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Today's date is Thursday, March 28, 2024
School of Molecular Sciences
 February 2013
Tuesday 05
17:00 - SEMINAR - WA Flow Group - Inaugural Meeting More Information
Inaugural Meeting of the WA Flow Group. Presentations by: Dr Senta Walton (Pathology & Laboratory Medicine UWA) "CD4+ T cells during MCMV infections'; Fiona Robins (Pathwest, Haematology) "CS&T application settings in diagnostic flow"; Dr Matt Linden (CMCA, UWA) "Flourish for panel design" Please RSVP for catering purposes.
Thursday 07
8:20 - SYMPOSIUM - DOHaD-Microbiome symposium : An exploration of the association between the microbiome and metabolome and the early life origins of health and disease More Information
This free symposium, open to all, has been organised by the microbiome working group of the DOHaD Consortium. A total of 16 speakers from throughout the University will cover a range aspects relating to metagenomics/metabolomics and early life origins of health and disease. Please RSVP for catering purposes.
Monday 18
9:00 - COURSE - Introductory Statistics : A short course using SPSS Website | More Information
The aim of this course is to introduce you to basic statistics. It will cover descriptive statistics (means and standard deviations); data exploration; basic categorical data analysis; simple linear regression and basic analysis of variance (ANOVA).

Subsidised rates are available for UWA Graduate Research Students.

Please register online.
Tuesday 26
13:00 - SEMINAR - The many shades of BARD1 in development and disease : School of Anatomy, Physiology & Human Biology Seminar Series More Information
The Seminar: For over more than a decade the research on BARD1 was a side-product of the research on the breast cancer gene and protein BRCA1. Co-expression of both proteins in most tissues, their similar structure, the same phenotypes in knock-out mice, and the hetero-dimeric complex formation of BRCA1 and BARD1 supported the commonly accepted few of BARD1 as an accessory protein of BRCA1. Work from my team was initiated with the assumption that BRCA1 and BARD1 proteins and genes might have common and separate functions. In recent years we discovered that differentially spliced forms of BARD1 are heavily overexpressed in many cancers. It appears plausible that BARD1 isoforms of different domain composition may be involved in the same pathways as FL BARD1, yet play a different role or compete for normal BRCA1-BARD1 functions. In my talk I will give an overview of the current state of research on BARD1, and, as far as possible within this given frame, on BRCA1. I will highlight the work from my group and provide the experimental evidence for the tumor promoting roles of aberrant forms of BARD1 that are associated with various types of cancer.

The Speaker: Irmgard IRMINGER-FINGER studied biology and biochemistry in Zurich, where she graduated in molecular biology and biochemistry and obtained a PhD in molecular genetics. After a three year postdoctoral period at the Molecular Cell Biology Department at the Harvard University, she returned to Switzerland and first had a position as independent researcher at the Biochemistry Department of the University of Geneva. In 1997 she moved into oncology at the Medical Faculty of the University of Geneva, having obtained a Swiss federal career development award. In 1998 she started her own research group focusing on the molecular pathways at the aging and cancer interface as part of the Biology of Aging Institute at the same institution. Since 2006 she heads the Molecular Gynecology and Obstetrics Laboratory at the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics at the Geneva University Hospitals. The main interest of this laboratory is the function of tumor suppressor genes in normal and cancer cells and their implication in carcinogenesis and cancer progression, in particular the breast cancer genes BRCA1 and BARD1. Over the years, Dr. Irmgard Irminger-Finger built up her reputation as expert in the Cancer and Aging field and as expert on the BRCA1 and BARD1 genes, as author of scientific articles, speaker at conferences, organizer of meetings, editorial board member, and member of specific study groups and Task Forces.

Wednesday 27
12:00 - SEMINAR - School of Chemistry More Information
Mitochondrial responses to salinity in wheat and

Identification and characterisation of novel molecular regulators involved in phosphate metabolism in Arabidopsis thaliana and Oryza sativa

 March 2013
Tuesday 05
13:00 - SEMINAR - iVEC Supercomputing : School of Anatomy, Physiology & Human Biology Seminar Series More Information
The Seminar: This presentation will introduce you to the resources and expertise iVEC can provide to support your research. iVEC is encouraging the use of supercomputing, large scale data storage and visualisation for WA researchers. This is achieved by making available facilities and expertise to the research, education and industrial communities. Application areas include nanotechnology, radioastronomy, high energy physics, medical and mining training, medical research, mining and petroleum, architecture and construction, multimedia, and urban planning.

