Chairman outlines key Health and Medical Research issues at Garvan AGM

15 May 2012 Chairman of Garvan, Mr Bill Ferris AC, welcomed The Hon Jillian Skinner (Minister for Health and Minister for Medical Research), as well as incoming Executive Director Professor John Mattick, at this year's Annual General Meeting, held on 1 May, 2012. In his address he outlined what he sees emerging as 10 key issues / questions for resolution in the two Health and Medical Research reviews that are currently taking place - one at State, the other at Federal level. More

Weight loss reduces artery stiffness in Type 2 diabetes

MEDIA RELEASE: 02 May 2012 A Garvan study shows that losing 6 kg reduces artery stiffness by 20% in obese people with Type 2 diabetes. Diabetes carries a six-fold greater risk of heart disease due to atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries. Cardiovascular disease is the commonest cause of death in people with diabetes – accounting for 68% of all deaths. More

Potential gene therapy for patients with rare disease

MEDIA RELEASE: 11 Apr 2012 Australian scientists have discovered that a biological phenomenon known as ‘somatic reversion’, when an abnormal gene spontaneously becomes normal again, explains why some patients with a rare genetic disorder live much longer than they should. The finding provides hope for future gene therapy treatments. More

Rotary awards Garvan epigeneticist in 2012

28 Mar 2012 Garvan’s Professor Susan Clark has received a Rotary Award for Vocational Excellence in recognition of her major contributions to the field of ‘epigenetics’. Epigenetics is a branch of research that seeks to understand changes that occur in the function of genes without a change in the genome sequence. More

Mathematicians solving today’s problems of ‘systems biology’

MEDIA RELEASE: 21 Mar 2012 The current challenge for systems biology, or the study of whole body processes, is how to measure the changes that take place, moment by moment, among roughly 12,000 proteins in a cell when that cell is exposed to a stimulus – such as the hormone insulin. Bioinformaticians have now created clever software that allows exactly this kind of processing. More

Potential to adjust the volume control on our immune response

MEDIA RELEASE: 16 Mar 2012 Garvan scientists have shown for the first time that people need a specific gene for a critical component of the immune system to function properly. By amplifying or blocking the function of this gene, they suggest, we might be better able to fight immunodeficient states, cancers and autoimmune diseases in the future. More

Creating “death-defying” insulin-producing islets for transplantation

MEDIA RELEASE: 13 Mar 2012 Garvan scientists have identified one way of making a frustratingly tricky transplant – of insulin-producing ‘islets of Langerhans’ into patients with Type 1 diabetes – more successful. Part of the Commonwealth-funded Australian Islet Transplant Consortium formed in 2006, the Garvan team has found that islets are severely handicapped from the outset. Before they ever reach their mark, they are full of inflammatory molecules, much like stressed or damaged tissue. More

Professor John Mattick wins prestigious HUGO Chen Award

MEDIA RELEASE: 12 Mar 2012 Professor John Mattick AO FAA FRCPA, Garvan's Executive Director, will be presented with the Chen Award 2012 for Distinguished Academic Achievement in Human Genetic and Genomic Research, by the Human Genome Organisation (HUGO) on Wednesday evening - after he has delivered the President's Oration. More