What's On at UWA

* WORKSHOP in Food security: crop science and productivity

* SEMINAR: - Explore your study options - How to find a supervisor - Secure a scholarship for study in Australia

* WORKSHOP in Food security: crop science and productivity

* SEMINAR: - Explore your study options - How to find a supervisor - Secure a scholarship for study in Australia

Symmetry is one of the essential and most visible patterns that can be seen in nature. Starting from the left-right symmetry of the human body, all types of symmetry can be found in crystals, plants, animals and nature as a whole.

Similarly, principals of symmetry are also some of the fundamental and most useful tools in modern mathematical natural science that play a major role in theory and applications. As a consequence, it is not surprising that the desire to understand the origin of life, based on the genetic code, forces us to involve symmetry as a mathematical concept.

The genetic code can be seen as a key to biological self-organisation. All living organisms have the same molecular bases - an alphabet consisting of four letters (nitrogenous bases): adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine. Linearly ordered sequences of these bases contain the genetic information for synthesis of proteins in all forms of life. Thus, one of the most fascinating riddles of nature is to explain why the genetic code is as it is.

Genetic coding possesses noise immunity which is the fundamental feature that allows to pass on the genetic information from parents to their descendants. Hence, since the time of the discovery of the genetic code, scientists have tried to explain the noise immunity of the genetic information. In this talk we will discuss recent results in mathematical modelling of the genetic code with respect to noise immunity, in particular error-detection and error-correction.

Cheese and wine to follow in the Maths common room (5pm-6pm)

Please join AIIA WA and the Perth USAsia Centre with Alyssa Ayres to launch her new book Our Time has Come: How India is Making Its Place in the World. In Our Time Has Come, Alyssa Ayres considers the role India will play internationally, the obstacles it continues to face, and the implications of its rise for the United States and other nations. “We are witnessing a country chart its course to power, and explicitly seeking not to displace others but to be recognized among the club of world powers, one in which it believes its membership is long overdue.” Copies of the book will be available for purchase at a special discounted price of $30.00 from 6.15pm – 6.30pm and between 7.30pm – 7.45pm. Tickets to this event are free but registration is essential.

While reducing excess body weight or fat is important for certain athletes and for the treatment of overweight and obesity, it is essential that weight loss interventions do not result in losses of physical strength or lean tissues such as muscle and bone, any of which could impair physical abilities and increase the risk of structural diseases such as sarcopenia or osteoporosis.

A dietary intervention showing potential for reducing body weight and fat without excessive loss of lean tissues is a novel form of intermittent energy restriction (IER) entailing repeated cycles on a moderately kilojoule-restricted diet for 2-4 weeks, interspersed with 2-week periods of energy balance, where kilojoule intake is matched to energy requirements and weight is maintained. In a randomized controlled trial of 51 men with obesity, this form of IER significantly improved weight and fat loss compared to continuous energy restriction (CER): weight loss 14.1 ± 5.6 versus 9.1 ± 2.9 kg; fat loss 12.3 ± 4.8 versus 8.0 ± 4.2 kg; means ± SD, P<0.01 for both comparisons), with no difference in loss of fat free mass (1.8 ± 1.6 versus 1.2 ± 2.5 kg; P = 0.4)1.

Another dietary intervention with potential for body weight and fat loss without excessive loss of strength or lean tissues in people with overweight or obesity is – paradoxically – fast weight loss, achieved via total meal replacement diets. The TEMPO Diet Trial (ACTRN12612000651886) has shown that at 1 year after commencement of a diet involving either fast or slow weight loss in postmenopausal women with obesity, there was no difference between diets with respect to muscle (handgrip) strength, fat free mass or bone mineral density, despite the fact that women on the fast diet lost almost twice as much weight and fat as women on the slow diet (16.9 ± 7.1 versus 9.7 ± 7.5% of body weight, and 11.1 ± 5.6 versus 6.1 ± 5.5 kg of fat mass; P<0.001 and P<0.05, respectively).

