The widely anticipated proposed meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump is just over one month away, with the countries’ ongoing diplomatic jostling continuing unabated in the lead-up.
The geopolitical environment was further shaken up recently by the unexpected revelation that Mr Kim had made the journey to the Chinese capital of Beijing to meet with President Xi Jinping, his first trip outside the isolationist state since he inherited power in 2011.
In the wake of that event, Griffith University hosted a public forum featuring renowned international Korea experts Scott Snyder and Duyeon Kim, moderated by Griffith Business School’s Dean (Research), Professor Andrew O’Neil.
Prior to the forum, Professor O’Neil, Mr Snyder and Ms Kim took part in a workshop canvassing the breadth of interests at play in Korean-based international diplomacy, as well as potential outcomes of not only the Trump-Kim meeting, but also Mr Kim’s planned summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in on April 27.
“I think we had some interesting discussion about how Australia views peninsular issues,” Mr Snyder said of the workshop event.
“On the one hand, north-east Asia’s a big trade partner for Australia but, on the other hand, there’s this ‘alliance framework’ that seems to be very important in terms of the ways that Australians look at global conflict.”
During the forum’s wide-ranging discussion, which took place at the State Library of Queensland, in South Bank, the discussion turned to the shifting dynamics of power and politics along the Korean Peninsula, freshly informed by the injection of China into the tumultuous equation.
“I think it’s very significant that [the Kim-Xi meeting] occurred prior to the inter-Korea summit and the possible Trump-Kim meeting in May, because it changes the framing and the context,” Mr Snyder said.
“I think that the fact that Kim went and met with Xi pushes forward the geopolitical dimension of whatever happens at both summits.
“It just reminds everybody that China is a stakeholder, and I think that the Chinese wanted to send that message, and needed to send that message.
“The North Koreans also demonstrated actually that they recognise that they might need the Chinese, really, as back-up, in case things don’t quite go right in the unfolding summitry that they have planned with South Korea and the United States.”
Ms Kim agreed: “It would just send a reminder to Washington that Beijing and Pyongyang are on the same side.
“In terms of shaping outcomes, I think it’s pretty clear both where Washington wants to go, and where Pyongyang wants to go on the nuclear issue, and they are completely different paths.
“So where Beijing comes into play is that Beijing and Pyongyang’s vision and interests align when it comes to elements like a peace treaty, like US-South Korean military exercises, like their desire to remove US forces from the Korean peninsula — on those elements, their interests align.
“So perhaps — we don’t know, but perhaps — Pyongyang and Beijing might have discussed a game plan on how to go about achieving those goals, but I don’t think that Kim Jong-un really needs to seek Beijing’s advice or guidelines or marching orders, because I think Kim Jong-un has shown that he is confident enough to enter into these two summits with his own ideas and his own strategy.”
Importantly, Mr Snyder said, the meeting made clear the message that countries such as the US “really shouldn’t think about trying to find solutions on the Korean peninsula without considering Chinese interests”.
“At the beginning of the year, when Kim Jong-un made his New Year’s speech, he talked positively about improving the relationship with South Korea; there was a more negative tone to what he said about the United States — but China was left out entirely,” he explained.
“And then the way that diplomacy unfolded around the Olympics, China was really on the sidelines. So it’s really just a reminder and a re-orienter in terms of reasserting that China is a player and that they have interests that are also going to have to be taken into account.
“It complicates how North and South Korea interact with each other, and it also potentially complicates the way that Trump and Kim might interact.”
Those complications, Ms Kim said, would potentially have far-reaching and serious consequences, should Washington not take kindly to the diplomatic summit process — or its ultimate outcomes.
And, with China’s support for North Korea now firmly established in the public consciousness, the prospect of mutual amiability between the dispute’s political stakeholders may be more nebulous than the international community would like.
“The concerning thing is that if the Trump-Kim summit does not result in the manner of fashion and the way that President Trump and his White House aides want it to go, then they might jump to serious considerations of military measures,” Ms Kim said.
“This is where, for many on the outside — whether scholars or experts and civil society even — the White House is faced with three broad choices.
“One is a negotiated settlement, no matter how hard that might be right now; the second would be a Soviet-style, long-term containment isolation; and the final would be military measures.
“The concern is that the Trump administration is entertaining the idea of this potential diplomacy, but if that doesn’t work, they’ll just skip over and jump to military measures.
