Queensland researchers are sampling your soil to solve deadly antibiotic resistance threat
AprApril 2021 at 12:58am
Sussanah s son Josh and daughter Charlie were keen to find out what was living in their soil.
(
Share
Print text only
Nine-year-old Josh Webb has started looking at the dirt in his backyard differently.Â
âI thought dirt was just like nothing, it was just like a thing that someone just steps on,â Josh said.
That was until Josh, with his younger sister Charlie, 6, and their mum Sussanah Osborne, discovered the Soils for Science project at the World Science Festival held in Brisbane last month.
The project is an initiative of the University of Queenslandâs Institute for Molecular Bioscience, which is calling on people across the country to collect samples of soil from their backyard.
Or are they?
Meet squishy, and a fuzz-covered stinging tree to find out whether elements of their deadly venoms can be turned into something nicer.
GUESTS:
Professor Damian Candusso, Head of School of Creative Practice, Queensland University of Technology.
Professor Irina Vetter, Professorial Research Fellow, Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland.
And if you d like to see more of Squishy, Ann and Christina, make sure you tune in to Catalyst this week on the TV and ABC iView!
Discovery may help cancer patients to avoid chemotherapy s debilitating side effects news-medical.net - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from news-medical.net Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
E-Mail
A discovery by University of Queensland pain researchers may allow some future cancer patients, including children with leukaemia, to avoid their chemotherapy s worst and most debilitating side effects.
Professor Irina Vetter and Dr Hana Starobova thought turning off the inflammation that is one of the body s natural reactions to the chemotherapy drug vincristine might reduce its accompanying pain and unpleasant symptoms. We found the anti-inflammatory drug anakinra substantially reduced the awful nerve symptoms for which vincristine chemotherapy is known, Professor Vetter said. Importantly, it did not reduce the effectiveness of the chemo.
Anakinra is an existing rheumatoid and juvenile arthritis treatment and the Institute for Molecular Bioscience researchers plan to test it soon on human chemotherapy patients taking vincristine.
Date Time
Chemotherapy with fewer side effects may be on way
A discovery by University of Queensland pain researchers may allow some future cancer patients, including children with leukaemia, to avoid their chemotherapy’s worst and most debilitating side effects.
Professor Irina Vetter and Dr Hana Starobova thought “turning off” the inflammation that is one of the body’s natural reactions to the chemotherapy drug vincristine might reduce its accompanying pain and unpleasant symptoms.
“We found the anti-inflammatory drug anakinra substantially reduced the awful nerve symptoms for which vincristine chemotherapy is known,” Professor Vetter said.
“Importantly, it did not reduce the effectiveness of the chemo.”