Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering Academy of Technology and Engineering

Most of us know someone whose life has been touched by ovarian cancer: it kills over 100,000 people each year and affects millions more.

But an Australian-invented blood test is giving us revolutionary insights into the differences between separate ovarian tumours. This could lead to life-saving early screenings and new treatments tailored to individual patients.

Dr Jessica Duarte from the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute and Adjunct Professor Els Meeusen from Federation University have worked with collaborators in Japan to create new ways to understand ovarian cancer at the immunological level.

TechNOW is a podcast about Australian innovations that are shaping the future, thanks to the Global Connections fund – a project run by the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering and supported by the Australian Government.

Find out more at https://atse.org.au/TechNOW

Australia's 60,000 abandoned mines range from poisoned goldrush-era mine shafts to huge, open-cut wounds on the natural landscape. Many pose grave threats to the health of our community and environment. In developing countries like India, these danger is even worse

But what if we could turn these mine sites back into thriving ecosystems, and deal with a major waste problem at the same time?

Biosolids are the organic matter left over after sewage has been treated. Distinguished Professor Andy Ball, his team at RMIT and collaborators in India are turning this unapealing into a special kind of charcoal that could revolutionise mine restoration.

And in another incredible innovation, they’re using native plant species to remove toxic contaminants from the environment.

TechNOW is a podcast about Australian innovations that are shaping the future, thanks to the Global Connections fund – a project run by the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering and supported by the Australian Government.

COVID isn’t the only pandemic threat we face. The infectious disease that killed the most people in 2018 wasn’t malaria or HIV: it was tuberculosis.

Because of antibiotic resistance, a growing number of TB infections can’t be cured by current methods. Rising fever, chest-pain, coughing up blood – without new treatments, this ancient sickness could become a future crisis.

But what if we could treat antibiotic resistant TB with a new drug delivered straight into the lungs by an asthma-puffer style device?

Thanks to new technology developed by Associate Professor Charlotte Conn, her team at RMIT, and their collaborators in India, this dream cure could become a reality.

TechNOW is a podcast about Australian innovations that are shaping the future, thanks to the Global Connections fund – a project run by the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering and supported by the Australian Government.

The number of Australians who die from unintentional drug overdose continues to rise every year.

Treatment can be complicated because it’s not always known what substance has been taken. And there are new synthetic drugs hitting the streets all the time.

Imagine the benefit of a test that could quickly and accurately identify which drug is present. That's the life-saving tech Professor Shanlin Fu from the University of Technology is making a reality.

TechNOW is a podcast about Australian innovations that are shaping the future, thanks to the Global Connections fund – a project run by the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering and supported by the Australian Government.

Australia is one of the sunniest continents in the world, so it’s no surprise Australians have embraced solar energy to cut their power bills and slow down climate change. One in-five-homes now have rooftop solar panels.

But all that extra energy being fed into the grid can be tricky to manage. Our infrastructure wasn’t built for electricity to move in two directions. It’s not impossible for electricity to flow backwards, but it must be managed or transformers can become saturated.

Dr Elizabeth Ratnam and Associate Professor Lachlan Blackhall have come up with a revolutionary new way of better monitoring power flow through electricity grids.

TechNOW is a podcast about Australian innovations that are shaping the future, thanks to the Global Connections fund – a project run by the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering and supported by the Australian Government.

Once the stuff of science fiction, Carbon Dioxide lasers are now crucial to soft-tissue surgery and next gen manufacturing.

But a laser is only as good as the glass fibre that carries it.

Professor Heike Ebendorff-Heidepriem is deputy director at the Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing at the University of Adelaide.

Professor Heike Ebendorff-Heidepriem from the University of Adelaide is developing a revolutionary new type of glass fibre to make the laser beams more efficient.

TechNOW is a podcast about Australian innovations that are shaping the future, thanks to the Global Connections Fund.