A luncheon co-hosted by the Australian Friends of the Hebrew University and the Sir Zelman Cowen Universities Fund was the occasion for the presentation of the 2012 award of the Sir Zelman Cowen Universities Fund Prize For Discovery In Medical Research to Associate Professor Barry Slobedman, Sydney Medical School and Westmead Millennium Institute.<\/p>\n
Professor Slobedman was nominated for the Prize for discoveries which have profoundly changed our\u00a0understanding of how the human cytomegalovirus (CMV) can persist in a dormant state for the life of the human\u00a0host, despite the presence of a huge anti-viral immune response.<\/p>\n
The discovery provides a novel drug target for\u00a0development of therapies to interrupt the dormant state of infection, and so limit or prevent the devastating\u00a0consequences of reactivation from dormancy in immunocompromised individuals such as transplant patients.<\/p>\n
It\u00a0may also lead to development of a live CMV vaccine. Its potential for clinical applications has led to an\u00a0international patent sponsored by Sydnovate, the commercial arm of the University of Sydney.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the function, Professor Slobedman explained that the true significance of his work lay not just in its\u00a0value to the immunocompromised individuals, in whom this virus might come out of its dormant state to cause\u00a0harm, but also to new born babies and young children.<\/p>\n
Despite being rarely heard of, he explained, “This virus is\u00a0the number one infectious disease that occurs in the developing fetus during pregnancy, often with devastating\u00a0consequences. The really nasty aspect to this infection is that the pregnant women usually have no symptoms of
\ninfection, and so are oblivious to the damage being caused by this virus to their developing fetus.<\/p>\n
“This infection\u00a0often leads to interuterine death (stillbirth), or birth of babies with profound neurological defects, such as mental\u00a0retardation and hearing loss. In fact, CMV causes more serious disease than Down Syndrome, neural tube defects\u00a0such as spinal bifida, and fetal alcohol syndrome. Yet only a small minority of pregnant women (and others in the
\ncommunity) have ever heard of CMV.”<\/p>\n
Moreover he said, \u201cCMV infection does not only occur in pregnant women\u00a0and transplant recipients. Rather, most of the world\u2019s population is actually infected with this virus.<\/p>\n
“For example, if\u00a0I took some blood from everyone in this room, I can say with some certainty that about 70% of the people in this\u00a0room would currently be infected with CMV.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou may have caught this virus as a toddler or in your early adult years, but you probably never had any\u00a0symptoms of infection. This is because your body mounted a huge immune response to control the virus before it\u00a0could cause disease.<\/p>\n
“The problem is that, whilst your immune system largely prevented you from experiencing\u00a0symptoms of disease, it was never able to completely eliminate the virus from your body. Instead, this virus has\u00a0very cleverly worked out a way to hide in your body, for the rest of your life, by converting itself into a dormant\u00a0state called latency, where it waits for an opportunity to reawaken and cause disease.<\/p>\n
“So, even though a massive\u00a0proportion of your immune cells become specifically programmed to detect and kill only CMV infected cells, these\u00a0\u201csoldiers\u201d of your immune system are never able to recognize and eliminate the dormant virus from your body.<\/p>\n
This, as my team discovered, is because even when this virus is in its dormant form, it remains active, and makes a\u00a0protein which renders infected cells invisible to the CMV-specific immune soldiers.<\/p>\n
“Thus, even though our immune\u00a0soldiers are fully functional, with their \u201cgun-sights\u201d aimed at CMV, they simply can\u2019t see which cells contain\u00a0CMV, and so pass by infected cells, without realizing that they are the cells which should be destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n
In conclusion, Professor Slobedman said, \u201cThis work has now also led to a whole new area of research at an\u00a0international level into understanding how CMV controls the immune system, even when the virus is in its dormant\u00a0form, as this was a previously unrecognised phenomenon.<\/p>\n
We continue to work hard at defining the key parts of\u00a0CMV that should be targeted with anti-viral drugs and will also need to be considered in developing a vaccine\u00a0against CMV.\u201d<\/p>\n
On receiving the Prize, Professor Slobedman also acknowledged and thanked the many members of his team for\u00a0their contributions to his work. He gave particular thanks to Professors Tony Cunningham, Warwick Britton and\u00a0Craig Mellis for their mentorship and support and special thanks to his nominator, Professor Allison Abendroth.<\/p>\n
The Prize, an award of $10,000 and a medal crafted by renowned Melbourne sculptor, Michael Meszaros, was\u00a0presented to Professor Slobedman by Wendy Morel of The Schwartz Foundation, sponsors of the 2012 award of\u00a0the Prize.<\/p>\n
The Prize is presented in alternate years at the University of Sydney and at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. It\u00a0is just one of a number of initiatives of the Sir Zelman Cowen Universities Fund supporting medical research and\u00a0promoting co-operative work between the two Universities.<\/p>\n
