Identification of Biological pathways regulated by circular RNAs. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a, recently discovered molecule. circRNAs are highly abundant and expressed in a tissue and disease specific manner. Yet, currently the understanding of how circRNAs regulate biological processes is very poor. This project aims to use pooled shRNA libraries to screen a large panel of cell lines and systematically identify cellular activities that are regulated by circRNAs. The expected outcome of this ....Identification of Biological pathways regulated by circular RNAs. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a, recently discovered molecule. circRNAs are highly abundant and expressed in a tissue and disease specific manner. Yet, currently the understanding of how circRNAs regulate biological processes is very poor. This project aims to use pooled shRNA libraries to screen a large panel of cell lines and systematically identify cellular activities that are regulated by circRNAs. The expected outcome of this study will be a catalogue of functionally active circRNAs. Over the past decades, the wealth of knowledge on the function of linear mRNAs has had a significant impact on medicine and agriculture. Similarly understanding how circRNAs regulate cellular activities may have an analogous impact on humans.Read moreRead less
Next generation high throughput lipidomics using adaptive modelling. This project aims to develop a unique high-throughput method to capture the lipidomic profile of human plasma suitable for large human population screening. Lipids are fundamental to every biological system, but our understanding of their regulation in humans have been largely superficial. By incorporating a new lipidomics approach, with genomic data, this project aims to expand our understanding of human biology by identifying ....Next generation high throughput lipidomics using adaptive modelling. This project aims to develop a unique high-throughput method to capture the lipidomic profile of human plasma suitable for large human population screening. Lipids are fundamental to every biological system, but our understanding of their regulation in humans have been largely superficial. By incorporating a new lipidomics approach, with genomic data, this project aims to expand our understanding of human biology by identifying regulators of lipid metabolism. The large diversity in humans necessitate sufficient sample sizes to identify true genetic regulators, but to date techniques capturing phenotypic data (lipids) have been largely limited. It is anticipated that this study will identify new regulators of lipid metabolism in humans.Read moreRead less
Characterisation of tumour variants of Devil Facial Tumour Disease. This project will take a new approach to cancer research by studying the evolution of Devil Facial Tumour Disease. The results will directly contribute to the conservation management of the Tasmanian devil, as well as generating new information on tumour growth, metastasis and emergence of resistance.
Evolution and function of mammalian sex chromosomes. Research on iconic Australian mammals has profoundly reshaped our understanding of reproductive biology and sex chromosome evolution. In this project we combine unique expertise, international collaboration and novel genetic information about Australia's unique egg-laying mammals (echidna and platypus) to investigate major aspects of reproduction. This work will address fundamental aspects of sex chromosome biology and advance our understandin ....Evolution and function of mammalian sex chromosomes. Research on iconic Australian mammals has profoundly reshaped our understanding of reproductive biology and sex chromosome evolution. In this project we combine unique expertise, international collaboration and novel genetic information about Australia's unique egg-laying mammals (echidna and platypus) to investigate major aspects of reproduction. This work will address fundamental aspects of sex chromosome biology and advance our understanding of mammalian reproduction. The knowledge gained will have application in captive breeding and conservation of these extraordinary Australian mammals. The project also provides opportunity to train research students in cutting edge molecular biology and informatics.Read moreRead less
Targeting the genome and epigenome of the exercising skeletal muscle. This project aims is to discover epigenetic and genetic biomarkers that predict fitness changes, following exercise intervention. Individuals are remarkably variable in their responses to exercise interventions, and a large portion of these responses is attributed to genetics, and epigenetics (the effect of the environment on the expression of genes). Using controlled exercise training as a model, this project expects to disco ....Targeting the genome and epigenome of the exercising skeletal muscle. This project aims is to discover epigenetic and genetic biomarkers that predict fitness changes, following exercise intervention. Individuals are remarkably variable in their responses to exercise interventions, and a large portion of these responses is attributed to genetics, and epigenetics (the effect of the environment on the expression of genes). Using controlled exercise training as a model, this project expects to discover epigenetic and genomic markers in skeletal muscle predictive of exercise adaptations. This will contribute to the development and future delivery of targeted and personalised exercise programs for the general population. This has important implications for improving health in the Australian population.Read moreRead less
