Data-led bioengineering to uncover hidden chemical wealth in bacteria. The soil bacteria Nocardia are an untapped source of industrially prized chemical compounds called natural products. This project aims to develop innovative bioprospecting genomics technologies built from the disciplines of microbiology, biochemistry and computational statistics to discover hundreds of new natural products in Nocardia. This project will unlock the diversity of potent new enzymes and molecules with high econom ....Data-led bioengineering to uncover hidden chemical wealth in bacteria. The soil bacteria Nocardia are an untapped source of industrially prized chemical compounds called natural products. This project aims to develop innovative bioprospecting genomics technologies built from the disciplines of microbiology, biochemistry and computational statistics to discover hundreds of new natural products in Nocardia. This project will unlock the diversity of potent new enzymes and molecules with high economic value that could include insecticides to protect crops, bioactives to fight diseases, or new enzymes for food and biofuel production. This research unlocks enormous hidden chemical potential in soil bacteria, to build sustainable national economic growth through innovative, high-value industrial chemical development.Read moreRead less
Artificial intelligence to explore and combat eukaryotic pathogens. The revolution in artificial intelligence (AI) provides unprecedented opportunities for integrative analyses of complex multi-omics data sets and for creating radically new strategies to control some of the world’s most serious animal diseases. In a strong partnership with international experts, we will use AI-based methods to make major conceptual advances in our understanding of eukaryotic pathogens and host-pathogen interacti ....Artificial intelligence to explore and combat eukaryotic pathogens. The revolution in artificial intelligence (AI) provides unprecedented opportunities for integrative analyses of complex multi-omics data sets and for creating radically new strategies to control some of the world’s most serious animal diseases. In a strong partnership with international experts, we will use AI-based methods to make major conceptual advances in our understanding of eukaryotic pathogens and host-pathogen interactions, discover the "choke-points" in biological pathways, and develop novel treatments, vaccines and diagnostics. This leap forward will substantially enhance the global profile of pathogen research in Australia, build major capacity in a priority area, and enable access to international research funding and networks.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE240100959
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
Unlocking The Agricultural Potential Of The Dark Genome. Sustaining competitive agricultural production in the face of climate change demands more resilient, diverse, and adaptable crop varieties. Studies on the genes of crop plants have had huge benefits for agriculture, but genes themselves make up only a tiny fraction of the genome. It has until recently been impossible to assemble the 'dark' space between genes. Using ultra-modern barley genomes, this project aims to harness information from ....Unlocking The Agricultural Potential Of The Dark Genome. Sustaining competitive agricultural production in the face of climate change demands more resilient, diverse, and adaptable crop varieties. Studies on the genes of crop plants have had huge benefits for agriculture, but genes themselves make up only a tiny fraction of the genome. It has until recently been impossible to assemble the 'dark' space between genes. Using ultra-modern barley genomes, this project aims to harness information from the dark genome to (i) discover new genes with agricultural importance, (ii) illuminate invisible genomic features that can slow down plant breeding programs, and (iii) identify opportunities to transfer useful new genes into the cultivated gene pool.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE240100316
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$435,431.00
Summary
Population genomic methods for modelling bacterial pathogen evolution. This project aims to develop novel techniques to model bacterial genome evolution and improve our understanding of how major agricultural and human pathogens, including Enterococcus, Salmonella and E. coli, evolve. The project expects to generate new knowledge about how horizontal gene transfer shapes the evolution of bacteria and how these dynamics vary over different temporal scales. Expected outcomes include methodological ....Population genomic methods for modelling bacterial pathogen evolution. This project aims to develop novel techniques to model bacterial genome evolution and improve our understanding of how major agricultural and human pathogens, including Enterococcus, Salmonella and E. coli, evolve. The project expects to generate new knowledge about how horizontal gene transfer shapes the evolution of bacteria and how these dynamics vary over different temporal scales. Expected outcomes include methodological advances that will enable the analysis of massive contemporary datasets. These methods and resulting analyses will provide significant benefits including informing the design of superior long-term interventions to reduce bacterial disease in both agriculture and health that are robust to the evolution of bacteria.Read moreRead less