THE UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND IN AMERICA, INC - TUQIA

Contact us: +1 202 459 7718

Honey and money: invention has beekeepers abuzz

by

Bee venom that can be used for cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and research into dementia, HIV and arthritis can now be easily and profitably harvested thanks to a University of Queensland student’s invention.

UQ Master of Biotechnology student James Watts and his team have invented a venom collector that is notably safer for bees than previous harvesting techniques, and can provide significant additional income for beekeepers.

“Research has suggested that beekeepers using existing venom collectors located on the inside of a hive can kill up to 60 per cent of bees in a colony,” Mr Watts said.

“This is due to stress-inducing alarm pheromones, which are volatile and can stay in the hives well past the time that the harvester has been used.”

His new invention, the Mk1 Bee Venom Collector, is low-impact and external to the hive, saving bees’ lives and making collection easier than ever.

“And, if you’re an amateur beekeeper, it’s also an amazing opportunity to make money,” he said.

“Bee venom can sell for more than $120 per gram, as it’s extremely valuable to cosmetics companies and researchers, and it only takes about an hour to get the venom from the hive.

“There are a lot of variables, with no guarantees, but if you have five hives in your backyard, you could be looking at additional income of up to $2000 per month.”

The device works by using a small pulsation, which the majority of bees do not sense, but a hypersensitive bee will notice the pulse and then sting a glass collection plate.

Mr Watts developed his invention after conducting research with small polypeptide amino acids in a UQ lab; soon realising he needed a steady source of them to further his research.

“We needed enough bee venom to get through our experiments,” he said.

“Thankfully, being beekeepers ourselves, it made sense to work with what we had, and over the last couple of years we’ve been working to create newer, better versions of the device.

“After using the venom for our own research purposes, in 2018 we sold our first creation – the Mk0.5 – realising that other beekeepers were interested in collecting their own venom.”

Mr Watts and his company Whale Labs are now hoping to use the power of crowdfunding, through an Indiegogo campaign, bringing their latest iteration to the rest of the world.

“The Mk1 has a unique design and is perfectly tuned to ensure the safety of bees, while also collecting a substantial quantity of venom,” he said.

“It’s opening up the industry for the common bee keeper to actually get into bee venom collection.”

“I’m thrilled to be helping people harvest venom, which might someday be used to help transform industry and medicine.”

Media: James Watts, james@whalelabs.com.au, +61 450 929 843; Dominic Jarvis, dominic.jarvis@uq.edu.au, +61 413 334 924.

Brisbane education leader recognised with coveted award

by

The University of Queensland’s position as a leader in philanthropy has been recognised with a prestigious international award.

The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) has bestowed the Asia-Pacific Leadership Award on UQ Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Peter Høj AC in recognition of his philanthropic leadership.

Welcoming the honour, Professor Høj said the people who had really earned it were the UQ staff who partnered with generous and thoughtful donors.

“This award is recognition of the growing number of supporters who believe in our students and research,” he said.

“It’s particularly pleasing to receive this award as the University reaches 79 per cent of its ambitious $500 million fundraising goal through Not If, When — the Campaign to Create Change, due for completion in 2020.”

Having been in preparation for several years, but officially launched in October 2017, the campaign has already supported the development of a potential treatment for dementia and provided scholarships for thousands of deserving students.

“The Not if, when campaign is a team effort — so this award is recognition of the team that works with our generous donor community to support vital research and promising students,” Professor Høj said.

The award will be presented at the 2019 CASE Asia-Pacific Advancement Conference to be held in Brisbane April 8-11, 2019.

CASE President and CEO Ms Sue Cunningham congratulated Professor Høj and The University of Queensland on the success of the campaign.

“Leadership commitment is vital to achieving success in institutional advancement. It’s wonderful to recognise Professor Peter Høj for his vision for advancing education to change lives and society,” she said.

“It is particularly fitting to present this award in Brisbane at the CASE Asia-Pacific Advancement Conference, the first time CASE has held this event in Australia.”

The Not if, when campaign, which has received global recognition in its own right, has today expanded with a new instalment of stories illustrating what donors have achieved in partnership with UQ and what more can be done to support students and research.

The stories include students from rural and refugee backgrounds and the work of a medical researcher pioneering a world-first treatment for stroke.

University of Queensland Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Advancement) Ms Jennifer Karlson said the stories demonstrate what impact can be achieved when community members partner with UQ.

