Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE130100031
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$333,684.00
Summary
Mathematical modelling of the complex mechanics of biological materials and their role in tissue function and development. The mechanics of biological materials is complicated because they consist of many components such as fibres, proteins and polymers. We aim to use mathematical tools to understand how these components interact in tissues such as the spinal disc which will aid the development of new treatments to reverse the effects of injury, disease or aging.
Quantifying yeast cell mechanisms: filamentous growth and biofilm formation. This project aims to quantify the cellular mechanisms of yeast growth to advance our understanding of these organisms and support strategies to prevent and treat disease. Although yeasts are some of the most studied organisms in biology, their modes of filamentous growth and biofilm formation are not fully understood. Yeasts such as the Candida species cause potentially lethal infections through filamentous invasion of ....Quantifying yeast cell mechanisms: filamentous growth and biofilm formation. This project aims to quantify the cellular mechanisms of yeast growth to advance our understanding of these organisms and support strategies to prevent and treat disease. Although yeasts are some of the most studied organisms in biology, their modes of filamentous growth and biofilm formation are not fully understood. Yeasts such as the Candida species cause potentially lethal infections through filamentous invasion of tissues. The project plans to develop methods to quantify the mechanisms driving these growth processes. These methods will be designed to permit classification and selection of strain-specific properties of yeasts, providing a deeper understanding of the mechanisms controlling cellular and colonial morphology in the growth of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the most important yeast in both biotechnology and bioscience.Read moreRead less
How calcium makes the heart grow. This project aims to develop a mathematical model of calcium signalling in heart cells to understand how calcium makes the heart grow. Our hearts grow to adapt to long-term changes, such as during development and in pregnancy or heart disease. Biochemical reactions involving calcium control the growth of heart cells and heart cells also use calcium signalling to trigger contraction with each beat. How calcium controls the heartbeat and regulates cell growth is u ....How calcium makes the heart grow. This project aims to develop a mathematical model of calcium signalling in heart cells to understand how calcium makes the heart grow. Our hearts grow to adapt to long-term changes, such as during development and in pregnancy or heart disease. Biochemical reactions involving calcium control the growth of heart cells and heart cells also use calcium signalling to trigger contraction with each beat. How calcium controls the heartbeat and regulates cell growth is unknown. This project will develop a new mathematical model of calcium signalling in heart cells to understand important cellular adaption processes. This knowledge will lead to the ability to independently control cellular pathways mediated by calcium, opening new avenues in biotechnology and biomedicine.Read moreRead less
Mathematical modelling of the dynamics of multi-layered biological tissues. The project intends to develop a mathematical model of the basic mechanisms that determine the self-organisation of cells into complex tissues during the development of the embryo. Tissue function requires a non-trivial tissue architecture often composed of multiple cell layers which exhibit a remarkable capacity for renewal and defect correction. A cardinal part of embryonic development involves robust shaping of multi- ....Mathematical modelling of the dynamics of multi-layered biological tissues. The project intends to develop a mathematical model of the basic mechanisms that determine the self-organisation of cells into complex tissues during the development of the embryo. Tissue function requires a non-trivial tissue architecture often composed of multiple cell layers which exhibit a remarkable capacity for renewal and defect correction. A cardinal part of embryonic development involves robust shaping of multi-layered tissue morphologies. The project plans to use mathematical models to determine how complex, three-dimensional structures arise from adaptive multicellular biomechanical interactions. It plans to develop a novel computational modelling framework to represent and analyse such systems, which may be applicable to a wide range of problems where tissue mechanics is a key factor such as bone remodelling and wound healing.Read moreRead less
How motor proteins contract the cell cortex and form a cell division ring. This project aims to develop a detailed physical model for motor proteins and filaments and, based on it, derive a fluid-type mean-field mathematical model, which will facilitate numerical simulations and lead to testable predictions. This study will also provide detailed quantitative information on how these processes can be controlled by modifying concentration and properties of structural and motor proteins. This has p ....How motor proteins contract the cell cortex and form a cell division ring. This project aims to develop a detailed physical model for motor proteins and filaments and, based on it, derive a fluid-type mean-field mathematical model, which will facilitate numerical simulations and lead to testable predictions. This study will also provide detailed quantitative information on how these processes can be controlled by modifying concentration and properties of structural and motor proteins. This has potential applications in tumour therapy, developmental biology and in the bioengineering of nanomaterials.Read moreRead less
Optimising progress towards elimination of malaria. The project aims to advance mathematical knowledge by developing novel tools appropriate for modelling disease elimination. We will apply these new mathematical tools to the significant problem of malaria elimination in Vietnam. The expected outcomes are new tools for modelling disease elimination on a fine spatial resolution with heterogeneities in individual patient characteristics, calibrating models to household level data on disease transm ....Optimising progress towards elimination of malaria. The project aims to advance mathematical knowledge by developing novel tools appropriate for modelling disease elimination. We will apply these new mathematical tools to the significant problem of malaria elimination in Vietnam. The expected outcomes are new tools for modelling disease elimination on a fine spatial resolution with heterogeneities in individual patient characteristics, calibrating models to household level data on disease transmission and designing intervention strategies for maximum effect on disease transmission. The innovative combination of modelling, inference and optimisation ensures that the mathematical methods developed will be broadly applicable to modelling elimination strategies for other infectious diseases.
