The Special Olympic Edition
Not from the Head	Building Report
We are not alone	Grow your own vessels
SOBScript

 

 

Not From the Head

Well the Olympics are past, the medals won and the relative importance of just competing over winning discussed, dissected and reconstructed ad nauseum. I hope people in the School appreciate the flow on benefits that the Olympic media coverage has had for the profile of our research, particularly in mammal biology, due to the efforts of Roy, H. G and "fatso" the wombat. The current issue of the Newsletter is just a brief peek into the lives of our fellow School members during this truly memorable occasion. I would urge you all to treasure this newsletter and to save it, so that in the future you will have a valuable record of this once in a lifetime event.

Building Report

 

We are not alone!

Grow your own vessels!

Some news for those interested in Cell Biology and Biotechnology.

Julie Campbell and colleagues reported major progress in developing an artificial blood vessel at the recent International Congress on Differentiation & Cell Biology (Gold Coast, 24-28 Sept, 2000). After noticing that boiled blood clots placed in the peritoneum of rabbits attracted adhering cells, this team tried placing plastic tubes in the peritoneal cavity of experimental animals. The tubes became covered by myofibroblasts closest to the tube, collagen matrix, then mesothelial like cells towards the outer surface. This of course resembles a blood vessel,only inside out, so the researchers took the out the plastic tube from the newly grown tissue then turned the tissue tube inside out. These artificial vessels were then successfully grafted into the carotid arteries and abdominal aortas of rabbits and dogs. Because the tissue is autologous there are no problems with rejection or thrombosis. This represents real hope for replacing carotid arteries blocked by atherosclerosis and for providing kidney disease patients with an endless supply of shunt vessels for dialysis. The results are soon to be published in Cell Biology International.

SOBScript

Tanya Rankin spent the Olympics filming for yet another television expose. Tanya sent the following debrief; "You will be pleased to know that the filming that was done for Animal Hospital went splendidly. There is a full digital recording of my backwards fall into the river. The crew have threatened to submit it to 'World's Stupidest People - On Video!' . As you can imagine, I was deeply embarrassed by the whole event."

Jo Walker and her hubbie Dave, Sarah Brecknock (Robyn Overall lab) and Rebecca Johnson (Bee lab) were at the Opening Ceremony for the Games. They pranced around in the "Nature" segment. Sarah and Dave were waratah petals, Rebecca was a waterlily and Jo a honey myrtle. We spent every weekend for months rehearsing for our 8 min. of fame... Got to see the stars wandering round backstage, I saw Livvy patting one of the horses which nearly trampled us flowers to death as we sparkled and freaked them out. The little fishies were definitely the popular vote amongst the performers for best costumes - and they were soooo cuuuuoooot! Don't know what else to say except it was amazing being out there for the dress rehearsals and on the night to hear the roar of the crowd of 110 000 going up when we did our piece!

Giselle Walker decided to escape the Olympic threat, but recalled that "after saying bah humbug for the last seven years, and going all the way to the London Natural History Museum for three weeks just to escape the Olympics (and masquerade as a new Ph.D. student), I turned the tv onto the BBC1 Olympics coverage every morning at a ridiculous hour and spent every lunchtime in the tearoom discussing the relative merits of Steve Monaghetti, John Landy and Roger Bannister. Very sad...."

Mark Dickson escaped to England where he reports he is "sat here in London (Soho) @ free internet cafe checking up on you all ;) have been doing lots of shopping, & advising friends on their gardens & computers ! Weather has been mostly great, hasn't really dropped below 15'."

Sohan Shetty has been spending his time constructively now that he has finished his masters and is waiting to go on his fishing trip to Vanuatu - which Rick Shine has kindly agreed to fund! The following images are his contribution to the Commemorative Olympic Edition Newsletter

Merryl Robson sent in the following images of her daughter in the Olympic Torch Relay

Patsy Armati celebrated the Olympics by being appointed to the Scientific Committee of the Advisory Committee of the newly formed Institute for Neuromucsular Research at the New Children's Hospital, Westmead. Patsy has also received a continuation of her cntract from Glaxo investigating Apolipoprotein E trafficking in human nerve cells.

Mike Thompson has finally found a replacement for Kylie Russell. The new "krusty" is Melinda Louden, and we offer her our condolences for joining the Thompson Lab.

Congratulations are due to Osu Lilje who received her Ph.D. at the graduation ceremony on Friday 27 October. Osu is a member of the Neuroscience unit. Whilst on the subject of congratulations, Christine Faulkner who has just finished honours this week was short listed for the Rhodes Scholarship. She made it to the final 11 for NSW. A wonderful achievement and we are hopeful that she will now return to the School of Biological Sciences as a postgraduate student.

 

Finally, here is Andrew Oullianoff's travel diary of his yearly outing to the great Australian bush ( please do not read if you are fond of small furry introduced mammals).

Hilston 2000

During our annual pilgrimage to the centre of NSW a lot of changes had taken place. Plenty of rain had fallen around the Cowra and Griffith areas. Everything was so colourful, Brilliant greens, purple (Paterson's Curse) and a lot of yellow (Canola).

The Dam at Condobalin which normally operates at around 70% capacity was holding 105% (I wish someone would explain this to me, because when something is full it's 100% full) When we reached our spot on the Lachlan River we only then realised what a nuisance all this rain was. The river was lapping at the banks when normally it was at least 15 feet (5 metres) below the riverbank. We found some high ground cleared the approx. 60cm tall grass and set up camp. We also cleared a 15-metre ring so that we could have a small fire to cook on.

Low and behold the next weekend a local from Griffith and his two sons sets up camp around the bend from us, doesn't clear the long grass starts a fire under a fallen log to make coals to cook his dinner, realises that he forgot the ICE puts his kids in the car and leaves to go to town approx 50 MILES each way. Mmmm smart move.

Needless to say my friend Ross and I became instant fire fighters armed with two buckets and two wet hessian bags (glad the river was up for easy access). I sent Sue and my kids and Wendy and Ross' kids to the closest farmhouse to call for the R.F.S. By the time the fire engine got there Ross and I with the aid of the wind (luckily) got the fire under control. We were instantly made honourary members of the R.S.F. (we knew the fire warden for the area), so that we could continue helping with the blaze, amidst exploding gas bottles and burning trees. At the end of the day we used 3500 litres of water to extinguish nearly an acre of burning bush. It is an experience that I didn't need. The man came back to find that he lost all of his possessions in the blaze, approx.
$2000.

Two days later the river started to drop averaging a fall of 5ft per day for 4 days.

In case anybody is wandering the Callisi Virus didn't affect the rabbit population very much even though it was released twice in the same area. So we found plenty of ways to have rabbit stir-fried (oyster sauce, chilli sauce sate sauce), curried, baked, pan-fried in garlic butter. Yes folks we are doing our bit for the ecology of Australia.