Congratulations to Toby, Ewa for our recent collaborative publication in Molecular Cell with the Chao and Dawson labs! We’ve uncovered a role for mRNA export factors in transport of mRNAs to nuclear speckles for holding following global transcriptional inhibition. This may explain why transcription inhibitors have not been as successful in the clinic as hoped.

https://www.cell.com/molecular-cell/abstract/S1097-2765(24)01004-9

Congratulations to Vi and the lab for being awarded an NHMRC Ideas Grant and ARC grant on the same day! This will make a massive difference to our efforts to make discoveries of both fundamental and translational importance in the coming years.

The lab is moving to WEHI! After an amazing 8 years at Peter Mac, I’ve been recruited as a Professor and Nossal Leadership Fellow to lead and shape RNA biology at WEHI. We’ve made many lifelong friends and collaborators at Peter Mac and look forward to maintaining these links in the future!

We’ve spun out a company, exteRNA to further develop our first-in-class RNA processing inhibitors to treat cancer. We’ve managed to raise $11 million in seed funding led by IP Group Australia, with participation from Tin Alley Ventures, WEHI Ventures and HostPlus. Immense thanks to Kirsty for all of her work over the past 7 years to get us to this stage and to Guillaume Lessene, scientific co-founder of exteRNA. Exciting times ahead for all of us…

https://www.businessnewsaustralia.com/articles/melbourne-biotech-externa-secures--11m-in-seed-round-to-progress-innovative-cancer-therapies.html

Congratulations to Linh and everyone who contributed to this fundamental work on uncovering how circular RNAs are exported from the nucleus. It has been a terrific collaborative effort with Greg Goodall over the years and long may it continue! This work was highlighted on the cover of the Australian (full article on page 3), the Herald-Sun, and on ABC radio and 7 News. Read the paper titled ‘Nuclear Export of circular RNA’ at Nature:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07060-5

Our recent lab half-day retreat followed by lunch at the Courthouse - so great to talk about science!

Congratulations to Billy for getting an NHMRC Ideas Grant in this incredibly tough funding environment in Australia. This will make a massive difference to his efforts to uncover how mRNA export is activated during embryonic development.

What a great lab Christmas dinner! Thanks to Billy and Will for hosting..

Congratulations to Vi for being awarded the inaugural Moderna Australia Fellowship (one of two in Australia). Looking forward to working with the premier RNA biotech company in the world!

https://www.modernatx.com/en-AU/fellowship/2023-awardees

Congratulations to Billy for receiving the Best Early Career Presenter award for his talk at the 18th Australian Cell Cycle, DNA repair and telomere meeting!

We’ve been awarded funding from the mRNA Victoria Research Acceleration Fund to develop nuclear mRNA targeting therapeutics. We were very fortunate to have the Premier of Victoria, Dan Andrews and the minister for Industry and Innovation, Ben Carroll visit the lab to talk about the science.

https://www.petermac.org/about-us/news-and-events/news/details/premier-visits-peter-mac-to-announce-cancer-mrna-grants