“I would suspect that particularly South Korean President Moon and his administration will try whatever it can to keep all parties — even Beijing — locked into this diplomatic process that we’re seeing, and it would really have to take an international effort to restrain President Trump and his aides who are for military options.”
When so much of today’s world is digital why are small, rural book towns in Europe, Australia and across the globe flourishing?
This is the question that Griffith University cultural studies lecturer Dr Jane Frank explores in her new book Regenerating Regional Culture — a study of the International Book Town Movement.
“The popularity, significance and expanding functions of book towns magnify their role in facilitating a wide range of connections between writers, event organisers, book collectors, publishers, the media and the book-loving public,’’ she says.
Dr Jane Frank
“While urban centres play an important role in contemporary print culture, and more broadly in cultural life, the ways people engage with arts and cultural debates are in a process of transformation. Less conventional spaces such as book towns are emerging as vital hubs of artistic creation, festival culture and consumption.”
From Wales, Scotland, England and Ireland to New Zealand and Australia’s own Clunes in Victoria, Dr Frank explores each community’s book town and their expanding functions.
“Book towns are a phenomenon transforming small country towns into once again sustainable, but very different communities from what they once were,” Dr Frank says.
A book town is a small town or village with a large number of used books and antiquarian book shops.
These shops, as well as literary festivals attract many tourists, not only for book lovers but for those who identify with broader, societal and ethical concerns.
Dr Frank, who has always been fascinated with second-hand and antiquarian books, became aware of the growing emergence of book towns in the UK and Europe in the 1990s when she worked in the UK book trade.
“The idea of being confronted by books en masse in the countryside – as part of communities that had elected to become book-based economies intrigued me,’’ she says.
“I was interested in how they had developed the capacity to draw thousands of visitors to them, many from metropolitan centres, and from interstate/overseas to their events, and to holiday.”
“In many cases, these tiny communities are now centres for culture and ideas. Book towns both rely on, andcontributeto, the global increase in cultural tourism.
Regenerating Regional Culture — a study of the International Book Town Movementwill be launched at the State Library of Queensland on Saturday, April 21.
Compounds Australia at Griffith University has announced that it has finalised the purchase of the state-of-the-art Hamilton Verso M3 automated compound storage system.
Based at the Griffith Institute for Drug Discovery (GRIDD, Griffith University), the Hamilton Verso M3 complements Compounds Australia’s suite of sophisticated compound management and logistics infrastructure and will provide storage for 10,000 plates and 430,000 tubes under tightly regulated environmental conditions. The system will be installed in mid-2018. The Hamilton Verso M3 offers an automated sample storage system with a flexible internal configuration to accommodate a wide range of labware and seamless integration with liquid handling robotics.
“The acquisition of the Hamilton Verso M3 Store delivers on Compounds Australia’s commitment to support world class Australian drug discovery research through high quality compound management and logistics,” Compounds Australia’s Manager Moana Simpson said.
The Verso M3 will house the new Australian Drug Discovery Library, which forms part of the Hit ID Platform being supported by MTPConnect and led by Cancer Therapeutics CRC in consortium with UniQuest through its drug discovery initiative QEDDI, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Children’s Cancer Institute, and Griffith University. The comprehensive Hit ID Platform will provide a fit-for-purpose drug discovery library (up to 300,000 compounds) that will be made available to Consortum members and the wider Australian drug discovery community.
The state-of-the-art Hamilton Verso M3 automated compound storage system, secured by Compounds Australia.
Additional capacity will also be available to house new compound collections on behalf of new and existing clients.
“Compounds Australia is a unique national facility that has facilitated the drug discovery efforts of Australian researchers for almost a decade. The purchase
of the Hamilton Verso M3 is indicative of Griffith University’s strong and ongoing commitment to Compounds Australia,”GRIDD Director Professor Jenny Martin said.
Senior Deputy Vice Chancellor Professor Ned Pankhurst says the system will further GRIDD’s work and reputation in ground-breaking drug discovery.
“Our unique resources, dedicated researchers and international partners create an ideal context for drug discovery that drives our search for revolutionary new treatments,” he said.
The Verso M3 Store was purchased with assistance from MTPConnect (2016 Funding Round- Hit ID Platform Project) and the Griffith University Research Infrastructure Support program.
Compounds Australia welcomes inquiries from new and existing clients interested in accessing new compound storage capacity and assay-ready plating services.
