Howard Florey Institute: Geoffrey Tregear

Professor Geoffrey Tregear

AM BSc (Melb) PhD (Mon) FRACI FAA

Deputy Director
Senior Principal Research Fellow
Group Leader, Neuropeptide Group
Laboratory Head, Relaxin Laboratory

Contact Details

Email:	geoffrey.tregear@florey.edu.au
Phone:	+61 (0)3 8344 1807
Fax:	+61 (0)3 9347 0446

Geoffrey Tregear is the Deputy Director of the Howard Florey Institute. He is the leader of the Neuropeptide Group, which includes the Neurochemistry and Relaxin Laboratories. Geoff is a graduate of the University of Melbourne (BSc, 1962) and Monash University (PhD, 1969) and is a Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute. He was a Research Fellow in Medicine in the Endocrine Unit at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Principal Research Associate in Biochemistry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA from 1969 until 1975 when he returned to Australia to join the Howard Florey Institute. Geoff is an NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow and is a member of the Board of the Murdoch Children's Research Institute.

Research Interests

Geoff Tregear has over 30 years experience as a peptide and nucleic acid chemist. His expertise is in the area of peptide synthesis, particularly the synthesis and structure function relationships of the relaxin family of peptide hormones. Geoff is the leader of the Neuropeptide group, comprising 12 senior staff, 7 research assistants and 12 graduate students.

The Florey Relaxin Laboratory is internationally recognised as the leader in relaxin research. Major scientific achievements of the Laboratory include the first synthesis and characterisation of relaxins from several species, mapping of the key structural features responsible for biological activity, cloning and localisation of relaxin gene expression and the generation of a relaxin knockout mouse. This research has contributed substantially to an understanding of the chemistry, molecular biology and physiology of relaxin.

The recent discovery of a new gene for relaxin by the Florey team has opened up an exciting new area of research to elucidate the role of relaxin as a neuropeptide. Our studies of the characterisation of the receptors for the relaxin family members has revealed new insights on how relaxin interacts with its receptor which should lead to the rational design of relaxin analogues and mimetics with enhanced activity for clinical use.

Laboratory Techniques

Solid-phase Peptide Synthesis
Peptide Chemistry
Mass Spectrometry

Additional Information

Geoff Tregear is the co-inventor of 23 granted United States patents. Many of these patents relate to the synthesis and characterisation of relaxin peptides. This strong portfolio of international patents has been licensed to Genentech Inc (South Francisco, CA), Connetics Corporation (Palo Alto, CA) and BAS Medical (San Mateo, CA). Commercial interactions with these US biotechnology companies has resulted in considerable research support to the Florey over many years, as well as providing unique experience in the conduct of major clinical trials of synthetic relaxin. There are currently three clinical trials of relaxin underway in Europe and the United States evaluating relaxin as a new therapeutic for the treatment of cardiovascular disease and pre-eclampsia, and as a cervical ripening agent in post-date pregnancies.

Geoff Tregear is also the co-inventor of a family of patents relating to the use of synthetic oligonucleotides in the technique of in situ hybridisation histochemistry. Additional patents concern the application of peptides as a method of enhancing uptake and specific targeting of oligonucleotides. These patents have been licensed to the Australian biotechnology company, Syngene Ltd, and are currently generating royalty income for the Institute.