A new study in Nature Communications co-authored by Griffith University reports the discovery of extremely rare early human fossils from the Indonesian island of Flores, including an astonishingly small adult limb bone.
Dated to about 700,000 years old, the new findings shed light on the evolution of Homo floresiensis, the so-called ‘Hobbits’ of Flores whose remains were uncovered in 2003 at Liang Bua cave in the island’s west by a team co-led by Australian-New Zealand archaeologist Professor Mike Morwood (1950–2013).
The Mata Menge humerus fragment (left) at the same scale as the humerus of Homo floresiensis from Liang Bua. Image: Yousuke Kaifu
Archaeological evidence suggests these diminutive, small-brained humans inhabited Liang Bua as recently as 50,000 years ago, a time when our own species (Homo sapiens) was already long established in Australia to the south.
There has been much debate about the origin of the mysterious humans from Flores. It was first hypothesised that Homo floresiensis was a dwarfed descendant of early Asian Homo erectus.
Another theory is that the ‘Hobbit’ is a late-surviving remnant of a more ancient hominin from Africa that pre-dates Homo erectus and was small in stature to begin with, in which case possible candidates include Homo habilis or the famous ‘Lucy’ (Australopithecus afarensis).
Other than Liang Bua, hominin fossils have only ever been found at a single location on Flores: the open-air site of Mata Menge 75km to the east of the cave. Located in the sparsely populated tropical grasslands of the So’a Basin, this site has previously yielded several hominin fossils (a jaw fragment and six teeth) excavated from a layer of sandstone laid down by a small stream around 700,000 years ago.
Professor Adam Brumm has spent decades investigating the fossil ancestors of the Indonesian ‘hobbits’ (Homo floresiensis).
However, as postcranial elements (bones from below the head) had not been found in the fossil record at this site it could not be confirmed that these So’a Basin hominins were at least as small as, if not slightly smaller than, Homo floresiensis.
It was also unclear what species the Mata Menge fossils belonged to, owing to the lack of more diagnostic specimens. However, some teeth were deemed to be intermediate in form between those of early Asian Homo erectus and Homo floresiensis.
The distal humerus excavated from Mata Menge. Image: Yousuke Kaifu
The new study published in Nature Communications was led by Professor Yousuke Kaifu of the University of Tokyo, Iwan Kurniawan of the Center for Geological Survey in Indonesia, and Associate Professor Gerrit van den Bergh from the University of Wollongong.
It reports the discovery of three additional hominin fossils from Mata Menge dating to 700,000 years ago, the outcome of several field seasons of excavations at this site. Most importantly, the new assemblage includes the first postcranial element, a distal shaft of an adult humerus (lower half of the upper arm bone).
The recovery of a fossil limb bone from the Mata Menge excavation site has been long-awaited because of the wealth of evidence it provides regarding the ancestral origin of Homo floresiensis.
Digital microscopy of the microstructure indicates that the small humerus is from an adult individual. Based on the estimated length of the bone, the team was able to calculate the body height of this hominin to be about 100cm tall. This is around 6cm shorter than the estimated body height of the 60,000-year-old Homo floresiensis skeleton from Liang Bua (~106cm, based on the femoral length).
“This 700,000-year-old adult humerus is not just shorter than that of Homo floresiensis, it is the smallest upper arm bone known from the hominin fossil record worldwide,” said Professor Adam Brumm from Griffith University’s Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, a co-author of the paper.
“This very rare specimen confirms our hypothesis that the ancestors of Homo floresiensis were extremely small in body size; however, it is now apparent from the tiny proportions of this limb bone that the early progenitors of the ‘Hobbit’ were even smaller than we had previously thought.”
Professor Adam Brumm
The two additional hominin teeth from Mata Menge are also small in size and one bears shape characteristics that are most consistent with early Homo erectus of Java. This similarity does not support the hypothesis that Homo floresiensis evolved from an earlier and more primitive type of hominin, the likes of which have never been recovered from Indonesia, or indeed the wider region outside Africa.
Professor Adam Brumm.
The Mata Menge human remains, which now total 10 fossil specimens, are from at least four individuals (including two children). All of them are very similar anatomically to the Liang Bua Homo floresiensis and can now be regarded as an older variant of this hominin. However, while a direct ancestor of the ‘Hobbit’, this earlier form had a less specialised dentition (more primitive teeth) than its descendant at Liang Bua.
