Establishing Design Principles Of Polymers For Intracellular Delivery . Engineered polymers have played a central role in the field of bionanotechnology by enabling targeted nanoscale cell interactions. Progress in the field of intracellular delivery is currently affected by a major bottleneck due to the absence of effective polymers that is applicable across the range of bimolecular cargoes. In essence depending on the type of cargo: DNA, RNA or protien, the polymer needs programmability. The l ....Establishing Design Principles Of Polymers For Intracellular Delivery . Engineered polymers have played a central role in the field of bionanotechnology by enabling targeted nanoscale cell interactions. Progress in the field of intracellular delivery is currently affected by a major bottleneck due to the absence of effective polymers that is applicable across the range of bimolecular cargoes. In essence depending on the type of cargo: DNA, RNA or protien, the polymer needs programmability. The limited tunability of traditional polymers agents makes them unsuitable for this particular application. The multidisciplinary project addresses this significant problem by engineering novel sequences of defined polymer based nanoscale agents to achieve efficient delivery in cells.Read moreRead less
Meta-microscopy of insect tissue: How nature grows bicontinuous nanosolids. Several butterfly species grow a complex nano-sculptured matrix whose chiral network structure confers remarkable optical properties, including jewel-like reflections. The formation process remains mysterious and a spectacular case of bottom-up self-assembly at far larger scales than accessible in the lab. The project aims to decipher this process, by (a) tomography of a species where arrested growth sites represent time ....Meta-microscopy of insect tissue: How nature grows bicontinuous nanosolids. Several butterfly species grow a complex nano-sculptured matrix whose chiral network structure confers remarkable optical properties, including jewel-like reflections. The formation process remains mysterious and a spectacular case of bottom-up self-assembly at far larger scales than accessible in the lab. The project aims to decipher this process, by (a) tomography of a species where arrested growth sites represent time-frozen snapshots of the development, and (b) by a combination of micron-resolved in-vivo microscopy of a developing butterfly wing with a growth model to infer nanometer-scale information. This insight will lead to blueprints for self-assembly strategies and shed light on function and form of inner-cellular membranes. Read moreRead less
Lunar crustal structure from high-res gravity, topography, and seismic data. This project aims to improve our knowledge of the Moon, including its surface processes, interior structure, modification by geological processes and creation and evolution. The Moon preserves the longest and cleanest records of surface geology in the Solar System’s history, unlike the Earth. The lunar crust should exhibit strong heterogeneity in density (both porosity and composition) given its complex history of impac ....Lunar crustal structure from high-res gravity, topography, and seismic data. This project aims to improve our knowledge of the Moon, including its surface processes, interior structure, modification by geological processes and creation and evolution. The Moon preserves the longest and cleanest records of surface geology in the Solar System’s history, unlike the Earth. The lunar crust should exhibit strong heterogeneity in density (both porosity and composition) given its complex history of impact bombardment and volcanism. This project aims to determine radial and lateral heterogeneity in density and porosity within the Moon's crust, by analysing Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory gravity and spacecraft tracking data, Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter topography and in situ Apollo seismological data.Read moreRead less
Going wild: Neural processing in freely moving animals. This project aims to use new techniques in wireless neural recording to reveal how small neural networks process visual information to make fast, accurate decisions. The project is designed to generate new knowledge about biological solutions to contextual information processing and how tiny, simple biological neural systems control critical animal behaviours such as predator avoidance. Expected outcomes will be new biological insights with ....Going wild: Neural processing in freely moving animals. This project aims to use new techniques in wireless neural recording to reveal how small neural networks process visual information to make fast, accurate decisions. The project is designed to generate new knowledge about biological solutions to contextual information processing and how tiny, simple biological neural systems control critical animal behaviours such as predator avoidance. Expected outcomes will be new biological insights with which to develop novel bio-inspired decision-making processing systems as required in small, autonomous robots. The anticipated benefits of this project will be advances in fundamental neuroscience and animal behaviour and is expected to provide significant value to a fast-developing industrial sector.Read moreRead less
Polarization vision: insights from biological systems for imaging solutions. This project aims to discover how invertebrate and vertebrate model species see linearly polarised light by constructing a novel instrument to determine limits to sensitivities, as well as animals' ability to distinguish small differences in degree and angle of linear polarisation. The project aims to predict how this might be affected as environments change. A clear understanding of biological solutions to polarisation ....Polarization vision: insights from biological systems for imaging solutions. This project aims to discover how invertebrate and vertebrate model species see linearly polarised light by constructing a novel instrument to determine limits to sensitivities, as well as animals' ability to distinguish small differences in degree and angle of linear polarisation. The project aims to predict how this might be affected as environments change. A clear understanding of biological solutions to polarisation perception can inform the design and development of novel bio-inspired imaging sensors that will be particularly suited to small, autonomous robots.Read moreRead less
