Mathematical models and bioinformatic analyses of bacterial genome evolution. Bacteria are vital agents in earth's biosphere, breaking down and synthesising a wide variety of compounds. Some bacteria cause disease; others are exploited for a range of biotechnological applications. Bacteria have a remarkable ability to survive and thrive in changing conditions. For example, pathogenic bacteria confronted by antibiotics easily evolve resistance to them. With the reality of climate change, we expec ....Mathematical models and bioinformatic analyses of bacterial genome evolution. Bacteria are vital agents in earth's biosphere, breaking down and synthesising a wide variety of compounds. Some bacteria cause disease; others are exploited for a range of biotechnological applications. Bacteria have a remarkable ability to survive and thrive in changing conditions. For example, pathogenic bacteria confronted by antibiotics easily evolve resistance to them. With the reality of climate change, we expect more rapid shifts in the structure of bacterial communities, possibly leading to the emergence of new pathogens. The benefits of this project are to discover how the genetic structure of bacteria confer this flexibility, and to help keep Australia at the forefront of research in bioinformatics and mathematical biology.
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Social insect behaviour: the importance of individual-decision making and information transfer. Insect societies are complex systems. Understanding complex systems is often hampered by our inability to study the individual units that comprise the system without also disturbing the system. Insect societies are unique in that the individual insects can be studied within their natural setting. This project will study foraging behaviour of honey bees with respect to individual decision-making and in ....Social insect behaviour: the importance of individual-decision making and information transfer. Insect societies are complex systems. Understanding complex systems is often hampered by our inability to study the individual units that comprise the system without also disturbing the system. Insect societies are unique in that the individual insects can be studied within their natural setting. This project will study foraging behaviour of honey bees with respect to individual decision-making and information transfer. In doing so we will obtain insights in the working of other, less accessible, complex systems such as the mammalian brain or the Australian economy.Read moreRead less
Understanding animals through their movement. This project aims to develop a suite of analytical methods to understand animals' behaviour through their movement patterns. Animal movement patterns encode detailed information about their behavioural state. Collecting and analysing animal movement trajectories can provide us with completely new insights to behaviour. Recent developments in bio-logging technologies have provided an incredible amount of rich data on free-ranging animals. This project ....Understanding animals through their movement. This project aims to develop a suite of analytical methods to understand animals' behaviour through their movement patterns. Animal movement patterns encode detailed information about their behavioural state. Collecting and analysing animal movement trajectories can provide us with completely new insights to behaviour. Recent developments in bio-logging technologies have provided an incredible amount of rich data on free-ranging animals. This project will develop a suite of analytical techniques to interrogate this data through a combination of approaches, from fine scale experiments in the laboratory to tracking animal trajectories from the International Space Station. The findings will deliver major benefits to the broader community by transforming our ability to manage and conserve animal stocks.Read moreRead less
Statistical methods and tools for integrative microarray analysis. Tools used for biological and medical research have been evolving and there has been an increase in high-throughput technologies such as genome sequencing and DNA microarray. The growing number of entries and the increasing availability of public microarray repositories and other sequence databases have generated the new challenge of developing tools to efficiently integrate data by different research groups. This research provi ....Statistical methods and tools for integrative microarray analysis. Tools used for biological and medical research have been evolving and there has been an increase in high-throughput technologies such as genome sequencing and DNA microarray. The growing number of entries and the increasing availability of public microarray repositories and other sequence databases have generated the new challenge of developing tools to efficiently integrate data by different research groups. This research provides new statistical methods to integrate different data sets. Its application in the biomedical field will allow researchers to effectively interpret the myriad of data generated within the community.Read moreRead less
On the move: the study of self-organised movement of animal groups with and without leadership. This project will uncover the common principles that control the movement of large groups of organisms. We will focus on swarming honey bees, hopping bands of billions of locusts and millions of crickets marching in unison. The outcomes of our research will be broadly applicable to other collective phenomena, even to traffic and crowd control in humans.