Further, it is evident from the tiny arm bone that extreme body size reduction occurred early in the history of the Flores hominins.
“The evolutionary history of the Flores hominins is still largely unknown,” Professor Brumm said.
“However, the new fossils strongly suggest that the ‘Hobbit’ story did indeed begin when a group of the early Asian hominins known as Homo erectus somehow became isolated on this remote Indonesian island, perhaps one million years ago, and underwent a dramatic body size reduction over time.”
For over a decade, the Griffith Business School Student Leadership Program has provided selected business students with a myriad of opportunities for leadership development, mentorship, and active engagement within the University community. More than just an academic endeavour, this program equips students with real-world experience and cultivates the leadership skills essential for success beyond the classroom.
From 2025, the Leadership Program will be available to more students than ever before, as it expands to include the School’s postgraduate students who have until now been excluded from the opportunity to involve themselves in this quality co-curricular activity.
Our aim is to equip all of our students with the skills and experiences they need to excel in today’s competitive employment landscape, but also to instil a sense of social responsibility and global awareness. We are excited to be able to offer the program to even more students.” Ms Joanne Fairclough, Student Development Coordinator explained.
In a further development, the program will also be offered in a new 12-month option, supplementing the standard 24-month program. This will meet the needs of increasingly busy undergraduates and the new postgraduate cohorts whose degrees are of a shorter duration.
Ms Fairclough observed, “We received feedback that some students were unsure if they could commit to a full 24-months, and we didn’t want them to miss out. The 12-month offering allows those students to access half of the program in half the time.”
Through peer mentoring, volunteering opportunities, and representing the School at major events, students are provided with a platform to contribute meaningfully to their communities while gaining invaluable leadership experience.
Senior Leader and Griffith Business School student, Izabel Murray, encourages all Griffith Business School students to apply for the program. “The skills you learn, the networks you create, and the self-discovery you experience are incredible. The program enhances student life and prepares you for life after university. It’s something every Griffith Business School student should apply for.”
Over 400 current and alumni Student Leaders have flourished by participating in the program during their university journey and the School is delighted to now open this opportunity to all its students.
Applications for the 2025 program are open until Thursday 19 September, 2024. Interested students can find out more and apply here.
Gifted learners often exhibit exceptional versatility and creativity in using resources to explore and develop their ideas, often in unconventional ways. Michelle recalls the day one of her gifted students, 12-year-old Mika, came to her distraught, clutching her latest art project—a beautifully imaginative and intricately coloured pencil drawing of an alien-inspired botanical garden. “My art teacher gave me a C!”, she exclaimed. “She said I didn’t follow the assignment and should have just drawn a basic flower bouquet still life!”
Mika’s experience of having her creativity constrained by formal assignment rubrics is all too common for gifted learners. While there can be room for creativity in some assignments, creativity is often constrained in many school-based assessments. Standard curricula often don’t leave room for imagination and innovation that frequently comes naturally to gifted students. Often times teachers, many without the requisite expertise, understanding, and skills to nurture these creative abilities, find it easier to rein gifted students back into the pace of their peers, and keep within the constraints of standardised tasks.
There are at least 400,000 gifted school students across Australia, where giftedness is said to be aptitudes across four mental domains and two physical domains; intellectual, creative, social, perceptual, muscular, and motor control. The many unique traits of gifted students, such as verbal precocity, detailed imagination, exceptional problem-solving, and innovative, divergent, and creative thinking, require educational opportunities that extend and enrich the development of these aptitudes. In general, teachers struggle to support the learning needs of gifted students for a variety of reasons: lack of teacher training, limited resources, curricula and time constraints, limitations in understanding what giftedness is, and in understanding the capabilities of gifted students. Like most problems in education there are no simple answers.
What might this mean for teachers with gifted students in their class?
