RESEARCH NEWS
Research with the power to change the world
Macquarie University has long fostered scientific research that is interdisciplinary, collaborative and open to commercial patnerships. Over the years that philosophy has paid off in exciting and unexpected ways, with game-changing innovations, cutting-edge medical research with the potential to save countless lives, and new ways of looking into the distant past.
Pioneers of the wired world
These days we take Wi-Fi for granted, but 20 years ago any thoughts of linking computers wirelessly were largely theoretical. A determined and hardworking team of researchers at Macquarie University and CSIRO helped turned Wi-Fi into a reality.
Read more about Macquarie’s role in creating Wi-Fi.
Teaming up to fight a killer
Until recently, Australian researchers trying to unlock the mysteries of motor neurone disease (MND) worked in relative isolation. Based at universities and laboratories in Sydney, Melbourne and Hobart, they usually only saw each other at medical research conferences.
Then, in 2010 while attending an MND meeting, the leaders of five research teams decided to combine their expertise – genetics, biochemistry, cellular biology and animal research – into a single MND Research Centre, at Macquarie, home to Australia’s largest MND clinic.
Learn more about the work of the MND Research Centre.
The next level of early diagnosis
It’s a known fact that early detection of diseases saves lives. If, for instance, doctors could diagnose cancer when malignant cells are first developing, treatment could begin before they do any harm.
Macquarie researcher Dr Dayong Jin, the Australian Research Council Future Fellow at Macquarie’s Advanced Cytometry Laboratories, is at the forefront of the creation of hypersensitive molecular probes that promise fast, non-invasive and low-cost detection of diseases and pathogens.
Find out more about how Dr Jin’s research may revolutionise disease detection.
New insight into history
Sometimes scientific breakthroughs are the result of happy accidents. At a chance meeting between Dr John Magnussen, Professor of Radiology at the Australian School of Advanced Medicine, and Roman pottery expert Dr Jaye McKenzie-Clark, an Early Career Fellow at Macquarie’s Department of Ancient History, she lamented that analysing the composition of pottery samples usually involved their destruction.
Magnussen suggested the University’s medical scanners might offer an alternative – and produced startling results that have attracted international attention.