Blogs

The ‘CRP’-collaboration story started with a media release and a meeting more than 10 years ago. The conversation sowed the seeds of an idea for a collaboration. It has developed into a promising drug development project which is now being progressed under the auspices of the new Baker Department of Cardiometabolic Health, created in a partnership between the Baker Institute and the University of Melbourne. 

As with many small companies at the beginning of the pandemic, Circa took a number of steps to maintain a sustainable cashflow, and combined with the goodwill from organisations we work with (including Bio21), we have managed to keep all our staff productively employed. Teams / Zoom / Webex / Blue Jeans / Facetime and Skype have played a major part in “enabling” business during the past six months, and it will be interesting to watch the medium term impact of these technologies as things start to ease back to normal. However, the effect on people – unable to get back to the lab, lack of ability to travel, and for our generations the first time ever having to cope under quite strict “conditions for living” has meant different and often difficult challenges.

Did you cancel your trip to a conference this year? Were you dreaming of boarding a plane and heading to New York, or Bern, Singapore or Siena? Like most people’s holiday plans this year, SARS-CoV-2 has meant conference plans have either been postponed or they have become “virtual”.

Bio21 was established to harness, communicate and exploit the numerous opportunities in the field as a result of the presence of the richly endowed Parkville biomedical precinct. It has provided the best laboratory facilities that I have ever experienced.  It really is a palace. With the expectation of interdisciplinary collaborations over a wide variety of disciplines there is ample opportunity for every member to conduct creative and productive research at the interface. As Chemistry is such a central science it is perfectly positioned to capitalise on these opportunities as has become evident from the productive output of my colleagues in Chemistry as well as from the many other occupants of Bio21. It is a special privilege to be able to work in Bio21.

As Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ‘AOC’, US congresswoman for the 14^th congressional district in New York said, dehumanising language is not new. It’s also not new to Australians. It’s not new in public life, where it is laid bare for all to see. Unfortunately, it’s not new in academic life either. In recent years, at the University of Melbourne as in other institutions, there has been a growing realisation that indeed these problems are cultural.

I am profoundly grateful to every Bio21 colleague who has helped us on our research journey over the last 15 years.

Does wisdom correlate with age? Shakespeare’s ‘King Lear’ had some points to make on the topic and a few of our more senior global leaders appear to be sorely lacking when it comes to their approach towards the coronavirus pandemic and other urgent global crises.

In late January with a sense of dread, I noted the detection of COVID-19 in Australia. In February, I attended a scheduled meeting in Singapore with the Dengue Expert Advisory Panel; my last overseas trip since the travel ban. With Covid-19 starting to spread across the globe, I had to weigh up the risks of exposure to myself, and likely quarantine on returning to Australia, in order to participate in a meeting about a more well understood, but also very serious pandemic.

Reconciliation begins when we recognise and sincerely show remorse for the harm we’ve inflicted, perhaps unknowingly or even with good intention. Science has also caused harm. In the name of science, 19^th century researchers, particularly anthropologists, took sacred ceremonial items and even remains of the deceased from Aboriginal tribes. To mark the 250th anniversary of Captain James Cook’s first voyage to Australia in 2019, Manchester Museum became the first UK institution to return ceremonial items to Aboriginal groups. The repatriation project run by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), said it had identified more than 100,000 sacred items in 220 institutions across the world. Rather than being the object of research, indigenous people are being empowered to conduct their own research.

Speaking at a dinner to mark the opening of the Bio21 Institute the then Chancellor of the University of Melbourne, Ian Renard AM, drew parallels between the quality and diversity of research activities to be conducted in the new Institute and the joy of taking in the culinary delights of the many great cafes lining Brunswick Street.  This comparison prompted me to smile knowingly because, even in those very early days, the point that Ian was making was already resonating with my experience.  Walking the corridors of Bio21, I sensed the creativity and energy emanating from the great labs that populate the Institute. Back then it was a new and fresh experience.  I only knew my colleagues by reputation, but over time I have come to understand the quality of the research upon which those reputations are based.  More than that, I have reaped the benefits of generous collegiality.