Australian Dictionary of Biography

Lawrie Austin, 1991, Richard Crompton

Monash University Archives

Lawrence Austin (1926–2000), neuroscientist, was born on 22 December 1926 at Geelong West, Victoria, fifth of six surviving children of Leo Francis Austin, grocer, and his wife Mary Myrtle, née Barker, both Victorian born. Educated (1936–43) at St Joseph’s College, Geelong, Lawrie worked as a clerk in the Victorian Department of Labour then enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force on 23 March 1945. He commenced training for air crew but following the conclusion of World War II he was discharged on 8 October.

In 1946 Austin enrolled at the University of Melbourne (BSc, 1948), majoring in chemistry and biochemistry. He married Mary Therese Myerscough, a typist, on 11 February 1950 at St Peter and St Paul’s Catholic Church, Geelong. In July 1951 he was appointed an experimental officer at the Defence Research Laboratories, Maribyrnong (from 1953, the Defence Standards Laboratories). He and Mary subsequently travelled to England where the first of their three children was born in June 1953. Returning to Australia in September, the next year Austin commenced doctoral research at the University of Melbourne (PhD, 1958), studying chemically induced neural degeneration under the supervision of Victor Trikojus. He then worked as a research scientist (1958–62) for DSL.

Appointed a senior lecturer in biochemistry at Monash University in 1962, Austin established a research group in neurochemistry, the study of the nervous system at a molecular, chemical, and cellular level. With an attitude that was ahead of its time, he looked at biochemistry in a functional, neurobiological context and encouraged his students to investigate a broad range of topics. He recognised that, because of the heterogeneity of the nervous system, biochemical analysis should investigate defined populations of cells rather than whole brain tissue. In recognition of his innovative and productive research output, he was promoted to reader in biochemistry in 1969.

Internationally, Austin was best known for his work on mechanisms of axonal transport, the process by which nerve cells transfer substances between the cell body and synaptic terminals or axon tips. He conducted this research in numerous neuronal systems including the splenic, sciatic, and optic nerves in several species. His research group described discrete phases of transport for proteins, lipids, mitochondria, cholinergic vesicles, and individual types of ribonucleic acid (RNA), and developed selective ways of isotopically labelling these phases and molecules. The group then studied the mechanisms involved in these transports using selective inhibitors and toxins to disrupt different phases of transport. Austin and his colleagues used models of neuropathology to describe how axonal transport changed in pathological conditions; this was his introduction to the muscular dystrophy field, which would become the focus of his research at the end of his career.

Austin was one of the pioneers of using isolated nerve terminals from the brain (synaptosomes) to study synaptic function in vitro. He was also one of the first neuroscientists to adopt Oliver Lowry’s micro-analysis techniques to study biochemical changes in individual nerve cells. This led to the analysis of discrete tissue samples, such as the nodose ganglion following chemical or surgical injury, and the biochemical changes that occurred during nerve regeneration. It also led to studies of protein turnover in vivo in different brain regions and subcellular locations, such as postsynaptic density.

An early champion of cross-disciplinary neuroscience research, Austin established regular discussions and seminars for his students and research staff with colleagues from other departments at Monash, including physiology, pharmacology, anatomy, and psychology. These exchanges led to many joint research projects. Beginning in 1972, with David Curtis from the John Curtin School of Medical Research at the Australian National University, he organised annual, half-day, cross-disciplinary, neuroscience conferences that preceded the annual conferences of the Australian Biochemical Society or the Australian Physiological and Pharmacological Society in alternate years. These informal conferences led to the formation in 1980 of the Australian Neuroscience Society (ANS) with Austin as its first president (1981–82). In 1981 he was the first Australian elected to the council of the International Society for Neurochemistry.

A Francophile, wine connoisseur, and regular pipe smoker, Austin was a generous colleague, and modest about his research achievements. He trained approximately twenty research students and was widely regarded as the ‘father’ of neurochemistry in Australia. In 1991 he was the inaugural recipient of the ANS distinguished achievement award and was honoured by a special issue of the international journal Neurochemical Research. He retired from Monash that year and began a new and successful career as head of the muscular dystrophy research group at St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne. In this role he applied his micro-analytical skills to investigate the biochemical differences between normal and dystrophic muscle cells. His achievements were recognised with the Bethlehem Griffiths Research Foundation medal in 1999. Survived by his wife Mary, his sons Mark and Stephen, and his daughter Anne, he died of lung cancer on 7 November 2000 at Mount Waverley and was buried in Springvale cemetery. In 2002 the Lawrie Austin Plenary Lecture at the ANS annual conference was named in his honour.