About Compounds Australia: Compounds Australia at Griffith University is Australia’s only dedicated compound management facility. It is a national resource that allows chemists to deposit small molecules into a central repository enabling quick and efficient access by life science drug discovery teams.
About Griffith Institute for Drug Discovery (Griffith University): Griffith Institute for Drug Discovery tackles devastating diseases using unique resources and a global network of partners. The Institute’s unique resources, dedicated researchers and international partners create an ideal context for drug discovery that drives our search for revolutionary new treatments. Innovating at the cutting-edge of chemistry and biology, GRIDD collaborates with governments, academia, communities and the health industry to create new knowledge that transforms lives for the better.
About MTPConnect: MTPConnect is a not-for-profit organisation which aims to accelerate the rate of growth of the medical technologies, biotechnologies and pharmaceuticals sector to achieve greater commercialisation and establish Australia as an Asia-Pacific hub for MTP companies. It was formed in November 2015 as part of the Australian Government’s Industry Growth Centres Initiative — learn more at mtpconnect.org.au
This venture has received funding through the MTPConnect Project Fund Program — a dollar-for-dollar matched program investing in big, bold ideas to improve the productivity, competitiveness and innovative capacity of Australia’s medical technology, biotechnology and pharmaceutical sector.
Griffith University’s Professor Cordia Chufrom the School of Environment and the School of Medicine has been awarded a Special Commendation for Excellence in Graduate Supervision at the annual Australian Council of Graduate Research (ACGR) Awards, held in Adelaide on Monday night.
Professor Chu was one of two recipients of the special commendation chosen from a pool of academics at the awards, which highlight exemplary graduate research supervisors and leaders from across Australia.
“It means a lot to me to have this recognition for research supervision work. It’s a national award and to work with the creme of the crop is quite a privilege,” Professor Chu said.
“We have a great multicultural research culture in my group, where there is critical thinking, debate, and a high completion and publication rate. We try to nurture researchers to conduct research that addresses health issues of global significance, and the impact that our students have on the industry and in regards to policy making is great.”
This year’s ACGR winners were recognised for their interdisciplinary team-based approach to supervision, leadership in the maturing area of creative practice research, engaging with industry on real world problems and preparing candidates for post-graduation careers.
Professor Chu highlighted the sense of community within her graduate research group as being among one of the most rewarding aspects of her work.
“Every month we have a cultural lunch where graduates each bring a dish that represents their country and learn about each others’ cultures and it creates a strong, family-like support environment. This support helps a lot of our female students to deal with pregnancy and new motherhood while still completing their thesis in a timely way,” she said.
Our coral reefs are feeling the heat – and new research from a team that includes Griffith University researchers has found that corals are making ‘cloud umbrellas’ to stay cool.
Associate Professor Albert Gabric, Dr Roger Cropp and Dr Dien van Tran from the Griffith School of Environment and Science were part of the team that included researchers from Southern Cross University and the University of Southern Queensland whose findings were published in the journalAMBIO.
The team’s analysis of a 15-year time series of satellite-derived data on atmospheric aerosols over the reef revealed that corals are seemingly protecting themselves from ‘stresses’ – such as high water temperatures and high irradiance and the bleaching events related to them – by producing and releasing aerosols into the atmosphere to create an ‘umbrella of cloud cover’ to help cool them down.
Associate Professor Gabric has worked in marine aerosols for 25 years and said while the ability of phytoplankton to produce aerosols was well known, this research is the first time a connection has been made between the stresses corals are undergoing with the aerosols that have been detected above them in the atmosphere.
“Until recently, scientists didn’t really appreciate that corals could produce these compounds that end up in the atmosphere and are converted through chemical reactions to aerosols,” Associate Professor Gabric said.
“Corals appear to have this protective mechanism through aerosol production. What happens to these aerosols when they get into the atmosphere is that they reflect incoming solar radiation and can also modify cloud microphysics – they can make clouds brighter and they can make clouds hang around for longer, so it’s sort of like creating a natural umbrella for the reef.”
The team of scientists looked at the satellite data from an area of about 100 by 100 kilometres centred around Heron Island, which sits in the southern region of the Great Barrier Reef off the Queensland coast.
The data, field work and lab work revealed that if corals were under stress due to very strong irradiance (eg during periods of low tides) they protected themselves by releasing volatile compounds into the sea which eventually become aerosols in the air above them, contributing to the formation of low level clouds. And the implications of that are quite far reaching, according to Associate Professor Gabric.
