News

Each year thousands of Australians are affected by chronic disease. Diseases such as diabetes, arthritis, infection and cancers are often life threatening and debilitating, and ongoing research holds the key to preventing and managing them.

Three UQDI researchers have recently received an Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering Young Science Ambassador (ATSE) award.

UQDI's Professor Ian Frazer, inventor of the cervical cancer vaccine and 2006 Australian of the Year, has been awarded a 2012 Bupa Health Foundation Award.

The University of Queensland Diamantina Institute’s researchers have played a leading role in a recent study into osteoporosis, more than doubling the number of currently known genes in the disease.

A protein produced by bone cells could help in the development of better treatments for osteoporosis.

The vision of a specialised centre to better understand and treat head and neck cancers will come to fruition — thanks to $15 million funding from Atlantic Philanthropies, the Queensland Government and the Princess Alexandra Hospital.

Professor Ian Frazer has been named as one of seven of Australia's new National Living Treasures in Sydney yesterday.

Following on from the success of last year’s UQDI and UQCCG collaborative approach of gene-mapping a new form of dwarfism (anauxetic dysplasia), yet another achievement in the genetics of skeletal dysplasias has come to light.

A new method of genetic analysis developed by researchers based at the Queensland Brain Institute (QBI), The University of Queensland Diamantina Institute (UQDI) and the Queensland Institute of Medical Research (QIMR), has shed fresh light on the elusive genetic underpinnings of schizophrenia.

Since 2005, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have successfully identified thousands of genes responsible for common human diseases.

UQDI’s Professor Ranjeny Thomas has been named as a finalist in the Health category of the Australian Innovation Challenge Awards for her development of a rheumatoid arthritis vaccine.

UQDI’s Dr Ray Steptoe has been announced as a winner of an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship for 2011.

As part of The University of Queensland's Global Challenge Leadership Series being held in China this month, modern medicine and genetics, nano and biotechnologies will be some of the topics discussed in Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing from October 21 to 26.

Coridon Pty Ltd, a University of Queensland (UQ) start-up company established to commercialise Professor Ian Frazer’s work in developing next generation DNA vaccines, has successfully completed pre-clinical efficacy testing of its prototype Herpes Simplex Virus 2 (HSV-2) vaccine, with outstanding results.