RSBS 40^th Anniversary

 At the end of 2007 RSBS turned 40 years young. With four decades of achievements to commemorate our Director, Professor John Gibson hosted a very special ruby anniversary event to celebrate this auspicious occasion on 5 December 2007.

RSBS staff, students, University executive and invited guests, enjoyed a rare opportunity to hear lively and vivid recollections of the early days presented by the wonderful personalities that are our esteemed foundation professors - Professor Frank Fenner, Professor Ralph Slatyer, Professor Barry Osmond, Professor Dennis Carr and Professor Adrian Horridge. ...Read full article.

Posted 18/12/2007

Photosynthesis researcher honoured

A special issue of the journal Photosynthesis Research, to be titled Recent Perceptions of Photosystem II: Structure, Function and Dynamics is to be published in honor of Kimiyuki Satoh and Thomas J. Wydrzynski (RSBS Photobioenergitics Group), in recognition of outstanding contributions to photosynthesis research and education throughout their careers.

Upon receiving his PhD from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana in 1977, Tom was awarded a NSF Energy-Related Postdoctoral Fellowship to work on the water splitting mechanism in photosystem II at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. After his postdoc he joined the Corporate Research arm of the Standard Oil Company (Indiana) to work on artificial photosynthesis. In 1985 he moved to Europe where he continued his studies as a Humboldt Fellow at the Technical University Berlin and a Wennergren Fellow at the Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden. In 1991 he joined the RSBS where his lab developed the first, direct measurements of the substrate water in Photosystem II. In 2000 he set up a program in Artificial Photosynthesis based on the reversed engineering of Photosystem II under the School’s Biotechnology Research Initiative. During his career he had the opportunity to visit many labs around the world working on different aspects of Photosystem II, from its biophysics, biochemistry and molecular structure to its role in physiology, evolution and artificial photosynthesis which, with the outstanding experience of Kimiyuki Satoh, led to the first comprehensive book on Photosystem II and the recognition given by this Special Issue of Photosynthesis Research.

Related publications:

Thomas J Wydrzynski and Kimiyuki Satoh (eds), Photosystem II: The Light-Driven Water: Plastoquinone Oxidoreductase. [view volume details]
Golbeck, JH. BOOK REVIEW: Thomas J. Wydrzynski and Kimiyuki Satoh (eds), Photosystem II: The Light-Driven Water: Plastoquinone Oxidoreductase. Photosynth Res (2007) 92:129–131 [view 100kb pdf]

Posted 20/09/2007

RSBS researchers make light work of awards

Three members of the Research School of Biological Sciences were honoured at the 14th International Congress of Photosynthesis (ISPR): Professor Jan Anderson from the Photobioenergetics Group received the ISPR Lifetime Achievement Award, to acknowledge her lifetime of outstanding contributions to understanding photosynthesis; Dr. Warwick Hillier also from the Photobioenergtics Group received the Robin Hill Award, which is given for outstanding investigations into physical aspects of the photosynthetic process by an early career scientist; and Dr. Ben Long from the Molecular Plant Physiology Group received the Best Poster Award by an Early Career Researcher. The Congress of nearly 900 participants met in Glasgow, Scotland , the 23rd – 27th July, 2007. The Congress meets once every three years and is a celebration of the achievements of the Photosynthetic Community. It provides a forum for the discussion of recent developments, current concepts and understanding of the photosynthetic process as well as relevant applications.

Professor Jan Anderson
International Society for Photosynthesis Research Lifetime Achievement Award

After graduating from the Otago University, New Zealand, Jan Anderson did her PhD with Nobel Prize Winner Melvin Calvin at UC, Berkeley. Her distinguished research at CSIRO, Plant Industry on the molecular organization and dynamic arrangement of the photosynthetic membranes of plants and the light regulation of photosynthetic processes provided a conceptual framework for understanding the structure and function of photosynthetic membranes at the molecular level. During her Plant Industry career of shedding light on photosynthesis, Jan often collaborated with RSBS scientists and was delighted to join PBE, RSBS 11 years ago.

Dr Warwick Hillier
International Society for Photosynthesis Research Robin Hill Award

The 2007 Hill Award was jointly given to Warwick Hillier of the RSBS and Junko Yano of the US Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, for their outstanding contributions as young investigators into the physical aspects of the photosynthetic process. Upon completing his PhD at the ANU, Warwick took up a 4-year postdoctoral appointment in the Chemistry Department at Michigan State University where he applied advanced spectroscopic techniques to the study of the natural water splitting mechanism in photosynthesis. He retuned to Australia in 2003 and joined the RSBS faculty where he is now studying how to develop the natural water splitting mechanism to productively produce O2 and H2 in a clean, renewable fuel cycle. This area of research is summarized in the Molecular Biofuels website. He will be featured in the ABC’s New Inventors television program on October 3rd.

Posted 13/09/2007

What do academics do in labs all day? What is a career in research all about? What is a day in the life of a PhD student really like? These questions and many more were recently answered for a group of talented undergraduate students from Universities in Australia and New Zealand.

From July 3-July 5 the Research School of Biological Sciences hosted visiting students on a 3 day research experience - Frontiers of Biology. Twenty participants were selected from over 70 applicants, each successful applicant received a bursary that covered their travel, accommodation and meals for this special research showcase event.