“The reef does create similar compounds to those produced when you burn fossil fuels, but coral aerosols are naturally produced and they have the same direct affect on incoming solar radiation – they reflect incoming radiation but more than that they change the lifetime and reflectivity of the clouds,” he said.
“The thing we know least about climate change is how both natural and anthropogenic aerosol emissions will change in the future. This is critically important because aerosols appear to have a cooling affect, cancelling or masking the warming due to greenhouse gases. And that’s the trillion dollar question – if countries stop producing these polluting aerosols what will happen to the underlying warming?”
Atmospheric aerosols only have a lifetime of a few weeks in the atmosphere, and if pollution control methods are enacted around the world to curb emissions and thereby reduce pollutant aerosols, scientists hold concerns about the cooling effect of aerosols being removed. This sudden reduction of aerosol concentrations could lead to an abrupt warming over a short period of time, which Associate Professor Gabric said “could be disastrous”.
“It’s crunch time for coral reefs around the world. There’s been several bleaching events in the last decade. It’s time to do something but it’s not clear how quickly that intervention will happen,” he said.
“The sort of reef management intervention that could be used in the future include geo engineering, like generating artificial aerosols by spraying sea salt into the air above the reef. But on a large scale this would be quite expensive, so we need further research on how best to maintain and encourage natural coralline aerosol emissions.”
In March, 15 representatives from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment in Vietnam travelled to Australia to take part in a two-week Australia Awards Fellowship focusing on human resource development in coastal and marine management in Vietnam.
Funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the fellowship was designed to enhance the capacity of Vietnam government ministries in developing policies and instruments to improve coastal and marine sustainability, resilience and growth.
Mrs My Doan Thi Thanh, Deputy General Director of the Department of Legal Affairs in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment in Vietnam, says the fellowship is “designed very well” and will be very useful for their country.
“We have acquired a lot of knowledge, which we can now apply in Vietnam for better coastal management and coastal resource management along the Vietnam coast,” she said.
The fellows’ visit to Australia helped maximise their global awareness and knowledge of these issues through collaborations with local authorities in Brisbane including the Queensland Government and the Gold Coast Waterways Authority as well as organisations in Townsville such as the Australian Institute of Marine Science.
Actively engaging in a range of workshops, networking events, site visits and more, the group took part in a range of activities in the Gold Coast before heading to Brisbane and Townsville.
Hosted by Griffith University’s Centre for Coastal Management and the Griffith Institute for Tourism, supported by Griffith’s International Business Development Unit, this fellowship involved visits to various key locations.
The fellows travelled along the Gold Coast seaway, studying coastal management structures and processes at sites such as Narrowneck, Surfers Paradise and Burleigh Headland before visiting the Port of Brisbane to learn from various key Queensland State and Local Government members about the effective management of ports under consideration of sustainability issues.
In Townsville, fellows visited the Australian Institute of Marine Science and Magnetic Island before their final project planning session in which fellows leveraged their newly acquired knowledge from Australia to design effective coastal and marine management plans for their regions to utilise upon their return to Vietnam.
The fellowship concluded with a graduation ceremony held at Griffith University’s Gold Coast Campus followed by a farewell dinner at the Southport Yacht Club on Friday March 16.
Dr Marcello Sano, Research Fellow at the Centre for Coastal Management at Griffith University and the Academic Course Leader of this fellowship, says it was satisfying to see the outcomes of the various projects that were developed.
“We have seen projects in the space of urban planning for coastal areas as well as projects related to wetlands, general planning, ripcurrents, and the reduction of the risks involved in drowning,” he says.
“We really hope we can take this project further and work together in the future to implement these projects in Vietnam. That will be a very successful outcome for theparticipants and for Australia as well.”
The fellows returned home to Vietnam taking back valuable learnings and beneficial insights into coastal and marine management, which they plan to utilise to help implement change in their home country.
Australia Awards Fellowships offer Australian organisations the opportunity to deepen and broaden their links with leaders and professionals in developing countries by providing opportunities for Fellows to undertake short-term study and professional development in Australia.
Groundbreaking bioengineering and 3D printing technology at Griffith is creating hope for sufferers of Scapholunate Interosseous Ligament (SLIL) injury, the most common of wrist ligament injuries.
SLIL injuries cause dislocation of scaphoid and lunate bones and can be career-ending for an athlete and result in long-term disability for others.
Typically, SLIL injuries are surgically treated, but have poor prognosis, with patients developing functional limitations and severe hand/wrist osteoarthritis, which impairs long-term health and imposes substantial economic burden.
