Premier congratulates Florey Medal winner

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk today congratulated The University of Queensland’s Professor Perry Bartlett on being awarded the prestigious CSL Florey Medal for his breakthrough discoveries in neuroscience, in particular, his work on dementia.

Premier Palaszczuk said the Florey Medal was awarded once every two years by the Australian Institute of Policy and Science to recognise significant achievements in biomedical science and human health advancement.

“Professor Bartlett began his ground-breaking work when he started exploring the brain in the late 1970s, when it was believed that the adult brain was unable to change or produce new cells,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

“Most recently, in experiments in mice, he reversed the effects of dementia and restored learning by stimulating the production of new nerve cells through exercise.

“Professor Bartlett will start clinical trials on this work next year - work that will be watched closely in a country where more than 300,000 people are living with dementia, an estimated 1.2 million are carers for dementia patients, and the disease costs the community more than $5 billion a year.

“If Professor Bartlett’s trials are successful, one can hardly begin to imagine what a difference it will mean to those patients and their families and caregivers in the future.”

Premier Palaszczuk also thanked the professor for having the foresight to found the Queensland Brain Institute at The University of Queensland in 2003.

“Professor Bartlett’s work is an example of what we are capable of here in Queensland, and why my government is working so hard to harness these strengths, as part of our Advance Queensland initiative, to drive innovation and research, and create the knowledge-based jobs of the future.

“On behalf of all Queenslanders, congratulations Professor Bartlett. And thank you.”

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