Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research/Royal Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne, Australia
Click image for hi-res. Photo: Dr Kylie Mason, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research/Royal Melbourne Hospital (credit: L’Oréal Australia/sdpmedia.com.au)
Dr Kylie Mason has set herself the goal of developing new ways of treating diseases that are considered incurable.
Dr Benjamin Kile of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute for Medical Research in Melbourne has found why the blood cells responsible for clotting—platelets—have a short shelf life at the blood bank.
Benjamin Kile, winner of the 2010 Science Minister’s Prize for Life Scientist of the Year. Credit: Bearcage ProductionsThere’s a molecular clock ticking away inside them that triggers their death. He’s also discovered a gene critical for the production of blood stem cells in our bone marrow that happens to be responsible for a range of cancers.
These major discoveries earned Ben the 2010 Science Minister’s Prize for Life Scientist of the Year. Now he is trying to use them to extend the life of blood bank products, and get to the heart of some of the big questions in cancer. Continue reading The life and death of blood cells→
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