Thompson Prize Night 2010

The SPG had another great turnout at the 2010 Thompson Prize evening (25th November) hosted by Mark Graham at the Children’s Medical Research Institute. It was a very strong field of applicants and a tight contest to select the finalists.The five finalists were PhD students; they all gave excellent talks and the judges specifically commented on how well each candidate had mastered their area of research.  

Firstly, Sophia Goodchild (Macquarie Uni) took us through the structural metamorphosis of the CLIC1 chloride intracellular channel protein. Using FRET, she demonstrated that CLIC1 is capable of interchanging between a soluble form and a membrane-bound oligomeric channel.

Lin Luo (CMRI) described the interaction between syndapin I and dynamin I. Syndapin I is the phosphorylation-regulated dynamin I partner during synaptic vesicle endocytosis and is recruited to dynamin I immediately after neuronal stimulation. By using a combination of NMR spectroscopy and mutagenesis, Lin mapped and verified the syndapin I- binding site of dynamin I.

Miriam-Rose Ash (Centenary Institute) contributed a novel structural and biophysical understanding of the inner membrane G-protein FeoB, which is important for ferrous uptake in gram-negative bacteria. GTP binding initiates the transport of Fe2+ across the membrane, which is halted by the hydrolysis of GTP to GDP. She discovered that this family of bacterial G-proteins exhibits potassium-dependent activation to accelerate GTP hydrolysis.

Nichollas Scott (University of Sydney) guided us through the identification of glycosylation sites and site occupancy within Camphylobacter jejuni using a newly developed peptide-centric glyco-enrichment strategy that was coupled to novel parallel mass spectrometric fragmentation techniques. Disruption of N-linked glycosylation reduces colonisation in avian models and adhesion to human epithelial cells. The correlation of glycosylation with virulence has lead to significant interest in the identification of the C. jejuni N-linked glycoproteome to facilitate further study of pathogenesis.

Lastly, Blake Cochran (University of Wollongong) defined the molecular basis for the differential prognostic profiles of plasminogen activator inhibitors type-1 (PAI-1) and Type-2 (PAI-2) in cancer. Tumour overxpression of PAI-1 correlates with poor prognosis and increased metastasis, while tumour expression of PAI-2 is associated with a favourable outcome. Blake’s study characterises the structural elements that underlie the differential interactions of PAI-1 and PAI-2 with the endocytositic low-density lipoprotein receptors (LDLR). By introducing the high affinity LDLR minimal binding motif present in PAI-1 into PAI-2, PAI-2 displayed the pro-mitogenic functionalities of PAI-1.
 
The judges, Rob Baxter (Kolling Institute), Bostjan Kobe (University of Queensland) and Antony Braithwaite (CMRI) awarded the 2010 Thompson Prize to Miriam-Rose Ash.

After the talks the speakers and attendees were treated to some gourmet finger food and well-deserved drinks. On the night, we also awarded our annual Lorne Travelling Scholarships to help students with the cost of attending the Lorne Conferences: The Greg Ralston Award (for an Honours student continuing to a PhD) went to Emily King (USyd), the BioRad-sponsored award went to Nestor Solis (USyd) and Jason Low (UNSW) picked up the GE Healthcare-sponsored award.

Thanks to Mark for organising a great evening and also to all the students who entered both the Thompson prize and Lorne Scholarships; the standard of applications was very high, so please consider entering in 2011 if you were not successful this time around.

Pictures from the event: