Detection and viability of waterborne pathogens using a gut-on-chip. This project aims to resolve a significant problem for water utilities. Microbial pathogens Cryptosporidium, norovirus and adenovirus are the main public health concern for drinking water in developed nations. Water monitoring is limited by the lack of fast, reliable detection methods and viability assays for these pathogens. This project will use a novel gut-on-a-chip to develop for the first time rapid infectivity assays for ....Detection and viability of waterborne pathogens using a gut-on-chip. This project aims to resolve a significant problem for water utilities. Microbial pathogens Cryptosporidium, norovirus and adenovirus are the main public health concern for drinking water in developed nations. Water monitoring is limited by the lack of fast, reliable detection methods and viability assays for these pathogens. This project will use a novel gut-on-a-chip to develop for the first time rapid infectivity assays for Cryptosporidium, norovirus and adenovirus. Significant benefits include improved diagnostics and water disinfection assays, improved water treatment and reduced costs with global impact.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE0989226
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$340,000.00
Summary
Multi-photon imaging for infection, immunity, and self recognition. This proposal will address a gap in our imaging capabilities, allowing us to visualise the movement of immune cells and infectious agents such as bacteria and viruses within living tissues. This will immensely improve our capacity to understand interactions between the immune system, invading organisms and the rest of our body. The intravital imaging system will provide novel insights into how the immune system works, which will ....Multi-photon imaging for infection, immunity, and self recognition. This proposal will address a gap in our imaging capabilities, allowing us to visualise the movement of immune cells and infectious agents such as bacteria and viruses within living tissues. This will immensely improve our capacity to understand interactions between the immune system, invading organisms and the rest of our body. The intravital imaging system will provide novel insights into how the immune system works, which will benefit the design of vaccines, the treatment of cancer, and our understanding of allergy. This state-of-the-art facility will also provide vital training in an emerging technology that will have application in many areas of biology.
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Characterisation of a new class of antimicrobial agent for multidrug-resistant infections. New drugs are required to combat the development of antibiotic resistance. This project will conduct further tests on a new compound that has shown initial activity against resistant superbugs by understanding how it works against bacteria and varying the chemical structure to improve effectiveness.
Special Research Initiatives - Grant ID: SR0354739
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$20,000.00
Summary
Network on eRAM: Environmental Risk Assessment and Management. The proposed network seeks to provide an understanding of the relationship between environmental agents/factors and public health. It provides Australia's first, unified effort to undertand the processes involved at a whole-of-environment level. By virtue of its operation, the network will co-ordinate and expand upon the largely scattered and matrix-specific research in this field that currently takes place. It will permit evaluat ....Network on eRAM: Environmental Risk Assessment and Management. The proposed network seeks to provide an understanding of the relationship between environmental agents/factors and public health. It provides Australia's first, unified effort to undertand the processes involved at a whole-of-environment level. By virtue of its operation, the network will co-ordinate and expand upon the largely scattered and matrix-specific research in this field that currently takes place. It will permit evaluation of environmental agents/factors, as they relate to public health under prevailing environmental conditions. Thus, the major outcome of the network will be effective risk assessment of the expected real-time effects of environmental agents/factors on public health.Read moreRead less
Making Green Guard® greener: enhancing the efficacy of a biopesticide. The project aims to identify naturally occurring micro-organisms to increase the effectiveness of Green Guard ®, which is a biopesticide used against the Australian plague locust. The project will use next-generation sequencing and other molecular techniques to potentially identify candidate microbes or combinations of microbes that can be added to Green Guard to enhance locust susceptibility. The project also aims to quantif ....Making Green Guard® greener: enhancing the efficacy of a biopesticide. The project aims to identify naturally occurring micro-organisms to increase the effectiveness of Green Guard ®, which is a biopesticide used against the Australian plague locust. The project will use next-generation sequencing and other molecular techniques to potentially identify candidate microbes or combinations of microbes that can be added to Green Guard to enhance locust susceptibility. The project also aims to quantify the interactive impact of temperature and nutrition on immune function, disease resistance and host-plant quality of plague locusts; and to explore the combined effects of temperature, habitat and Green Guard, in combination with candidate microbes or pathogens, on the behaviour and collective movement of locusts. It is anticipated that this will have implications for management and control strategies.Read moreRead less
Investigating The Antimicrobial Activity Of Zinc At The Host-pneumococcal Interface
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$318,768.00
Summary
Streptococcus pneumoniae is a human-only bacterium that is responsible for killing more than one million people every year. This project will analyse how the human immune system fights this bacterium, and subsequently, how the bacteria manages to subvert these attacks and survive in the human host. This will provide crucial information for developing new drugs against this pathogen, in an attempt to combat the ever-increasing problem of antibiotic resistance.