“We have made great gains thanks to the generosity of our community of donors, but there is still so much more for us to accomplish – these stories showcase why students and researchers need further philanthropic support.”

In addition to seeking philanthropic support, the campaign seeks to inspire UQ’s more than 270,000 alumni to reconnect or deepen their relationship with the University.

“Last year, 85 per cent of our donors were alumni, which is extraordinary and demonstrates how the sense of community fostered at UQ continues long after study concludes,” Ms Karlson said.

“Their generosity builds a legacy for future generations.”

You can watch the latest campaign video here or support students, research or teaching here.

Media: Mikaeli Costello, mikaeli.costello@uq.edu.au,+61 7 3346 3913, +61 401 580 685.

Professor Høj will receive the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) Asia-Pacific Leadership Award at the 2019 CASE Asia-Pacific Advancement Conference (APAC) in Brisbane at 8.30am on Wednesday, April 10, 2019.

About CASE Asia-Pacific Leadership Award

The CASE Asia-Pacific Leadership Award recognises CASE member institutional heads, presidents, chancellors, system heads or other campus chief executive officers for outstanding efforts in promoting and supporting education and institutional advancement.

Past Leadership Award winners from Australia include:

  • 2017 Professor Margaret Gardner AO, President and Vice-Chancellor, Monash University
  • 2016 Professor Peter Coaldrake AO, Vice-Chancellor, Queensland University of Technology
  • 2013 Glyn Davis AC, Vice-Chancellor and Principal, University of Melbourne
  • 2011 Paul Johnson, Vice-Chancellor, La Trobe University
  • 2009 Paul Thomas AM, Vice-Chancellor, University of the Sunshine Coast
  • 2008 Paul Sheahan AM, Headmaster, Melbourne Grammar School

About CASE Asia-Pacific Advancement Conference

The CASE Asia-Pacific Advancement Conference (APAC) is an annual four-day conference delivered through a variety of plenary and concurrent sessions as well as roundtable discussions to equip advancement professionals with vital skills to succeed in the ever-changing advancement landscape.
For the first time in its 12-year history, the Conference is held in Brisbane, Australia. With approximately 45 sessions in various tracks covering Admissions, Advancement Services, Alumni and Community Engagement, Fundraising, and Marketing and Communications, and an expanded lineup of more than 100 speakers, APAC 2019 is the largest CASE conference in this part of the globe.

About CASE

CASE believes in advancing education to transform lives and society. As a global non-profit membership association of educational institutions, CASE helps develop the communities of professional practice that build institutional resilience and success in challenging times. The communities include staff engaged in alumni relations, fundraising, marketing, student recruitment, stakeholder engagement, crisis communications and government relations. CASE is volunteer-led and uses the intellectual capital of senior practitioners to build capacity and capability across the world.

CASE has offices in Washington, D.C., London, Singapore and Mexico City. Member institutions include more than 3,700 colleges and universities, primary and secondary independent and international schools, and non-profit organisations in 82 countries. CASE serves nearly 88,000 practitioners. For more information about CASE, please visit www.case.org.

New gene hunt reveals potential breast cancer treatment target

by

Australian and US researchers have developed a way to discover elusive cancer-promoting genes, and have already identified one that appears to promote aggressive breast cancers.

The University of Queensland and Albert Einstein College of Medicine team has developed a statistical approach to reveal many previously hard-to-find genes that contribute to cancer.

Associate Professor Jess Mar, of UQ’s Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, said the majority of ‘oncogenes’ identified to date showed up in most patients with a particular cancer type.

“When you average the data across those patients, those common oncogenes tend to stand out, but they don’t paint the full picture,” Dr Mar said.

“Even if a group of people all have the same type or even subtype of cancer, the molecular makeup of that cancer is different from person to person because the activity of genes vary between people,” she said.

“If an oncogene is over-active in one group of patients but inactive in another group, that’s statistically harder to see using the tools that we had available.

“If you only look at the average activity of a gene across the two groups, you’d never see the high activity in the first group.”

The Oncomix method enables researchers to ‘zoom in’ on genetic information from cancer patients and identify genes with two distinct ‘bumps’ of data – low activity in one group of patients but high activity in another.

“We’re acknowledging that there is diversity among cancer patients, but we’re still looking for trends in the data that pertain to groups of people,” Dr Mar said.

Dr Mar and her colleagues used Oncomix to examine breast cancer data from The Cancer Genome Atlas patient database.

They identified five genes that were over-active in a subset of breast cancer patients and followed up on the most promising target, known as CBX2.

