy, ” she said.
In her most recent study, Ms Cooklin examined the effect of new mothers returning to work on breastfeeding rates.
Ms Cooklin and her colleagues Dr Lisa Amir, from LaTrobe University, and Associate Professor Susan Donath, from the University of Melbourne and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, analysed breastfeeding rates among 3700 mothers and babies at six months after birth. They found that part-time and casual work among new mothers has almost as big a negative impact on breastfeeding rates as returning to work full-time.
Mum’s the Word
Lack of access to maternity leave and workplace discrimination is contributing to poor mental health in pregnant women. See www.kcwh.unimelb.edu.au under ‘Research themes and projects’.
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While previous studies have shown that women who return to full-time work are far less likely to be breastfeeding at six months, this study, published in May 2008 issue of Acta Paediatrica, is the first to show dramatically reduced breastfeeding rates in those who return on a part-time or casual basis.
Ms Cooklin said the study showed a lack of paid maternity leave and low workplace support for breastfeeding are interfering with the establishment of breastfeeding among Australian women.
OF THE 165 EMPLOyED PrEGNANT WOMEN SUrVEyED:
Only 60 per cent had access to unpaid maternity leave, despite current �legislation requiring all Australian employees to have access to this entitlement after 12 months of continuous employment;
Only 46 per cent had access to paid maternity leave while others were �forced to rely on sick leave, annual leave or go without income following childbirth;
Almost one in five women reported pregnancy-related discrimination from �their employer in the form of negative or offensive comments or being excluded from promotion or training;
Women who were more highly educated and employed in managerial or �professional jobs were more likely to have access to maternity leave than those in low-skilled, low paid occupations.
The study found that mothers who returned to work full-time within three months of birth were twice as likely to have stopped breastfeeding by the time their baby was six months, than those who were not employed.
While women who returned to work on either a part-time or casual basis after three months were almost as likely to have stopped breastfeeding as those who worked full-time.
Ms Cooklin said study results showed that early postnatal employment was a significant risk factor for an early end to breastfeeding in Australian infants.
She said the findings in relation to part-time and casual work were surprising.
Previous studies in the US had found mothers who worked part-time had similar breastfeeding patterns to those who were not employed.
“In Australia however, a reduced working week does not contribute to mothers’ ability to maintain breastfeeding for six months,’’ Ms Cooklin said.
Women who were discriminated against
in pregnancy… reported more distress, fatigue, anger and anxiety.
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When Work Gets You Down
The University of Melbourne’s School of Behavioural Science and Department of Psychiatry, and the ORYGEN Research Centre have taken a new approach to helping young mentally ill job seekers find work.
Their world-first employment program is helping mentally ill young people find work – and its inaugural trial is proving almost three times more successful than the service provided by government-contracted job agencies.
The results of the trial show that given the right support, mentally ill young people – typically with an unemployment rate 10 times higher than their peers – can find work and potentially reduce their reliance on welfare benefits.
A Helping Hand
Almost one in six cases of depression among working Victorians are caused by job stress, amounting to more than 21,000 cases of preventable depression in Victoria each year, a new University of Melbourne study shows.
The study, led by Associate Professor Tony LaMontagne from the McCaughey Centre: VicHealth Centre for the Promotion of Mental Health and Community Wellbeing at the University of Melbourne with research partners from Monash and British Columbia universities, is published in the international journal BMC Public Health.
The full study, LaMontagne AD, Keegel T, Vallance D, Ostry A, and Wolfe R (2008): Job strain—attributable depression in a sample of working Australians: Assessing the contribution to health inequalities. BMC Public Health 8:181 is available at www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1471-2458-8-181.pdf. It estimates that:
World first employment program helps the mentally ill find work
21,000 Victorians suffer from work-related depression
Job stress exposure patterns were then combined with previous �research showing that job stress doubles the risk of depression to estimate the proportion of depression caused by job stress among working people;
Nearly one in five (17 per cent) working women suffering �depression can attribute their condition to job stress and more than one in eight (13 per cent) working men with depression have problems due to job stress;
This translates to 21,437 working Victorians suffering from �preventable depression caused by job stress;
By comparison, 30-times fewer workers receive workers’ �compensation for stress-related mental disorders, suggesting that workers’ compensation statistics grossly under-represent the true extent of the problem.
Stressful working conditions in this study were defined as a �combination of high job demands and low control over how the job gets done (or ‘job strain’).
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Advert
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The University of Melbourne has led the recent Thomson Scientific citation survey – making 21 ‘Top Three’ appearances.
With more than 51,000 citations, Melbourne appeared in 11 scientific fields ranked by total citations, and 10 fields by impact.