That’s the question that had us experimenting with large language model chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGTP and Anthropic’s Claude. Based on Maslow’s figurative analogy, ‘only having a hammer makes us see every problem as a nail’, Michelle crafted prompts for Claude to come up with some uses of a hammer that had nothing to do with nails. As the conversation evolved, the back-and-forth chat built on the differing uses of a hammer, such as prying, crushing, stirring, and scraping, depending on the need at hand, she pushed Claude further, to ‘think’ outside the box, and how might we counter the argument that this hammer analogy tries to make about only having a hammer makes seeing every problem as a nail. Claude produced a cascade of unpredictable and unconstrained ideas—from writing songs about hammers, to theorems for optimal hammering biomechanics, to avant-garde hammer-themed art installations. Michelle prompted Claude to generate 101 uses for a hammer other nailing. The GAIs responses, produced instances of what Stuart Kaufmann calls the adjacent possible. As Kauffman puts it: “things can be combined to make new things.” For the gifted student there are 101 adjacent possibles to build on and work from. For the teacher of a gifted student, they no longer need to spend time generating 101 adjacent possibles.
Following the hammer and nail exchange, Claude suggested that “Sometimes a simple tool used skilfully by an ingenious person is the best approach, and even if you only have access to one tool, you can still choose how and when to use it in different ways. You are not limited to one approach.” Or to draw on a point made recently by David Autor, “If a traditional computer program is akin to a classical performer playing only the notes on the sheet music” (hammer and everything’s a nail) “AI is more like a jazz musician — riffing on existing melodies, taking improvisational solos and humming new tunes” (101 adjacent possibles).
Michelle’s small experiment demonstrated that sometimes a simple tool (GAI) used skilfully by an imaginative person (gifted student or teacher) is the best approach, even if you only have access to one (GAI) tool, you can still choose how and when to use it in different ways (activities and tasks). You are not limited to one approach (formulaic prompts).
Adjacent to this experiment, is the ’Closed World Principle’, whereby concentrating on the internal aspects of a problem, while limiting options, can lead to more creative outcomes. Rather than being prompted to ‘think outside the box’, this principle upholds the usefulness of looking inwardly in the context where the problem is occurring. Unfortunately, the experiment of applying this principle with GAI did not elicit an interesting array of responses, although Claude did finish off by stating “Constraints can breed creativity when we learn how to manipulate them methodically”.
The prospect of apps that support and encourage custom creativity for the interests and passions of gifted students from writing to coding, to quantum physics is evident. Unlike fears of AI encouraging cheating, we see GAI as a resource that requires human resourcefulness, ingenuity, and ideation in exploring adjacent possibles, unknown unknowns. With an unexpected recommendation from Claude to “manifest positive change through mindful, compassionate hammering” underscoring that ethics and the development of emotional intelligence have a place in using GAI.
GAI outputs rely entirely on thoughtfully crafted prompts. That’s where teachers have an important role—guiding gifted students in harnessing GAI, rather than letting it steer aimlessly or in potentially problematic directions. Responsibly nurturing the creativity of gifted young minds remains a profoundly human endeavour.
Like any experiment with GAI, it can become dated quickly as wave after wave of new and better GAIs are released, like Open AI’s Sora or Google’s Gemini Ultra, which in turn further adds to the now many thousands of GAI-based apps. What is not changed is the importance of a re-negotiated student teacher relationship, one that is free of hammer and nail thinking. The field still needs much more research, experimentation, and open mindedness to realise GAI’s potential in gifted education. The thought of Mika’s delight in using AI to suggest ideas for her next alien garden artwork left us hopeful. We all have more to learn from the wonderfully quirky, wildly creative minds of gifted students like Mika. With GAI at the fingertips of educators and gifted learners, making unconventional connections and innovative problem-solving beckons.
Mika’s experience of having her creativity constrained by formal assignment rubrics is all too common for gifted learners. While there can be room for creativity in some assignments, creativity is often constrained in many school-based assessments. Standard curricula often don’t leave room for imagination and innovation that frequently comes naturally to gifted students. Often times teachers, many without the requisite expertise, understanding, and skills to nurture these creative abilities, find it easier to rein gifted students back into the pace of their peers, and keep within the constraints of standardised tasks.
Presenting a buffet of sports-related career opportunities, the Careers for Women in Sport event at Griffith University inspired 140 young women to pursue their place as future sports industry professionals.
From left: Taylah Favier, Dr Sarah Wymer, Naomi McCarthy OAM, Sam Hughes and Annabelle Mclaren.
Partnering with the City of Gold Coast, the event celebrated the accomplishments of female athletes and sports industry role models to reinforce gender diversity and inclusivity in sports.
