Genomics For Combating Antimicrobial Resistant Bacterial Pathogens
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,027,364.00
Summary
Applying genomics to bacterial pathogens is revolutionising the way we understand infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance (AMR). There is a major opportunity to now bring the technology into routine clinical and public health practice. This research program will investigate and deliver the technology of pathogen genomics directly into public health disease surveillance, outbreak detection and the diagnosis and response to infectious diseases and AMR in hospitalised patients.
Understanding The Development And Spread Of Pan Resistance In Acinetobacter Baumannii
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,339,215.00
Summary
Resistance to all antibiotics available for treatment of bacterial infections is a cause for global concern (Word Health Organization, US Centres for Disease Control) as it also compromises therapies relying on antibiotics such as transplantation and cancer chemotherapy. Extensively antibiotic resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, mainly causes hospital-acquired infections. This project will seek to track different types of these bacteria as they repeatedly spread around the world.
Structural Role Of The Host Cytoskeleton During Invasion Of Intracellular Pathogens
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$645,205.00
Summary
During infection by bacteria, the 'skeleton' of cells plays critical roles in sensing the invading germs and destroying them. To counteract this, bacteria have evolved strategies to hijack the cell skeleton to promote their own survival, and spread. This intriguing molecular arms race is continuously co-evolving. Understanding this process in great details will have the potential to design novel therapeutics to counteract bacterial and viral infections.
Harnessing The Power Of Single Cell Sequencing To Advance Biomedical Research
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,013,220.00
Summary
Our ability to sequence the DNA code has advanced rapidly in the last 10 years but this data is large and complex and we need advanced computational and statistical methods to analyse these data. Now we are able to generate this data from individual cells. I will provide the analysis approached that are required in order to use this data to understand the complexity of tissues at a cellular resolution. This will provide deep molecular insights into development and disease.
Uncovering Sex Specific, Epigenetic Biomarkers Of Healthy Ageing For Targeted Exercise Interventions
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$1,449,800.00
Summary
The aged population accounts for a significant, and increasing, amount of Australia’s health budget. We aim to uncover novel molecular biomarkers that slow the ageing process and maintain good health for longer. We will use innovative DNA and protein analysis to study the molecular ‘clocks’ of young and old populations and to test whether exercise can slow the ageing process. This will underpin the development of evidence-based biomarkers to be used in personalised health interventions.
Melanoma Genetics: Clinical Translation Of The Germline-somatic Continuum
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,231,372.00
Summary
While new targeted and immune therapies can improve prognosis from metastatic melanoma, long-term survival for most patients remains elusive due to drug resistance or failure of the immune system to kill the tumour. There thus remains a significant need to improve early detection, monitoring of relapse, and treatment strategies, to increase survival and provide cures. My research vision addresses these three pillars of cancer research using innovative and cutting edge genetic approaches.
Prediction Of Fracture By Clinico-genetic Profiling
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,339,215.00
Summary
The loss of bone with advancing age is the main cause of osteoporosis and bone fracture. Bone loss is highly variable between individuals, and we are not sure why. I want to find out factors that contribute to bone loss, and then use this knowledge to identify individuals at high risk of excessive bone loss for early prevention. My goal over the next 5 years is to create a new clinico-genetic model for assessing the rate of bone loss, and predicting the risk of fracture for an individual.
Gene Discovery And Functional Insights For Neurological And Retinal Disorders
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,163,220.00
Summary
Understanding the genetic drivers of disease is key for the development of disease therapies. Determination of the causal genetic variants in a disorder can be used for future diagnosis, prognostication, and personalised treatment. We have previously identified ~20 novel genes and developed new methods providing genomic diagnoses for 1000s of individuals. In the next five years I will make significant advances in our understanding of what causes diseases such as epilepsy, ataxia and dementia.
Cancer is now the leading cause of death in our community. Dramatic progress in genomic technologies is impacting on cancer treatment and risk management internationally. My vision is an Australian Genomic Cancer Medicine Program (AGCMP), uniting than 15 cancer centres and three major medical research institutes in all states and territories, and bringing genomics through research into the clinic to improve health outcomes for all Australians.
Biology Of Speech Disorders: Advancing Diagnosis, Prognosis & Management
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$3,515,005.00
Summary
For 100 years, my field has focused on assessing and managing patients based on speech disorder symptomatology. We have ignored aetiology, preventing targeted care. My work will pioneer gene discovery to advance knowledge of the aetiology of human communication disorders, enabling targeted care to reduce disability. Proposed work will be directly translated to improve care and optimise outcomes in speech disorder via advancing detection, diagnosis and prognostic counselling of patients.