It also ranked in the ‘Top Three’ in both citations and impact in five fields – neurosciences, physics, microbiology, pharmacology and psychology/psychiatry.
Thomson Scientific analysed data from its Australian University Indicators 1981–2006 to evaluate universities and research institutions based on total citations and impact – the average
number of citations per paper – and ranked institutions by impact and total citations across 21 fields as well as overall output and impact.
On the CNN Money website Christopher King, editor of Thomson’s Science Watch said it was not surprising to see ‘powerhouses’ like Melbourne rank highly in citation rankings.
“Large universities, such as the University of Melbourne tend to be the most productive and have the highest research output.”
University of Melbourne affiliate, the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, topped the rankings in overall impact with an average of nearly 20 citations per paper.
Uni leads citation survey
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Victorian Minister for Gaming, Tony Robinson, recently launched the Problem Gambling Research and Treatment Centre – a joint initiative of the University of Melbourne, Monash University and the Victorian Government. The Centre will receive core infrastructure funding of $4.2 million over four years, and access to a range of other program and research funding.
Professor Alun Jackson, Faculty of Education, University of Melbourne, and Professor Shane Thomas, School of Primary Care, Monash University have been appointed Directors of the new Centre. A major strength of the Centre will be its multidisciplinary orientation.
The Centre will conduct cutting-edge research into problem gambling treatment approaches; develop new clinical practices; train new and existing staff working in gambler’s help services; establish a postgraduate qualification in problem gambling treatment; conduct a sustained epidemiological study of the forms of gambling, and provide training on problem gambling to industry on a commercial basis.
Problem Gambling Research Centre
The University of Melbourne is creating a National Centre for Coasts and Climate (NCCC) – at Point Nepean.
Agreements with the Commonwealth Government and the Point Nepean Community Trust will see 110 fully-funded student places for programs aligned with the aims of the Centre, $2.1 million to provide facilities to the University rent-free for seven years, and at least $7 million to develop high-quality laboratory, teaching and accommodation facilities.
The Centre will ncorporate undergraduate, postgraduate coursework and postgraduate research programs, bringing together wide-ranging University research and education interests.
It will become a focus for a broad range of communities – local, national and international, Indigenous, scientific, educational and business.
The site has many attributes of the world’s leading marine research laboratories – sheltered, an assured oceanic seawater supply, within a state park, proximity to major city facilities and airports, association with a leading University, and iconic and historic buildings.
New Coasts & Climate Research Centre
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University of Melbourne immunologist Professor James McCluskey is the first Australian to be awarded the prestigious Rose Payne Distinguished Scientist Award by the American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics.
Professor McCluskey, Head of the University’s Department of Microbiology and Immunology, has been recognised for his work in Immunogenetics – the study of how genes control immunity. Immunogenetics underpins our understanding of the differences in response to infections, cancer and susceptibility to autoimmune diseases, and how genetic differences between donor and recipient determines the outcome of solid organ and blood stem cell transplantation.
Professor McCluskey is currently President of the International Histocompatibility Workshop Group that convenes collaboration between research groups around the world.
Immunologist Wins US Scientific Award
Melbourne Student Rhodes ScholarUniversity of Melbourne Commerce / Science student John Feddersen has won the Victorian Rhodes Scholarship for 2007.
Mr Feddersen has completed a Bachelor of Commerce (Economics), a Bachelor of Science (Mathematics and Statistics) and a Diploma in Modern Language (German) while also finding time to pursue a very successful hockey career. He has earned four University Blues in Hockey, and made the Australian Universities team, Victorian Vikings Squad and Australian Under 19 team along the way. He captained the University team to victory at the Australian University Games in 2006.
Nobel Peace PrizeThe scientific contributions of University of Melbourne Federation Fellow Professor David Karoly and international colleagues have been recognised in the award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and US climate change activist Al Gore.
Professor Karoly, a leading authority on the global climate and climate variability, contributed to the work of the IPCC as a lead author of the chapter ‘Assessment of observed changes and responses in natural and managed systems’ in the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report ‘Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability’.
Professor Karoly was also part of a select group of scientists asked to write the Report’s Summary for Policy Makers which integrates the information around six key topics and is designed to be useful to policy makers, researchers and students.
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Fast Broadband Wins Top Academic PrizeDr John Papandriopoulos who developed technology to make broadband up to 100 times faster without multi-billion dollar investments in cabling infrastructure has won one of the University of Melbourne’s Chancellor’s Prizes for Excellence in the PhD awarded late last year.
Dr Papandriopoulos’ new technology – patented as SCALE and SCAPE in Australia and the US – was developed as part of his PhD in the University’s Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. The new techniques can dramatically reduce the interference which slows down data transmission in typical DSL networks using less power in the process.