Griffith Manager of Sports Engagement, Lead in the Women in Sport Strategy, and Sydney 2000 Gold medallist, Naomi McCarthy OAM said there are a diverse range of career paths in the sporting industry and its important young women know about the opportunities.
“This event has been an opportunity to celebrate the accomplishments of female athletes and industry role models,” Ms McCarthy said.
“Through workshops, discussions, and networking opportunities, students have gained valuable insight about career options such as sport coaching, event management, sport communication and journalism, sport science, sport technology, and sport marketing.
“Engaging young women in events such as this is an important part of Griffith’s Women in Sport strategy which aims to achieve better outcomes for all women in sport and support more women in sport careers.”
Providing strong representation and recognition of women in sport, the panel discussion led by Ms McCarthy included:
Active & Healthy Team Lead at Venues Gold Coast, City of Gold Coast Sam Hughes’ leadership in the Active & Healthy program ensures the activation of public spaces for community fitness and wellness activities
Department of Tourism, Sport and Hotel Management, Griffith Business School, Griffith University Dr Sarah Wymer’s research is focused on digital media and fan engagement
Griffith School of Health Sciences and Social Work, PhD candidate Annabelle McLaren’s sports science research has allowed her to do testing with elite swimmers, NRL’s Women’s Indigenous Academy, and the Australian Jillaroos
Titans Commercial Development Executive Taylah Favier’s expertise lies in leveraging business opportunities within the sports industry, ensuring sustainable development and impactful community engagement
Griffith experts delivered workshops detailing the depth of sports technology, sports science, and sports management.
Griffith researchers are among the 200 experts who have contributed to the most comprehensive and rigorous review about the effects of land-based activities on Great Barrier Reef water quality and ecosystem condition: the 2022 Scientific Consensus Statement.
The Statement brings together the latest scientific evidence to understand how land-based activities can influence water quality in the Great Barrier Reef, and how these influences can be managed.
Led by C2O Consulting and funded by the Australian and Queensland governments, the Statement involved more than 200 experts including 78 authors and 69 reviewers from Australia and overseas. The outputs are based on evidence from over 4,000 publications.
“The 2022 Scientific Consensus Statement is an exemplar of the academic methods for reaching scientific consensus. The public can trust the processes used to develop the Statement, and the conclusions can be relied upon and trusted to inform decision-making.”
Chief Scientist Dr Cathy Foley
Experts addressed 30 priority questions examining evidence from the catchment to the reef. The questions cover values, conditions and drivers of the health of the Great Barrier Reef, sediments and particulate nutrients, dissolved nutrients, pesticides and other pollutants, as well as human dimensions of water quality improvements and emerging science. All outputs were independently peer reviewed by local, national, and international experts.
Based on the evidence, 35 scientific experts reached consensus on eight overarching conclusions, Concluding Statements and a Summary report.
View south towards the Russell River National Park and the junction of the Russell and Mulgrave Rivers over flooded sugar fields. A turbid river plume can be seen emerging from the Russell-Mulgrave river mouth following several days of heavy rainfall in Feb 2015. Credit Dieter Tracey
Overarching Conclusions
Historical and continuing land management and catchment modification impair Great Barrier Reef water quality through extensive vegetation degradation, changed hydrology, increased erosion, and expansion of fertilised land uses, urban centres and coastal developments.
Pollutant loads from the catchment area to the Great Barrier Reef have increased from pre-development loads by 1.4 to 5 times for fine sediments, and 1.5 to 3 times for dissolved inorganic nitrogen (with variations depending on basins).
Poor water quality, particularly elevated levels of fine sediments, nutrients and pesticides, continues to have detrimental impacts on Great Barrier Reef ecosystems. The greatest impacts are on freshwater, estuarine, coastal and inshore marine ecosystems.
Human-induced climate change is the primary threat to the Great Barrier Reef and poor water quality can exacerbate climate-related impacts. Good water quality is critical for healthy and resilient ecosystems and supports recovery from disturbances such as mass bleaching and extreme weather events. Meeting water quality improvement targets within the next ten years is imperative.
While several land management practices and remediation actions are proven to be cost-effective in improving water quality, translating these into more substantial pollutant reductions will require significant scaling up of the adoption of these actions, prioritisation of pollutant hotspots, and greater knowledge of the costs and potential co-benefits of practice adoption.
