TYING together historical beliefs about garlic and vampirism with recent research into antioxidants, a leading researcher thinks our ancestors may not have been too far off the mark.

Professor Carl Schiesser, Director of the Australian Research Council for Free Radical Technology, is hosting a public seminar discussing how free radical reactions occur and how studying them can help humanity.

Prof Schiesser says the research undertaken at Melbourne University helps understand some of the world’s major health and environmental issues as well as creating new methods of producing industrial materials.

“If you understand how free radicals work, you can design new methods of controlling their reactions, for example by identifying new types of pharmaceuticals that may help inflammatory diseases,” he says.

“Free radicals that are caused in the atmosphere from pollution can cause inflammatory disorders that manifest as asthma, as well as DNA strand cleavage which can lead to cancer.”

Free radicals are organic molecules lacking an even number of electrons and as such are highly unstable. They float in our atmosphere looking to bond, or ‘react’, with other molecules to get the additional electron needed to stabilise.

There are a wide variety of molecules a free radical can source its additional electron from and when it does, a new free radical is instantly created, making a perpetual cycle.

Prof Schiesser’s lecture will discuss how antioxidants can prevent and repair damage caused by free radicals, using the example of Selenium which is found in garlic at high concentrations. However, free radical research extends way beyond the health sector.

“Free radical reactions are also responsible for the way paint fades or the way plastic becomes brittle,” says Prof Schiesser.

“It’s not only in the health sector that free radicals are important, they are also important in material sciences.

“Just about every plastic you can think of is made from a free radical technique and that’s just one example how you can control reactions for creative uses in society.”
Prof Schiesser says recent research suggests harmful aspects of free radical reactions are consequences of human behaviour.

“In our environment we are generating more free radicals as a result of pollution.

“The depletion of ozone in the atmosphere is allowing more ultra violet radiation to permeate through and really there can be no doubt it is causing more free radical damage to numerous things, including us.”

New research aims to take studies into free radicals to a whole new level, using revolutionary techniques.

“We can get enormous insight by simply utilising a virtual environment. The University of Melbourne will soon be able to (computer) model a free radical reaction, which is something that has never been done before.”