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How variations in human DNA sequence can impact disease evolution and the health risks of climate change are just some of the topics to be discussed at this week's 20th annual Combined Biological Sciences Meeting (CBSM) to be held at The University of Western Australia.

Some of Australia's top biological scientists will present their research to graduate university students and researchers at the meeting, including as Nobel Laureate and UWA Professor Barry Marshall.

Professor Vanessa Hayes, from Human Genomics at San Diego's J Craig Venter Institute in California, will discuss how human genome sequence variation impacts human and disease evolution, particularly the strong ethnic link to prostate cancer in the Bushmen and Bantu genomes in Africa.

NHMRC Australian Fellow, Professor Tony McMichael, from the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at Australian National University, will discuss global climate change, environmental conditions and human health.

Other plenary speakers include Australian Research Council Federation Fellow Professor Peter Waterhouse from University of Sydney;  Professor Marylin Renfree, Ian Potter Chair of Zoology at the University of Melbourne;  and Associate Professor Edwin Pang, from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.

CBSM was the initiative of UWA's Professor George Yeoh in 1990 and provides an opportunity for students to present their work in a conference setting as well as listen to leading scientists from all four public WA universities and around the country.

WHAT: Combined Biological Sciences Meeting 2010

WHERE: University Club, UWA, Hackett Entrance 1, Crawley

WHEN: Friday, August 27, 8.45am - 5.30pm

Media references

Professor Sue Fletcher (Centre for Neuromuscular and (+61 8)  9346 3583
Neurological Disorders)
Janine MacDonald (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8)  6488 5563  /  (+61 4) 32 637 716