The Speakers:

Valerie is the Education Program Leader for iVEC. Valerie is responsible for training in supercomputing and eResearch along with internships and school outreach. She enjoys the challenge of communicating complex concepts to diverse audiences – breaking through the jargon to create a shared understanding. Valerie holds a PhD in Computer Science (SoftwareEngineering) and an honours degree in Computer Science.

Chris is a HPC Application Analyst and Parallel Programmer. He joins iVEC from Paratools, Inc. located in Eugene, Oregon where he was the Principle Investigator in several small business innovative research projects focused on developing HPC tools to support HPC application development and research.

Chris has also worked at University HPC centres both in the United States and in the United Kingdom as a Parallel Programmer. His career in High Performance Computing started at the Army Research Laboratory in Aberdeen, Maryland as an Application Analyst. He has a Masters degree in Scientific Computing at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden; while his undergraduate degree is in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Alabama in Huntsville.
Thursday 07
11:00 - SEMINAR - Environments for the Characterisation Community � MASSIVE and the Characterisation Virtual Laboratory More Information
The “21st century microscope” will not be a single instrument; rather it will be an orchestration of specialised imaging technologies, data storage facilities, and specialised data processing engines. This presentation will detail two complimentary national projects that are creating an integrated computer environment for researchers who work with imaging data. The Multi-modal Australian ScienceS Imaging and Visualisation Environment (MASSIVE – www.massive.org.au) is a specialised high performance computing (HPC) facility for computational imaging and visualisation. This facility provides the hardware, software and expertise to drive research in the biomedical science, materials research, engineering, and geoscience communities, and it stimulates advanced imaging research that will be exploited across a range of imaging modalities, including synchrotron x-ray and infrared imaging, functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging, x-ray computer tomography (CT), electron microscopy and optical microscopy. MASSIVE is a unique Australian facility with a focus on fast data processing, including processing data “in-experiment”, large-scale visualisation, and analysis of large-cohort and longitudinal research studies. The facility runs an instrument integration project to allow researchers to more easily process instrument data, and provides a remote desktop environment for researchers to use desktop tools to process, analyse and visualize their data. A major undertaking under the MASSIVE program, is the NeCTAR-funded Characterisation Virtual Laboratory (CVL), a project that is developing software infrastructure on the cloud to provide easier access to the tools and techniques that researchers use to process, analyse and visualise imaging data. The CVL is developing three exemplar platforms for multi-modal or large-scale imaging in neuroscience, structural biology, and energy materials. This presentation will describe MASSIVE and the CVL, highlight research that is being conducted using these environments, and describe how researchers can access them. Wojtek James Goscinski is the coordinator of the Multimodal Australian ScienceS Imaging and Visualisation Environment (MASSIVE), a specialist Australian high performance computing facility for imaging and visualization, and he is the External Collaborations Manager at the Monash e-Research Centre a role in which he promotes effective and creative applications of technology in research.
Tuesday 19
13:00 - SEMINAR - Kisspeptin, Fertility and Fatness : School of Anatomy, Physiology & Human Biology Seminar Series More Information
The Seminar: Jeremy’s work represents an exciting new field of neuroendocrinology. The recent discovery of mice and humans lacking the kisspeptin receptor (Kiss1R) and their subsequent infertility has sparked scientists to explore the actions of kisspeptin. Kisspeptin is a neuropeptide and regulates reproduction by signalling directly to GnRH neurons. In addition to being expressed in GnRH neurons, Kiss1R is also expressed in other brain areas, suggesting that kisspeptin may have additional functions outside of governing reproduction. New research has now uncovered that this peptide plays an equally exciting role in the control of adiposity.