Professor Shy Arkin, Head of the Authority for Research and Development at the Hebrew University, and the\u00a0Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) of the University of Sydney, Professor Jill Trewhella, both attended the\u00a0function and spoke about recent highlights in medical and scientific research at their universities, as well as\u00a0providing their own perspectives on co-operative research between universities.<\/p>\n
Professor Arkin emphasised the enormous benefits researchers and universities were able to gain from strategic\u00a0alliances between research groups at various universities which allowed a reduction in costs and quicker outcomes as\u00a0ideas and resources were shared rather than repetitively re-invented for sole use.<\/p>\n
Through such alliances he said, it\u00a0became possible for 2 plus 2 to become greater than 5. He said that, as Head of the Authority for Research and\u00a0Development at the Hebrew University, he felt that one of the most important aspects of his role was not to\u00a0interfere. It was particularly pleasing to have seen many projects flourish, including those between scientists of HU
\nand Sydney University such as the collaborations supported by the Fund\u2019s Blue Sky Research Grant Program\u00a0between Professors Yehudit Bergman (HU) and Jacob George (USYD).<\/p>\n
Professor Trewhella highlighted a number of ground breaking projects currently underway at the University of\u00a0Sydney, which are coincidently being carried out by scientists who have received support from the Fund to assist\u00a0them in, for instance, making the trips between universities sometimes needed to set-up and or progress collaborative\u00a0projects.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of those researchers\u201d she said \u201cis Professor Tony Weiss, who is developing ways to use his understanding of\u00a0the properties of human tropoelastin protein to synthesise biomaterials that can augment and repair human tissues.<\/p>\n
“The latest discovery from his work is the development of sophisticated blends of tropoelastin and silk to make multifunctional\u00a0materials that have been found to direct tissue growth. Professor Weiss, with colleagues from\u00a0Engineering at Sydney University RPAH, collaborates with researchers all over the world; including Tufts University, MIT, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is currently developing scalable units of these\u00a0biomaterials for building vascularised cardiac grafts that will enable us to replace damaged blood vessels, work that\u00a0has direct relevance for treating cardiovascular diseases.\u201d<\/p>\n
She went on to trace a number of equally forward-looking\u00a0examples of what may be possible in the not-too-distant future.<\/p>\n
She said, \u201cBreakthroughs in research most frequently come as a result of work at the interfaces of the disciplines,\u00a0when methodology or capability from one discipline impacts other areas. Such breakthroughs often require state-ofthe-art\u00a0research infrastructure which the Charles Perkins Centre will provide.<\/p>\n
“Tropoelastin inspired biomaterials are\u00a0one example of what is essentially \u201cmaterials research\u201d having an impact in medicine and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another\u00a0example she gave was the work of Professor Nicholas King who is using nanotechnology as part of his research\u00a0aimed at treatments for autoimmune diseases, particularly multiple sclerosis but also potentially type 1 diabetes and\u00a0rheumatoid arthritis, as well as immune-mediated diseases, such as food allergy and asthma.<\/p>\n
While current therapies\u00a0work by suppressing the immune systems attack on it-self, a big advantage of Prof King\u2019s new approach is that, \u201c It\u00a0does not cause blanket immunosuppression, but only causes a specific tolerance to the myelin proteins that are key to\u00a0the development of multiple sclerosis. This technique is much cheaper to produce, easier to standardise than other
\ntechniques, and is based on a biodegradable nanoparticle already approved by the Federal Drug Administration.<\/p>\n
Professor King collaborates with a group at Northwestern University in this work and also has collaborative\u00a0links to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem supported by the Zelman Cowen Fund.<\/p>\n
The presentations brought to life for the audience, the impact and value of the Fund\u2019s support and vision in helping\u00a0to make scientific breakthroughs into medical applications.<\/p>\n
The Sir Zelman Cowen Universities Fund was established in 1978 by the late John Hammond, a Sydney \u00a0businessman, to raise funds for medical and scientific research and to lay the foundation for cooperative work\u00a0between the University of Sydney and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.<\/p>\n
Currently, the Fund supports a number\u00a0of scientific projects between the two Universities, a program of student and academic exchange, the Fund Prize for\u00a0Medical Research, the SZCUF Alzheimer’s Disease Research Grant and most recently, the Blue Sky Research\u00a0Grant Program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A luncheon co-hosted by the Australian Friends of the Hebrew University and the Sir Zelman Cowen Universities Fund was the occasion for the presentation of the 2012 award of the Sir Zelman Cowen Universities Fund Prize For Discovery In Medical Research to Associate Professor Barry Slobedman, Sydney Medical School and Westmead Millennium Institute. Professor Slobedman […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2446,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"categories":[19],"class_list":["post-2478","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cat-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/2478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}