The Role Of Meninges In Midbrain Dopamine Development
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$378,311.00
Summary
Dopamine neurons are important for the control of movement, emotion and cognitive function, and are affected in a number of disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. Instrumental in improving our knowledge of disease etiology and the development of new therapies will be a greater understanding of how these cells are initially born during development. This project examines the role of the brain’s meninges in dopamine development and repair and will identify proteins and signaling pathways involved.
Targeting Bone Marrow Mediated Angiogenesis And Metastasis In Breast Cancer
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$463,006.00
Summary
Despite advances in treatment and diagnostics breast cancer (BC) remains one of the leading causes of death in women. Metastases and tumour blood vessel recruitment are linked. Work by Dr Mellick and others has shown that host bone marrow contributes endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) to tumour vasculature. The chemokines and their receptors, which differentiate EPCs from tumour vessels, will be knocked down in the tumour cells and EPC progenitors with the aim of preventing tumour spread.
The Role Of Chemokines In Establishing HIV Latency
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$372,049.00
Summary
Although antiviral therapy is effective in controlling HIV, therapy must be continued life-long because the virus cannot be cleared from long lived infected CD4+ T cells that are silently or latently infected. In this proposal we will explore the mechanism of how HIV can enter these resting CD4+ T-cells and establish long lived latent infection. Understanding this process may potentially lead to new strategies to cure HIV infection.