Since completing his PhD, Dr Papandriopoulos has worked as a researcher in the University’s Centre for Ultra Broadband Information Networks (CUBIN). Next month, he joins a start-up company in the US founded by Stanford University Professor John Cioffi, the “father of DSL”.
Director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI), Professor Suzanne Cory has been appointed the inaugural Deputy Chairman of the CSIRO Board.
Professor Cory is also Professor of Medical Biology in the University of Melbourne. She has been a member of the CSIRO Board for five years.
Larkins to Head Pulp Mill Expert GroupProfessor Frank Larkins, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (International) and Professor of Chemistry at the University of Melbourne will chair an Independent Expert Group to ensure full and proper implementation of the environmental safeguards imposed on Tasmania’s pulp mill.
The independent scientific and environmental monitoring team was appointed by the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, Malcolm Turnbull, on the recommendation of the Chief Scientist, Dr Jim Peacock.
The Independent Expert Group will assist with monitoring and compliance with the conditions for the pulp mill.
CSIRO, ANSTO AppointmentsDirector of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Professor Andrew Scott has been appointed a member of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO).
Professor Scott, who has considerable experience in nuclear medicine, is a professorial fellow in the University’s Department of Medicine (Austin Health and Northern Health).
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International RankingsMelbourne’s rankings place it amongst the best in the world.
Its strong performance in international rankings puts it at the forefront of higher education in the Asia-Pacific region and the world. The University of Melbourne is consistently ranked among the leading universities in the world, with its international peers# placing it in the top 20 worldwide, and employers placing it in the top 10.
The University’s international reputation is underpinned by excellence in teaching and learning, and its status as Australia’s highest-ranked research University.*
The Times Higher World University Rankings Times Higher Education Supplement UK (THES) 2007
• No.27 • Top10employerreviewscore
www.thes.co.uk/worldrankings
Academic Ranking of World Universities Shanghai Jiao Tong University 2007
• No.7Asia–Pacificregion • No.79worldwide
http://ed.sjtu.edu.cn/ranking.htm
Index of the International Standing of Australian Public Universities 2007
• No.1inAustralia(Overallmeasureofstanding)
www.melbourneinstitute.com
# The peer review score summarises how other universities rank the University of Melbourne.
* According to key indicators used by the Australian Government to allocate competitive research funding.
The University of Melbourne
At a Glance
VisionTo be one of the finest universities in the world.
HistoryThe University of Melbourne is one of Australia’s oldest universities and celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2003. It was established by an Act of the Victorian Parliament in 1853 and its first classes commenced in April 1855 with four professors and 16 students. The University has undergone profound changes since its inception, which have affected not only its internal structure, but also its physical, intellectual and cultural landscapes. Today more than 44,500 students are enrolled at Melbourne. Of the total student population, over 11,000 students are international students from more than 115 countries.
The influence of the University reaches into every aspect of the City of Melbourne’s life, whether through its students and staff, 30 teaching hospitals, affiliated institutions, residential colleges and halls of residence, the Melbourne Theatre Company, Melbourne University Publishing, and the Ian Potter Museum of Art, or its research centres.
CampusesThe University is based in Parkville, an inner suburb of Melbourne, Victoria.
The University’s impact on Australia’s research activity is enhanced by its location on the edge of Melbourne’s CBD in Parkville, where so many of the nation’s leading independent biomedical research institutes are located.