Unlocking the secrets of metabolic variation in a highly diverse bacterium. This project aims to explore metabolic diversity of Klebsiella pneumoniae, a bacterium relevant to the agricultural, veterinary, medical and biotechnology industries. It is expected to reveal significant insights into the biology of this diverse organism via an innovative combination of DNA sequence analyses and metabolic modelling. Expected outcomes include 4500 novel metabolic models and a novel population metabolic fr ....Unlocking the secrets of metabolic variation in a highly diverse bacterium. This project aims to explore metabolic diversity of Klebsiella pneumoniae, a bacterium relevant to the agricultural, veterinary, medical and biotechnology industries. It is expected to reveal significant insights into the biology of this diverse organism via an innovative combination of DNA sequence analyses and metabolic modelling. Expected outcomes include 4500 novel metabolic models and a novel population metabolic framework. This should provide major benefits for understanding bacterial ecology and evolution, and for future studies seeking to optimise industrial processes or prevent disease. It will also directly contribute to building Australia’s capacity in computational biology- a key driver of biotechnology innovation.Read moreRead less
Deciphering the coral minimal microbiome. This project aims to decipher the functions of coral-associated bacteria by taking advantage of low-diversity microbiomes that are naturally found in some coral species. A further aim is to unveil the importance of bacterial genome evolution in coral adaptation to climate change. Climate warming is the biggest threat to coral reefs with half of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef (GBR) corals dead due to recent summer heat waves. Expected outcomes are an incr ....Deciphering the coral minimal microbiome. This project aims to decipher the functions of coral-associated bacteria by taking advantage of low-diversity microbiomes that are naturally found in some coral species. A further aim is to unveil the importance of bacterial genome evolution in coral adaptation to climate change. Climate warming is the biggest threat to coral reefs with half of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef (GBR) corals dead due to recent summer heat waves. Expected outcomes are an increased understanding of how bacteria contribute to coral heat tolerance, and new knowledge to assist in the development of bacterial probiotics for enhancing coral thermal tolerance. This should provide significant benefits to the protection of the GBR and Australia’s economy.Read moreRead less
Evolution and specificity of alternative splicing in plants. This project aims to elucidate fundamental principles of alternative splicing, a basic mechanism that plays a vital role in several biological processes across all organisms. Plants are highly effective in adapting to varied environmental, seasonal and climatic conditions and this project aims to uncover how alternative splicing contributes to regulation of gene expression in response to developmental and environmental cues. Uncovering ....Evolution and specificity of alternative splicing in plants. This project aims to elucidate fundamental principles of alternative splicing, a basic mechanism that plays a vital role in several biological processes across all organisms. Plants are highly effective in adapting to varied environmental, seasonal and climatic conditions and this project aims to uncover how alternative splicing contributes to regulation of gene expression in response to developmental and environmental cues. Uncovering the underlying mechanisms of alternative splicing will not only advance fundamental knowledge, but also has the potential to provide tools and technologies through which sensitivities of plants to environmental stress can be potentially manipulated to benefit agriculture.Read moreRead less
Uncovering vertebrate lifespan biodiversity with whole genome sequencing. This project aims to integrate existing data on the genetic mechanisms of lifespan evolution in model systems with a novel combination of whole genome sequencing and comparative phylogenomics to reveal the common genomic signatures of lifespan evolution in vertebrates. Expected outcomes include a perspective on the evolution of lifespan, a topic of major health interest for Australia and the rest of the developed world. Th ....Uncovering vertebrate lifespan biodiversity with whole genome sequencing. This project aims to integrate existing data on the genetic mechanisms of lifespan evolution in model systems with a novel combination of whole genome sequencing and comparative phylogenomics to reveal the common genomic signatures of lifespan evolution in vertebrates. Expected outcomes include a perspective on the evolution of lifespan, a topic of major health interest for Australia and the rest of the developed world. This will provide significant benefits, such as long-term implications for aging research, with possible business applications. It will also increase Australia’s visibility and competitiveness in the developing field of bioinformatics.Read moreRead less
Alternative splicing in apicomplexan parasites. The project intends to provide a detailed picture of how alternative splicing is regulated in four biologically diverse apicomplexan parasites, and to explain why parasites need this molecular trick to survive. Alternative splicing is an important means by which organisms increase the diversity of proteins encoded by their genome. Although this mechanism is well studied in humans, little is known about the extent of this phenomenon in other organis ....Alternative splicing in apicomplexan parasites. The project intends to provide a detailed picture of how alternative splicing is regulated in four biologically diverse apicomplexan parasites, and to explain why parasites need this molecular trick to survive. Alternative splicing is an important means by which organisms increase the diversity of proteins encoded by their genome. Although this mechanism is well studied in humans, little is known about the extent of this phenomenon in other organisms, nor how the process is regulated. The project plans to test if alternative splicing is required to transition between different life stages, just as alternative splicing is required for tissue differentiation in animals, and describe how alternative splicing contributes to apicomplexan proteome diversity.Read moreRead less