The Role of RNA interference in the induction of immune responses. Our work will allow us to understand a new means by which to alert the immune system to the presence of cancer cells using a new technology called RNA interference. This will hopefully lead to new investment in biotechnology products based on RNA interference, improved treatments for cancers and better health for Australians
Engineered Polymer Nanoparticles: A Potent Weapon Against Cancer. Cervical cancer is the commonest cause of cancer death in women under the age of 50 worldwide, the 8th most common cancer among women in Australia, and is the leading cause of cancer death in Aboriginal women. While a vaccine is available to prevent HPV-mediated disease, it would not impact upon death rates for at least 25 years. The systemic delivery of RNAi offers to best opportunity to solve this problem. The delivery devices w ....Engineered Polymer Nanoparticles: A Potent Weapon Against Cancer. Cervical cancer is the commonest cause of cancer death in women under the age of 50 worldwide, the 8th most common cancer among women in Australia, and is the leading cause of cancer death in Aboriginal women. While a vaccine is available to prevent HPV-mediated disease, it would not impact upon death rates for at least 25 years. The systemic delivery of RNAi offers to best opportunity to solve this problem. The delivery devices will be designed with precision and function to meet the delivery needs in vivo. These polymer structures will be suitable for use in drug and gene delivery providing Australian products with advanced features and capabilities, significantly improving product performance.Read moreRead less
Noncanonical epitope recognition by CD8+ T lymphocytes. This proposed research program will provide significant fundamental insight in the areas of immunology and vaccine design. Vaccines for many diseases remain elusive, and this project aims to improve our understanding of the precise regions within pathogens that are the targets for the killer T cells of the immune system. These regions, called epitopes, are likely to be key ingredients in many future vaccines. Although immunologists have gat ....Noncanonical epitope recognition by CD8+ T lymphocytes. This proposed research program will provide significant fundamental insight in the areas of immunology and vaccine design. Vaccines for many diseases remain elusive, and this project aims to improve our understanding of the precise regions within pathogens that are the targets for the killer T cells of the immune system. These regions, called epitopes, are likely to be key ingredients in many future vaccines. Although immunologists have gathered much information about such epitopes, recent studies have shown that some unexpected regions of pathogens are targets for killer T cells. This project will break new ground by utilising unbiased procedures to assess the relative contribution of these noncanonical epitopes to immunity.Read moreRead less
Structure and function of novel macrophage proteins using high throughput crystallography. We will combine the cutting edge technologies of microarray analysis and high throughput crystallography in an innovative approach to study the structure and function of important and uncharacterised macrophage proteins. Our strategy for targeting novel macrophage proteins will maximise the success rate of structure determination, while at the same time focusing our efforts on proteins that are important i ....Structure and function of novel macrophage proteins using high throughput crystallography. We will combine the cutting edge technologies of microarray analysis and high throughput crystallography in an innovative approach to study the structure and function of important and uncharacterised macrophage proteins. Our strategy for targeting novel macrophage proteins will maximise the success rate of structure determination, while at the same time focusing our efforts on proteins that are important in macrophage biology. Structures of the novel proteins will underpin functional analysis at a molecular level and could represent a basis for inhibitor design should the proteins ultimately be shown to be therapeutic targets.Read moreRead less