WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research)
WEHI is where the world’s brightest minds collaborate and innovate to make life-changing scientific discoveries that help people live healthier for longer. Our medical researchers have been serving the community for more than 100 years, making transformative discoveries in cancers, infectious and immune diseases, developmental disorders and healthy ageing. WEHI brings together diverse and creative people with different experience and expertise to solve some of the world’s most complex health problems. With partners across science, health, government, industry, and philanthropy, we are committed to long-term discovery, collaboration and translation. At WEHI, we are brighter together.
Ashley Ng, WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research)
In this third instalment of GM in Australia – a series looking at the facts, ethics, regulations and research into genetically modified crops – Ashley Ng explains how GM foods are determined safe to eat…
A controversial retracted study has now been republished but there’s little difference between the two papers.
Brian Talbot/Flickr
David Vaux, WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research)
A controversial 2012 paper on the effects of genetically modified (GM) maize and the herbicide glyphosate on tumour growth in rats – a paper later retracted by the journal – has been republished, with…
The stories behind Australia’s medical successes have often gone unreported.
Flickr: jpalinsad360
Gustav Nossal, WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research)
The history of Australian medical research is an unabashed good news story: it’s led to many astounding yet common medical treatments and to better understanding of disease. In fact, as a society we benefit…
A more effective treatment for preventing recurrence of breast cancer has emerged.
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A more effective therapy has emerged for preventing hormone-sensitive breast cancers returning in younger women. A global study, published overnight in the New England Journal of Medicine, has shown that…
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (red helmet) is briefed about tanks containing radioactive water by Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant chief Akira Ono.
EPA/Sankei Shimbun Pool
Ashley Ng, WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research)
Many readers will know the name Mark Willacy, an Australian journalist who was the ABC’s North Asian correspondent for five years. On March 11, 2011, he would witness events that would redefine Japan as…
Prime Minister Tony Abbott on the day his government handed down its first Budget.
AAP/Lukas Coch
Suzanne Cory, WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research)
When the freshly-minted Prime Minister Tony Abbott declined for the first time since 1931 to appoint a science minister as part of his Cabinet in September last year, he did so having made an election…
Joe Hockey is congratulated after delivering his first budget, which outlined plans for a medical research future fund.
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Douglas Hilton, WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research)
The federal government has announced a $20 billion medical research future fund, which is expected to distribute $1 billion to research by 2022-23, doubling its direct medical research funding. The announcement…
There’s no quick fix for the research industry in Australia, it needs a considered approach.
Flickr/US Army RDECOM
Douglas Hilton, WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research)
Most researchers would agree with the Commission of Audit’s finding that “given overall budget constraints, it is important to take a strategic, whole-of-government approach to where Australia’s research…
Genome sequencing has the potential to improve the diagnosis of conditions caused by changes in the DNA.
Image from shutterstock.com
Clara Gaff, WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research) and Ivan Macciocca, WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research)
Rapid technological advances mean it’s faster and cheaper than ever to read a person’s entire genetic code, known as the genome. Genomic sequencing has two potential applications in health: the care of…
Before the technology can used more widely, we need to ensure its use will bring improvements in health, quality and duration of life.
Image from shutterstock.com
Clara Gaff, WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research) and Paul Waring, The University of Melbourne
Sydney’s Garvan Institute is this week promoting its acquisition of an Illumina machine which it says can sequence the whole human genome for $1,000. The institute hopes genomic sequencing will become…
Terry Speed plus maths and stats equals Prime Minister’s Prize for Science 2013.
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Terry Speed, WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research)
The Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science recognise excellence in science and science teaching. This year, we asked three prizewinners to reflect on their work and factors that influenced their careers…
Professor Terence Paul Speed wins the coveted Prime Minister’s Prize for Science at age 70.
Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science/Bearcage
Australian mathematician and statistician Terry Speed has been awarded the 2013 Prime Minister’s Prize for Science for giving biologists the statistical tools needed to fight cancer, and for a lifetime…
Women who take time off research to have children face funding obstacles when returning to the workforce.
Cia de Foto
Kim Jacobson, WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research)
A glass ceiling remains in place for female medical research scientists in Australia. Although approximately 50% of PhD students and postdoctoral scientists are female, males run the majority of research…
Drugs used in type 2 diabetes could help treat some ovarian cancers.
Hospital bed image from www.shutterstock.com
A team of international researchers has identified a key pathway in some aggressive ovarian tumours that could be targeted with medications currently used to treat type 2 diabetes. The study, led by Dr…
Tamoxifen may offer hope for women with a gene mutation that puts them at a high risk of developing breast cancer.
Paloma León y Luismi Cavallé
Use of the anti-cancer drug Tamoxifen is associated with a dramatically reduced risk of developing a second breast tumour among women with a high risk gene mutation who have experienced breast cancer already…
What exactly is enterobacteriaceae? And how did we get ourselves into this situation?
Image from shutterstock.com
Samar Ojaimi, WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research)
International health officials recently warned of a “catastrophic threat” to human health, given one of the last remaining antibiotics capable of defeating superbugs – carbapenem antibiotics – is succumbing…
Now, no cheating: why doesn’t Australia have its own Office for Research Integrity?
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David Vaux, WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research)
Science is knowledge gained from reproducible observations or experiments. Yet in a commentary in Nature in May last year, researchers from biotechnology company Amgen reported that the findings in 90…
The new compound, when combined with conventional drugs, has shown promising early results in the treatment of some types of breast cancer, tests on mice showed.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/topekalibrary
Combining a special anti-cancer compound with conventional cancer-fighting drugs can slow down the growth of the most common form of breast cancer and can even cause some tumours to disappear completely…
Here is the full text of a speech given by the President of the Australian Academy of Science, Professor Suzanne Cory, to the National Press Club. Thank you Laurie. Distinguished guests, friends, colleagues…
Research breakthroughs such as new cancer drugs can take decades of research, Professor Cory said, and long term funding plans are needed.
AAP Image/David Crosling
Australia must boost its research and development investment to at least the level of other OECD and Asian competitors, the chief of the Australian Academy of Science said today, warning that inaction…