The Speaker: Jeremy Smith began his research career at The University of Western Australia, where he completed his PhD with Distinction in 2004. In 2003, Jeremy was awarded a NICHD Fellowship (US) and began post-doctoral research at the University of Washington. Here, Jeremy worked extensively on kisspeptin, a novel neuropeptide, vital in the neuroendocrine control of GnRH secretion and reproductive function. In 2006, Dr Smith was awarded a NHMRC Biomedical Fellowship and returned to Australia to work at the Department of Physiology, Monash University. Jeremy has now returned to UWA and the School of Anatomy, Physiology and Human Biology to continue his work and is funded by the NHMRC, ARC and is a recipient of an ARC Future Fellowship.
Thursday 21
16:00 - SEMINAR - CMCA Seminar Series: "X-ray phase contrast imaging using conventional sources" by Dr Peter Munro More Information
Image contrast arises in conventional X-ray radiography due the differential absorption of X-rays throughout the sample. Many objects of interest, for example, soft biological tissue, possess weak absorption contrast. Furthermore, by definition, absorption contrast is directly correlated with the radiation dose received by the sample. X-ray phase imaging was developed, initially using synchrotron radiation, in order to overcome the limitation of weak absorption contrast. This technique develops contrast based upon the difference in X-ray propagation times through a sample, which, in general, results in greater contrast than absorption based imaging. In this seminar I will discuss how X-ray phase imaging can be performed using conventional X-ray sources such as those used in clinics and give examples from a variety of fields including mammography, non-destructive testing, security screening and small animal imaging.
Tuesday 26
13:00 - SEMINAR - Bending strains in long bones: The case of the xenarthran third trochanter. : School of Anatomy, Physiology & Human Biology Seminar Series More Information
The Seminar: The femur of armadillos and their fossil relatives, the glyptodonts is characterised by a large third trochanter projecting from the lateral side of the shaft. The role of this prominent structure and the muscles that attach there is unknown. This presentation looks at the variation in the shape the xenarthran femur and explores the hypothesis that the third trochanter plays a role in regulating coronal plane bending strains in these strange animals.

The Speaker: Nick Milne began his research career in the 1980s looking at the uncinate processes of cervical vertebrae. He was interested in what role they played in the human neck and turned to comparative anatomy and function to try to understand these structures in a broader context. His interest in the comparative structure and function of bones has continued and collaborations with South American palaeontologists led to a fascination with armadillos and their strange glyptodont and ground sloth relatives. Collaborations with Paul O’Higgins in the UK have led to the application geometric morphometric and finite elements analysis techniques to try to understand aspects of xenarthran structure and function.

 April 2013
Thursday 04
16:00 - SEMINAR - CMCA Seminar Series: Polymer Brushes: �grafting to� tailor surfaces. Talk by Dr Swaminathan Iyer More Information
Polymer brushes (or tethered polymers), first attracted attention in the 1950s when it was found that grafting polymer molecules to colloidal particles was a very effectiver way to prevent flocculation. The repulsive force between brushes arises ultimately from the high osmotic pressure inside the brushes. Subsequently it was found that polymer brushes could be useful in other applications such as new adhesive materials, protein-resistant biosurfaces, surfactants, responsive biointerfaces, controlled drug-delivery/release systems and thin film sensors. In this talk I will introduce the fundamentals of macromolecules tethered to surfaces in the brush regime and the thermodynamic/kinetic constraints associated with grafting polymers. Following this, I will propose the use of poly (glycidy methacrylate) (PGMA) as an anchoring platform to overcome some of the aforementioned limitations. Finally, I will talk about some of the recent developments/applications using this anchoring platform in colloidal state for drug delivery and multimodal imaging.
Wednesday 10
19:30 - EVENT - From birth to 10 years: A longitudinal study of families created using gamete donation and surrogacy : Reproductive Technology Council Special Event More Information
Dr Jadva will present data from a longitudinal study of families created using assisted reproduction, specifically egg donation, sperm donation and surrogacy. The children were born around the turn of the new millennium and families were visited when their child was aged 1, 2, 3, 7 and 10 years. Children’s views about their birth at ages 7 and 10 will also be provided.
Wednesday 17
17:00 - MEMORIAL LECTURE - Improving salt tolerance in wheat: : Discoveries from the search for genes which reduce the rate of sodium accumulation in leaves Website | More Information
In this lecture, internationally renowned and highly cited plant scientist, Prof Rana Munns, will show how the combination of fundamental plant biology and targeted plant breeding can produce significant outcomes for crop production in saline soils.

Saline soils restrict plant growth in a large proportion of the Australian wheat belt. Plants exclude most of the salt from the water they take up from a saline soil, but with time it can build up to high concentrations in older leaves, and kill them. This reduces the supply of carbohydrates to the growing leaves or developing grain.

In a search for genes that reduce the rate of sodium accumulation in leaves, Prof Munns and her team discovered novel genes for controlling sodium transport in an ancestral wheat, crossed them into modern durum wheat, and showed that one of them increased yield in saline soils in farmers’ fields by 25%.