Greater focus on locally effective management solutions can encourage faster adoption, especially when designed and delivered using collaborative approaches involving landholders, Indigenous communities, the broader community, policy makers and scientists.
World-leading monitoring, modelling and reporting programs underpin the Great Barrier Reef ecosystems and provide essential knowledge to inform water quality improvement strategies. These programs could be strengthened and refined by increasing their spatial and temporal coverage to capture regional and local differences, provide more balanced coverage across land uses and ecosystems, improve trend analysis and quantify uncertainties.
“There is good evidence that the remediation of large alluvial gullies applying treatments typically used on major civil engineering projects, is both highly effective and highly cost-effective. Fine sediment reductions over 90% were demonstrated within one to two years of remediation.
“The 2022 Scientific Consensus Statement confirms that gully and streambank erosion represent around 80% of all sediment delivered to the Great Barrier Reef,” Associate Professor Brooks said.
“The evidence for riparian management was, however, more equivocal. The review found that while there was a sound theoretical basis for the sorts of management activities currently being undertaken to reduce channel erosion through riparian management, the scientific evidence specific to the Great Barrier Reef does not yet exist to back this up.”
Associate Professor Andrew Brooks
Professor Diaz Pulido said: “The review confirms that excess dissolved inorganic nutrients (such as nitrogen and phosphorus) affect a variety of organisms and ecosystems in the Great Barrier Reef, from phytoplankton, seagrasses, macroalgae, corals, mangroves to freshwater habitats. However, the effects are very variable and difficult to generalise, which is not surprising given the high diversity of species in the Great Barrier Reef.
“While there are direct effects of elevated nutrients such as reduced coral calcification, negative impacts on coral reproduction, and potentially lowering thermal tolerance to bleaching, the most severe impacts of increased nutrients on corals may be indirect. For instance, elevated nutrient availability on inshore reefs is generally (but not always) positively correlated with increased fleshy macroalgal abundance. These algae can reduce coral settlement and recruitment, outcompete corals, reduce coral cover and negatively affect coral calcification.”
Griffith University researchers have been awarded more $8.5 million for eight of 22 projects announced in the Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellowship (FT24) round.
Out of 22 applications, Griffith was awarded eight Fellowships totalling $8,587,849.
This result represents a success rate of 36.4 per cent from its applications, one of the highest in the nation.
The successful Griffith researchers and projects were:
Associate Professor Fernanda Adame (Sciences, Australian Rivers Institute) has been awarded $1,058,024 for the project titled Carbon negative freshwater wetlands: Novel pathways of carbon sequestration.
Associate Professor Porun Liu (Sciences, Centre for Catalysis and Clean Energy) has been awarded $1,195,492 for the project titled Porous Electrode Design for Electrochemical Conversion of Captured CO2.
Dr Ferran Martinez i Coma (Business, Centre for Governance and Public Policy) has been awarded $1,031,246 for the project titled Resilient elections: How to Strengthen Our Democracies.
Dr Sergei Slussarenko (Sciences, Centre for Quantum Dynamics) has been awarded $1,067,272 for the project titled Pioneering Quantum Advantage for Distributed Precision Metrology.
Professor Hang Ta (Sciences, Queensland Micro and Nanotechnology Centre) has been awarded $1,196,111 for the project titled Materials to cross gastrointestinal barrier and escape liver metabolism.
Dr Lisa Stafford (Health Group) has been awarded $1,052,822 for the project titled Transport Equity For All.
Associate Professor Danielle Harris (Arts, Education and Law (AEL), Griffith Criminology Institute) has been awarded $1,064,423 for the project titled Understanding the Collateral Consequences of Sex Offender Legislation.
Dr Jun Zhang (Sciences, Queensland Micro and Nanotechnology Centre) has been awarded $922,459 for the project titled Stretchable microfluidics for improved fluid and particle handling.
Associate Professor Fernanda Adame Associate Professor Porun LiuAssociate Professor Danielle HarrisDr Jun ZhangDr Ferran Martinez i ComaDr Sergei SlussarenkoProfessor Hang TaDr Lisa Stafford
Griffith University has conferred honorary doctorates upon two remarkable women in recognition of their outstanding achievements in nursing and midwifery, and the arts and entertainment industries.
Beth Mohle AM and Tracey Vieira have made significant contributions to not only the University, but to their communities and well beyond.
