DiscoBio News

Congratulations to Dr Elke Kaemmerer and PhD student Thilini Perera, who have both been awarded a Tony B. Academic Travel Award to present at the SLAS 2018 International Conference in February 3-7, 2018 in San Diego, CA, USA. The award includes registration, flights and accommodation.

Queensland Scientists have helped discover new compounds which could help block the transmission of the deadly disease malaria. A team of Griffith University researchers have found a novel class of compounds, the hexahydro quinoline (HHQ), with potent activity against the parasite stages responsible for the clinical symptoms of malaria and its transmission to mosquitoes. Malaria is still a leading cause of death, with 212 million new cases and 429 000 malaria deaths recorded worldwide in 2015, 90% of which are …

Malaria kills 500,000 people every year. And 90 per cent of those are children. Griffith University researchers are screening hundreds of thousands of compounds supplied by Japanese companies to find the right compound with activity against the malaria parasite. The article and video about this exciting collaboration can be found here.

Congratulations to Professor Vicky Avery who received the award for excellence for an individual mid-career or senior researcher and was recognised for her outstanding research in drug discovery over the past 18 years. Her vision is to promote world class drug discovery, utilising advanced image-based platforms, ultimately impacting on access to quality therapeutics for all.  The full story can be found here.

PhD student Bilal Zulfiqar, an overseas student from Pakistan, has discovered compounds that could lead to a cure for a fatal flesh-eating disease. Categorised as a neglected tropical disease by the World Health Organisation, Leishmaniasis kills tens of thousands of people a year around the world. The full SBS story and video can be found here.