A University of Queensland researcher's work on gene structure and regulation has won him the 1998 Julian Wells Medal.
Dr Peter Koopman, principal research fellow with the University's Centre for Molecular and Cellular Biology, was awarded the medal at the annual Lorne Genome Conference in February this year.
The medal honours one of the pioneers of animal molecular biology and is awarded to Australian scientists for outstanding international contribution to the understanding of gene structure and function.
Previous winners include Dr Bruce Stillman, Director of the Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory in the United States, and Professor Grant Sutherland, winner of the 1998 Australia Prize and President of the Human Genome Organisation (HUGO).
Centre for Molecular and Cellular Biology group leader and Vice President of the Lorne Genome Conference Board Dr Rick Sturm said Dr Koopman had received the award because of his 'seminal work on the structure and regulation of the Sox gene family'.
While working at the Medical Research Council's National Institute for Medical Research in the United Kingdom, Dr Koopman was involved in the discovery of Sry - the gene responsible for determining male gender in embryos. The breakthrough ended decades of research aimed at identifying the sex-determining factor.
In subsequent work at the University of Queensland, Dr Koopman's team isolated a group of embryonic control genes related to Sry, which stands for 'sex determining region, Y chromosome'.
'We found a family of genes which are similar in structure to Sry and cloned some of them in order to determine their function,' he said.
'One of these genes, Sox-9, is a pivotal gene in skeletal development in vertebrates. Others direct the formation of blood vessels, the brain and the spinal cord, and many other tissues. In other words, these genes are giving us unprecedented insight into the workings of the developing embryo. Several of these genes have now been found to be involved in human congenital disease, reinforcing their importance for normal development.'
Dr Koopman said the University had subsequently patented the potential uses of some of these genes. In August last year, the University's technology transfer company, UniQuest Limited, signed a licensing agreement covering intellectual property for the Sox-9 gene.
Dr Koopman said that further research could eventually result in the practical application of these genes in medicine, for example in cartilage reconstruction and the control of tumour development.
The results of Dr Koopman's studies have been published in prestigious journals such as Nature Genetics.
For more information, contact Dr Koopman on (07) 3365 4491 (work) or (07) 3369 1527 (home).