An inspirational leader in the nursing and midwifery professions, Ms Mohle was acknowledged for the impact she’s had on healthcare policy, industrial relations and advocacy for nurses and midwives.
Beth Mohle AM
Prior to completing a Bachelor of Arts with Griffith, she had already decided to follow in the footsteps of her mother, aunts and sister, graduating as a nurse from the (then) Royal Brisbane Hospital.
It was then that Ms Mohle began to see the need for leadership to ensure high quality, consistent working conditions, which nurses and midwives now enjoy thanks to her tireless campaigning.
She also led the push for minimum nurse-to-patient ratios, which culminated in the Hospital and Health Boards (Safe Nurse-To-Patient and Midwife-To-Patient Ratios) Amendment Bill 2015.
These world-leading laws continue to save lives.
Ms Mohle has worked tirelessly for nurses and midwives in Queensland as a union organiser, in project management, policy and research, and most effectively in her former position as Secretary of the Queensland Nurses and Midwives’ Union of Employees.
In 2020, she was even named a Member of the Order of Australia in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List, aptly coinciding with the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife.
Tracey Vieira
Tracey Vieira on the other hand, was conferred as Doctor of the University for her distinguished service to the arts, and to the film and entertainment industry in Queensland in particular.
Her career has included leadership roles in music, precinct development, visual arts and placemaking, plus pivotal roles at the Queensland Events Corporation, Pacific Film and Television Commission, and a decade in Los Angeles as Film Commissioner, where she promoted Australia’s screen industry internationally.
As Chief Content Officer for the Emmy® and BAFTA Award-winning production company Hoodlum, Ms Vieira was instrumental in expanding their global slate across television and feature films, with productions in development with industry giants such as ABC Signature, Fox, Peacock, Stan, Netflix, CBS International, and A&E.
In 2014, she became CEO of Screen Queensland, fostering growth and championing cultural change by introducing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Strategic Plan and a Gender Equity Policy.
She also served as Director of Home of the Arts (HOTA) Gold Coast and was the inaugural director of the Sunshine Coast Arts Advisory Board.
Currently, Ms Vieira is an advisor to US-based Australians in Film, President of the Screen Producers Australia Council, and Chair of the Griffith Film School Advisory Board and Asia Pacific Screen Awards, with the latter being instrumental in supporting and setting up the Asia Pacific Screen Lab.
Housed in Griffith Film School, the Lab is a screen incubator where members of the Asia Pacific Screen Academy mentor emerging talent to reach international recognition, giving the Film School an enormous boost in its outreach reputation.
Griffith is immensely proud to welcome both of these extraordinary champions as Honorary Doctors of the University and looks forward to supporting them in their future endeavours.
Tracey Vieira with Vice Chancellor Carolyn Evans and Chancellor Andrew FraserBeth Moyle AM with Vice Chancellor Carolyn Evans and Chancellor Andrew Fraser
Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research) and Acting Director of the Institute for Biomedicine and Glycomics, Professor Lee Smith
A $2 million grant awarded to establish the Queensland Drug Discovery Alliance (QDDA) will align and grow Queensland’s small molecule therapeutic discovery capability under the leadership of Therapeutic Innovation Australia (TIA).
The funding from the Queensland Government’s Department of Environment, Science and Innovation (DESI) will unite and strengthen three flagship Queensland facilities: Compounds Australia (Institute for Biomedicine and Glycomics, Griffith University), the Queensland Emory Drug Discovery Initiative (QEDDI, UniQuest), and the Centre for Integrated Preclinical Drug Development (CIPDD, The University of Queensland).
QDDA aims to bridge the gap from basic discovery to clinical development, commercialisation, and market entry, accelerating drug discovery and enabling more effective translation of Queensland’s biomedical research.
TIA CEO Dr Stuart Newman said: “Queensland’s world class research base is underpinned by sophisticated research infrastructure, however, a challenge in realising our potential has been fragmentation, with infrastructure spread across universities, research institutes, and commercial enterprises.
“This Queensland-based strategic alliance will strengthen and expand a framework through which academic and industry groups can advance drug discovery programs through key early stages of development.”
The recent funding was awarded through the Research Infrastructure Co-Investment Fund (RICF), which has invested $26.1 million since it was established in 2019 into critical research infrastructure facilities in Queensland.
