Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE120100181
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$650,000.00
Summary
Strengthening merit-based access and support at the new National Computing Infrastructure petascale supercomputing facility. World-leading high-performance computing is fundamental to Australia's international research success. This facility will provide access to the new National Computational Infrastructure facility by world-leading researchers from six research universities, and sustain ground-breaking work in an increasingly competitive environment.
Determining the relative roles of dispersal and vicariance in the assembly of the New Zealand fauna. New fossils from New Zealand's St Bathans Fauna (19-16 million years) will revolutionise our understanding of the shared biodiversity and evolutionary history of New Zealand and Australia through the first views of the origin and evolution of major Gondwanan groups including frogs, crocodiles, birds and bats on the now mostly-drowned continent Zealandia.
Special Research Initiatives - Grant ID: SR120300015
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$16,000,000.00
Summary
The Science of Learning Research Centre. In this innovative new Centre, researchers in education, neuroscience and cognitive psychology will work together with teachers to understand the learning process. This collaboration will establish new criteria to assess the impact of different types of learning and strategies to inform teaching practices of benefit to all Australians.
Safer gene editing tools for Australian livestock and biotech industries. Editing the genome of an organism in an efficient and safe fashion is critical for the livestock and biotechnology industries. While CRISPR-Cas9 has become the method of choice for genome editing, it is known to introduce unwanted "on-target" and "off-target" mutations, limiting its utility. To address this the CI team created a novel genome editing platform technology termed Crackling-CAST that is almost 100% accurate, w ....Safer gene editing tools for Australian livestock and biotech industries. Editing the genome of an organism in an efficient and safe fashion is critical for the livestock and biotechnology industries. While CRISPR-Cas9 has become the method of choice for genome editing, it is known to introduce unwanted "on-target" and "off-target" mutations, limiting its utility. To address this the CI team created a novel genome editing platform technology termed Crackling-CAST that is almost 100% accurate, while retaining the efficiency of the classical Cas9 system. This project will exemplify the capabilities of the novel gene targeting platform in cell types used by the biotechnology and livestock sectors, ensuring its global uptake by these industries and delivering significant economic benefits for Australia. Read moreRead less
Mycobacterial Cholesterol Degradation: A Unique Metabolic Weakness? This project aims to understand the use of the steroid cholesterol as a source of essential metabolic building blocks by bacteria. Cholesterol utilisation is a key feature of many bacterial pathogens which have evolved to survive in niche environments. By understanding the initial step in cholesterol degradation and the bioinorganic and bioorganic chemistry of the metalloenzymes that catalyse it, this work aims to develop strate ....Mycobacterial Cholesterol Degradation: A Unique Metabolic Weakness? This project aims to understand the use of the steroid cholesterol as a source of essential metabolic building blocks by bacteria. Cholesterol utilisation is a key feature of many bacterial pathogens which have evolved to survive in niche environments. By understanding the initial step in cholesterol degradation and the bioinorganic and bioorganic chemistry of the metalloenzymes that catalyse it, this work aims to develop strategies to block this activity. This will turn a key strength of these bacteria into a potent weakness and will generate the proof of principle and knowledge required for the future development of effective strategies to combat pathogenic bacteria.Read moreRead less
A molecular/morphological view of animal evolution based on marsupials. This project aims to provide high-accuracy methods of evolutionary inference extendable to nearly all other organisms. It aims to research the evolution of animal diversity and calibrate evolutionary timescales on a case study of marsupial mammals, and differentiate between internal and external factors that govern animals’ ability to adapt and diversify. The project will collate a large, open-source three-dimensional catalo ....A molecular/morphological view of animal evolution based on marsupials. This project aims to provide high-accuracy methods of evolutionary inference extendable to nearly all other organisms. It aims to research the evolution of animal diversity and calibrate evolutionary timescales on a case study of marsupial mammals, and differentiate between internal and external factors that govern animals’ ability to adapt and diversify. The project will collate a large, open-source three-dimensional catalogue of the evolving marsupial skeleton, which could provide a detailed and publicly accessible narrative of the evolutionary past and future adaptability of Australian marsupials. The proposed development of methods to quantify the effect of past and present biodiversity crises (e.g. environmental change) is expected to inform longer-term conservation planning.Read moreRead less
