$21 million awarded for x-ray science and free-radical research
Media Release, Thursday 16 June 2005
X-ray science and free-radical chemistry will be the focus of two new University of Melbourne-led Centres of Excellence that will receive $21 million in funding from the Australian government.
Just a week since the opening of the University’s $100 million Bio21 Molecular Science and Biotechnology Institute, the $12 million ARC Centre of Excellence for Free Radical Chemistry and Biotechnology, led by Professor Carl Schiesser, will add even further strength to the Institute’s already extensive biotechnology research initiatives.
The increased understanding of free-radical chemistry gained through the Centre will be used to develop new biotechnology initiatives including pharmaceutical products and antioxidants capable of defending against oxidative stress, a condition associated with many diseases where increased oxidant production in cells (characterised by the release of free radicals) results in cellular degeneration.
An understanding of free-radical chemistry will also assist in understanding and treating the degradation of industrial materials.
The $9 million ARC Centre of Excellence in Coherent X-ray Science is led by prominent University of Melbourne physicist and 2004 Victoria Prize winner, Federation Fellow Professor Keith Nugent.
The Centre brings physicists, chemists and biologists together, combining world-class expertise in imaging, structural biology, laser science and molecular theory, to develop new approaches for probing biological structures and processes using x-ray technologies.
The biggest aim of the Centre is in developing high-resolution imaging and probing to determine the structure of membrane proteins, which will open up whole new areas of scientific investigation. Initially the project will use the Australian Synchrotron and ultimately, x-ray lasers which are expected to be available in the next ten years.
As well as being the leading institution in two of the 11 new ARC Centres of Excellence announced yesterday, the University of Melbourne is a collaborating party in two others: ARC Centre of Excellence in Design in Light Metals and ARC Centre of Excellence in Ore Deposits.
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