RICF seeks to boost Queensland’s research capability by investing in new innovative projects to ensure the state remains at the forefront of innovation, science, health, and technology.
It complements the Australian Government’s National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS), providing critical co-investment in NCRIS facilities in Queensland.
Through NCRIS funding, TIA has committed more than $4 million to support the operational and capital expenditure for the three QDDA facilities.
The funds will be used to employ highly skilled technical staff to sustain the growing demand of biomedical researchers for the critical services and resources provided by the QDDA facilities.
QDDA proposes to be an exemplar of a cross-disciplinary translational workforce, with expertise in chemistry, biology, engineering, and information technology coming together to realise the delivery of critical drug discovery and development capabilities.
By boosting Queensland’s drug discovery pipeline and delivering tailored training and education forums, QDDA will create high-tech, high-value jobs and retain substantial workforce benefits in Queensland.
Queensland Chief Scientist Professor Kerrie Wilson said the QDDA would supercharge translation of Queensland’s drug discovery pipeline.
“This initiative will provide much needed training for Queensland’s biomedical workforce and help position the state at the forefront of Asia-Pacific innovation in therapeutic drug discovery development and translation,” Professor Wilson said.
“Investing in such projects through the RICF program enables research facilities to have the latest critical infrastructure in place to enable Queensland scientists to drive research and development.”
Compounds Australia , the national compound management facility located at the Institute for Biomedicine and Glycomics at Griffith University, provides Queensland and Australian researchers with access to high-quality small molecule compound libraries and industry-standard compound storage and management services.
Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research) and Acting Director of the Institute for Biomedicine and Glycomics, Professor Lee Smith, said: “Historically, those critical research capabilities were largely limited to big pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.”
“Compounds Australia provides access to critical resources for drug screening and hit identification, and is uniquely capable of supporting local and national drug discovery programs of any scale,” Professor Smith said.
Compounds Australia previously received a $1.875 million Queensland Government RICF grant in 2019 to perform a large-scale infrastructure upgrade.
Compounds Australia Academic Director Professor Sally-Ann Poulsen said: “Compounds Australia is grateful for the continued support from the Queensland Government and DESI to further enhance our critical national research infrastructure and accelerate drug discovery and translation”.
QEDDI, located at The University of Queensland and a business unit of UniQuest, is a world-class small molecule drug discovery group, dedicated to translating academic biomedical research into drug candidates for partnering.
UniQuest’s Head of Strategic Partnerships and Founding Director of QEDDI, Dr Andrew Harvey, said: “Our team of industry experienced medicinal chemists and biologists work in collaboration with researchers to develop improved treatments for patients with unmet need, working with researchers to develop ‘investment ready’ lead molecules and data packages.
The QDDA will facilitate researchers from around Queensland to access QEDDI’s industry know-how in therapeutic development.”
CIPDD in the School of Biomedical Sciences (SBMS), established at The University of Queensland in 2005, provides access to advanced preclinical disease models to enable drug discovery-translation, data regularly used for patent enablement and preparation of investor packages.
Head of SBMS, Professor Elizabeth Coulson, said: “CIPDD’s preclinical capabilities can be used to develop novel models of disease, probe the pathobiology of human disease conditions, and screen new molecules for in-vivo therapeutic activity as a means to progress novel drug discoveries towards commercialisation into products for improving human health”.
Professor Sally-Ann PoulsenProfessor Elizabeth CoulsonDr Andrew HarveyDr Stuart Newman
If you were asked what images were depicted on each side of any of your country’s banknotes, would you be able to confidently answer?
It’s a question a team of Griffith researchers has posed as a way to explore just what flora and fauna that nations around the globe choose to represent on their currency, and the opportunities they present for conservation awareness and efforts.
In the new study published in People and Nature, lead author Beaudee Newbery and his supervisors Associate Professor Guy Castley and Dr Clare Morrison, investigated the representation of native fauna on 4,541 banknotes from 207 countries between 1980 and 2017, to identify geographic hotspots and taxonomic patterns, and determine whether threatened and endemic species were more readily represented.
They found:
Native fauna depicted on 15.2% of banknotes reviewed;
These represented 352 unique species with a strong bias towards terrestrial species (89%);
A dominance of bird and mammal species (83% combined)
African banknotes had the highest mammal representation;
Birds were favoured in South America;
Globally, threatened species were commonly depicted on banknotes with 30% of all imagery representing these species.
