Network Aims
Australians have made
innovative contributions individually to understanding and regulating
these enzymes. However this initiative aims to network their efforts by
value-adding to current protease research through promoting national
and international collaborations to improve our understanding of
biology, and encourage exploitation of proteases/inhibitors/receptors
for pharmaceutical and industrial applications.
The
principal objectives are to build a highly interactive research and
educational protease network within Australia; to catalyse the
exploration of new frontiers and opportunities for developing important
new protease-related research programs relevant to life, ageing,
disease and death; and to coordinate and target a significant
proportion of protease research effort at problems of national or
international significance. Ultimate health and environmental outcomes
will have long lasting potential to create exciting and lucrative new
opportunities for the Australian economy.
The Australian Protease Network Aims :
- To value-add to current
protease research by promoting more effective, more extensive, and more
intensive, national and international collaborations to improve our
understanding of biology.
- To unite, for the first time, the efforts of those Australians
currently researching the biology and chemistry of proteases (including
structures, functions and control), while also increasing awareness of
the importance of proteases among other Australian scientists who could
be potential recruits into the Network.
- To increase the capacity, and expand the horizons, of Australian
protease research through developing more intensive links with current
international collaborators, while sourcing potential new
collaborations via more effective international networking.
- To facilitate global networking by building, maintaining, and
communicating through, national and international website registers of
protease researchers; using them to catalyse more extensive
collaborations, communications, and information/researcher exchange
through specialist meetings, workshops, and electronic contact.
- To create new networking, management and leadership opportunities
for established and younger scientists, fostering student and
postdoctoral exchange of Australian and overseas researchers.
- To provide financial, vocational, mentoring and grant writing
support to current or prospective protease researchers, especially
younger investigators.
- To promote interdisciplinary research approaches and
education programmes by also connecting Australian and global
researchers through the rapidly growing disciplines of genomics,
proteomics, transcriptomics, bioinformatics, as well as more
traditional disciplines of genetics,
structural/molecular/cell/developmental biology, enzymology,
physiology, immunology, microbiology, pharmacology, chemistry &
drug discovery.
- To create opportunities for sharing lab resources, equipment,
techniques, technologies, infrastructure and knowledge through lab
visits and web-based information.
- To connect research groups, individual students and researchers
with potential end users including each other, and to engage the
community through Network activities.
- To generate new opportunities for, and facilitate commercial
exploitation of, proteases/inhibitors/receptors through future
recruitment of pharmaceutical, biotechnology and industrial affiliates.
This
collection of initiatives have been designed to promote research
collaborations, encourage lateral thinking, train and educate
participants in new activities and diversify their interests, all
towards improving our capacity to understand biology.
Network Structure
The
Australian Protease Network was formed in 2004 by over 80 research
groups from 28 universities, institutions, hospitals, or companies in 6
states of Australia (Queensland, New South Wales, ACT, Victoria, South
Australia, Western Australia). The participants have individual links
to collaborators in 19 countries (Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China,
Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, New
Zealand, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, UK, USA) and
plans to unite their efforts as well.
The Australian Protease Network has an interim management committee comprising 10 people:
Network Administrator:
National Convenors:
ACT Node Coordinator:
NSW Node Coordinator:
Vic Node Coordinator:
Qld Node Coordinator:
SA Node Coordinator:
WA Node Coordinator:
Professor
Fairlie will coordinate the overall program, supported by two Early
Career Researchers as deputies Dr. Hooper and Dr. Tyndall and a full
time Network Administrator. Associate Professor Pike (Victoria),
Professor Alewood (Queensland), Professor Hogg (New South Wales), Dr.
Baker (ACT), Professor Kumar (South Australia), and Professor Stewart
(Western Australia) will be the local coordinators at each of the State
nodes.
An International Protease Network website register (www.protease.net) has
also been created to facilitate global communications and
collaborations between protease researchers and end users. A core of
group of eminent international protease researchers have been enlisted
by the Australian Protease Network as scientific advisers and conduits
to the international community. Expatriate Professor Chris Overall
chairs this advisory group :
Canada:
Professor Chris Overall
North American Degradomics Group
University of British Columbia, Vancouver
chris.overall@ubc.ca
USA:
Professor Guy Salvesen
North American Degradomics Group
The Burnham Institute, San Diego
gsalvesen@burnham.org
Professor Ben Dunn
President of the International Proteolysis Society
University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville
BDunn@biochem.med.ufl.edu
UK:
Professor John Mayer
Council Member UK Biochemical Society
University of Nottingham Medical School, Nottingham
John.Mayer@nottingham.ac.uk
Germany:
Japan:
Professor Yoshiaki Kiso
Director Center for Frontier Research in Medicinal Science
Kyoto Pharmaceutical University, Kyoto
kiso@mb.kyoto-phu.ac.jp
The
network will endeavour to recruit International protease researchers,
as opportunities arise, for relocation to Australia. Network recruits
who relocated to Australia between Oct 2003 - May 2004 are Professor John Dalton (Dublin City University to University of Technology, Sydney), Dr. John Deadman (Thrombosis Research Institute, London to AMRAD, Melbourne), Dr David Dougan (Heidelberg University) and Dr. Kaye Truscott (Freiberg University) to La Trobe University, Melbourne. Among international participants who are expatriate Australians are Prof. Chris Overall (UBC, Canada), Prof. Terry Spithill (McGill, Canada), Prof. Toni Antalis (George Washington, USA), Prof. Paul Brindley (Tullane, USA), Drs Donmienne Leung and Michael Kelso (SCRIPPS, USA), Dr. Matt Glenn (Yale, USA), Dr. Bruce Caterson (UK), Assoc. Professor Andrew Abell (Canterbury, NZ). |