The first cohort of students from the Masters and Graduate Diploma in Infectious Diseases program graduated in September.

Nobel Laureate Professor Barry Marshall was among those present on the night to celebrate and congratulate the students for their achievements.

Each November, the School of Biomedical, Biomolecular and Chemical Sciences holds its annual Research Forum, and the 2009 presentations were some of the best to date. The forum provides an opportunity for research students to showcase their work and develop the necessary skills to be seen and heard in the global research arena.

The discovery of a family of compounds that stimulates seed germination in many plants has led to a new scientific name – karrikins – derived from the Noongar word ‘karrik’, meaning ‘smoke’. 

Western Australia is home of the discovery of a substance in smoke that stimulates seed germination and seedling growth in many plant species after bushfires.

Now, new research at UWA and Kings Park Botanic Garden has now shown that there are several such compounds in smoke, and that they can even stimulate seed germination in plant species that do not normally experience fire or smoke. This family of germination stimulants has now been named ‘karrikins’ from ‘karrik’, a Noongar word for smoke.

The School of Biomedical, Biomolecular and Chemical Sciences celebrated several milestones involving its four teaching disciplines last October. The celebrations included the 95th anniversary of the establishment of Chemistry, and the 50th anniversaries of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Physiology. These four disciplines merged in 2002 to form the current School which commenced operations in 2003.

New scientific research has found another compelling reason for women to breastfeed their babies – the discovery of stem cells in human breast milk.

Dr Mark Cregan and his team at The University of Western Australia’s School of Biomedical, Biomolecular and Chemical Sciences are working to dispel the myth of equality between infant formulae and human breast milk by demonstrating the unique bioactive nature of the latter for infants.

September 10 heralded the graduation of the first 28 students from the Master of Pharmacy course.

All Prizes were awarded for the first time with many sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry and others by organisations and individuals involved in the pharmacy discipline. A special award - the Gladys Heedes Medal - sponsored on an annual basis by Pharmaceutical Defence Limited for the top student in the Master of Pharmacy course, was awarded to Christel Burgess. Gladys Heedes, after whom the award is named, was a special guest at the function and personally presented the medal to Christel.

On 31st October the revamped Biochemistry Building, which is now a dedicated combined Medicine, Pharmacy and Neuroscience teaching and research facility, was officially reopened by His Excellency, Dr Ken Michael AC, Governor of Western Australia.

Dr Michelle Elenore Grassi
Senior Environmental Scientist, Environmental Resources
Management Australia Pty Ltd (ERM)
PhD (Environmental/Analytical Chemistry) 2005; BSc (First-Class Hons, Chemistry) 2001

The Amanda Young Foundation is a non-profit community organisation dedicated to reducing deaths in WA from meningococcal disease. It was established in March 1998 by the parents of Amanda Young, an 18 year old UWA student, who died from meningococcal septicaemia in 1997.