Welcome to Guests and Rotarians.
Apologies were received from Jacqui and Tony Atyeo, Trish Williams and Alan Harris, Julie Tekell.
Rotary spots –
Lance Hatcher had some questions –
- Current status for move to Nixons? Mark Smeaton responded. There should be an agreement in place this week. Nixon’s preparation is well in hand. Equipment is to be moved from the Rotary Room this Wednesday 5:30-7:30pm. This will be stored in the shed in the interim. There is a crew of people coming along to help out. If anyone else wants to come along please let Mark know as he needs to notify the Rec Centre. Once lockdown is removed we will look at going back to having in person meetings at Nixons. Mike asked what we are taking? The response was the honour board, the curtain and wheel, plus everything in the two cupboards. Mark Forgie asked how many square metres the new room is? It is over 350 m2. This will be plenty to cater for our members. Kim is contacting the football club to get access to the cupboards.
- Annual Reports – when are these due? Steve will ask Directors over the next couple of weeks.
- There is some archival material from a Probus club and GDSE to be stored in the shed
Adrien handed the meeting over to Sargeant Barry Stewart.
- Anniversaries of Induction – Colin Bazeley, 2012, Kim Potger 1994.
- Bunyip Round-Up - Barry asked Sara if she had seen her photo in the Bunyip, she had and she has a copy. Adrien and Ava also made the paper. There was also a report on the UCare project.
Barry went around the room to get everyone’s news.
- M-l had a COVID test and would not recommend the experience
- Michael reported that our guest speaker is with him tonight waiting to give his presentation.
- Stan reported Starplex has opened the pool. You pay $5 to swim in a lane for and hour. You have to book.
- Colin has been to Cowell and brought home some oysters. The highlight of the week was a video shared by Stan about Yorkshire airlines.
- Steve Barilla had been harvesting olives in the Cadell prison. He stayed at the luxury Morgan Terminus Hotel. Food choices were a bit limited. Mark Smeaton belately offered his place on the river and provided a photo...maybe next time!
- Mike and Deb have been working on their shed down the beach. Unfortunately Mike had reinstated a fence which he had to pull down again for a concrete delivery. Deb supervised
- Brian suggested his colonoscopy was worse than a COVID test. He would rather have something up the nose…..the results were disappointing from the surgeons perspective and good for Brian.
- Bob spent most of the day at the museum with Tony Fotheringham. They were freeing up engines which had seized due to a long period of inactivity. They also got an engine ready to go to the paint shop for restoration. It is a rare engine and will be a good addition to the museum.
- Ron Lloyd was catching up with family. They actually went inside this time instead of standing out in the cold. It was very enjoyable.
- Lance has been doing a bit of work. He is assisting Bruce. Not a lot has changed except the location of the work. Lance recommended a read of the Ladies Probus newsletter which was included in the bulletin this week. Bruce had a medical this week and it was very positive and the Dr does not want to see him for 12 months.
- Adrien reported he has more freedom and has seen his family. They had dinner outside together. He has finished half of his exams, but the hardest part is yet to come. Programming exam is tomorrow. The exam is on Zoom! They have to show they are alone in the room and have camera and microphone on. There have been no lectures this year, just a 600 page document to self-learn from.
- Dave Griffiths wants the shops to close – it is too expensive.
- Angela – told a story about potato people to her class and at the end one of her students thought Angela looked like a “withered and droopy” potato person
- Mark Forgie – Claire’s twins arrive tomorrow afternoon. One girl, one boy. Waiting to see their arrival. The new cremator has been installed at the crematorium.
- Bob Ahola hoping to get to golf at Hamley Bridge this week. Bob’s daughter is down staying with him and made a brief appearance on Zoom.
- John Ward has read plenty of books, watched TV and got plenty of sleep. There is not much else to do.
- Ian Sanders had a busy day doing nothing today and didn’t get it finished. He had a problem with his swimming programme, there was not enough water and so he went and had a muffin with Stan instead.
- Mark Smeaton is loving life. He has been busy on some Rotary stuff in preparation for being President. Work is busier than ever. Silo and water tanks sales are going well. Construction is a little quieter as some projects have slowed due to COVID. Some limitations due to the travel restrictions. A large project with Andrew Forrest “Mindaroo” in WA is on hold until the COVID is resolved. Mark’s daughter is in the Middle East and they spoke to her last week. 4/7 months deployment. Troops are impacted by the lock downs as well.
- Sara reported she is back at school. She is trying to make as many friends as possible to enjoy her last month in Australia.
Michael introduced our guest speaker, Associate Professor Mark Nottle for his presentation on “Making Babies in the 21st Century”.
