(The Sydney Morning Herald - 13th May, 1999)

Peter Schofield says he is an explorer.  His last frontier is not some distant corner of the world but the innermost workings of the human brain.  The 39-year-old associate professor and director of the neurobiology program at Sydney's Garvan Institute of Medical Research is hunting faculty genes that may trigger dementia.

"It's exciting work.  You go home at night, think about it, and can't wait to get back in the morning," Associate Profess Schofield said yesterday.  "We are the explorers of new knowledge."  He is not the only one impressed by such research.  Delivering the Budget, the Treasurer, Mr Costello, announced an extra $614 million or health and medical research over the next six years, more than doubling funding for the Health and medical Research Council by 2005.  Mr Costello promised "a significant part" would go to gene research, "which will have the potential to look for ways to cure major illness such as cancer and heart disease".  Winning the race to discover such cures would also significantly boost the nation's economic health.

The biggest spending boost in Australian medical research history was proposed in December by a review panel led by the Garvan's chairman, Mr Peter Wills.  "Chuffed is the word," Mr Wills said yesterday, predicting the money would fuel the construction of a major, commercial biotechnology industry bringing the nation "wealth, better health and a better quality of life".  He estimated it would, within five years, create 15,000 new jobs.   "We can now attract our brightest and best into science."

Professor Schofield was optimistic gene research would , possibly within five years, begin identifying "the broken bits" of the brain and show scientists how to fix them.

( Richard Macey )