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THE FOLLOWING STATEMENT APPEARS IN HANSARD 16/06/04

MINISTERIAL STATEMENT

Smithsonian Fellowships;

Hon. P.D. BEATTIE (Brisbane Central—ALP) (Premier and Minister for Trade) (9.48 a.m.): There are two other things that I want to deal with today. It is a pleasure to update the House on the research undertaken by a Queensland government Smithsonian Fellow, which is building our understanding of serious illnesses including schizophrenia. This research, by 2003 Smithsonian Fellow John McGrath, is truly where the Sunshine State meets the Smart State. Professor McGrath, of the University of Queensland's Department of Psychiatry, used his fellowship to spend five months at Harvard University, where he analysed data on the links between the season in which people are born and their growth and development. He is piecing together a puzzle showing that if pregnant women have low vitamin D stores, then their offsprings' development may be altered. The affected child may be at increased risk of a range of adult-onset disorders, including schizophrenia. This is why the Queensland government developed this partnership at the Smithsonian Institute.

Professor McGrath is one of 12 outstanding Queenslanders who put a Smithsonian fellowship to work leading to advances in knowledge and growth of our Smart State stature. I think that it is good story. I seek to incorporate the details in Hansard.

Leave granted.

Vitamin D is called the sunshine vitamin because this important growth factor is produced by bright sunlight on the skin While it has long been known that good maternal nutrition is essential for the foetal development, there has been a lack of evidence about the role of vitamin D in prenatal development. However, experts have long known that people born in Northern Hemisphere winters and springs have a small but significantly increased risk of developing schizophrenia. Professor McGrath and his colleagues at the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research have shown this also applied to people born in Southern Hemisphere winters and springs.

A team centred on Dr Darryl Eyles (based at the University of Queensland) have found that the offspring of female rats with low vitamin D had different shaped brains and altered levels of important brain growth factors. As adults these animals had subtle changes in their behaviour. Not surprisingly, this Queensland research has attracted international attention.

If it is shown that low prenatal vitamin D does lead to altered growth and increased risk of schizophrenia, perhaps maternal supplements can reduce the incidence of schizophrenia. Much more work is needed, but this is a great example of how a Smithsonian Fellow is pursuing research that has exciting implications for human health and well-being.

Professor McGrath will give a public lecture on his preliminary results at the Queensland Art Gallery at noon on 25 June.

People like Professor McGrath are brilliant Smart State ambassadors who collaborate with international experts and spread the word about Queensland innovators.

As part of his fellowship he has presented talks in the United States at: Peabody Museum (Harvard University); the Department of Anthropology at Harvard University; the Department of Medicine at Boston University; and the Harvard School of Public Health. He has held meetings with key experts including: Nobel Laureate Dr Murray Gell-Man (discoverer of quarks); Professor Charles DeLisi (widely regarded as the father of the human genome project); Dr Charles Cantor, chief Scientific Officer at Sequenom; Professor Michael Holick of Boston University; and Professor Arthur Kleinman of Harvard University.

8th Australasian Schizophrenia Conference

The WORC Project

Epidemiology Incidence and Prevalence Study