Australian Biophysical Chemistry Workshop

Attended by CBC students, this workshop was held near Adelaide between 6 April and 10 April 2010

The inaugural Australian Biophysical Chemistry Workshop was held just outside Adelaide, in the shadow of the impressive sandstone cliffs and koala-strewn eucalyptus forests of the Morialta Conservation Park. Although the workshop was a relatively modest size, the delegates included representatives from almost every Australian biophysical research group spanning some twelve universities, as well as a range of international guest speakers from Europe and Asia.

The scientific programme was strong, with a split between review talks highlighting novel and developing uses of biophysical techniques and the more standard presentation and debate of experimental results. Highlights included Klaus Fendler's (Max Planck) demonstration of a high-throughput analogue of patch-clamping for the analysis of membrane channels and Hugh Harris' (University of Adelaide) discussion of the use of X-ray absorption spectroscopy in the study of platinum-based cancer treatments. Being based in one of Australia's most famous wine-producing regions didn't hurt proceedings either, leading to both some animated scientific discussions and some good banter off-topic. The host institution, Rostrevor College, laid on a number of bottles of Shiraz from their own estates in the foothills beyond the national park, which quickly broke the ice as well as dulling the jet-lag of the international visitors.

One of the major purposes of the workshop was to discuss the reasons behind the relatively low international awareness of Australian biophysics research, and to consider approaches by which the situation might be improved. Workshops and conferences like this one, featuring a broad scientific programme in a beautiful setting (and co-incidentally a liberal supply of local wine), can only aid the cause.

Conference write-up by CBC student Duncan Casey.

Photos from the event can be found here.