In light of the greater weight and fat loss achieved using IER as opposed to CER, as well as the lack of apparent deleterious effect of fast versus slow weight loss on muscle strength or lean mass despite markedly greater weight and fat loss, an NHMRC-funded randomised controlled trial, commencing 2018, aims to determine whether greater weight and fat loss – without greater loss of strength or lean tissues – can be achieved via intermittent use of fast weight loss in adults with overweight or obesity. If yes, then determining the mechanisms for any potential advantage of IER over CER (e.g. via reduced energy efficiency as a result of switching between carbohydrate and lipid or ketone oxidation in skeletal muscle) could enable IER interventions to be further improved. Moreover, future work to determine whether/how physical activity improves weight loss outcomes from IER (e.g. via attenuation of the drive to eat as a result of greater lean mass retention) could provide motivating reasons for people with overweight or obesity to exercise during weight loss interventions.

1. Byrne NM, Sainsbury A, King NA, Hills AP, Wood RE Intermittent energy restriction improves weight loss efficiency in obese men – the MATADOR study. International Journal of Obesity 2017 doi: 10.1038/ijo.2017.206 [Epub ahead of print]

Biography

With a Bachelor of Science from the University of Western Australia and a PhD from the University of Geneva, Switzerland, Professor Amanda Salis (publishing as Sainsbury) leads full-time research into dietary treatments for overweight and obesity at the University of Sydney’s Boden Institute of Obesity, Nutrition, Exercise & Eating Disorders in the Charles Perkins Centre. Her translational research into hypothalamic control of appetite, eating behavior, energy expenditure, body weight and body composition spans transgenic mice, adults with overweight or obesity, as well as adult athletes. Her randomized controlled trials comparing long-term effects of fast versus slow weight loss – using intermittent versus continuous energy restriction – are funded by a Senior Research Fellowship and Project Grants from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). She is the author of two books about adult weight management that are available internationally in three languages and are used by consumers, community health centres / gyms, and by healthcare professionals (e.g. general practitioners, physiotherapists, dieticians, diabetes educators and psychologists).

“Bio-inspired nanoclusters and bio-derived nanoparticles” Renee Goreham The MacDiarmid Institute, School of Chemical and Physical Sciences, University of Wellington

Megan Macnaughtan Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, Louisiana State University.

"Allostery, oligomerization, and the dual functions of the Chlamydia trachomatis protein, Scc4”

Dr. Christian Pflüger studied Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry at the Philipps University of Marburg (Germany) where he received his Masters degree. He then pursued a PhD in Oncological Sciences at the University of Utah (U.S.A.) studying mechanisms of active DNA demethylation, DNA methylation changes in male germ cells during the process of ageing and post-transcriptional changes of polyadenylation in maturing human oocytes. His passion for studying epigenetic mechanisms led him to take a post-doc position in Prof. Ryan Lister's laboratory at UWA where he is currently involved in developing molecular tools to gain a deeper understanding of targeted epigenetic changes and their impact on transcriptional regulation.

A proctored full-length GAMSAT mock exam will be held by Gold Standard on March 10, 2018 at the University Hall. Attendees will be provided online access to worked solutions, which can be reviewed at your own convenience.

There will also be a live webinar (which will be recorded) on March 11 at 7 pm AEST, to have an open discussion about the exam with our GAMSAT teacher, Dr Brett Ferdinand.

Other course options:

- 7 full days of GAMSAT training camp (Jan 20-25 and Mar 10, 2018)

- 3-day course: Science Review (Jan 20-22, 2018) or GAMSAT Mock Exam with Interactive Review (Jan 23-25, 2018)

- 1-day attendance to focus on your weak area: Bridging Course, Science Review (Day 2 or Day 3), Mock Test or Advanced GAMSAT Topic Course

All attendance course options include course handouts and small-group sessions.