Australian Laureate Fellowships - Grant ID: FL140100025
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,617,462.00
Summary
The physical brain: emergent, multiscale, nonlinear, and critical dynamics. The physical brain: emergent, multiscale, nonlinear, and critical dynamics. This project aims to transform the understanding of the structure and function of the brain as a complex physical system. It aims to reveal and unify new aspects of information processing, transitions in conscious state, and nonlinear brain interactions by translating and applying concepts and methods from physics and mathematics. It will treat b ....The physical brain: emergent, multiscale, nonlinear, and critical dynamics. The physical brain: emergent, multiscale, nonlinear, and critical dynamics. This project aims to transform the understanding of the structure and function of the brain as a complex physical system. It aims to reveal and unify new aspects of information processing, transitions in conscious state, and nonlinear brain interactions by translating and applying concepts and methods from physics and mathematics. It will treat brain structure and dynamics together to address emergent phenomena like waves and patterns on multiple scales, treating waves as equal participants alongside neurons. Innovative predictions of brain phenomena will aim to be verified against data and used to understand brain networks, dynamics, and the physical phenomena underlying information processing and consciousness.Read moreRead less
Social insects as model systems in complexity science. Many optimisation algorithms are based on the behaviour of social insects. These algorithms function well under static conditions, when there is only one optimal solution. This project will determine how individual insect behaviour affects collective behaviour. Outcomes will allow the development of better algorithms.
Quantitative dynamics of functional magnetic resonance imaging. By modeling and verifying the dynamics of brain activity and blood flow that underlie functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), this project will yield improved scientific outcomes and imaging sensitivity. The new data analysis techniques and technologies that result will yield potentially patentable intellectual property, and will increase the standing of Australia in this rapidly developing field, including via links being bu ....Quantitative dynamics of functional magnetic resonance imaging. By modeling and verifying the dynamics of brain activity and blood flow that underlie functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), this project will yield improved scientific outcomes and imaging sensitivity. The new data analysis techniques and technologies that result will yield potentially patentable intellectual property, and will increase the standing of Australia in this rapidly developing field, including via links being built to leading international workers. The National Research Priority Goals of Frontier Technologies, Breakthrough Science, Smart Information Use, and Promoting an Innovation Economy will thus be advanced.Read moreRead less
Neural spike variability: unifying conflicting views of neural dynamics. The project aims to improve our understanding of neural dynamics. The brain represents and processes information by means of neural voltage spikes, which show great variability in their timing. Understanding the origin of such variable neural dynamics is a long-standing problem in neuroscience. The aim of this project is to develop a novel account of variable neural dynamics, unravelling their computational principles in th ....Neural spike variability: unifying conflicting views of neural dynamics. The project aims to improve our understanding of neural dynamics. The brain represents and processes information by means of neural voltage spikes, which show great variability in their timing. Understanding the origin of such variable neural dynamics is a long-standing problem in neuroscience. The aim of this project is to develop a novel account of variable neural dynamics, unravelling their computational principles in the brain, and unifying current leading but conflicting theories. The model developed in this project would be used to explain a range of empirical observations, and the principles unravelled would be applied to understand spike-timing based neural coding. The new knowledge gained in this project may have profound implications for designing brain-like computing devices.Read moreRead less
Decision-making in social insects and nature-inspired optimisation algorithms. Insect societies are ideal for the study of complex systems. Contrary to other complex systems, insect colonies can be modified without destroying the system. Computer scientists have found a source of inspiration in the behaviour of social insects for solving optimisation problems. Here we will study the influence of information flow on decision-making in real insect societies using:
1) Experiments aimed at investig ....Decision-making in social insects and nature-inspired optimisation algorithms. Insect societies are ideal for the study of complex systems. Contrary to other complex systems, insect colonies can be modified without destroying the system. Computer scientists have found a source of inspiration in the behaviour of social insects for solving optimisation problems. Here we will study the influence of information flow on decision-making in real insect societies using:
1) Experiments aimed at investigating how storage and transfer of information affects individual decision-making within a honey bee colony (University of Sydney)
2) Design of a new class of 'bee' algorithms that incorporate direct information transfer and are aimed at solving dynamic multicriterion optimisation problems (University of Leipzig).
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