A farewell, and a potted history of the Institute from Lynda Foulds

Lynda Foulds (centre) with Professor Lois Salamonsen and Professor David de Kretser

After more than 40 years at the Hudson Institute and its predecessors, working with a range of scientists (only SOME of whom are still here), we last week said farewell to Lynda Foulds as she retires to spend more time sleeping in, travelling and generally not working!

A message from Lynda:

I started working at Monash University on 6 December 1971, straight from my Biochemistry degree at Swinburne University, as a Research Assistant with Graeme Schofield, who was then Chairman of Anatomy at Monash University.

I spent six years working as one of his laboratory "chaps" studying acid secretion in the gut.

After Graeme was appointed Dean of Medicine, I was offered a position in 1978 with the new young Chairman of Anatomy, David de Kretser, to join his research program, in collaboration with Henry Burger, attempting to isolate and purify Inhibin.

In 1978, at one of the monthly Inhibin meetings between collaborating groups, it was decided that while Bryan Hudson's team at the Howard Florey Institute would ​continue their efforts to purify Inhibin from OTL (ovine testicular lymph), the team at Monash/ Prince Henry's Institute would concentrate their efforts on purifying Inhibin from bFF (bovine follicular fluid) - a fortuitous decision as it turned out.

David Robertson soon joined the team based in Anatomy on his return from Uppsala in Sweden and headed the purification program.

It was a long and sometimes arduous journey for the true believers (while the sceptics thought we were chasing our tails - our dear colleague from those days, Graham Jenkin, used to regularly cut through our lab from his lab in Physiology, stating as he passed that Inhibin was "just an artefact"!)

Of course, this just prompted us to work even harder to prove him wrong! The first paper detailing the isolation and purification of Inhibin from bovine follicular fluid was published in 1985.

One particular challenge we had involved the pouring and running of 6-litre gel filtration columns of Sephadex G-100 in 4M acetic acid in the walk-in cold room.

Over the many years of purification work in Anatomy, we managed to twice corrode out the cold room chiller units with the acetic acid fumes. This led to us installing a glassed-in shower-like room within the cold room for the columns (and me!). Following this, the cold room remained intact (not so sure about my lungs though!).

Since the first publication in 1985, the team went on to isolate Inhibin, Activin and Follistatin from a variety of sources, and to develop bioassays and radioimmunoassays for these proteins, which has opened up a plethora of research studies on new and exciting actions of these proteins.

Throughout all the years of research on this family of proteins, many past and present members of the Institute and associates have been involved in collaborative studies, and these include: David de Kretser, Henry Burger, Bryan Hudson, David Robertson, Marian Dobos, Jock Findlay, Gordon Baker, Victor Lee, Russell Scott, Milton Hearn, Frank Morgan, Gail Risbridger, Renea Taylor, Elspeth Gold, Euan Wallace, Graham Jenkin, Rebecca Lim, Craig Harrison, Peter Stanton, Yogesh Makanji, Lorraine Leversha, Fiona de Vos, Mark Hedger, David Phillips, Kate Loveland, Anne O'Connor, Sue Hayward, Manny Hancock, Rob McLachlan, Peter Temple-Smith, Graeme Southwick, Paul Gregorevic, Carl Sprung, Badia Kita (Barakat) and Adnan Sali (apologies to any researchers I may have forgotten).

I worked in the Anatomy Department for 20 years, and saw young PhD students such as Gail Risbridger, Mark Hedger, Yvonne Hodgson, Jenny Stow, Leeanda Wilton, Ann Drummond​ and Rob McLachlan gain their doctorates and move on to become major players in research, academia and IVF clinics at Monash and beyond.

At the end of 1991, I moved with David de Kretser's group to the Monash Medical Centre, which is when David's dream of setting up a medical research institute was finally realised after several years of planning, lab design and fundraising.

David's group merged with Alan Trounson's Centre for Early Human Development to form the Monash Institute of Reproduction and Development, housed in both Block B and Block E of Monash Medical Centre, alongside Prince Henry's Institute of Medical Research.

David's Field of Dreams ("if you build it, they will come") grew to such an extent that a new fundraising campaign resulted in the completion in 1999 of the new MIRD building (now Hudson Building) at 27-31 Wright Street, to be followed in 2005 with the building and opening of the MHRP building, again shared with PHI and also Southern Health. As the Institute grew, it evolved into MIMR, then MIMR-PHI and now the Hudson Institute, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Working with both Davids and later with Mark Hedger (on his Lyso-glycerophosphatidlycholine project) instilled in me a rigorous work ethic, persistence and resilience that got me through the next 20 years of protein biology work, interrupted by 3 major lab relocations as the Institute grew and the new buildings arose.

Distractions from the lab work arose in the form of OHSE (I spent 19 years as the Institute's Health and Safety Representative, and served 2 terms on the Monash University OHSE Policy Committee as Hospital Site Representative), and involvement in the Institute's Social Club Committee from 1994-2010.

Running the Social Club provided lots of opportunities to meet all members of the Institute, and bring together lots of diverse groups under the banner of having fun. I cannot recommend enough this involvement and strongly encourage any of you who might be considering it to get involved in the Social Club. Thank you to all who have been a part of the Social Club Committee over the years - your contributions are invaluable! I have posted MIRD/MIMR Christmas Party photos from 1994-2009 on the S-drive (LFPhotos) for people to access, and have asked Rod Wealands to make them available to you all.

After Justin St. John became the Director of the Centre for Reproduction and Development, I decided at the end of 2011 to give up the research component of my job and continue with a half-time appointment as Lab Manager for our Centre, which had evolved into the Centre for Genetic Diseases.

This br​ought new challenges, but ​it ​has been a great experience working with Jus as he set out to establish a new program of mitochondrial genetics research within the Institute. Our Centre is small but is very closely bonded, and they are all wonderful people -​​​ I shall miss ​them all ​very much. I wish them all great success in their PhDs and grant applications.

I am very grateful for all the friendships I have made over the years and which continue to this day. ​Thank you to all the Administrative Support Staff​​ who have helped me immeasurably throughout the years. ​I know I have been extremely fortunate in that I had continual funding from grants for 34 years (initially from VicHealth, then from NHMRC Program and Project Grants). This is a scenario that does not seem possible these days, but I hope with increased government commitment in the future that the research environment will again become vibrant and supportive for you all.