Five Technologies to Change the World

Australian research has produced landmarks in medicine that have improved the lives of millions around the world.

Starting with Howard Florey, who contributed to the discovery and development of penicillin, Australia has produced six Nobel Laureates in biomedicine. In recent years, ground-breaking technologies sourced from Australian research have included the bionic ear, stem cell research, cancer recovery therapy, artificial hearts and spray-on skin.

The bionic ear

The Cochlear implant is a technology breakthrough that has brought the gift of hearing to tens of thousands of people around the world.

The story of the so-called bionic ear began in 1967 with Professor Graeme Clark of the University of Melbourne.

Professor Clark was inspired by his father, who had been deaf throughout his life, to develop an implantable electronic hearing device. His endeavour led to the creation of the multi-channel implant, and the company Cochlear was formed in 1982 to build on his unique work. Today Cochlear is a publicly-listed company and sells its Nucleus cochlear implants to more than 50,000 people in over 70 countries.

The device consists of an internal implant and two choices of external speech processor: body-worn or behind the ear. It is designed to let implant users experience sounds as they occur, enhancing communication for both adults and children.

Leading stem-cell research

Australia’s position at the forefront of stem-cell research goes back to the 1980s, when obstetrician Carl Wood and scientist Alan Trounson produced the world’s third baby born as the product of in-vitro fertilisation (IVF). The team was also the first in the world to learn how to store embryos by deep-freezing.

Trounson’s quest to improve the success rate of IVF led him and Singaporean collaborator Ariff Bongso to discover how to grow embryos to the 32-cell stage. These much larger embryos bound to the womb far more successfully than the two-cell or four-cell embryos used previously. By doing this, the researchers also inadvertently grew embryos to the stage at which stem cells could be cultivated.

Stem-cell research is now redefining the boundaries of medical science. It has the potential to assist in regenerating muscle after heart attacks, to reverse neuronal damage in patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders, and to assist with conditions such as osteoporosis and diabetes.

The Australian Government has installed a transparent regulatory framework that supports stem-cell research and gives researchers controlled access to excess embryos from assisted reproductive technology. The Government also established the not-for-profit Australian Stem Cell Centre in 2002, bringing together the country’s scientific and commercial expertise to drive advances in stem-cell research.

Speeding recovery from cancer

Although cancer treatments such as chemotherapy save thousands of lives, many come with major side effects. Some of these can be life threatening, such as neutropenia, a condition where unacceptably low levels of white blood cells make cancer-recovery patients prone to infections or sepsis.

In 1986, Professor Don Metcalf, the Carden Fellow in Cancer Research at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne, was the first to identify a substance to alleviate the condition – Granulocyte Colony Stimulating Factor (GCSF). A hormone-like protein that stimulates certain bone marrow cells to make specialised white blood cells, GCSF was patented and commercialised by California-based biotech giant Amgen and is now routinely used in cancer therapy recovery. Sold under the Neupogen and Neulasta brand names, GCSF yielded US$5.7bn in sales from 2001 to 2003 alone.

Shortly after the discovery of GCSF, Professor Metcalf’s team discovered and patented the related cytokine Granulocyte Macrophage-Colony Stimulating Factor (GM-CSF), which appears to play a pivotal role in the development and progression of rheumatoid arthritis.

Arthritis treatments based on GM-CSF are currently under development by Melbourne-based drug discovery company Amrad.

Spray-on skin

In 1992 Perth burns surgeon Professor Fiona Wood and colleague Marie Stoner developed a revolutionary ‘spray-on skin’ treatment for life-threatening burns.

The unique processes grow skin cells from a small sample of the patient’s own skin. When applied to the wound these increase healing rates with minimal scarring. The resulting products – including CellSpray and ReCell – have application not only to burns, scars and chronic wounds, but also recovery from cosmetic surgery and other types of epidermal trauma.

Clinical Cell Culture (C3) is moving to globalise sales of CellSpray and ReCell through a European office based in Cambridge, UK, and with distribution agreements in Europe and Asia, including Japan (signed in September 2004 with JMEC of Tokyo).

Artificial heart

An Australian artificial heart offers an alternative to transplants for people with congestive heart failure.

Ventracor’s VentrAssist assists the blood-pumping function in a failing organ – it doesn’t require the removal of the heart. With no medication and no wait for a scarce donor heart, it provides a long-term alternative to heart transplantation, suited to both adults and children of any age.

While traditional pumps last about two years, VentrAssist’s lifespan is potentially unlimited – it has just one moving part, and that makes no contact with other parts of the device, eliminating mechanical wear. Clinical tests to date have also shown that VentrAssist achieves clinically insignificant blood damage and clotting.

Ventracor has taken just under six years to turn the concept into a completed product. In 2004 eight patients were implanted with VentrAssist as part of a pilot trial in Melbourne, and a larger multi-centre trial involving up to 30 patients has commenced in Australia and Europe. US trials are scheduled for the first quarter of 2005 pending regulatory approval.

>> www.investaustralia.gov.au/biotech