This event is sponsored under the 'Hector and Andrew Stewart Memorial Lecture'.
Thursday 18
12:00 - SEMINAR - HDR Supervision Series : “Supporting HDR supervision: Lessons from the field” Website | More Information
This event is open to both new and more seasoned staff who would like to gain a wider perspective on the joys and challenges of supervision from an Education perspective.

Topics include: Supervising at a distance/Supervising international students; and Balancing the fine line between supervision and intervention.

BYO lunch, tea and coffee will be provided.

16:00 - SEMINAR - The Metabolic Theory of Ecology: Prospects and Challenges for Plant Biology : Full Speaker CV is available from [email protected] More Information
The metabolic theory of ecology (MTE) as applied to the plant sciences, aims to provide a general synthesis for the structure and functioning of plants from organelles to ecosystems. MTE builds from simple assumptions of individual metabolism to make predictions about phenomena across a wide range of scales, from individual plant structure and function to community dynamics and global nutrient cycles.
Monday 22
12:00 - SEMINAR - LIWA Medical Research Seminar Series : "Liver progenitor cells: friend or foe" Website | More Information
LIWA invites you to a free seminar on: "Liver progenitor cells: friend or foe" by Prof George Yeoh, Head, Liver Disease and Carcinogenesis, Centre for Medical Research, UWA Associate Dean (Research), Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, UWA. A light lunch will be served from 12.00pm with a 12.30pm – 1.30pm presentation.
Tuesday 23
13:00 - SEMINAR - Family matters: a comparative study of how kin influence reproductive outcomes across a range of human populations : School of Anatomy, Physiology & Human Biology Seminar Series More Information
The Speaker: Rebecca's background is interdisciplinary: having received training in zoology, statistics and biological anthropology, she has spent most of her academic career teaching demography, first at the London School of Economics and then at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She took up her current post as Reader in Population and Health at LSHTM in April 2012, and now heads the Evolutionary Demography Group http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/eph/dph/research/edg/index.htm here.

The Seminar: Her research is also interdisciplinary: she is a behavioural ecologist but largely works on human demographic data so her research aims to bridge the social and natural sciences. She is currently working on a European Research Council-funded project 'Family matters: intergenerational influences on fertility', which is investigating the influence of kin on fertility across a range of populations, using both small-scale datasets from traditional subsistence populations and large-scale, nationally representative demographic datasets. This project fits into her wider research aim, which is to test the hypothesis that humans are cooperative breeders, by examining the evidence that kin influence reproductive outcomes in all kinds of human society. This talk will describe previous and current work which has found that, though kin do influence reproductive outcomes, which kin matter varies according to ecological context.
Friday 26
15:00 - GENERAL MEETING - UPS Ordinary General Meeting More Information
The University Physics Society will have our first Ordinary General Meeting of the year, held Friday 26th April 2013.

In this meeting, we will be (finally) voting in the new constitution and with it the name change from 'Undergraduate Physics Society' to 'University Physics Society', as well as some administration tasks such as finalising year representatives and whatnot.

If you want a non-executive role in the club, this is your chance!

Hope to see all of you there!

 May 2013
Friday 03
16:00 - TALK - The Science of Honeybees : Special Talk as Part of Honey Week 2013 Website | More Information
Special talk during Honey Week 2013
Thursday 09
16:00 - EVENT - CMCA Seminar Series: Techniques and Applications in Marine and Biological Science More Information
SIMS is one of the most powerful characterization techniques for materials, chemistry, physics, and biology because of its unique capabilities to provide trace sensitivity (ppm to sub-ppb range) and excellent depth (as good as 1 nm) and lateral resolution (< 1 µm for ion microscopes and 30 nm for ion microprobes). In particular, it has become an indispensable characterization technique in the fields of marine and biological science which require analytical techniques capable of probing small areas and detecting impurities at low concentrations. A succinct review on the basic principles of SIMS, will be given, followed by a description of the current status on the SIMS technique. The principles of SIMS data acquisition will be illustrated as well as an evaluation of procedures to achieve useful information on the elemental, isotopic, and molecular composition of the respective samples. Some most intriguing results of SIMS studies in marine and biological science will be reviewed (including studies of diatom and otolith samples) and a comparison of SIMS with other micro-analytical techniques - such as AES, XPS, EPMA, TOF-SIMS, laser ablation ICP-MS, SNMS, PIXE and RBS will be made.

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