SCIENCE AT THE SHINE DOME canberra 7 - 9 may 2008

New Fellows Seminar

Wednesday, 7 May 2008

Professor Geoffrey Tregear
Deputy Director, Howard Florey Institute

Geoffrey Tregear has a science degree from the University of Melbourne, a PhD from Monash University, and is a Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute. Geoff is leader of the Howard Florey Institute’s neuropeptide group, which includes the neurochemistry and relaxin laboratories. He is an NHMRC senior principal research fellow and has honorary professorial appointments in the department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Melbourne and in the Department of Pharmacology at Monash University. Geoff has over 30 years experience as a peptide and nucleic acid chemist. His expertise is in peptide synthesis, particularly the relaxin family of peptide hormones. He is the co-author of a book and over 320 scientific publications, and is co-inventor of 23 USA patents.

Relaxin: from ovary to brain

Relaxin is a member of the insulin family of peptides characterised by a two peptide chain structure linked by disulfide bonds. Relaxin is an ovarian peptide traditionally regarded as a hormone of pregnancy and parturition and with well established actions on the reproductive tract. The peptide also has a potent relaxing effect on blood vessels and is able to degrade collagen, a major protein of connective tissue. Synthetic relaxin, identical to the naturally occurring ovarian human relaxin sequence is currently in Phase II/III clinical trials in Europe and the USA to test its efficacy in cardiovascular and renal diseases and in pregnancy for pre-eclampsia. An exciting new development is the discovery of a brain-specific relaxin family peptide and its corresponding receptor. The anatomical distribution and expression profile of the peptide and its receptor suggests a role in memory, learning, motivation and feeding behaviour, and is the focus of our current research.