The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research

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Cell death insights lead to premier’s award commendation

 

Walter and Eliza Hall Institute scientist Dr Mark McKenzie has this week been commended in the Victorian Government’s Premier’s Award for Public Health and Medical Research.

Dr McKenzie, a Leukaemia Foundation postdoctoral fellow in the institute’s Molecular Medicine division, received the commendation for his investigations into how insulin-producing cells are destroyed, resulting in diabetes.

His findings have implications for the development of treatments for the more than 1.2 million Australians with type 1 or type 2 diabetes.

Dr McKenzie received his commendation for work he undertook at St Vincent’s Institute for Medical Research, where he focused on developing a better understanding of how insulin-producing cells are destroyed and identifying key molecules implicated in the process.

“There is an urgent need to identify new ways of treating diabetes, and particularly treatments that prevent the death of insulin producing cells, the initial cause of type 1 diabetes,” Dr McKenzie said.

His research has showed that members of the Bcl2 protein family are responsible for controlling cell death in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

Dr McKenzie discovered that one of these family members, called Bid, is important in cell death in type 1 diabetes while other members, such as Bim, Puma and Bax, are critical for cell death in type 2 diabetes.

These findings have implications for the development of drugs or other therapies that treat diabetes by preventing the death of insulin-producing cells.

Dr McKenzie’s research at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute is applying the insights he gained into cell death and diabetes to finding ways of killing cancer cells.

He is using a new technology known as RNA interference to inhibit genes that are abundant in leukaemia and lymphoma cells. “I want to determine whether inhibiting these genes can kill the cancer cells without having undesirable effects on normal tissue,” Dr McKenzie said. “If this is the case it should be possible to develop a new generation of drugs for treating blood cancers that have greater potency and fewer side effects.”

Dr McKenzie was presented with his commendation on Monday by the Victorian Premier, Mr John Brumby. Two other commendations were awarded, to Dr Radwa Badawy and Dr Benjamin Howden; the winner was Dr Julia Archbold from Monash University.

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