Division of Environmental and Life Sciences

News From the Deane
The weekly update from the acting Dean of Division, A/Prof Kevin McCracken

CBMS Students Enjoy Proteomic Weekend Workshop
Academics and postgraduate students from Chemistry & Biomolecular Sciences travelled to Lorne in Victoria to gather with protein scientists for a series of conferences.

Opportunities
- Access MQ IP Seminar
- Australian X-ray Analytical Association conference calling for abstracts

Events
- EcoRes Forum Launches Climate Change E-Conference Series
- "Eco Renovations" Warringah Council gives tips on simple sustainable housing
- Environmental Defenders Office Seminar - "Part 3a and the Public Interest"
- Not to be missed! "In the Hot Seat" - Politicians Talk Water and Climate Change
- ELS Seminars in 2007

News from the Dean

Dear Collegues

It's good to see the students arriving back on campus at the start of another year. I hope you're all settling back into teaching routines with minimum hiccups.

I want to offer our congratulations to Peter Bergquist for his recent success with NCRIS. He spearheaded the 5.5 Biofuels proposal on behalf of Sydney University, UNSW and Macquarie which has resulted in funding for the provision of services involving enzymes, biomass primary degradation and fermentation for the pilot plant in Queensland.

I also want to encourage staff to put in applications for external prizes and awards. The Carrick Institute Awards for learning and teaching and the Eureka Prizes are good examples of awards which bring important outside and community recognition of the excellent work and achievements of ELS staff and students. See our teaching and learning web site for more details - www.els.mq.edu.au/teach_learn

From all accounts Liz Deane is having a great time in India, where she's been visiting for her son's wedding. Rumor has it she has even managed to visit a couple of our partner institutions on the side! Next week will be my last week as acting Dean, with Liz returning to ELS on Monday the 19 th of March.

'Til next week,

Kevin

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CBMS Students Enjoy Proteomic Weekend Workshop

Quite a number of academics and postgraduate students from Chemistry & Biomolecular Sciences travelled to Lorne in Victoria to gather with protein scientists for a series of conferences in early February. The prestigious Lorne Conference on Protein Structure and Function, and its preceding Proteomics weekend workshop, attract international leaders in the field, and the 2007 program was of particularly high in quality.

Students are able to present their work at this meeting as posters, which are judged by the invited keynote speakers. This process very successfully showcases Australian science, as it allows presenters to discuss their results with high-profile scientists. CBMS PhD student Andrew Robinson was awarded first prize for his poster, entitled "1.8A structure of iMazG: a potential house-cleaning enzyme from the mobile metagenome".

Andrew has been a delegate at the Lorne meeting three times during the course of his PhD candidature. For those who have kept back-issues of this newsletter, you will find that on each occasion Andrew has charmed the judges, and we have reported him being awarded a first prize. Congratulations on this hat-trick, Andrew! His winning poster can be viewed on floor 3, F7B.

CBMS PhD students (L to R) Andrew Robinson, James Cooke and Vani Sureshan on the beach at Lorne.

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Fluorotechnics is open for business

Fluorotechnics is a spin off company from Macquarie University, established with the support of Macquarie University to finalise the development of and to commercialise a core discovery made by the Research Team at the University. The Fluorotechnics Research Team developed by Macquarie University is one of the world's leading research teams in the area of fluorescent labelling and detection, specialising in discovery, development and manufacture of fluorescent labels and stains for use in research, biotechnology and diagnostics.

The company was founded in 2002 and is still based at Macquarie University, with offices in North America and Europe.

As of November last year, Fluorotechnics Pty Limited took a monumental step in annoucing that the company will be supplying products directly to the customer with a distribution network and infrastructure in place to fulfill orders in North America, Europe, Asia and the Australian/New Zealand.

Duncan Veal, CEO of Fluorotechnics said “We are excited about being in a position to sell our products directly to the customer as well as continuing our relationship with our three important life science partners, GE Healthcare Biosciences, Sigma-Aldrich and Active Motif. This new approach will ensure that we continue to work with our customers to provide better fluorescent solutions to meet their needs in a faster and more effective route.”

Products currently available include: 1. LavaPurple Total Protein Stain 2. LavaPurple Total Protein Kit (stain as well as all buffers required) 3. LavaDigest - Protease Monitoring Kit 4. LavaPep – Peptide Quantification Kit 5. LavaCell – Live Cell Imaging Kit

All products are based on our core set of internally developed and owned fluorescent molecules which offer many advantages over other fluorescent products, including:
• Only become fluorescent on interaction with proteins or peptides
• Products are water soluble
• Are based on a small (mw 410), neutral molecule
• Are non-toxic
• Are ideal for multiplexing with other fluorophores due to long Stokes' shift
• Are environmentally friendly and easy to dispose as it is not based on heavy metals

For further information about Fluorotechnics please contact Duncan Veal, CEO, tel. +61 2 9850 8185, email: dveal@fluorotechnics.com, web site: http://www.fluorotechnics.com

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Opprtunities

Access MQ would like to invite you to a FREE Intellectual Property (IP) Seminar.

LEARN HOW TO PROTECT YOUR RESEARCH, IDEAS & INVENTIONS.

DATE: Wednesday 7th March 2007
TIME: 12.00noon~4.30pm - lunch will be provided!
LOCATION:
Access MQ, level 1, Dow Corning Building, 3 Innovation Road, Macquarie University.
RSVP: Before 3pm Monday 5th March 2007.

