Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE0989436
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$400,000.00
Summary
Multiphoton microscopy of living animals as a tool for immunology and cell biology studies. The multiphoton microscope will enable us to watch the growth, migration and interactions of cells in a living animal in response to changes in the cells' environment will give us better understanding of how we work as living machines, and what can go wrong with that process to make us unwell.
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
Development of an effective vaccine for chlamydial infection: optimisation of a non-toxic cholera toxin-based adjuvant to generate a protective mucosal response. Chlamydial genital infections are the most common sexually transmitted infection in Australia and the world and impose a major health burden on the community. Chlamydial infections are also associated with cardiovascular disease, Australia's biggest killer and asthma, another condition that has increased significantly in prevalence in t ....Development of an effective vaccine for chlamydial infection: optimisation of a non-toxic cholera toxin-based adjuvant to generate a protective mucosal response. Chlamydial genital infections are the most common sexually transmitted infection in Australia and the world and impose a major health burden on the community. Chlamydial infections are also associated with cardiovascular disease, Australia's biggest killer and asthma, another condition that has increased significantly in prevalence in the past 10 years. This project will evaluate the effectiveness of a new adjuvant as a first step towards the development of a vaccine to target these important infections.Read moreRead less
Foreign DNA is a danger signal for mammalian cells. This project investigates how cells normally respond to foreign DNA, and is relevant to understanding how the body fights infections, particularly by viruses. The results will help us to design more effective treatments for infectious disease. Studying responses to DNA will also promote the design of new treatments for the autoimmune disease lupus, and help improve technologies or treatments where DNA is introduced into cells or tissues. This ....Foreign DNA is a danger signal for mammalian cells. This project investigates how cells normally respond to foreign DNA, and is relevant to understanding how the body fights infections, particularly by viruses. The results will help us to design more effective treatments for infectious disease. Studying responses to DNA will also promote the design of new treatments for the autoimmune disease lupus, and help improve technologies or treatments where DNA is introduced into cells or tissues. This includes gene therapy, new strategies for vaccination, and the production of proteins as drugs by biotechnology. The project will promote National Research Priorities in the areas of preventative healthcare, ageing well ageing productively, breakthrough science and new technologies.Read moreRead less
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
The development of tyrosine kinase inhibitors for the treatment of inflammation and malignant disease. Through the combination of expertise from the Industry partner and the Hume group this project aims to develop specific inhibitors of the CSF-1 receptor protein tyrosine kinase in order to demonstrate their efficacy as modulators of CSF-1 dependent macrophage and tumour cell function in vitro. The expected outcome will be a lead set of targets which can be further assessed for therapeutic pote ....The development of tyrosine kinase inhibitors for the treatment of inflammation and malignant disease. Through the combination of expertise from the Industry partner and the Hume group this project aims to develop specific inhibitors of the CSF-1 receptor protein tyrosine kinase in order to demonstrate their efficacy as modulators of CSF-1 dependent macrophage and tumour cell function in vitro. The expected outcome will be a lead set of targets which can be further assessed for therapeutic potential in clinical trials.Read moreRead less
Understanding and regulating autoimmune disease through the nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-kappaB) family transcription factor, v-rel reticuloendotheliosis viral oncogene homolog B (RelB). This program is well-aligned with the national research priority: Promoting and Maintaining Good Health. The disabling conditions rheumatoid arthritis and type 1 diabetes affect over 1% of Australia's population. They are incurable, so disability and the need for treatment p ....Understanding and regulating autoimmune disease through the nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-kappaB) family transcription factor, v-rel reticuloendotheliosis viral oncogene homolog B (RelB). This program is well-aligned with the national research priority: Promoting and Maintaining Good Health. The disabling conditions rheumatoid arthritis and type 1 diabetes affect over 1% of Australia's population. They are incurable, so disability and the need for treatment persist into old age and life expectancy is reduced. The program focuses on more effective and safer treatment, and future disease prevention, with immune therapy. This will have social and economic benefits to Australia. The research will advance Australia's intellectual leadership in Immunology, providing research training and career opportunities, and will lead to strong collaborations between basic scientists, clinicians and industry.Read moreRead less
Improving immune response to vaccines by selective targeting of epithelial regions with the Nanopatch. Vaccination protects us from infections like measles and flu. In principle, it could protect us from all diseases, even from skin cancer and arthritis. In practice, however, vaccines to diseases like cancer have largely proved ineffective. One problem is that we don't really understand how the body's immune system responds to vaccination. Our aim, therefore, is to investigate changes in the imm ....Improving immune response to vaccines by selective targeting of epithelial regions with the Nanopatch. Vaccination protects us from infections like measles and flu. In principle, it could protect us from all diseases, even from skin cancer and arthritis. In practice, however, vaccines to diseases like cancer have largely proved ineffective. One problem is that we don't really understand how the body's immune system responds to vaccination. Our aim, therefore, is to investigate changes in the immune system when a vaccine enters the skin, as might happen by injection. Experimenting with laboratory mice and a special vaccine-injecting Nanopatch that is attached to each mouse's ear, we are starting to understand how a vaccine affects the immune cells in the skin. In the future we plan to apply this knowledge to improve vaccination in people.Read moreRead less
Optimising the body's immune response with a Nanopatch that delivers biomolecules to the skin. The team is developing a new improved way to vaccinate against deadly infectious diseases such as influenza and malaria. They believe their Nanopatch technology will boost the power of seasonal influenza vaccination and could even solve vaccine shortages in an influenza pandemic. This is because the Nanopatch needs much less vaccine per person than a conventional syringe. They also predict that vaccine ....Optimising the body's immune response with a Nanopatch that delivers biomolecules to the skin. The team is developing a new improved way to vaccinate against deadly infectious diseases such as influenza and malaria. They believe their Nanopatch technology will boost the power of seasonal influenza vaccination and could even solve vaccine shortages in an influenza pandemic. This is because the Nanopatch needs much less vaccine per person than a conventional syringe. They also predict that vaccines delivered with a Nanopatch will require less refrigeration than conventional vaccines and can be safely administered by individuals without medical training, making the benefits of vaccination accessible to more people more cheaply, even in remote areas.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