EMBO elects three top Australian scientists

Three Australian scientists have been elected as members of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), one of the world’s most respected scientific organisations.

Prof Jerry Adams and Prof Suzanne Cory from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne, along with Prof John Mattick from the Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB) at the University of Queensland, are three of only eight scientists to be offered associate membership of EMBO in 2007.

EMBO draws together top researchers from the molecular life sciences in Europe to promote excellence through targeted programs and activities. Members, of whom 42 were elected this year, come from European countries, while associate membership is a special honour available to outstanding researchers from outside of Europe.

“There are only three Australians listed among 80 associate members worldwide, many of whom are among the most outstanding molecular biologists of their generation, so I am delighted to be included,” Mattick said.

Mattick has been internationally recognised for his work on so-called ‘junk DNA’, the 98.5% of our DNA which does not code for proteins and until recently was thought to be accumulated evolutionary debris.

Adams and Cory have been recognised for their groundbreaking research into the immune system, including the discovery that antibodies are coded as mini segments that can recombine in a myriad of ways, creating a much more diverse means to fight infection.