Mathematician Terry Speed has been honoured with the Victoria Prize for life sciences. Photo: Simon O'Dwyer

THINK not of him as a policeman preventing scientists from going down the wrong research road. Instead mathematician Terry Speed opens new paths of investigation for researchers by highlighting trends or anomalies buried in dense data.

''A lot of people perceive me as being the policeman but I don't like being cast in that role,'' he said. ''I would rather be the person who illuminates things and unlocks information.''

For his trouble Professor Speed was awarded the $50,000 Victoria Prize for life sciences at a ceremony at the State Library on Wednesday.

Ana Deletic has won the award for physical sciences. Photo: Simon O'Dwyer

Biology experiments generate masses of data. Things get complicated quickly and it doesn't take long for scientists to call in the experts.

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That's where bioinformatics comes in. A biologist can present Professor Speed with a question or problem - such as finding the difference between a normal breast cell and a cancerous breast cell - and it's his job to unlock the genetic secrets hidden in the data.

''It's often the case that genes which shouldn't be being expressed are, or genes which should be being expressed aren't,'' he said. ''We need to find which it is. But there are 30,000 genes and we don't want to look through each one, one at a time.''

The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute's resident statistician creates tailored algorithms and programs to hunt out the answers to specific questions.

Continued here:
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