“For many of us around the world using banknotes and coins is part of the everyday, despite the increasing trend towards digital transactions,” Associate Professor Castley said.
“But in making these transactions, do we pay any notice to the currency itself and the images and artwork that are used in these designs?
“To get a sense of the ‘value’ that countries around the world might place on their native wildlife, our paper explored how wildlife imagery was used on banknotes.
“We were interested in finding out how often wildlife, specifically native animals, were depicted, but also which species were depicted.”
The team recommended several avenues for further investigation to explore the relationships between perceived value and wildlife representation.
These included longitudinal studies of how representation changes over time; the inclusion of flora and/or coin imagery; identifying species-specific traits for selected wildlife; and examining the decision-making processes governing wildlife imagery on banknotes.
“Given the global biodiversity crisis, perhaps there may be a trend to showcase threatened species to highlight their plight and raise national awareness for these species.”
Associate Professor Guy Castley
“This study underscores the role that wildlife imagery on banknotes can play in shaping national identity and public perception of a country’s biodiversity.”
“By highlighting both the celebrated and threatened species, currencies around the world serve as a unique platform for promoting conservation awareness.”
A focus on harm reduction has led to a world-first steroid-testing service being offered in Brisbane.
Launched by Griffith University’s Dr Tim Piatkowski in partnership with the Queensland Injectors Health Network (QuIHN), Queensland Injectors Voice for Advocacy and Action (QuIVAA) and The Loop Australia, the confidential service aims to empower people to make more informed decisions.
Users of performance and image enhancing drugs (IPEDs) are encouraged to drop off used vials at collections points, with samples then tested for purity or contaminants, and to confirm if the substances are what they were expected to be.
Dr Piatkowski is a lecturer at Griffith’s School of Applied Psychology and believes information is key in minimising unintended consequences.
“Research has shown the legality of a substance rarely factors into consumer desire when it comes to attaining outcomes or goals,” he said.
Dr Tim Piatkowski
“Young men in particular often feel pressured to achieve a muscular physique due to social media influencers or popular culture, with many experiencing distress if their own bodies don’t look that way even after extreme exercise, dieting and use of readily available supplements.
“This unrealistic expectation and inner conflict can often lead to risky behaviours like using IPEDs.”
Steroid use is illegal in Australia, with penalties for possession including various terms of imprisonment.
Queensland holds the harshest penalties in the country, following changes to the law in 2014 to target trafficking by outlaw motorcycle gangs.
Dr Piatkowski said this high level of criminalisation had pushed users further underground and away from medical care.
“People are scared to ask for help because of the law,” he said.
“We’ve heard from the community that people who use these drugs do want information and they do want to engage in harm reduction.
“In an unregulated market, you never really know what you’re getting.
“In some cases the desired compound may not even be in the injected substance, but we’ve also heard of instances where contaminants have led to infections or abscesses, or even required surgery.
“While they are concerned about their health, stigmatisation means these individuals are turning to peers, other consumers on social networks or steroid or drug coaches.”
Bachelor of Science Honours student Maddie Harding has been testing the samples collected through the trial and said a quarter had returned unexpected results.
“In the first wave of the trial we received 24 samples, which were screened to determine if the expected steroid was present, as well as what carrier oils were used, and if there were any other substances in the mix,” she said.
Maddie Harding
“The samples are highly concentrated, so trace residues from used vials are more than enough for us to test.
“We’ve found some cross contamination with other steroids being detected within the compounds, as well as a desired steroid being absent.
“None of the unexpected results have been too alarming yet, but we’re really encouraging the community to bring in more samples so we can form a bigger picture, ensure users are as informed as possible and minimise any harm.”
Samples can be dropped off at the Bowen Hills CheQpoint site on Fridays between 12:30pm and 6pm, with the trial initially set to run for one year.
The service is confidential, however participants are encouraged to contact Dr Piatkowski to discuss their usage patterns, what they’re hoping to achieve and any concerns they have.
“Ultimately it’s up to the individual whether they take something or not, but this at least helps ensure their choices are based on knowledge, rather than injecting or ingesting something they hadn’t planned on,” Dr Piatkowski said.
“If we can bring peers and the community together, we can drive quite meaningful changes.”