Many Australians suffer a SLIL injury each year due simply to an active, outdoors lifestyle. Meanwhile, the traditional reconstruction technique involves surgical procedures which can typically result in losing up to a third of wrist functionality and strength.
Pioneering technique
However, Gold Coast Health and Griffith’s Professor Randy Bindra and Professor David Lloyd from Gold Coast Orthopaedic Research, Engineering and Education Alliance (GCORE), in conjunction with colleagues from Orthocell and the Universities of Queensland and Western Australia, are pioneering a technique to design a personalised replacement bone/ligament construct using latest 3D bio-printing technology.
With the research announced by the Hon. Greg Hunt, Minister for Health and supported by $891,500funding from BioMedTech Horizons, the Gold Coast team and colleagues are using a novel strategy with a personalised bone-ligament-bone graft using 3D printed biocompatible scaffolds.
“The ligament portion of the scaffold will be seeded with tendon cells from Orthocell, a successful Australian regenerative medicine company, and then thebone-ligament-boneconstruct will be matured in a bioreactor, where the cells will lay tendon along the scaffold.
“The personalised matured construct will then be model tested in conditions that replicate a wrist in operation, with the work tested in Griffith’s Six degrees-of-freedom Robotic Testing Machine,” says Professor Bindra, who has a conjoint appointment with Gold Coast Health.
“Developing an ‘off-the-shelf’ ligament replacement with a scaffold that replicates bone and ligament will be a game-changer in sports medicine and will provide a novel alternative not only for the treatment of SLIL wrist injuries, but also other joints, while reducing the current side effects experienced by patients undergoing reconstructive surgery.”
Already having been trialled in successful animal studies, Professor Bindra says he expects the research to expand into human clinical trials within the next three years.
“So far we have seen some very encouraging results, the implications of which could have some significant benefits for SLIL patients and also knee injuries such as anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in the future.
“The funding from BioMedTech Horizons will give our group at GCORE the ability to develop this cutting-edge technology right here in Australia.”
Minister for Health, the Hon Greg Hunt MP, said: “The Turnbull Government is committed to improving the health services for all Australians and will continue to invest in better treatment, care and medical research.
“Our researchers are innovators and this investment will speed up the journey from idea to reality. These technologies have the potential to create better health outcomes for Australians, while driving investment and strengthening our economy. All Australians benefit from investment in health and medical research.”
Queensland College of Art alumnus Adam Ferguson has scooped two of the world’s most prestigious photography prizes for his striking portraits of Nigerian girls recruited as suicide bombers by Boko Haram.
Adam was named Photographer of the Year at thePictures of the Year International competitionand took out top prize in the People and Stories category of theWorld Press Photoawards for the series of images commissioned by The New York Times.
Taking inspiration from a famous Nigerian painting, Adam perfected the set up in his studio in New York before heading to Nigeria, where he shot all 83 portraits in a single day.
“These girls are impoverished and marginalised, but the journeys they had undertaken commanded such bravery,” he said.
“In homage to this bravery I tried to present the women as dignified and beautiful, hoping to transcend the more mainstream narratives we have seen around the Boko Haram phenomenon.”
Adam first gained recognition for his work in 2009 when he embarked on a series documenting the US-led war in Afghanistan. This work received awards from World Press Photo, Pictures of the Year International and Photo District News.
Since that time he has worked in most of the world’s hotspots, from flash points in the Middle East, to civil war zones in Africa and off the beaten track inAustralia. His work has been published in the world’s top mastheads, including The New York Times, Time magazine, National Geographic and Vanity Fair.
Adam grew up in Coffs Harbour, and chose to embark on a Bachelor of Photography at the QCA after a chance meeting with a photography alumnus.
“I was looking for something to get me away and for some reason I connected with the idea of being a photographer,” he said.
“It was very whimsical to be honest. I thought I might try to be a surf photographer, but at QCA I soon discovered photojournalism and I knew I had found my calling.”
His advice for aspiring photographers is simple – find your own unique voice.
“The proliferation of digital photography has made everyone a photographer,” he said.
“What will set you apart is not being a great photographer, but being an author. Don’t mimic other work or follow trends, be authentic in who you are and what you are saying.
“The camera is merely a medium for a voice, find that voice. And also, let life experience, film, art and literature inform your work, not other photography.”
Queensland College of Art Photography convenor Dr Heather Faulkner said the success of photography graduates on the world stage reflected the calibre of teaching at the QCA.