The Victorian College of the Arts is located in the thriving city arts precinct in Melbourne. Other campuses are located at Burnley in metropolitan Melbourne and at the following rural and regional campuses:
• Creswick
• Dookie
• VeterinaryClinicandHospitalatWerribee
• Shepparton
Academy 2007 Fellows
Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Social Sciences
Professor Vicki Anderson (Royal Children’s Hospital)
Professor Robyn Eckersley (Political Science, Criminology and Sociology)
Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities
Associate Professor Karl Adelaar (Asia Institute)
Professor Deirdre Coleman (Culture and Communication)
Dr Susan Foley (Historical Studies)
Professorial Fellow, Lyndal Roper, was appointed Honorary Fellow
Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering
Professor Anthony Guttman (Mathematics & Statistics)
Professor Colin Masters (Mental Health Research Institute)
Dr Keith Watson (WEHI)
Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering
Dr Calum Drummond, Federation Fellow and Professorial Fellow, School of Chemistry and Bio21 Institute
Professor Andrew Holmes, AM, Federation Fellow and VESKI Inaugural Fellow, Professor, School of Chemistry and Bio21 Institute
High Achieving Staff
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The University of Melbourne
Category 2006 2007
Median ENTER 94.3 94.7
Student Enrolments (EFTSL)
Total Load (EFTSL) 33,934 34,720
Research Higher Degree 3,122 3,169
Postgraduate Coursework 5,558 5,951
Undergraduate 25,255 25,600
% Female Enrolment 56.0% 55.8%
International Load (EFTSL) 8,804 9,389
% International 25.9% 27.0%
Award Completions
Research Higher Degree (excl Higher Doct) 736 730 (est)
PG Coursework 4,220 4,351 (est)
Undergraduate 8,186 8,200 (est)
Total 13,142 13,281 (est)
Staff (FTE) (March, including casuals & excluding TAFE)
Academic (All) 3,258 3,371
Professionals (All) 3,619 3,778
Total 6,876 7,149
Staff Casual figures estimates only for 2007
Student: Staff Ratio (August)
T&R Faculty Staff 16.5 16.7
All Academic Faculty Staff 10.5 10.4
Research Expenditure ($million) 533 570
Financial Data ($million)
Consolidated Income 1,282.6 1,432.9
Consolidated Expenditure 1,192.6 1,336.2
Net Result before Income Tax 90.0 96.7
Net Result after Income Tax 90.0 96.2
Sources of Income (%)
Australian Government Recurrent Financial Assistance
23.5 22.2
Other Australian Government Financial Assistance (including FEE-HELP)
16.8 18.7
HECS-HELP 7.9 7.5
State Government Financial Assistance 3.7 2.2
Investments, Fees, Charges and Other Income 42.3 45.0
Grants, Donations and Bequests 5.8 4.4
Total 100.0 100.0
Research Performance Indicators
Research Income ($million) 279.7 (2) 307.2 (prelim)
Research Publications 3,809 (2) 3,811 (prelim)
Research Load (EFTSL) 3,117(1) 3,169
Research Completions (eligible) * 736(1) 730 (est)
Two-Year Statistics
Numbers in brackets are Melbourne’s national rank, based on the proportion of the national total for each category
* Eligible completions means those included in RTS for-mula, excludes Higher Doctorates by publication.
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50.0%
45.0%
40.0%
35.0%
30.0%
25.0%
20.0%
15.0%
10.0%
5.0%
0.0%
1999
2001
2003
2005
2007
Australian Government Recurrent Financial
Assistance
Other Australian Government Financial
Assistance
HECS Help State Government Financial Assistance
Investments, Fees and Charges and Other
Income
Grants, Donations and Bequests
Sources of Income
The University of Melbourne
Research Income ($) Research Expenditure ($)
$ M
ILLI
ON
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Research Income
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
$ M
ILLI
ON
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
Research Expenditure
Note: As formal analysis is undertaken biennially for the Australian Bureau of Statistics data collection, results for odd years are estimates.
44
The University of Melbourne
Research Higher Degree
Postgraduate Coursework
Undergraduate
Total
NB.EFSTLdata
35000
30000
25000
20000
15000
10000
5000
0
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Student Enrolments By Course Levels
University of Melbourne
Other Victorian institutions (average)
Other Australian institutions (average)
Graduates In Full-Time Employment %
100
80
60
0
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
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Australian Government Recurrent Financial Assistance* 22.2%
Other Australian Government Financial Assistance 16.6%
HECS-HELP 7.5%
FEE-HELP 2.1%
State Government Financial Assistance 2.2%
Investments, Fees and Charges and Other Income 45.0%
Grants, Donations and Bequests 4.4%
Sources Of Income
EmployeeBenefitsandOnCosts53.3%
Depreciation and Amortisation 6.1%
Repairs and Maintenance 4.6%
Scholarships 4.0%
Other Expenses 32.0%
Expenditures
Melbourne’s Performance Against Key National Research Indicators
rESEArCH INCOME rESEArCH PUBLICATIONS (DEST WEIGHTED SCOrE)
rESEArCH HD LOAD
rESEArCH HD COMPLETIONS
$m NationalRank
% of Total DEST Weighted Score
NationalRank
% of Total EFSTL NationalRank
Number National Rank
2003 198.7 1 13.4% 2,857 1 8.1% 2,925 1 694 1
2004 208.8 1 13.0% 3,299 2 8.2% 3,160 1 724 1
2005 254.4 1 13.9% 3,878 1 8.8% 3,159 1 724 1
2006 279.7 2 12.7% 3,809 (est) 2 8.2% 3,122 1 736 1
2007 307.2 (est) n/a n/a 3,811 (est) n/a n/a 3,169 (est) n/a 730 (est) n/a
The University of Melbourne
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University Faculties and Departments �
Government Classifications �
Research fields �
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– International linkages �
www.findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au
