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New research funding to develop selective insecticides!
Joel and Ron, teamed up with fellow SOLES academic Dr Emily Remnant, have been successful in procuring funding from Horticultural Innovation Australia (HIA) to create new insecticides that are safer and more selective. HIA collect levies from a wide range of produce growers and fund research into areas that will directly benefit those growers. Joel, Ron and Emily's project will focus on pollinator health, using structure-guided design approaches to create molecules that will selectively act on the honeybee pests Varroa destructor and/or the small hive beetle, while remaining innocuous to the honeybees themselves. The funding will complement a generous philanthropic donation that has...
Oscar’s Hut2Hut 2022
Oscars Hut2Hut is a 100-km trail run in the Victorian Alps with epic amounts of ascent and descent (5800 m of each) and a *lot* of technical sections. A good chunk of it is above the treeline with spectacular 360-degree views - on a good day... which is the attraction. I (Joel) ran it in 2019 (with perfect weather) and decided to go back for more this year, lured again by the scenery and the hope of good weather (or at least not sleet and sub-zero 100-km/h winds). As it turned out, I must have been in *someone's* good books because the weather turned it on again - perfect running conditions (~8-20 degrees across the time I was out there - 5 am till 1:30 am next day). These technical...
Taylor and Rezwan become truer and bluer
Congratulations to former Mackay lab PhD student Taylor Szyszka and current Ataide lab researcher Rezwan Siddiquee for having their Australian permanent residency just confirmed. They will be saying "that isn't a knife..." and sandpapering cricket balls before you know it!
Have been off X for months but had to log in to see response to AF3. I am much less smart than the authors - but am I (and Erin) the only ones to think that the helical afros that it makes out of IDRs is totally weird? Am I missing something?
Amazing story from the lab down the corridor - @RezwanSidd working with Sandro Ataide and Ruth Hall in @SydneySOLES at @Sydney_Science - now they will be thrown into the gladiators' pit I suspect with the other protagonists that prowl this landscape! 🙂 Great piece of work!
Katschi becomes a mum!
Katschi Bendak, formerly from Joel's lab and now working across at CCIA in Randwick, has taken a little time off to become a mum - and the result of her efforts is Olivia Marie Wilson, born on her due date (with German punctuality) of 15/03/17 at 51 cm and 3.4 kg....
Morgan’s latest paper from chilly Dundee
Morgan Gadd, ex-PhD student of Jacqui's, has just published a paper from his postdoc time with Alessio Cuilli - a nice piece of work where they examine one of their bi-functional bromodomain inhibitors and show that it forms a tight ternary complex with their small...
Taylor takes to the radio
As one of the organizers of the Sydney version of the International March for Science, which is being held on Earth Day (22 April), Taylor chatted to the Drive Show host Danny Chifley on 2SER last week, to tell him what it was all about - and answer curly questions...
Lab members take Lorne posters by storm
Taylor, Mehdi and Athina all picked up prizes for their poster presentations at the Lorne Protein Conference this week. Poster prize success rate was overall about the same as the current NHMRC grant success rate, so a champion effort from them! No doubt they'll be...
Bogong to Hotham 2017
It has been 15 years or so since I'd run the Bogong to Hotham ultramarathon down in the Victorian Alps. I've always maintained that it is the most scenic ultra I've ever run in Australia, so I don't know why it's taken me so long to do it again! Anyway, I did get...
Kangaroo creek outing
Given the temperature today, I thought I'd head down to the Royal National Park and spend the morning wading down Kangaroo Crreek from Waterfall to Karloo Pool. Water was refreshing but almost too warm at Karloo! Then a trot back up to Heathcote and along the fire...
Matthews lab members at the Thompson Prize event
The Sydney Protein Group's annual Thompson prize event was the other day, and Neil Robertson was one of the finalists. Despite giving a sterling talk, he didn't walk away with the gong. He did however pick up the ATA Scientific Lorne travel award, while Gabrielle...
Scientists in Schools award for Joel
The Principal's Network of inner west Sydney schools recently had their awards ceremony and Joel was presented with an award to recognize the long-term connection he has had with Strathfield North Public School through the CSIRO's Scientists in Schools program -...
Taylor wins her first Australian prize
The School of Life and Environmental Sciences held its graduate research showcase recently, out at the Camden campus, and Taylor showed them how it was done, winning the prize for the best second year presentation. Nice work Taylor!
ARC grant success
Joel - working with Dave Segal from UC Davis - was lucky enough to pick up an ARC Discovery Project grant in the 2015 round to explore the creation of designer epigenetic regulators. Should be interesting...
We had a Ball!
AMOEBA ball was last night - with its theme of Under the Sea. Huge amount of work by Caitlyn, Taylor, Vania and the rest of the committee went into making a thoroughly enjoyable evening with jellyfish costumes aplenty! Photos please...
Joel awarded LabGear Discovery Science Award from ASBMB
At the recent ComBio conference in Brisbane, Joel was presented with theLabGear Discovery Science Award - which is given for distinguished contributions to the field of biochemistry and molecular biology. You can read about the award here and see the citation...