Special Research Initiatives - Grant ID: SR0567493
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$99,146.00
Summary
E-Services for Comparative Studies in Molecular Biology. The central challenge of post-genomic biology is to exploit the range of sequence and microarray data to yield greater understanding of biological processes. Large comparative studies are hamstrung by the inaccessibility of specialist comparative tools and the problem of managing large-scale disparate data. This project will provide portal and web services facilities to remove these obstacles, relying on robust and scalable business techno ....E-Services for Comparative Studies in Molecular Biology. The central challenge of post-genomic biology is to exploit the range of sequence and microarray data to yield greater understanding of biological processes. Large comparative studies are hamstrung by the inaccessibility of specialist comparative tools and the problem of managing large-scale disparate data. This project will provide portal and web services facilities to remove these obstacles, relying on robust and scalable business technologies to be made freely available. Our work will be driven by specific applications in bacterial genomics and cancer research, and will support research into prostate cancer and the pathogens Chlamydia and Bacillus anthracis.Read moreRead less
Novel control strategies for mosquitoes threatening Australia. Increased global transport and human mobility have led to the spread and establishment of potential disease vectors and pathogens of public health importance in many parts of the world from which these were absent or had been eradicated. Aversion of this risk can be more effective when applying area-wide rather than focal (e.g. insecticide) control efforts. We will further the development of genetic and biological control tactics. We ....Novel control strategies for mosquitoes threatening Australia. Increased global transport and human mobility have led to the spread and establishment of potential disease vectors and pathogens of public health importance in many parts of the world from which these were absent or had been eradicated. Aversion of this risk can be more effective when applying area-wide rather than focal (e.g. insecticide) control efforts. We will further the development of genetic and biological control tactics. We aim to reduce the risks posed by two important dengue-vectoring mosquitoes: the yellow fever and the Asian tiger mosquito. This will lead to environmentally friendly and sustainable mosquito control and protect the Australian population and its regional neighbours against the threats of mosquito-borne disease.Read moreRead less
Optimising the body's immune response with a Nanopatch that delivers biomolecules to the skin. The team is developing a new improved way to vaccinate against deadly infectious diseases such as influenza and malaria. They believe their Nanopatch technology will boost the power of seasonal influenza vaccination and could even solve vaccine shortages in an influenza pandemic. This is because the Nanopatch needs much less vaccine per person than a conventional syringe. They also predict that vaccine ....Optimising the body's immune response with a Nanopatch that delivers biomolecules to the skin. The team is developing a new improved way to vaccinate against deadly infectious diseases such as influenza and malaria. They believe their Nanopatch technology will boost the power of seasonal influenza vaccination and could even solve vaccine shortages in an influenza pandemic. This is because the Nanopatch needs much less vaccine per person than a conventional syringe. They also predict that vaccines delivered with a Nanopatch will require less refrigeration than conventional vaccines and can be safely administered by individuals without medical training, making the benefits of vaccination accessible to more people more cheaply, even in remote areas.Read moreRead less
An investigation into Infection, Immunity & Rational Drug Design. The human population is constantly under threat of microbial attack. The survival of our species reflects a delicate balance between infection and immunity. Whether an individual mounts an effective immune response or succumbs to microbial infection is critically dependent on host proteins interacting effectively with microbial antigens, versus microbes developing sophisticated strategies of invasion and immune evasion. This pr ....An investigation into Infection, Immunity & Rational Drug Design. The human population is constantly under threat of microbial attack. The survival of our species reflects a delicate balance between infection and immunity. Whether an individual mounts an effective immune response or succumbs to microbial infection is critically dependent on host proteins interacting effectively with microbial antigens, versus microbes developing sophisticated strategies of invasion and immune evasion. This proposal will provide fundamental advancement of knowledge in the areas of infection and immunity. The information gleaned from this research will lead to the rational development of therapeutics. Consequently, the research will potentially have an enormous global impact in the area of biomedical health.Read moreRead less
Innovative Approaches to Membrane Protein Crystallography & Drug Discovery. Membrane proteins make up around 30% of the predicted products from our human genome, are critical for life, and represent the targets of biological agents like hormones and toxins as well as most drugs. Yet these proteins have persistently defied our best efforts to study them: we know very little about what they do or what they look like. This project is aimed at cracking the problem of membrane proteins, while at the ....Innovative Approaches to Membrane Protein Crystallography & Drug Discovery. Membrane proteins make up around 30% of the predicted products from our human genome, are critical for life, and represent the targets of biological agents like hormones and toxins as well as most drugs. Yet these proteins have persistently defied our best efforts to study them: we know very little about what they do or what they look like. This project is aimed at cracking the problem of membrane proteins, while at the same time developing screening methods that can be used to design drugs against them. The long-term benefits to the community will include fundamental new knowledge and the development of new technologies and pharmaceuticals.Read moreRead less
Kernel methods for the analysis of whole bacterial genomes. This project addresses the fundamental scientific problem of the identification of regulatory regions and specific promoters within bacterial genomes, with a focus upon two organisms of great social, economic and bioterrism significance. From the machine learning perspective, the project will be the first to produce a kernel-based approach directly tailored to the problem of the detection of regulatory regions. The methods developed wil ....Kernel methods for the analysis of whole bacterial genomes. This project addresses the fundamental scientific problem of the identification of regulatory regions and specific promoters within bacterial genomes, with a focus upon two organisms of great social, economic and bioterrism significance. From the machine learning perspective, the project will be the first to produce a kernel-based approach directly tailored to the problem of the detection of regulatory regions. The methods developed will be made available through a straightforward web-based interface, allowing biologists throughout the world to utilize the approach as a tool to be applied to a progressively widening class of bacterial genomes, and even to eukaryotes. Read moreRead less