Nadia Rosenthal
Starfish have the ability to regenerate and can re-grow an entire new arm. Researchers like Nadia Rosenthal are studying creatures like starfish to try to understand how these regenerative processes happen and whether that knowledge can be applied to the repair and regeneration of the human body.
Professor Rosenthal says that while humans can regenerate liver cells and red blood cells, the healing cells that respond to an injury form only scar tissue. In a starfish the lost tissue is perfectly renewed.
Regenerative medicine broadly refers to the repair or replacement of damaged human tissues and organs, to regain the remarkable tissue regenerative capacity we all had before birth. It is an emerging field that incorporates the use of cells, factors or other biological building blocks, along with bioengineered materials and technologies.
Professor Rosenthal is an international leader in molecular biology and shares her time between supervising the fledgling Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute (ARMI) and a laboratory in Italy where she leads research on repairing damaged heart and muscle tissue in a program under the auspices of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory.
ARMI is part of the largest commitment to research that Monash University has ever made, investing $103 million in the construction of state-of-the-art laboratory facilities for biomedical research. The Victorian Government and Federal governments have provided a total of $50 million for the fit out of the labs and research equipment.
At full capacity ARMI will be one of the world's largest regenerative and stem cell research centres. Its work will form the basis of treatments for conditions such as neurodegenerative disorders, diabetes, arthritis, musculo-skeletal and cardiovascular diseases.
Its scientists will focus on unravelling the basic mechanisms of the regenerative process, enabling doctors to prevent, halt and reverse damage to vital organs due to disease, injury or genetic conditions.
Earlier this year Australia was named as the first Associate member of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory. ARMI, and Monash, will provide facilities and administrative support for the prestigious laboratory in Australia. In its 2009 budget, the Commonwealth announced a further $8 million towards the establishment and development of the EMBL partner laboratory at Clayton.
A key element of the partner laboratory model is its policy of attracting promising scientists early in their careers.
"We aim to foster young talent by enabling bright young scientists to be as free and creative as they can be in the most productive stage of their life – shortly after they leave their post-doctoral fellowship. We retain them for approximately a decade – when they are then encouraged to move on and make way for the next generation of new scientists.
"This model has produced a cadre of alumni in Europe including Nobel Prize winners and heads of international institutes. We want to offer young Australian scientists the same opportunities by forming a partner lab here in Australia," Professor Rosenthal said.
