Khachigian's magic strikes again

University of New South Wales vascular biologist Professor Levon Khachigian has won the Australian Museum's Eureka Prize for Medical Research.

Khachigian was recognised for his work in furthering the understanding of transcriptional control in blood vessels by using innovative small-molecule gene-targeting agents as inhibitors of angiogenesis, inflammation and intimal thickening.

These small molecule drugs may have far-reaching therapeutic effects on the treatment of cardiovascular disease and other conditions involving inflammation, such as rheumatoid arthritis and both ageing and diabetes-induced-blindness.

Khachigian's 'DNAzymes' - or 'magic bullets' as he calls them - offer the promise of a long-awaited alternative and will be clinically trialled in humans from 2009.

"I like to think of our small molecule drugs as a 'toolbox of nanoassassins', which we can use to target and shoot down bad gene products," Khachigian said.

"These exceptionally innovative molecular agents prevent damage after a cardiovascular event by targeting and removing problematic genes. And, because these same problematic genes are commanders in many other diseases, there is real potential to apply these assassins to other diseases like cancer."

Khachigian said he hoped the research would result in less suffering, fewer repeat procedures and faster recovery for cardiovascular patients.

This is Khachigian's second Eureka prize in five years; he won a prize for scientific research in 2003.

UNSW also did well through the Eureka Prize for research which replaces the use of animals or animal products, which was awarded to Children's Cancer Institute of Australia/UNSW researchers Associate Professor Maria Kavallaris and Dr Sela Pouha and their University of Newcastle colleague Dr Nicole Verrills.

The trio were awarded for identifying drug resistant cancer cells without animal testing.

Using new molecular biology and tissue culture technologies, the Kavallaris team not only discovered what makes certain cancer cells unresponsive to treatment, but did so without using traditional animal test subjects.

By removing animal models, Kavallaris and her team looked directly at the protein pathways involved in the response to drug resistance and have successfully identified the specific resistant protein.

The research is particularly relevant to the treatment of leukemia.