To read more on Frontiers of Biology, go to the RSBS student page.

Posted 11/09/2007

Animals that alter their movement-based signals to overcome visually ‘noisy’ environments could lead to a better understanding of vision systems and improve the capacity of ‘seeing’ machines, according to scientists from The Australian National University.

Dr Richard Peters from the Research School of Biological Sciences (RSBS) at ANU led a research team that demonstrated for the first time how animals that rely on motion signals to communicate will alter their behaviour in relation to other moving things in their surroundings. The results are published in the latest edition of Current Biology.......read more of the ANU Media release.

Posted 06/07/2007

RSBS Apprentice awarded ‘Outstanding Trade Apprentice of the Year’

RSBS apprentice Ashley Moore has been awarded the Outstanding Trade Apprentice of the Year.
The Unions ACT (Trades and Labour Council) Prize is awarded to the outstanding trade apprentice of the year who has completed off the job training………… full story.

Posted 01/06/2007

Devil of a disease.

Hannah Bender, a RSBS PhD student, is researching how Devil Facial Tumour Disease spreads between Tasmanian Devils.

Its fearsome guttural growls and voracious scavenging led the earliest European settlers in Tasmania to brand it ‘the devil’. The name stuck, and it came to serve the Tasmanian devil well by endearing curious tourists and even inspiring a cartoon character.

Now an unsightly and deadly disease that’s infecting the devil population has taken on the qualities of a demon, and it’s threatening to make the devil extinct. ...read more of the ANU Media release.

"Chromosome painting enlisted in fight against Tas Devil disease", ABC Tasmania radio [view transcript]

Posted 23/05/2007

First marsupial genome sequenced.

The landmark first DNA sequence of a marsupial, announced this week in the prestigious science journal Nature, included research by 11 Australians among its 63 international authors.

Australian scientists working on the sequence of the Australian kangaroo at the ARC Centre of Excellence in Kangaroo Genomics (KanGO) played key roles in the sequence of the grey, short-tailed opossum, according to KanGO Director Professor Jenny Graves, from the Research School of Biological Sciences at ANU...read more of the ANU Media release.

Related publications:

"First Marsupial Genome Released" The Scientist, 9 May 2007 [view article]
"Jumping Genes get scientists leaping", Australian, 10 May 2007, p. 8
"Just the right fit for gene research", Sydney Morning Herald, 10 May 2007, p. 12
"Opossum genome sequence reveals mammal secrets", New Scientist.com news service, 9 May 2007 [view article]
"Opossum's Genome is in the Bag", ScienceNOW, 9 May 2007 [view article]
"Tiny marsupial records DNA first", BBC News, 9 May 2007 [view article]

Posted 23/05/2007

Australian mammals challenge genes theory

Media release from The Australian National University, THURSDAY 26 APRIL 2007

Scientists studying the kangaroo genome have cast doubt on the credentials of a gene thought to be crucial to the process of inactivating one sex chromosome in women.   

The finding challenges a whole field of research that has developed around the XIST gene since its discovery in the early 1990s. Scientists had expected that the gene – which was thought to direct the switching off of a surplus X chromosome during embryonic development – would inform our understanding of how genes are controlled in normal development, and how control goes awry in genetic diseases such as cancer...read more of the ANU Media release.

Related articles:

"Missing Gene Deepens X Chromosome Mystery", Australian Science, 6 June 2007, p. 6
"Sex inactivation" Australian Life Scientist, 1 June 2007, p. 4

Posted 01/05/2007

Sex change: hot days turn boys into girls, UC/ANU reptile study finds

Hot weather can turn male dragons into females, according to research published in the prestigious international journal Science by a team from the University of Canberra and The Australian National University.

A study into Australia’s bearded dragon, which like humans, other mammals and birds has sex chromosomes to determine sex genetically, has found this genetic sex can be reversed by high temperatures. Sex is determined in some reptile species by temperatures experienced in the egg, but it was previously thought that sex was determined either by genes or temperature but not a combination ...Read more of the University of Canberra's press release.

Related Publications:

Listen to ABC's The Science Show podcast, Dragons - how the sex of young is determined with Robyn Williams and Jenny Graves.

KanGO leaps on

KanGO, the ARC Centre for Kangaroo Genomics has had an extension of funding until 2010 and is now known as the ARC Centre of Excellence in Kangaroo Genomics.

Professor Jenny Graves, Director of KanGO, recently appeared on the ABC program Catalyst, in a segment dedicated to focussing on different researchers to put a human face to Australian science (view Meeting Jenny Graves transcript).  Professor Graves is also a finalist in the Science category of the 2007 Bulletin Bayer Smart 100. 

Jenny Graves, along with members of her Comparative Genomics Group and colleagues at the University of Canberra, recently published a landmark paper on sex determination in dragons in Science (see article above).

Read more about why Kango is Exploring weird Australian genomes.

Posted 24/04/2007

Quick thinking responses help to minimise further damage after storm

To nanophotonics PhD student Darren Freeman it sounded like something – or someone – crawling through the air conditioning ducts in the ceiling of the Electron Microscopy Unit at the Research School of Biological Sciences (RSBS). On his way past a glass door to call security, he saw what was causing all the noise: a massive hailstorm dumping tons of hail and water on the campus...read On Campus story.

Posted 8/03/2007