How does timing affect mammalian brain development and evolution? This project aims to generate fundamental knowledge on the origin of diversity in mammalian brain circuits by studying development of marsupials and rodents. The expected outcome is to elucidate how differences in the timing, rate and sequence of development of gene expression, cell differentiation and circuit formation can relate to the origin of key evolutionary innovations in the mammalian brain. The significance of understandi ....How does timing affect mammalian brain development and evolution? This project aims to generate fundamental knowledge on the origin of diversity in mammalian brain circuits by studying development of marsupials and rodents. The expected outcome is to elucidate how differences in the timing, rate and sequence of development of gene expression, cell differentiation and circuit formation can relate to the origin of key evolutionary innovations in the mammalian brain. The significance of understanding the dynamics of developmental systems that shape complex brain traits includes establishing new developmental paradigms in evolutionary theory, generating new tools to investigate and manipulate brain gene expression in vivo, and the potential discovery of the causes of neurodevelopmental dysfunction.Read moreRead less
Industrial Transformation Training Centres - Grant ID: IC210100056
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$3,975,864.00
Summary
ARC Training Centre for Next-Gen Technologies in Biomedical Analysis . The Centre for Next-Gen Technologies in Biomedical Analysis will deliver workforce trained in the development of transformative technologies that will rapidly expand the Australian pharmaceutical, diagnostic and defence sector. The university-industry partnership will increase Australia’s manufacturing capability by fast tracking screening, by integrating 3D printing, advanced sensing, big data analytics, machine learning an ....ARC Training Centre for Next-Gen Technologies in Biomedical Analysis . The Centre for Next-Gen Technologies in Biomedical Analysis will deliver workforce trained in the development of transformative technologies that will rapidly expand the Australian pharmaceutical, diagnostic and defence sector. The university-industry partnership will increase Australia’s manufacturing capability by fast tracking screening, by integrating 3D printing, advanced sensing, big data analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence for the delivery of optimal solutions in diagnosis, treatment and wellbeing. The centre will deliver training in Industry 4.0 skills which will boost early-stage scale-up and accelerate the sector’s supply chain, which is pivotal for the Australian industries to maintain a competitive edge. Read moreRead less
Rediscovering Aboriginal dispersal pathways. This project aims to use cutting-edge and transdisciplinary tools in partnership with Aboriginal people to rediscover deliberate prehistoric plant dispersal pathways along the Australian east coast. By working on three unrelated species with similar disjunct distributions, expected outcomes include detecting significant ‘cultural’ vegetation patterns that will challenge current assumptions about 'natural' plant distributions. New associations between ....Rediscovering Aboriginal dispersal pathways. This project aims to use cutting-edge and transdisciplinary tools in partnership with Aboriginal people to rediscover deliberate prehistoric plant dispersal pathways along the Australian east coast. By working on three unrelated species with similar disjunct distributions, expected outcomes include detecting significant ‘cultural’ vegetation patterns that will challenge current assumptions about 'natural' plant distributions. New associations between plant biogeography and deliberate Aboriginal manipulation of Australian environments will benefit cultural heritage, land management and restoration initiatives.Read moreRead less
ARC Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology. The ARC Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology (CoESB) will provide the technical innovation critical for Australia to develop a vibrant bioeconomy building on the nation’s strengths in agriculture. For thousands of years we have used microbes to create bread, wine, cheese. Now, our Centre will pioneer new approaches to the design of synthetic microbes, enabling the development of custom-designed microbial communities, synthetic organelles and ne ....ARC Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology. The ARC Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology (CoESB) will provide the technical innovation critical for Australia to develop a vibrant bioeconomy building on the nation’s strengths in agriculture. For thousands of years we have used microbes to create bread, wine, cheese. Now, our Centre will pioneer new approaches to the design of synthetic microbes, enabling the development of custom-designed microbial communities, synthetic organelles and new to nature biological pathways and enzymes. CoESB will combine engineering with molecular biology to design and construct novel biological systems that can convert biomass from agriculture or waste streams to biofuel, bioplastics and other high-value chemicals.Read moreRead less