To book and reserve your seat:

1) Go to
http://www.access.mq.edu.au/newsandevents/events/index.html#ipseminar

OR

2) contact BRYAN WILLIAMS on 9850 9275 or bwilliams@access.mq.edu.au

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The AXAA (Australian X-ray Analytical Association) Conference

The AXAA (Australian X-ray Analytical Association) is holding a conference next Feb 4-8 2008 in Melbourne. The conference deals with X-ray applications in any form - XRF, XRD, EDX, tomography, synchrotron and neutron applications. There will be a tour of the synchrotron for anyone who likes really big toys, and we'll learn a lot more about the new OPAL reactor at Lucas Heights as well (Super! :-).

Please note: Scholarships are available to support Macquarie students
(contact damian.gore@mq.edu.au for more information).

Further information : http://www.axaa.org/pdf/AXAA2008AdvanceNoticeFlyer.pdf

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Events

The EcoRes Forum, a new initiative undertaken by Mary Leyser, Coordinator of the Eco-Ethics International Union (EEIU), and Acad. Prof. Gennady Polikarpov, EEIU Vice-President and Chief Scientist at the Institute of Biology of Southern Seas in Sevastopol, Ukraine, announces the launch of a series of online e-conferences focusing on the ethical, political and sociocultural aspects of climate change.

The series, which will be offered free of charge, starts off in April 2007 with a two-week dialogue on a topic of increasing urgency: expanding and accelerating an ecocentric philosophy among societies around the world. The need for such a shift has long been recognized. Based on the UN's Rio Declaration of Environment and Development, in 1992 Al Gore observed, "Our challenge is to accelerate the needed change in thinking about our relationship to the environment in order to shift the pattern of our civilization to a new equilibrium - before the world's ecological system loses its current one." (Earth in the Balance)

Titled "From Anthropocentrism to Ecocentrism: Making the Shift", the e-conference will bring together academics and activists, scientists and social critics, researchers and journalists, community leaders and citizens, all focused on looking for answers and actions to make this paradigm shift a reality. After reflecting on past movement successes to identify transferable practices, the semi-structured discussion will evaluate the current status - looking at what is working (and what isn't) around the globe. Armed with this knowledge, participants will shift focus to the future, considering multi-prong approaches for moving forward on this trans-disciplinary issue.

The goals of the EcoRes Forum are:

· to level the field of discourse by moving it to a space whose boundaries are set only by our own creativity;

· to promote awareness, public dialogue and the free exchange and exploration of ideas, knowledge and issues related to climate change;

· to leave all participants with something of value, whether knowledge, best practices, or a new perspective, which can be put to use immediately to improve efforts in their individual fields; and

· by so doing, to contribute to taking the environmental movement to the next level and thereby, in some small way, to assist in preventing further extreme human-induced climate change.

For more information or to register for the April event, visit the EcoRes Forum website at http://www.eco-res.org or write forum@eco-res.org.

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Eco Renovations Workshop - A must for all renovators!
Saturday 10 March, 2 – 5pm at the Forestville Community Centre
Discover environmentally friendly building materials, rainwater tanks and more at this fun workshop.
Further information: http://www.warringah.nsw.gov.au

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EDO Public Seminar – “Part 3A and the Public Interest”, 7 March 2007

The NSW Government recently amended the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 by introducing a new Part 3A that deals with major projects.

The amendments have been widely criticised by community and environment groups for their concentration of decision-making power in the Minister and their impact on public participation in planning decisions.

The Government and Industry groups claim that the changes were necessary to streamline development processes in NSW and will not negatively impact on community amenity or the environment.

Who is right? Come along and hear both sides of the story in this topical 2-hour seminar hosted by the Environmental Defender's Office. The audience will be invited to put questions to the panel.

Speakers:
Cate Faehrmann, Nature Conservation Council
Ken Morrison, Property Council of Australia
Cr Sam Byrne, Local Government and Shires Associations
Chair: Jeff Smith, CEO, Environmental Defender's Office.

Date : Wednesday 7th March, 6-8pm

Venue : DLA Phillips Fox, 201 Elizabeth St Sydney (entry via door on corner of Park and Elizabeth Street )

Cost : Free

RSVP : Tisha Dejmanee at tisha.dejmanee@edo.org.au or 9262-6989

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In the Hot Seat - Our Politicians Talk Climate Change and Water

In an election year shaped by water shortages, drought and extreme weather events, water and climate change are key election deciders for the people of NSW.

Join us for two not-to-be-missed evenings as key party spokespeople face a panel of journalists and experts and party policies are put under the spotlight.

In The Hot Seat Forum One: Our urban water crisis - reduce, reuse, desalinate?
6.30pm-8.30pm, Tuesday 6th March, 2007, free admission

Speakers:
- Hon. Bob Debus MP (Environment Minister)
- Mr Michael Richardson MP (Shadow Environment Minister)
- Ms Lee Rhiannon MLC (Greens Member)

Venue: Grand Lodge, Sydney Masonic Centre, 66 Goulburn St, Sydney

For further information contact Sam McGuinness at smcguinness@nccnsw.org.au or 9279 2466.

In The Hot Seat Forum Two: Who will take the lead on climate change?
Tuesday 13th March, 2007, free admission

Speakers:
- Hon. Bob Debus MP (Environment Minister)
- Mr Michael Richardson MP (Shadow Environment Minister)
- Ms Lee Rhiannon MLC (Greens Member)

Venue: Grand Lodge, Sydney Masonic Centre, 66 Goulburn St, Sydney

For further information contact Marnie Kikken at mkikken@nccnsw.org.au or 9279 2466.

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ELS Seminar Series

Departments in ELS host seminars covering a wide range of topics associated with ongoing research projects and other areas of interest. The seminars are delivered by academics, research staff, and students from within the Division, as well as guest speakers from other institutions and industry. Details of times, dates, locations and topics of seminars to be held over the next few weeks are listed here.

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Snippets

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