The malaria parasite, the tomato trichome and the honeybee’s knees

Two of the biggest conferences in the life sciences – ComBio and AusBiotech – are previewed in the September/October issue of Australian Life Scientist, published today.

We take a look at the ancient war between the human immune system and the malaria parasite, and how Alan Cowman and his team are planning guerrilla warfare against Plasmodium falciparum, hoping to turn the parasite’s key defence strategy against itself.

We look at Thermus thermophilus and its unusual proton pump, and how to regenerate science the ARMI (Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute) way.

Then, in our ComBio 2008 preview feature, we talk to:

• Rob Last of Michigan State University about the tomato trichome project

• Dean DellaPenna, also from Michigan State, about a golden period of research into plant metabolism

• Allison Cowin from Adelaide’s Women’s and Children’s Health Research Institute about the Flii protein and its role in wound healing

• Paul Trainor from the Stowers Institute in the US about craniofacial development and congenital birth defects

• Ryszard Maleszka from the Australian National University, about DNA methylation and the queen bee, and

• Sue Corley, also from ANU, about the Shadoo protein and its position in the prion protein family.

We also take a look at AusBiotech 2008, the annual conference for Australia’s biotechnology industry. We talk to AusBiotech CEO Anna Lavelle about building a bioeconomy, and former US FDA commissioner Lester Crawford about what to expect from the coming US presidential election and new regulations that will affect both Australia’s biotechnology and clinical trials sector.

We profile some of Australia’s best and emerging biotech and pharma companies, including Antisense Therapeutics, Xenome, Special Phage Holdings, Bionomics, Helicon Group and Orthocell.

In our microscopy and image analysis feature, we talk to Philip Doble about his new elemental bioimaging facility, Wolfgang Weninger about multiphoton microscopy and capturing T cells attaching to tumours and slowly killing them, and to Pascal Valloton about vesicle-membrane fusion events.

As always, ALS features all of the latest products and methods on the market in Lab News, local and international conference dates in Events, and what to put on the shelves in Bookshop.

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