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Building macroscale models from microscale probabilistic models. Spatial patterns arise in biological and physical processes. Understanding how local individual-based functions, such as movement and interactions between individuals, give rise to global spatial distributions and patterns in populations of individuals is generating much interest. Probabilistic agent-based models provide information about the movement of individuals, whereas continuum models provide information about the global pro ....Building macroscale models from microscale probabilistic models. Spatial patterns arise in biological and physical processes. Understanding how local individual-based functions, such as movement and interactions between individuals, give rise to global spatial distributions and patterns in populations of individuals is generating much interest. Probabilistic agent-based models provide information about the movement of individuals, whereas continuum models provide information about the global properties, such as spread of populations. This project will provide tools for determining the connection between the two types of models, thereby linking the behaviour on microscopic and macroscopic scales.Read moreRead less
Principled statistical methods for high-dimensional correlation networks. This project aims to develop a novel and principled approach for building correlation networks. Correlation networks aim to identify the most significant associations present in modern massive datasets, and have numerous applications, ranging from the biomedical and environmental sciences to the social sciences. Nodes of such networks represent features, and edges represent associations, or the lack thereof. Current method ....Principled statistical methods for high-dimensional correlation networks. This project aims to develop a novel and principled approach for building correlation networks. Correlation networks aim to identify the most significant associations present in modern massive datasets, and have numerous applications, ranging from the biomedical and environmental sciences to the social sciences. Nodes of such networks represent features, and edges represent associations, or the lack thereof. Current methods are not readily scalable to modern ultra-high dimensional settings, and do not account for uncertainty in the estimated associations. This project will develop a principled, highly scalable methodology for building such networks, which incorporates uncertainty quantification. Emphasis is placed on modern ultra-high dimensional settings in which differentiating a true correlation from a spurious one is a notoriously difficult task.Read moreRead less
Guiding principles and guardrails for genetic association studies. This project aims to investigate deep connections between genetic structure (population genetic processes, linkage disequilibrium and population structure) and the ability to statistically detect genetic variants responsible for variation in traits. The project expects to generate new knowledge in the areas of statistics, mathematics and biology through an innovative, multidisciplinary approach that synthesises and extends founda ....Guiding principles and guardrails for genetic association studies. This project aims to investigate deep connections between genetic structure (population genetic processes, linkage disequilibrium and population structure) and the ability to statistically detect genetic variants responsible for variation in traits. The project expects to generate new knowledge in the areas of statistics, mathematics and biology through an innovative, multidisciplinary approach that synthesises and extends foundational disciplinary results. Expected outcomes of this project include principles and methodology that underpin future genetic association studies by supplying a framework for interpreting results. This should provide significant benefits by reducing false conclusions and their associated costs.Read moreRead less
Human longevity: Modelling social changes that propelled its evolution. The project plans to simulate behavioural and social changes that could have driven the evolution of human longevity past the end of female menopause. The aims are to develop a mathematical framework for modelling complex organisation in a population in terms of fundamental social units and to qualitatively evaluate the relative importance of these social units in potentially driving human evolution from the ancestral state. ....Human longevity: Modelling social changes that propelled its evolution. The project plans to simulate behavioural and social changes that could have driven the evolution of human longevity past the end of female menopause. The aims are to develop a mathematical framework for modelling complex organisation in a population in terms of fundamental social units and to qualitatively evaluate the relative importance of these social units in potentially driving human evolution from the ancestral state. Such models may enable us to compare two prominent and opposing hypotheses of the evolution of human longevity: the Grandmother Hypothesis and the Hunting Hypothesis.Read moreRead less