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Sydney to Host World Leaders in Genetic Research
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26th September
Sydney will take its place in the next frontier of medical discovery in 2010 when the city hosts 2000 of the world’s leading experts in the cutting-edge field of proteomics.
Sydney Convention and Visitors Bureau (SCVB) Managing Director Jon Hutchison said Sydney had won a bid to host the Annual World Congress of the Human Proteome Organisation (HUPO) in 2010, a five-day event worth an estimated $10 million to the local economy.
Proteomics is a new field representing the next phase in human understanding of genetic and cellular make-up. Having evolved from genomics, proteomics studies the structure and function of specific proteins in a process that is hoped will one day allow major breakthroughs in the treatment of disease. Its name is derived from a fusion of the words “protein” and “genomics”.
Mr Hutchison said the congress was the latest in a string of high-profile science and medical conferences secured through the work of the SCVB and the NSW Department of State and Regional Development (DSRD).
“The World Congress of the Human Proteome Organisation is a very prestigious event for Australia to host and will bring together leaders from the very forefront of medical research and genetic understanding,” Mr Hutchison said.
“The advancement of medical understanding and the economic opportunities created by hosting events like this in Sydney is enormous and a testament to the cutting-edge work of our own scientific and medical leaders.”
The event was secured for Sydney in a bidding process that began in 2004 and was led by a team working with the SCVB and DSRD. The World Congress will be hosted jointly by the Australasian Proteomics Society, the new Commonwealth-funded consortium Proteomics Australia and the Australian Proteome Analysis Facility which is located at Macquarie University and well known as the birthplace of proteomics. APAF focuses on facilitating research breakthroughs in areas like cancer, agriculture and stem cells for university and industry researchers alike.
Sydney was chosen over Taipei in a unanimous vote by the HUPO Executive Council which met recently in Buenos Aires.
Professor Mark Baker, chair of the successful HUPO Sydney bid team and Chief Executive Officer of APAF, said that hosting the HUPO World Congress would provide a great chance to demonstrate the breakthroughs proteomics was delivering to the human community and the role that Australia had played in the growth of this new technology.
Already this financial year the SCVB has helped secure eleven international business events for Sydney, including the International Congress of the Society of The Fetus as a Patient for 500 delegates in 2009 and the World Spine Congress for 1000 delegates, also in 2009.
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