Targeting RCAN1 To Treat Type 2 Diabetes And Obesity
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$814,468.00
Summary
Obesity and impaired insulin secretion are significant contributors to Type 2 diabetes. In this project we demonstrate that a protein called RCAN1 contributes to both fat mass and insulin secretion and that this contribution is exacerbated in obesity and in Type 2 diabetes. We will identify how RCAN1 controls these major metabolic pathways with outcomes including the development of new therapeutics for obesity and Type 2 diabetes.
Active Visual Navigation in an Unexplored Environment. This project will develop a new method for robotic navigation in which goals can be specified at a much higher level of abstraction than has previously been possible. This will be achieved using deep learning to make informed predictions about a scene layout, and navigating as an active observer in which the predictions informs actions. The outcome will be robotic agents capable of effective and efficient navigation and operation in previous ....Active Visual Navigation in an Unexplored Environment. This project will develop a new method for robotic navigation in which goals can be specified at a much higher level of abstraction than has previously been possible. This will be achieved using deep learning to make informed predictions about a scene layout, and navigating as an active observer in which the predictions informs actions. The outcome will be robotic agents capable of effective and efficient navigation and operation in previously unseen environments, and the ability to control such agents with more human-like instructions. Such capabilities are desirable, and in some cases essential, for autonomous robots in a variety of important application areas including automated warehousing and high-level control of autonomous vehicles. Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE160100090
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$250,000.00
Summary
Computational infrastructure for developing deep machine learning models. Computational infrastructure for developing deep machine learning models:
The computational infrastructure for developing deep machine learning models aims to enable new developments in machine learning of deep neural network models by providing the specialised computing necessary to train and evaluate the networks. In the last three years, deep networks have smashed previous performance ceilings for tasks such as object ....Computational infrastructure for developing deep machine learning models. Computational infrastructure for developing deep machine learning models:
The computational infrastructure for developing deep machine learning models aims to enable new developments in machine learning of deep neural network models by providing the specialised computing necessary to train and evaluate the networks. In the last three years, deep networks have smashed previous performance ceilings for tasks such as object recognition in images, speech recognition and automatic translation, bringing the prospect of machine intelligence closer than ever. Modern machine learning techniques have had huge impact in the last decade in fields such as robotics, computer vision and data analytics. The facility would enable Australian researchers to develop, learn and apply deep networks to problems of national importance in robotic vision and big data analytics. Read moreRead less
ARC/NHMRC Research Network for Parasitology. The ARC Network for Parasitology will focus and coordinate Australia's world class fundamental, strategic and applied parasitology research. This targeted approach will raise Australia's standing in the field, assist in the community's understanding of parasitology and biosecurity and maintain and improve Australia's capacity for keeping its stock, crops, wildlife and people disease-free. On an international scale, the Network will work with other cou ....ARC/NHMRC Research Network for Parasitology. The ARC Network for Parasitology will focus and coordinate Australia's world class fundamental, strategic and applied parasitology research. This targeted approach will raise Australia's standing in the field, assist in the community's understanding of parasitology and biosecurity and maintain and improve Australia's capacity for keeping its stock, crops, wildlife and people disease-free. On an international scale, the Network will work with other countries to develop new technologies for the detection and eradication of parasites. This emphasis will not only protect Australia's borders but will assist our near neighbours and lead to the development of technologies with an economic benefit to Australia.
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