The secret life of blood

What triggers cancer? That is the question Melbourne scientist Dr Benjamin Kile is determined to answer.

Innovation Minister Senator Kim Carr will tonight recognise Dr Kile’s pioneering work through the $50,000 Science Minister’s Prize for Life Scientist of the Year - one of five Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science.

“Dr Kile and his team at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute are unravelling the secrets of blood. They have already discovered the molecular clock that dooms platelets - the blood cells responsible for clotting - to a short shelf life at the blood bank,” Senator Carr said.

“Dr Kile has also discovered a gene that’s critical for the production of blood stem cells in our bone marrow and is also associated with many cancers. Now he is working to extend the life of blood bank products, and to get to the heart of a big question: how does cancer start?”

The work of Dr Katherine Trinajstic from Curtin University will also be recognised through the $50,000 Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year. The Perth-based scientist is investigating when our ancestors first gave birth to live young. Her work has uncovered the first ‘womb’ in fish that lived 380 million years ago, in what is now the Kimberley Ranges.

“Dr Trinajstic realised that the muscles and organs of those fish had been fossilised along with the bones. Now she is using synchrotron light and CT scanning to virtually dissect her fossils. She is also using the fossil record to help in the search for new oil and gas reserves,” Senator Carr said.