SEMINAR: 'The Role of SLIRP in Colorectal Cancer' and 'Rebuilding the Ribosome: Optimising Selenocysteine Incorporation'

Patrick Candy is a UWA student from Perth, who recently commenced his PhD candidature with Peter Leedman’s laboratory of cancer medicine. In 2007 he completed a double degree in Computer Science and Biotechnology with a minor in Bioinformatics at Murdoch University, accompanied by a commendation of Excellence from the Vice Chancellor. He followed this with an Ann Osborn Memorial prize winning 1st class Biotechnology honours, which investigated the molecular mechanisms underpinning the agriculturally valuable and unique legume host specificity of Sinorhizobium medicae. Patrick’s current project explores the significance and underlying molecular interplay of the nuclear receptor coregulator SLIRP in colorectal cancer mortality and incidence.

Ross Thyer completed a BSc majoring in biochemistry at UWA and undertook honours at WAIMR in 2008. He began his PhD in March 2009 supervised by Dr. Aleksandra Filipovska, Dr. Oliver Rackham and Prof. George Yeoh. His research involves improving methods of expressing and characterising mammalian selenoproteins. Selenoproteins contain the 21st amino acid selenocysteine and many are essential for human survival. Despite their importance, further study is hampered by the inability to express large quantities in model organisms. Currently, efforts are underway to re-engineer the bacterial ribosome to improve the yield and efficiency of recombinant selenoprotein expression.