“Our Bachelor of Photography prepares students for critical problem solving and life-long learning,” she said.
“We are delighted to see our remarkable alumni taking their place on the world stage.”
Providing industry relevant employment for Griffith Health students is the aim when Griffith will again team up with WorkAbility Queenslandin a Jobs Roadshow.
To be held at Griffith’s Gold Coast campus on Monday 30 April, the NDIS Jobs Roadshow will offer Griffith students the chance to engage in speed interviews with organisations seeking to recruit for positions becoming available via the roll out of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).
An anticipated 10-12 disability services organisations will participate in the Roadshow, includingHouse with No Steps,CentacareandEpilepsy Queensland. All are looking to recruit students studying health-related disciplines for a large number of casual, support worker positions located in and around the Gold Coast region.
The event ‘Welcome’ will take place in G16_1.08, with the speed interviews then taking place in the G07 Function Centre in the Link Building.
“As expected, after the success of the Logan Roadshow event in November 2017, demand for the Gold Coast Roadshow has been very high among Griffith Health students,” says Roadshow coordinator Dr Rebecca Eaton.
“The previous Logan event was a big success, resulting in some great employment outcomes for our students.
“We had 94 students attend the Jobs Roadshow at Logan, all of whom were studying a wide range of health-related disciplines, both in the undergraduate and postgraduate space.”
For more information please visit:https://sites.google.com/a/griffith.edu.au/nds-jobs-roadshow/
Australian researchers seeking QLD volunteers for nation’s largest ever ‘Genetics of Stuttering Study’
Researchers from the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Speech and Language are calling for Queenslanders aged seven and above with experience of stuttering (past or present) to volunteer for the nation’s largest ever ‘Genetics of Stuttering Study’.
Three thousand Australian volunteers are required for the study. The study aims to pinpoint the genes that predispose individuals to stuttering, which could revolutionise future research into the causes, treatment and prevention of the disorder.
Co-chief investigator, NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence for Speech & Language Genetics of Stuttering Study, Speech Pathologist, and Pro Vice Chancellor (Health) at Griffith University, Professor Sheena Reilly says the study outcomes may open the door for new treatment opportunities for stuttering in the future.
Finding the genes
“Finding genes associated with stuttering will help identify biological pathways involved and unveil new therapeutic opportunities to treat the disorder,” says Professor Reilly, is also from Griffith’s Menzies Health Institute Queensland.
“By volunteering for this research study, participants will be helping us to identify these genes.
“Participation in this study will ultimately help to shed light on how to best treat stuttering before it affects an individual’s confidence and quality of life.”
Stuttering affects people from all backgrounds, intelligence levels, and personalities. It typically emerging between two-to-four years of age, after children have already begun to speak, around four per cent of young children experience a phase during which they prolong words, or “get stuck” trying to talk.
Although the exact cause of stuttering is unknown, genetics does play a role in the disorder, with a number of genetic mutations identified to date.
Winner of The Voice 2013 who has lived with stuttering since childhood, Harrison Craig, Melbourne, is teaming with study researchers and those who stutter nationwide, to lend his voice to this worthy cause.
The Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Griffith University and the University of Melbourne are coordinating the Australian arm of this international study which involves 10 investigators at eight sites in Australia, the UK and The Netherlands. Recruitment closes December 2019.
According to Professor Angela Morgan, Co-Chief Study Investigator, speech pathologist and NHMRC Practitioner Fellow, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Melbourne, boys and girls aged seven and above, together with men and women nationwide who have a history of stuttering, may volunteer for the study.
“We are urgently seeking volunteers for our ground-breaking ‘Genetics of Stuttering Study’. Participation in our study is free and easy. Volunteers simply complete a 10-minute online survey and record a short sample of their speech. Those who qualify will be invited to provide a saliva sample for DNA analysis, to enable researchers to unravel the genes that predispose people to stuttering. Study participants will be making a genuine contribution to solving this disorder.”
Stuttering is a disability that affects normal verbal fluency, and verbal communication — particularly the rhythm or flow of speech. Although the exact cause of stuttering is unknown, genetics has been found to play a role, and a number of genetic mutations have been identified to date.
Queensland residents who currently stutter, or have a history of stuttering, and wish to volunteer for the ‘Genetics of Stuttering Study,’ or to learn more, can head to www.geneticsofstutteringstudy.org.au or email [email protected]
