President Anthony McGrath opened the meeting at 6.30 pm on 7 September 2020 with an attempt at a rousing singing of Advance Australia Fair. However, without the skills of John Thornton OAM, the Club’s efforts left a lot to be desired and we scored only 6/10. Come back John, all is forgiven.
The meeting is still being streamed on Zoom so that you may engage in that manner.
The President wished all Father’s a Happy Father’s Day yesterday.
Make no mistake Fathers are very important and your job of being a good Father is probably your most important and greatest challenge. Well done.
WELCOME GUESTS & SPEAKER:
Pres Anthony welcomed our Guest Speaker Dr Rohan Hockings the Chief Strategy Officer from PYC Therapeutics an ASX listed drug company who will speak about the science behind their lead drugs.
We also have another 5 guests who we will introduce. Once again, we have Barbara Chandler. A special welcome to Terry Rogers and his lovely wife Joan. Geoffrey if you could introduce your guests although Marion really needs no introduction. Geoffrey also introduced Carmen Tutor as his guest. Tony Chien to introduce Ann Bray (Metso).
VISITING ROTARIANS AND GUESTS:
Barbara Chandler
Joan Rogers
Marion Cahif
Carmen Tutor
Ann Bray
APOLOGIES & LOA:
Apologies and LOAs at 21, with 5 guests hence we are expecting around 45 people tonight.
QUESTION OF THE WEEK:
Question: What is the floral emblem of Western Australia? The correct answer was provided by Barry Evans and is the Kangaroo Paw. Whilst the President felt this question was too easy, he will no doubt suggest that future questions are too hard. You cannot please all of the people all of the time.
FAMILY AND FRIENDS:
David Miller informed the Club of the recent arrival of his first Grandson. David is now the Grandfather of 2 grandchildren?
BIRTHDAYS AND ANNIVERSARIES: ( Bob Davis)
There were no members Birthdays or wedding anniversaries to celebrate this week.
However, Ken Ilett’s wife Helen is celebrating her Birthday this week and Ken will be taking home a lovely flower for the occasion.
ATTENDANCE:
Kent advised the Final numbers in attendance were 38 members and 5 guests for a total of 43. There are also 2 members attending via Zoom.
CLUB AND COMMITTEE REPORTS:
Charitable Trust: (Russell Hawkins)
A Trust Board meeting will be held tomorrow night.
Secretary: (Craig James)
No Report
Treasurer: (Leon Lorenzen)
No Report
Club Service: (Peter Panek)
Peter reminded all members to register for the Guess Who is Coming to Dinner and if not attending then please let him know. Registration will probably close off this weekend coming.
Community Service: (Tim Humphry attending via Zoom)
Nigel Johnson advised that the Cans for Christmas will be expanded further this year with the addition of Nedlands Rotary Club.
Vocational Service: (Trevor Gorey)
No Report
Rotary Foundation and International Service: (Michael Bissett)
Michael advised that the problem of the transportation of the books to the eastern states appears to have been solved with the assistance of Kevin Jackson who has provided a contact at Sadleirs transport who may assist. All that is now left is to pack the books into boxes
Public Image: (Kevin Jackson)
Kevin informed the club of their golf game today at Araluen Golf Resort, where a group of Rotarians played today and as they approached the 7th green they were surprisingly greeted with a Rotary cake placed strategically close to the pin, all nicely cut into bite-size pieces, which they dutifully devoured.
Membership and New Members: ( John Bolto)
John advised that he currently has 2 applications before him which are being processed in accordance with Club procedures.
John also informed the Club that he has 2 tables at the Business lunch reserved for single members who are not able to form a full table. He also has approximately 4 tables left unallocated.
In relation to the Green Batch association, the Mirvac building at Claremont oval has been approached and will likely be signed up. Discussions have also been held with the Nedlands Golf Club and they look likely to sign up with Green Batch as well.
Youth: ( Kim Smith)
Kim advised that disappointingly, due to the COVID – 19 pandemic the Rotary Exchange programme will be suspended for a period.
Kim also advised that the Principal at Shenton College has advised that for future Rotary Exchange students Shenton College would seek to have the students reside with parents from the school. In this way, the Club would be relieved of this requirement.
OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Footy Tipping winner Round 15 Bruce McGeorge with 5 wins and a margin of 20. Craig James is still the current overall leader by 2 from John Hopkins who is making a run towards the top. It is known that Craig is definitely feeling the pressure of being in the lead
PRESIDENTS REPORT: ( President Anthony McGrath)
A couple of Things;
- Our friends at the Perron Institute are holding a corporate Golf Day on 12 October 2020 at Wembley Golf Course. For more details please see Anthony McGrath or David Ellis.
- Note that in a fortnight our Rotary Meeting will be held at the Showground’s Men’s Shed. Their Kitchen group will supply us with finger foods, nibbles as well as beer, wine, and soft drinks. We will also be able to have a tour of the shed and its environs to see how it has developed as a going concern. Please join us for a Fellowship evening whilst seeing one of our recent Projects in all its glory which by any measure has proven to be a wonderful project of the Club.
