In one of the most courageous displays of love we’ve ever seen, Sarah Bornstein has pledged to shave her head in support of her dear friend Geraldine Somers, and to raise much-needed funds for cancer research in Australia.
These most darling tea cosies, hand-knitted by Jan Cook, are the latest trend in the world of afternoon tea. The quirky styles are the perfect addition to the table when the social occasion arises or simply when you curl up to a delicious brew with a good book.
It was the Duchess of Bedford in 1840 who introduced the concept of afternoon tea as she became uncomfortably hungry between the hours of lunch and dinner. She may well have been the first to make fashionable the use of tea cosies, and we are glad she did.
Our dear friend Jan has started knitting designs from Australian author Loani Prior’s “Wild Tea Cosies” published by Simon & Schuster, which made the Top Ten in the Australian National Bestseller List in 2008. Continue reading
Centenary researcher Dr Josep “Pep” Font
They both demand years of training, attention to detail, and an enormous amount of support from others, but there’s not much else medical research and surf ironman competitions have in common—until now.
Centenary researcher Dr Josep “Pep” Font is bringing the two together by competing in October in one of the world’s most gruelling ironman races, The Coolangatta Gold, while raising funds for the Structural Biology lab in which he works.
Pep started competing in adventure races about five years ago, and switched to surf lifesaving events after joining the Bondi Surf Bathers’ Life Saving Club (BSBLSC). He wanted to improve his skills in the water. Continue reading
City2Surf Team 2012
Final and well-deserved congratulations to all our Run4Research team members for their extreme efforts leading up to and on the day. Many exercise regimes were tested and proved to be effective for the 14km fun run. Everyone looked great in their new Centenary race shirts, kindly donated by Nike Sydney and enjoyed the idyllic picnic spot at the end of the race that LB, Suzie and Nick set up in the early hours of the morning.
As for the race, the lightning time of 59.21 was reached by Aaron McGrath who led the way for the Centenary team followed by Darshan Parmar (62.07), Matt O’Donnell (65.48) and Ben Roediger (72.35). Continue reading
Dr Nikolas Haass, Head of the Melanoma Research lab at the Centenary, will step in for me on race day.
So it’s finally happening – after months of gruelling training and outstanding fundraising efforts, our Run4Research team is ready to take their marks in Australia’s largest fun run!
Due to a reoccurring injury from last year, I unfortunately had to drop out of the run. However, I’m thrilled to report that one of our scientists, Dr Nikolas Haass will be taking my place.
So far our team has raised almost $13,000 for the lifesaving research happening at the Centenary!!!
With only a few days left until race day, I present to you our amazeballs Run4Research team – Please click on their names to support them and the important work being done at the Centenary.
An artist's impression of the finish line in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia — with Rupert Robey, Wil d'Avigdor, Ben Bradshaw and Dimitry Peisakhov.
There’s a link between driving across the Mongolian desert and liver research at the Centenary Institute. His name is Wil d’Avigdor—and next week he will exchange his role as mild-mannered Centenary PhD student studying the genetics of the hepatitis C virus for bold adventurer and member of Hard Yak, a four-man Australian taking part in the 2012 Mongol Rally team.
On Saturday 14 July Wil begins the drive of 15,000 km from London to Ulaanbaatar—risking life and limb to raise money for liver research at the Institute.
Dr William Ritchie, Research Fellow and Group Head of Bioinformatics
Tonight Dr William Ritchie will tell some of Centenary’s biggest supporters about how fast computing is transforming research at the Institute.
He’s speaking at our 2012 Foundation dinner to a who’s who of Sydney’s business community.
He’ll tell them how a new generation of medical researchers: mathematicians, physicists and engineers are invading research laboratories. They’re hunting through the gigabytes of information produced in the lab and finding patterns: gene sequences connected with certain cancers for example; or DNA sequences that don’t seem to be doing anything. They’re even running virtual experiments – doing in seconds what would take months of laboratory work.
Dr Jeff Holst, Head of Origins of Cancer group at the Centenary Institute and YCF member
LB asked me the question – “So, why are you running?” At first, I thought the answer was quite simple, I’m running to raise money for my own research team who are studying melanoma, breast and prostate cancer.
That’s the easy answer, but in reality there is a fundamental principle that drives me to be involved in fundraising – specifically that medical research is underfunded, and we should be doing all we can to support it, as it in turn supports and extends our lives.
This year is a bit of a shift for me, as over the past 5 years I’ve been involved in Movember. This stemmed from my research interests in prostate cancer, which have been funded by the money raised through Movember and distributed by the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia. But this year, I decided rather than do nothing for a month (ie – not shaving) I would step it up and train to run the City2Surf.
The Young Centenary Foundation auditions for a spot in TED2013 – The Young. The Wise. The Undiscovered.
Anna Lawrence, Chair of the Young Centenary Foundation
Last year I ran the City2Surf for the first time. Well… I ran/walked it.
I was determined to run the entire way and started a training regime but after a back injury and general laziness my training kind of…fell to the wayside.
On the day of the City2Surf I decided just to see what I could do and not beat myself up if I didn’t run the entire way – I actually did an alright job and walked only up that infamous heartbreak hill and, you know, when I just really needed a break.