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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-10-13 Daily Xml
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Medical Research

The Hon. J.M. GAZZOLA (14:56): My question is to the Minister for Science and Information Economy regarding early-career researchers. Will the minister inform the chamber of the importance of supporting early-career researchers in South Australia?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills, Minister for Science and Information Economy, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Business Services and Consumers) (14:56): I thank the honourable member for his most important question; it is nice to get a more contemporary flavoured question on something that is not just shaken off from the archives.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: Our future prosperity as a state and as a nation will increasingly be built on the innovations that stem from fundamental research. Our researchers are central to this, and helping early and mid-career researchers address their unique challenges helps them maintain and engage in a vibrant research sector. In the area of health and medical research, the Australian Society for Medical Research is the peak professional body that represents its researchers through advocacy.

On 29 September I was delighted to meet the three South Australian finalists in this year's Leading Light Award. The Leading Light Award recognises outstanding research efforts of mid-career researchers and aims to recognise excellence in the biomedical sector. The award also performs an inspirational role for early-career researchers by introducing the career journey of nominees to early-career researchers and highlighting the potential for success.

This year's finalists include Dr Luke Selth from the University of Adelaide. Dr Selth heads a group within the Dame Roma Mitchell Cancer Research Laboratories here in Adelaide. His research focuses on prostate cancer development and progression, and utilises contemporary genomic techniques to better understand prostate cancer at the molecular level. The aim of Dr Selth's research is to improve the ability to differentiate between aggressive and slow-growing prostate cancers to assist in treatment.

Another finalist was Dr Quenten Schwarz from the University of South Australia. Dr Schwarz is the head of the Neurovascular Research Laboratory in the Centre for Cancer Biology. Understanding the development of the neuronal and vascular systems at the molecular level presents a major challenge to developmental biologists. Over the past 10 years Dr Schwarz has forged an internationally recognised research program to identify the origins of craniofacial birth defects and neurodevelopmental disorders, and to identify the vital role blood vessels play in human jaw and facial development. He has also looked at things like schizophrenia and the neuronal development around that, and believes there is a possibility that we might be able to identify that in very early stages, so it has enormous potential to assist right across the board.

The last finalist is Dr Dan Worthley from SAHMRI. Dr Worthley and the Gastrointestinal Cancer Biology Group at SAHMRI are working to therapeutically modify connective tissues in the setting of cancer and tissue injury. The focus of Dr Worthley's work over the past five years has been to discover a new connective tissue stem cell in the bone, as well as new intestinal reticular stem cells within the connective tissues of the bowel. Discovering these two new connective tissue stem cells has improved the understanding of normal tissue physiology and has provided a new cellular target for treating skeletal and intestinal disorders.

It was wonderful to hear from these young men, who spoke with great passion about their field of study and I am sure were very deserving of the award, all of them. Obviously only one could be a winner, and the winner was Dr Quenten Schwarz from the University of South Australia. The award was first presented in South Australia in 2012 to Professor Damien Keating, and in 2013 the winner was Professor Mark Hutchinson, who has gone on to become the director of the Centre for Nanoscale BioPhotonics at the University of Adelaide.

The high calibre of finalists for these awards goes to show that with the support and nurturing of organisations such as the Australian Society for Medical Research there is much that can be achieved for the successful scientific research career. In talking to those three men early in the evening, I said to them, 'What do you win from this?' They all looked at each other and said, 'Oh, we don't know; we have no idea what we win.' So they certainly were not in it for any prize; they were in it because they were incredibly passionate and committed scientists. I congratulate all three of them.

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