“Previous studies have shown that most healthy female tissue has low levels of CBX2 activity, while an aggressive subtype of breast cancer has been shown to have high levels of CBX2 activity,” Dr Mar said.

“This suggested a possible link between CBX2 activity and breast cancer, but the nature of that link hadn’t been investigated.

“So we switched off the gene in a human breast cancer cell line and this slowed down the growth of those cancer cells, suggesting that CBX2 might promote tumour growth.”

Dr Mar said if further tests confirmed that CBX2 was an oncogene, it could be a potential therapeutic drug target for aggressive types of breast cancer.

“This discovery highlights the potential value of the Oncomix approach,” Dr Mar said.

“Identifying ‘hidden’ oncogenes that are unique to smaller groups of cancer patients will open up new therapeutic avenues and move us closer to personalised medicine.”

Oncomix is now a publicly-available, open source software tool, and the study is published in the British Journal of Cancer.

Media: Associate Professor Jessica Mar, j.mar@uq.edu.au, +61 490 733 703; Dr Fiona McMillan, f.mcmillan@uq.edu.au, +61 7 3346 3962, +61 435 239 544.

The Fast and the Studious

by

UQ student Harri Jones is quickly establishing himself as one of Queensland’s up-and-coming motorsport stars, while achieving outstanding results on his way to an engineering degree.

Harri Jones doesn’t seem to notice the snarling engine bursts or the deafening rap of the impact wrench tightening the wheels of his glistening white Porsche 911 GT3.

His mind is processing the final instructions being barked at him through his race helmet.

He does his best to ignore the heat – it’s mid-January and the temperature has climbed above 30 degrees inside the car. It will only get hotter out on the track. He’s used to this pre-race routine. At just 19 years old, Jones has already established himself as a force on four wheels after taking out the Australian Formula 3 Championship in 2018.

But today is different. Today is the first time he has test-driven the Porsche after joining the McElrea Racing team as a driver in the 2019 Porsche Michelin GT3 Cup Challenge Australia series.

As he pulls the car out of pit lane and accelerates confidently down the Queensland Raceway track for his first laps, it’s obvious he already feels right at home.

Jones puts the car through its paces – hurtling down the straight in a blur and hurling the 460-horsepower machine into the tight corners. Ten laps later he eases the car back into pit lane to debrief with his team.

As both machine and driver cool down, Jones describes what it’s like to be behind the wheel at speeds of up to 250 kilometres per hour.

“There’s a lot going through your head just before a race,” Jones said.

“It can be quite nerve-racking, but it’s important to settle those nerves before you get out on the track.

“Things happen really quickly and you have to be switched on to ensure that you don’t crash, and that you’re leading the pack into the first corner.”

Despite the high speeds and the high stakes, Jones rarely feels scared before a race.

“These cars are built purely for racing,” he said while casually perching himself on the Porsche’s sleek bonnet.

“When you’re strapped in, it doesn’t feel like you’re travelling that fast. Everything seems to slow down and you get into a rhythm.

“But as soon as you make a mistake or something happens in front of you, that’s when you snap back to reality and realise how fast you’re actually going.”

Jones inherited his need for speed from his father, Peter, a veteran of the Queensland motorsport industry.

“Dad’s raced a variety of cars during his career, and he’s owned a few fun cars as well. As a passenger, I remember the adrenaline rush every time he put his foot down on the accelerator and I’ve been chasing that feeling ever since.”

But Jones didn’t follow the typical path into motorsport like many of his competitors.

While other drivers his age were honing their skills in junior go-kart championships, Jones was bumping and weaving his way across the country on the downhill mountain bike circuit.

“Mountain biking is very different to racing cars, but there are some similar fundamental aspects,” Jones said.

“Moving into motorsport at 15 – against kids who are usually hopping out of go-karts – had its drawbacks, but I’ve been able to claw my way back to their level.”

Jones began his four-wheel career in 2015 in the Queensland Formula Ford Championship, finishing second in the overall series before stepping up to the Australian Formula Ford Championship for the next two years.

He stepped up another class to the Australian Formula 3 Championship in 2018, winning the title at just 18 years of age.

He has raced on some of the world’s most prestigious tracks, including Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi and Mount Panorama in Bathurst, New South Wales, and was part of the winning PROsport Performance team in the 2017 Bathurst 12-Hour Class C race.

“There is no other track in the world like Mount Panorama,” Jones said.

“The walls are so close on the mountain and it definitely emphasises how fast you’re going.

