Special Research Initiatives - Grant ID: SR140200003
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$42,000,000.00
Summary
Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine. AITHM intends to build Australian research capacity in tropical health and biomedical sciences, to improve national capacity to identify risks to health security and biosecurity from re-emerging infectious diseases prevalent in tropical countries, and to undertake research which targets improvements in health outcomes and service delivery for regional, remote, and under-served communities in tropical Australia. This requires expansion of trop ....Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine. AITHM intends to build Australian research capacity in tropical health and biomedical sciences, to improve national capacity to identify risks to health security and biosecurity from re-emerging infectious diseases prevalent in tropical countries, and to undertake research which targets improvements in health outcomes and service delivery for regional, remote, and under-served communities in tropical Australia. This requires expansion of tropically based research facilities, the researcher skill base, and research programs.Read moreRead less
New models as tools for defining mechanisms of microbe survival in the urogenital tract. Bacteria that infect the human urogenital tract can cause serious disease and these infections represent a large cost to the health-care system world-wide. This study will focus on how bacteria survive in the human urogenital tract and this will impact on strategies aimed at preventing and treating these infections.
Development and commercialization of novel diagnostic assays for the early detection of acute dengue virus infection. Dengue is an emerging disease of the tropics and is endemic in more than 100 countries with up to 100 million cases annually. Of these, 500,000 result in dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF), a serious life-threatening complication of dengue virus infection. Dengue activity in northern Australia has increased in recent years with suggestions that it may be coming endemic in this count ....Development and commercialization of novel diagnostic assays for the early detection of acute dengue virus infection. Dengue is an emerging disease of the tropics and is endemic in more than 100 countries with up to 100 million cases annually. Of these, 500,000 result in dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF), a serious life-threatening complication of dengue virus infection. Dengue activity in northern Australia has increased in recent years with suggestions that it may be coming endemic in this country. Early diagnosis, using NS1 based assays should facilitate containment of such outbreaks through earlier identification, treatment, isolation and strategic mosquito control.Read moreRead less
How bacteria cause disease in the urinary tract. This project will investigate the virulence properties of uropathogenic Escherichia coli, the major causative agent of urinary tract infections (UTI) in humans. The results will help to understand how these bacterial pathogens cause disease and will impact strategies aimed at the prevention and treatment of chronic and recurrent UTI.
MOLECULAR APPROACHES TO OVERCOME SCABIES AND ASSOCIATED DISEASE. Scabies causes childhood pyoderma predisposing to severe disease in later life. It is a major increasing health burden in Indigenous people of Northern Australia. Drug resistance is developing in mites and bacteria. The lack of clinical material has hampered molecular research and this work will use comparative genomics of parasitic and free living mites and microbiome analysis to understand fundamental aspects of mite biology and ....MOLECULAR APPROACHES TO OVERCOME SCABIES AND ASSOCIATED DISEASE. Scabies causes childhood pyoderma predisposing to severe disease in later life. It is a major increasing health burden in Indigenous people of Northern Australia. Drug resistance is developing in mites and bacteria. The lack of clinical material has hampered molecular research and this work will use comparative genomics of parasitic and free living mites and microbiome analysis to understand fundamental aspects of mite biology and pathogenesis. The understanding of proteins that are essential for mite survival and interfere with host defences will allow the informed design of peptide inhibitors as a new strategy to develop alternative treatment options.Read moreRead less