SERGEANT: ( Trevor Gorey)
The Sergeant served to extract the following fines from members, with the assistance of Jon Steward who was armed with the usual collection bucket and the EFTPOS machine.:
Wine Table, for obvious reasons
Craig James, for leading the Footy Tipping competition
Brian English because his Grandson who is a star for the Western Bulldogs denied the West Coast Eagles of a victory this week.
John Hopkins, who whilst attempting his first try at setting up for the meeting in many years, managed to have half the Club help him with the setup
Peter Panek, for Turning, (woodturning that is)
Richard, Kevin, and the other golfers who shared in the Rotary cake during their golf day.
GUEST SPEAKER: ( Dr Rohan Hockings - PYC Therapeutics - Chief Strategy Officer)
The speaker was introduced by David Miller. David has known Rohan for approximately 25 years. Rohan has a double degree in Medicine and Law. David welcomed Rohan to the podium to inform us of the works being undertaken by PYC Therapeutics.
Rohan’s talk will cover 4 areas
- The patient burden of rare diseases
- The precision medicine revolution
- A drug development journey
- Creating the world’s first precision medicine for a rare disease from Perth, Western Australia
Rohan then spoke of the difficulties presented by rare diseases and how they are simply not considered by the large pharmaceutical companies as the risk/reward ratio simply does not reach their minimum investment hurdle rate.
The impact of rare disease extends well beyond the patient
Patients are depending on us
“Often, you have a window when you have to act, or otherwise the situation is harder to salvage,” said Anne R. Pariser, director of NIH’s Office of Rare Diseases Research, which focuses on conditions that affect fewer than 200,000 people.
Our mission is urgent
For Jenifer Merriam, who lives with Anissa and her two other children in Gilbert, Ariz., the passage of time is terrifying. She is desperately hoping a treatment will not only save her daughter’s life but maybe even bring back some of the old Anissa.
The impact on their lives is profound
In recent years, Anissa’s closest companions have been her family and the nurses and therapists who, before the pandemic, came several times a week. Her daughter’s high school friends stopped visiting years ago, another painful loss.
Although individually rare, orphan diseases collectively represent a substantial disease burden
Rare diseases
- There are ~5,000 rare diseases with a genetic basis
- >95% of these diseases have no available treatment options
- These diseases affect ~250 million people worldwide
- 50% of rare diseases affect children
- 30% of these children will die before the age of 5 years
Precision medicine
What will it take to realise the potential? Drug delivery
- Manipulating cells from the inside is the key to precision medicine
- Gaining access for large molecules to the inside of cells is the major challenge standing in the way of CRISPR, gene therapy and RNA therapies
Drug development – can it be done from Perth?
Why is drug discovery/development so hard?
The simple reason why discovering drugs is hard; because we are dealing with a biological system that still escapes our rational understanding and because we are trying to engineer a molecule that perturbs this incompletely understood system, and that too while being forced to satisfy multiple constraints. It is like being asked to find a black cat in the dark, with the added constraint that one of your feet is bound to the top of your head, and you only get three tries.
We are fortunate to have world-leading scientists here in Perth
Bringing it all together – the world’s first RP11 therapy
Retinitis Pigmentosa type 11 begins in childhood and progresses to legal blindness in adulthood
Retinitis Pigmentosa type 11
- Genetic eye diseases like Retinitis Pigmentosa are progressive disorders
- Patients begin to lose their vision typically as children, adolescents, and young adults
- Many patients are legally blind by the age of 40
- Losing eyesight can be frightening and overwhelming for patients, with major consequences on physical and mental health and overall quality of life
We are beginning to understand the functional deficits associated with RP11
The diagnosis has been made because her symptoms have started – her photoreceptors are starting to die
We are in the final stages of preparing for first in human evaluation
PYC is currently in Pre-Clinical period and plans to progress to Clinical Development in 2022.
Pres Anthony thanked Dr Rohan for a very informative and entertaining talk.
REMINDER OF COMING EVENTS : (Pres Anthony McGrath)
- 14th September - Jason van Straalen’s Life Talk
- 21st September – Meeting at The Showgrounds Community Men’s Shed – a very successful project of the Rotary Club of Dalkeith
- 24th September - Dracula Ballet – thanks to Kevin Jackson
- 26th September - Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? – Do not forget to register your attendance
- 28th September - No Meeting Public Holiday
- 5th October - Alan Briggs - Rotary’s Tree Mission
THANKS TO:
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NGC staff Denise, and Staff; and the caterers, On Par Caterers.
Thank you to our Guests who attended this evening.
- Dr Rohan Hockings from PYC Therapeutics our guest speaker
- Barbara Chandler
- Stephanie Fryer-Smith
- Terry & Joan Rogers
- Marion Cahif &
- Carmen Tutor
- Ann Bray - Metso
It was great to see you all.
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RECOGNISE OUR VERY GENEROUS SPONSORS:
- Lizzy Bee-supplier of flowers
- Butler Settineri – Hon Club Auditors
- Paragon Consultants -Our Foundation’s Auditors
- PSZ Accounting for providing Xero Accounting software and
Sharesight Portfolio reporting software to the Charitable Trust.
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MEETING CLOSE:
Recognise RI President’s Holger Knaack Presidential theme for the year
"Rotary Opens Opportunities" and Acknowledge the Flag.
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Minutes: Peter Panek
Q of W: Peter Panek
Editor: Tom Langley
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