News & Events
Nine Eureka moments
UNSW has finalists in nine categories of the Australian Museum Eureka Prizes – prestigious national awards that celebrate excellence in fields including scientific research, leadership, commercialisation and communication.
Outstanding researchers in evolution, quantum computing, chemistry, material science, medicine and the environment are among the individuals and teams vying for the prizes dubbed the “Oscars of Science”.
Caveman cravings? Rating the paleo diet
OPINION: Over the years, hundreds of diet books have claimed to have the perfect recipe for decreasing the national girth. They manipulate quantities of protein, fats or carbohydrates and most work in the short term because their inevitable restrictions cut energy intake.
Chemotherapy hope for hard-to-treat childhood cancers
Children with a particularly lethal cancer could benefit from potentially life-saving treatment, following breakthrough work led by researchers at the University of New South Wales (UNSW).
A whole new class of drugs has been developed that, for the first time, targets the structure of the cancer cell.
UNSW researchers have provided proof that the therapy is effective in two types of cancers in the animal model. They are neuroblastoma, a cancer that affects children, and melanoma. The resulting paper has been published in Cancer Research.
A fast way to slow dementia
Sharon Savage, who has proven that it is possible to improve the vocabulary of people with dementia in a short time-frame, is the winner of UNSW’s 3 Minute Thesis (3MT) competition.
With nothing more than a stopwatch, a stage and a simple slide, Sharon Savage was able to clearly communicate her thesis and impress the judges in 180 seconds, winning $3000 prize money and the opportunity to represent UNSW at the Australia & NZ final of the 3MT.
Music from the heart
Some Sydney jazz musicians are giving fresh meaning to improvisation, by using the sound and images of the human heart as part of their musical performance. The event is part of festivities for National Science Week (August 10 – 18).
The novel event, i Heart Music, is being hosted by the Museum of Human Disease at UNSW.
It’s part of a series of live performances that will be seen around the country, including Southbank in Melbourne, the CSIRO Discovery Centre in Canberra and regional centres.
Kidney disease as performance art
John Douglas, artist-in-residence at the UNSW Museum of Human Disease, appeared on ABC television’s 7.30 program discussing his performance piece about his terminal kidney disease.
Despite good prognosis, some turn a blind eye to genetic screening
Even if Australians with newly diagnosed bowel cancer were routinely tested for a genetic predisposition to further cancers, one in three people would still not take the necessary steps to use that information to prevent further disease.
Researchers from UNSW Medicine took the extra step of screening for the hereditary Lynch syndrome in the 2,100 people with colorectal cancer who presented at a number of NSW hospitals* over a three-year period.
Concert cacophony: short-term hearing loss protective, not damaging
Contrary to conventional wisdom, short-term hearing loss after sustained exposure to loud noise does not reflect damage to our hearing: instead, it is the body’s way to cope.
The landmark finding could lead to improved protection against noise-induced hearing loss in future.
The research, led by University of New South Wales Professor Gary Housley, has found that “reversible hearing loss” is a physiological adaptation mechanism, allowing the cochlea (the auditory portion of the inner ear) to perform normally when exposed to noise stress.
First model of how Sydney pollutants may drive childhood asthma
The first study of the effects of Sydney’s air pollution on the development of asthma has been carried out at UNSW.
Asthma affects one in six children, making it the most common chronic disease in young people. It most commonly develops in the first decade of life.
“Developing a proper model of childhood asthma involves long-term studies and controlled exposure to triggers in the environment, which requires a great deal of effort and has not been done before,” says UNSW Medicine’s Professor Rakesh Kumar, the team leader of the study.
Scholarships Funding to Support Translational Cancer Research PhD Projects
SoMS Supervisors with a good PhD project idea in the area of cancer, are encouraged to submit that idea to the Translational Cancer Research Network (TCRN) for funding support in 2013. Likewise, prospective PhD students are encouraged to apply for the two APA scholarships available through this scheme.