“I was on the track with Australia Supercars champions like Craig Lowndes and Shane van Gisbergen, which was an experience I will never forget.”

While Jones is determined to follow in the slipstream of his idols, such as Lowndes and Australian Formula 1 superstar Daniel Ricciardo, he is also pursuing a combined engineering and mathematics degree at UQ.

Now in his second year at university, the former King’s College resident has maintained an impressive GPA of 6.85.

“I’ve had a strong interest in mathematics and science from a young age and felt that engineering was the degree that best suited me,” Jones said.

“Motorsport is centred around engineering. The team analyses data and goes through the car set-up after every session.

“My engineering background has benefited my driving. I’m able to understand and analyse the data that’s extracted from the car a lot better than I have previously, and I can provide quick and accurate feedback to the engineers I work with.”

But Jones is quick to point out that motorsport isn’t just about driving – it is also a business.

“I have to work closely with sponsors to secure funding for my racing, and I also work part-time for the team at McElrea Racing,” he said.

“Engineering is an intense degree and juggling my studies with motorsport can be difficult. In 2018, I was awarded elite athlete status by UQ, which was very helpful when exams and assignments clashed with races and events.”

Another commitment for Jones is staying physically fit, and he works closely with personal trainer Tim Just from Fluid Performance.

The training is paying off today at Queensland Raceway near Ipswich, where the temperature has reached 35 degrees.

“Not only is racing physically straining, but the temperature can reach up to 50 degrees inside the car,” Jones said.

“You have to train your body to cope with the physical demands of driving, watch what you eat, and stay hydrated.

“It’s usually your concentration that falters before anything else. And if you lose five to 10 per cent of your body fluid, you’re going to lose concentration pretty quickly.”

Million-dollar gift to foster future legal minds

by

Inspired by his own university experience, leading funds manager Matt McLennan has donated $1 million to The University of Queensland Law School to provide students with collaborative learning spaces.

The UQ alumnus and Head of Global Value for First Eagle Investment Management in the US made the gift to help shape the development of tomorrow’s legal professionals.

Mr McLennan (pictured right) said creating the right environment where talented students could collaborate would foster engagement and creative thinking.

“If we can create a world-class facility, it’s going to attract the best students, the best staff and ultimately, it’s going to produce the best law school in Australia and elevate UQ Law in the global rankings,” Mr McLennan said.

“As I think back over the last decade, the combination of digitalisation and the globalisation of education has produced a much richer learning environment and one that requires, I think, more collaboration skills,” he said.

“Some of my fondest memories at UQ were moments of collaboration – working with other students to solve complicated problems or working with a great thesis supervisor to come up with an independent point of view to help address an issue.”

Following the recent refurbishment of the Law School, students are benefiting from interactive breakout areas, greater access to technology and a more comprehensive range of library resources.

Mr McLennan praised the work of the Pro Bono Centre, saying it provided challenging experiences to students.

“The Pro Bono Centre enables students to volunteer their time and to hone their legal skills to help social justice causes,” he said.

UQ Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Høj said the generous gift supported the University’s vision to give law students the most relevant and engaging legal education.

“Matt shares our vision of putting students at the heart of everything we do and, by partnering with UQ, he has helped many of our talented students reach their potential,” Professor Høj said.

“We are grateful that Matt has decided to invest in the future of law at UQ and give so generously to his alma mater,” he said.

Mr McLennan said his passion for supporting education stemmed from his love of lifelong learning.

“I think learning has played a big role in what’s given me joy over the years and I think to be a supporter of that is only natural,” he said.

“I’ve seen learning lift students from poverty and transform their lives and their families’ lives.

“It is truly rewarding and a joy to give back, and I would encourage others to consider taking a similar step.

“One of the things that UQ does well is that it doesn’t just give students the content they need, but it gives them leadership capacity.”

Mr McLennan has a Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) and a Master of International Commercial Law from UQ.

He is also a board member of Not If, When – the Campaign to Create Change, which is UQ’s first philanthropic campaign.

In addition to his donation to the Law School, Mr McLennan has supported UQ through the establishment of the Australian Institute for Business and Economics, and a joint scholarship with fellow UQ graduate Richard Howes to encourage teamwork between high-performing Honours students from the Business School and School of Economics.

The Law School ranks 36th in the world in the 2018 QS World University Rankings by Subject and 54th in the world in the Times Higher Education World University Subject Rankings.

© The University of Queensland in America, Inc.Login | 2024