New strategies for highly sensitive chemical detection based on luminescent ruthenium and iridium complexes. Chemical reactions that emit tiny quantities of light, not even visible to the naked eye, can be used to detect the biomarkers of disease or traces of chemical or biological weapons in a terrorist attack. This project creates a new generation of reagents for this remarkably sensitive mode of detection for these and other important applications.
Identifying novel salinity tolerance mechanisms by spatial and temporal analysis of lipids in barley. Agrifood production faces the dual challenges of an increasing world population and the threats of abiotic stresses arising from climate change and the erosion of arable land. Cereals, the major food crops, are poorly adapted to tolerate most abiotic stresses, including salinity. This project applies new technologies investigating spatial and temporal biochemical mechanisms a model cereal, Horde ....Identifying novel salinity tolerance mechanisms by spatial and temporal analysis of lipids in barley. Agrifood production faces the dual challenges of an increasing world population and the threats of abiotic stresses arising from climate change and the erosion of arable land. Cereals, the major food crops, are poorly adapted to tolerate most abiotic stresses, including salinity. This project applies new technologies investigating spatial and temporal biochemical mechanisms a model cereal, Hordeum vulgare (barley), utilises to adapt and tolerate salinity. The aims are to investigate the role of specifically plasma membrane lipids modulating either signalling pathways or membrane fluidity that impacts on adaptation during salinity. The results will provide new leads for the development of cereal germplasm with increased salt tolerance.Read moreRead less
Discovery of new metabolic functions in Plasmodium parasites. This research will provide new understanding about the metabolism of parasites, such as those that cause malaria. These parasites have evolved bespoke metabolic networks to survive in diverse host environments including mosquitos and humans. Previous studies have revealed many unique genes and metabolites in these organisms, but their biochemical function is not known. This project will use state-of-the-art metabolomics and proteomics ....Discovery of new metabolic functions in Plasmodium parasites. This research will provide new understanding about the metabolism of parasites, such as those that cause malaria. These parasites have evolved bespoke metabolic networks to survive in diverse host environments including mosquitos and humans. Previous studies have revealed many unique genes and metabolites in these organisms, but their biochemical function is not known. This project will use state-of-the-art metabolomics and proteomics technology to accurately identify novel metabolites produced by the parasites, and discover the enzymes that are responsible for their synthesis. This work will not only advance our understanding of cellular metabolism, but will provide new opportunities for future biotechnology applications.Read moreRead less
Molecular Archaeology: Carbon isotope analysis of amino acids as a means to investigate diets, physiology, metabolism and palaeoenvironment. The investigation of the bones of past societies and animals at the molecular level opens up a whole array of alternative data about palaeodiet and environment. Investigating the past in this way provides a unique perspective about how diet and health have changed in humans and about how animals and the environment have changed. When we understand the past ....Molecular Archaeology: Carbon isotope analysis of amino acids as a means to investigate diets, physiology, metabolism and palaeoenvironment. The investigation of the bones of past societies and animals at the molecular level opens up a whole array of alternative data about palaeodiet and environment. Investigating the past in this way provides a unique perspective about how diet and health have changed in humans and about how animals and the environment have changed. When we understand the past in this manner we can better understand current health issues linked to diet and how the environment and climate is changing.Read moreRead less
Understanding the mechanisms of class B GPCR-transducer coupling. Current effort in developing drugs targeting G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) often result in low success rate due to the lack of understanding of the complexity and the spatiotemporal control of receptor function. The research program aims to understand the molecular mechanisms of receptor/transducer selectivity. The proposal integrated multi-disciplinary approaches to provide a deeper understanding of how the receptor is acti ....Understanding the mechanisms of class B GPCR-transducer coupling. Current effort in developing drugs targeting G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) often result in low success rate due to the lack of understanding of the complexity and the spatiotemporal control of receptor function. The research program aims to understand the molecular mechanisms of receptor/transducer selectivity. The proposal integrated multi-disciplinary approaches to provide a deeper understanding of how the receptor is activated responding to different ligands. The anticipated outcome including an enhanced capacity for understanding the fundamental biology, a stronger national and international collaborations. This will provide significant benefits including expanded basic knowledge and improvements in drug development efficiency. Read moreRead less
Three Dimensional Anti-biofouling Conducting Polymer Hydrogel Electrodes for Biosensor and Biofuel cell Applications. Exploitation of advances in nanotechnology, electrochemical technology, biosensor, biofuel cell and material science are important to Australia's prosperity from a societal industrial perspective. Currently, research in this field is being actively conducted around the world due to their huge potential for commercial applications. Therefore, through the development of new princi ....Three Dimensional Anti-biofouling Conducting Polymer Hydrogel Electrodes for Biosensor and Biofuel cell Applications. Exploitation of advances in nanotechnology, electrochemical technology, biosensor, biofuel cell and material science are important to Australia's prosperity from a societal industrial perspective. Currently, research in this field is being actively conducted around the world due to their huge potential for commercial applications. Therefore, through the development of new principles and concepts, and the synthesis of newly designed materials, this project will bring significant benefits in improving the efficiency of these devices and to promote Australian leadership in the field of medical devices and alternative energy generation.Read moreRead less
Multi-functional probes for global analysis of proteome stress in cells. This project aims to create a suite of multi-functional chemical probes to identify damaged proteins that undergo unfolding or specific modifications in cells under stress. These probes will not only generate fluorescence responses to reflect on protein quality control capacity but allow associated proteins and their networks to be identified in complex cellular environments, which is difficult to achieve by current methods ....Multi-functional probes for global analysis of proteome stress in cells. This project aims to create a suite of multi-functional chemical probes to identify damaged proteins that undergo unfolding or specific modifications in cells under stress. These probes will not only generate fluorescence responses to reflect on protein quality control capacity but allow associated proteins and their networks to be identified in complex cellular environments, which is difficult to achieve by current methods. The expected outcome is to deliver new methodology for a comprehensive understanding of the correlation between quality control machinery, stress responses and cell functions. This should provide significant benefits, including contributing to fundamental knowledge on the molecular causes of neurodegenerative diseases.Read moreRead less
The cell wall substrate delivery mechanisms in plants. This project aims to study the delivery of substrates plants need to biosynthesise sugar polymers. Sugar polymers play key structural and functional roles in plant development and determine quality for all plant-based products including food, textile fibres, building materials and renewable biomass. However, unknown mechanisms regulate and control the transport mechanisms that deliver the building blocks for polysaccharide biosynthesis. This ....The cell wall substrate delivery mechanisms in plants. This project aims to study the delivery of substrates plants need to biosynthesise sugar polymers. Sugar polymers play key structural and functional roles in plant development and determine quality for all plant-based products including food, textile fibres, building materials and renewable biomass. However, unknown mechanisms regulate and control the transport mechanisms that deliver the building blocks for polysaccharide biosynthesis. This project is expected to increase understanding of nucleotide sugar transport and develop and enhance the biological toolbox for applications involving modelling and engineering of plants, synthesis of industrial biopolymers and production of functional foods.Read moreRead less
Defining the cellular impacts of protein aggregation in neurodegenerative disease with an aggreomics platform. The brain disease Huntington’s is caused by abnormally shaped proteins that assemble into toxic clusters. This project will design new bioprobes to track how these clusters form and cause damage to cells. This strategy will also provide new opportunities for discovering novel therapeutic targets.