Breakthrough gene research honoured

Innovative gene research involving scientists at UQ’s Diamantina Institute for Cancer, Immunology and Metabolic Medicine has been honoured by leading scientific journals Science and Nature.

Professor Matthew Brown’s work with the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium on isolating genes that cause some of the most common hereditary diseases including diabetes and arthritis, has been selected as Science’s “Breakthrough of the Year” and an “Editor’s Favourite” in Nature.

The honour is recognition by the prestigious scientific journals that the research was some of the best to be published in 2007.

Professor Brown was one of the principal investigators in the worldwide study that will allow researchers to pinpoint who was at most risk from the diseases and could also help produce better treatments.

The study represented a landmark in genetic studies of human diseases, as it demonstrated a method which could be applied to common diseases to successfully identify the genes involved.

He and his colleagues from around the world, isolated at least 25 genes that cause seven of the most common hereditary diseases including diabetes and arthritis in the world's largest genetic study.

The genes are responsible for heart disease, hypertension, type 1 and type 2 diabetes, Crohn's disease, bipolar disorder and rheumatoid arthritis, according to results published in the international science journal Nature in 2007.

Another 58 genes with possible links to the same family diseases have also been uncovered by British and Australian scientists working on the $16.6 million (£7 million) study funded by the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium.

The research was also named by Scientific American as “Research Leader of the Year” and by the American Heart Association as one of the “Top 10 Major Advances in Heart Disease and Stroke”.

Professor Brown leads the Musculoskeletal Genetics Group at UQ's Diamantina Institute and is an expert in rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis, which is a type of inflammatory arthritis which stiffens joints and can damage the eyes and heart.

Media: Professor Brown (07 3240 2870 or 0421 588 581) or Andrew Dunne at UQ Communications (07 3365 2802 or 0433 364 181).