Guest Speaker – Mark Nottle
Mark was born in Gawler. He attended Evanston Primary and Gawler High. He received a Bachelor's Degree in Agricultural Science from the University of Adelaide. He completed his PhD, sponsored by wool corporation. Mark then spent some time travelling the world. Before completing Post Doctural research. He worked for BresaGen Ltd. They went broke and after that he returned to University of Adelaide His early research was on genetically modified pigs for human organ donation. His recent research is into human IVF.
Mark spoke about the history of IVF: 1978 – 1st IVF baby Louis Brown. Bob Edwards was one of two founders. It was controversial at the time. “playing god”. Louise Brown is now a grandmother. First IVF baby in Australia was Candace Brown born in 1980. 10 million babies born via IVF. 1/25 babies in Australia is IVF. 1 student in every Australian classroom.
Why IVF? 1/8 couple have fertility problems. 1/3 female, 1/3 male, 1/3 ???. Increasing issues due to delay to having children. After age 30 both male & female fertility decline. Obesity also reduces the chance of becoming pregnant.
Mark showed the following diagram of the IVF process
The current process involves stimulating the ovaries to produce more than one egg. This makes the process more efficient. Mark's research involved Using Follicle stimulating hormone (FSH). Used in sheep initially. Instead of one egg as sheep would produce multiple. This was then introduced to humans. Sheep were used as they usually only have one egg per cycle. If the ovary is overstimulated the ovary can blow up requiring hospitalisation. Medicare subsidises IVF, but still $2000 per cycle. Full cost $10000. Half the cost is hormones. Current research is harvesting immature eggs and maturing them in the lab. It is less successful than hormonal stimulation. It is used in the cattle industry. Mark's current work is trying to improve this method in humans. Pigs are used in the research. Pig ovaries are collected and eggs are collected and fertilised in a dish - diagram below
They have found a chemical which improves egg maturation. Tested in animals so far. If this works in humans it will close the gap to hormonal stimulation method. ICSI – single sperm directly fertilizes the egg. More successful and useful for men with low sperm counts. Mark showed a YouTube video showing how this process works. The following is a shot from the video.
Cell embryos grown to 5 days and then a single embryo is implanted. This has good success rates and low complications from multiple births. The next video showed how the embryo divides over the 5 days before implantation. It is amazing how the cells divide.
Mark’s research has contributed to the body of knowledge in the following ways
- Culturing embryos for five days allows all embryos to be frozen and transferred next cycle/later
- Embryo freezing – first pigs from frozen embryos
- Impetus for ultra-rapid freezing methods
The ability to successfully freeze embryos is a game changer. The challenge is dealing with the lipids in the embryo as it clumps. If the lipid is removed before freezing there is no issue with freezing the embryos. This was published in Nature – which is equivalent to playing cricket for Australia. This was tested in pigs and produced normal piglets. Snap freezing prevents clumping of the lipids and allows successful freezing.
The 5 day embryos are large enough to undertake genetic testing prior to freezing the embryo. This is important for couples carrying diseases like cystic fibrosis.
Gene Editing in pigs – correct genetic defects using gene editing. Ethical questions?
The future of IVF.
- Sperm or eggs from skin cells? It is close to reality.
- In pigs skin cells can be introduced into an egg to produce pigs (cloning)
- Can the skin cell be turned into a stem cell? Bypassing the embryo stage to make an embryonic stem cell
- Stem cells have been made from pig embryos. This is a model for doing this in humans.
This would be a new ethical dilemma.
Macular degeneration – treat with stem cells. You can create the cells in the retina in the lab and inject them into the eye to potentially prevent the disease.
Adrien thanked Mark for his talk and asked Mark about stem cells. Stem cells are grown in the lab and can be turned into every type of cell in the body. The next barrier is can they turn stem cells into germ cells, which are the cells in the egg. One hope is to grow an organ from stem cells – it is a possibility in the future.
Lance Hatcher’s first job was working with Mark’s mum Esmae. She bossed Lance around! She is now a great grandmother.
President Steve's Spot
President Steve thanked Adrien for connecting the world tonight running the meeting from France. Patsy says hi to everyone. RC Adelaide speaker this Weds is General Sir Peter Cosgrove – all invited. Have a look at the Virtual Conference sessions. Thanks to those who are going to help move the club equipment on Wednesday. As Steve’s presidency comes to a close, we hope we can have a changeover dinner. Restrictions are lifting, so there may be a possibility of doing something. Steve asked the committee for special events to look into what we can do. Steve closed the meeting at 9:09pm with the 4 way test.
Jan Meldrum 9 June