There's a widespread belief that people who are good at maths can go into finance and become obscenely rich. This talk tries to put that in perspective by describing a common approach to algorithmic trading, and exploring some of the reasons why it's harder than it sounds.

The seminar will give you an overview of:

. Intellectual Property - what it is and why it’s important

. Patenting - what you need to get a patent

. Developing your idea - including sources of funding

. Commercialisation - how to put your ideas to use

This event is free for UWA staff and students to attend.

RSVP via Eventbrite by Tuesday 13th March.

Title: Understanding and expanding photosynthetic organisms for terpenoid production

Konstatinos Vavitsas University of Queensland

Robyn Steward is a researcher, author, educator and campaigner on the autism spectrum and passionate about including the perspectives of people on the autism spectrum in research, especially on topics which are important to them. She endeavours to ensure these perspectives are heard by the scientific community - that is, that autism research is done with autistic people, rather than on, to, or, for them. In this talk, Robyn will speak about some of the research in which she has led in the past few years, including work on ‘stimming’ or repetitive behaviours in autistic people, and research on autistic people’s experiences of menstruation. She will share her experiences of working with (non-autistic) autism researchers, and especially with early-career researchers and clinicians.

Breast milk protects against infant infections, increases intelligence quotient, and probably reduces overweight and diabetes in later life 1. In contrast, protective effect of breast milk on development of allergies is far from being established 1.

The main objective of our research is the identification of factors which could endow breastfeeding with the capacity to prevent allergic disease as potently as it does for infectious disease.

Our working hypothesis is that maternal milk composition has not adapted to the needs of allergy prevention due to the recent and rapid increase of allergy. Modulation of breast milk composition may be the best strategy to counteract allergy development. In particular, we propose that breastmilk factors could impact on long term allergy susceptibility by affecting oral tolerance induction to allergens2.

Our data in mice have highlighted that neonates are intrinsically refractory to oral immune tolerance induction3, 4. In contrast to adults, neonates require exogenous factors, such TGF-b and IgG, to be responsive to tolerance induction to orally administered antigen3, 4.. These immune-modulatory factors are physiologically brought by maternal milk and their variable levels, as well as of allergens, may explain inconsistent findings on prevention of allergy by breastfeeding2, 5, 6. We further demonstrated that the mechanisms of oral tolerance physiologically develop during the first post-natal weeks to become independent of maternal factors7, 8. Vitamin A in maternal milk was found to be essential for this physiological maturation process7, 8. Finally, we recently observed, both in the mice and in human birth cohorts, that some respiratory allergens such as from house dust mite, can be found in breast milk and increase the risk of allergic disease in offspring9, 10. Protease from house dust mite induce a Th2 gut immune imbalance in the neonate that prevents oral tolerance induction (Rekima et al, in revision).

The identification of factors in early life that condition gut immune ontogeny should help to improve strategies of prevention of both allergic2 and infectious disease11, 12 .

In partnership with the Property Education Foundation, UWA is hosting a property industry Meet the Leaders Speed Networking event on the 22nd March. All UWA students interested in a career in the property industry are welcome to attend including students studying Geography, Planning, Urban Design, Law and Business. Students will have the opportunity to network with each industry representative.

Industry Leaders:

Joe Lenzo Chairman, Property Education Foundation (Immediate Past Executive Director of Property Council of Australia)

Frank Marra CEO, Landcorp

Andrew Byars General Manager – Property Investments, Perron Group

Troy Leber Head, Property Finance West, Personal & Business Banking, Bankwest

Alison Robertson Portfolio Manager, Brookfield

Col Dutton General Manager, Stockland WA

Peter Beekink Partner, Head of Property & Leasing Services, Lavan Legal

Cath Blake-Powell Director & Principal TPG Town Planning & Urban Design

Registration is $10, follow the link below to sign up.

Friday, 23 Mar 2018, 12 noon

Title: Lewis acids: Versatile catalysts for fundamental transformations, polymerizations and H/D exchange

Drasko Vidovic

Monash University