Major Award for Research Into Evolutionary Biology

Queenstown Molecular Biology Meeting

http://www.qmb.org.nz

Media Release
Friday 24 August 2007

Major Award for Research Into Evolutionary Biology

University of Otago evolutionary biologist, Dr Peter Dearden, is the winner of a major scientific award at the upcoming Queenstown Molecular Biology (QMB) meeting for his ground-breaking work investigating how the body shapes of insects and animals have developed and evolved through genetic adaptation.

The $5000 Invitrogen Life Science Award is one of New Zealand’s major scientific prizes and is awarded for innovative and ground-breaking research in molecular biology. The QMB (August 28-31) is the largest annual meeting of molecular scientists in New Zealand with over 200 attendees, and top overseas speakers including Nobel Prize Winner Sir John Walker from the UK. (See separate release)

Dr Dearden will be presented with the Award on Wednesday August 28 and give an address on his research into how insects and animals change shape over millennia, and what this means for evolution.

This innovative research, which has attracted significant international attention, examines how genes determine body shape in embryos and how these genes in turn change through evolution to produce differently shaped animals and insects. To determine these patterns and pathways Dr Dearden has examined the genes of flies, bees and a tiny animal called a rotifer.

So far he has discovered that all these examples have very similar genes, but what gives them different shapes and characteristics is how these genes are actually used.

“The key in terms of the development of shape and body tissue is that it’s not what you have, it’s what you do with it. In a sense I am proving for the first time the old adage of ‘use it or lose it’, but over millions of years of evolutionary development,’ he says.

Dr Dearden is a Senior Lecturer in the Biochemistry Department at the University of Otago and completed his PhD through the Imperial College, University of London in 1998. His research has uncovered networks of genes that act together to make tissues, and potentially the whole individual. By studying the genetic control of the development of the bee he has also been able to show how the cell’s developmental processes contribute to evolution.

The QMB Promising Researcher Awards have been won by Dr Björn Oback, AgResearch, Ruakura Research Centre, and Dr Debbie Hay, School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland.
Dr Björn Oback is researching the cloning of animals at Ruakura Research Centre and has found that cloning efficiency is not inversely proportional to donor cell differentiation. His team has shown this by cloning red deer from antler stem cells and cattle from muscle cells. His work suggests that cell type and cellular reprogramming are unrelated and that other factors are more important for cloning success.

Dr Debbie Hay is trying to understand how hormones at receptors on the outside of cells actually work and change. This might lead to new treatments for migraine and diabetes as many drugs work by blocking the activity or mimicking hormones at the receptor on the exterior of cells.

ENDS

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