Molecular transistors: from strings and rings to other things. This project aims to use chemical approaches to develop molecular transistors, which are critical components for a future molecular electronics technology. The use of molecules as ultra-miniaturised electronic components is gathering attention from industry and academia, as a solution to the approaching limits of top-down scaling. However, current molecular designs based on gating through chemical reaction or redox state changes are ....Molecular transistors: from strings and rings to other things. This project aims to use chemical approaches to develop molecular transistors, which are critical components for a future molecular electronics technology. The use of molecules as ultra-miniaturised electronic components is gathering attention from industry and academia, as a solution to the approaching limits of top-down scaling. However, current molecular designs based on gating through chemical reaction or redox state changes are slow and inefficient. The project will develop molecular transistors with exceptionally high gain and fast response based on gating the energy of quantum interference features in molecules with cross-conjugated or ring-like shapes. This will provide significant benefits including new strategies for nanofabrication of molecular devices.Read moreRead less
AI Assisted Probabilistic Structural Health Monitoring with Uncertain Data. This project aims to develop an advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) assisted probabilistic structural health monitoring approach for civil engineering structures. The developed approach applies novel deep learning techniques with a large amount of data measured from uncertain and complex environment, for reliable structural condition monitoring and performance prediction. This project expects to make a step change in d ....AI Assisted Probabilistic Structural Health Monitoring with Uncertain Data. This project aims to develop an advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) assisted probabilistic structural health monitoring approach for civil engineering structures. The developed approach applies novel deep learning techniques with a large amount of data measured from uncertain and complex environment, for reliable structural condition monitoring and performance prediction. This project expects to make a step change in data mining and interpretation. Expected outcomes of the project include novel AI assisted approaches to conduct probabilistic structural condition monitoring with sensitive features and future structural performance prediction. This will provide significant benefits to infrastructure asset owners to reduce maintenance costs.Read moreRead less
Understanding and Addressing Everyday Sexisms in Australian Universities. This project aims to improve the ways in which gender-based discrimination is understood and addressed in Australian universities by employing a situated, intersectional, and creative approach to researching everyday sexisms. This project expects to use an innovative approach to generate new knowledge about everyday sexisms at the individual level and across disciplinary and university contexts. Expected outcomes include n ....Understanding and Addressing Everyday Sexisms in Australian Universities. This project aims to improve the ways in which gender-based discrimination is understood and addressed in Australian universities by employing a situated, intersectional, and creative approach to researching everyday sexisms. This project expects to use an innovative approach to generate new knowledge about everyday sexisms at the individual level and across disciplinary and university contexts. Expected outcomes include new gender equity practices that will assist universities to refine current programs, strategies, and policies capable of eliminating gender-based discrimination. This should provide significant benefits for Australian society, including women and gender diverse people working in universities.
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Advancing programmable genetic computation to control plant gene activity. Plants can sense diverse internal and external conditions and integrate them to appropriately tune their response and maximize fitness. Plant biotechnology relies heavily on manipulating gene activity to change cell functions and confer advantageous agronomic traits. However, our ability to control plant gene activity remains rudimentary, limiting our biotechnology capabilities. This project aims to develop synthetic gene ....Advancing programmable genetic computation to control plant gene activity. Plants can sense diverse internal and external conditions and integrate them to appropriately tune their response and maximize fitness. Plant biotechnology relies heavily on manipulating gene activity to change cell functions and confer advantageous agronomic traits. However, our ability to control plant gene activity remains rudimentary, limiting our biotechnology capabilities. This project aims to develop synthetic gene logic gates in plants, to enable the construction of programmable genetically-encoded computational functions that can sense and process customizable inputs to drive desired changes in plant function. This advance will underpin useful applications in plant biotechnology such as improved crop stress tolerance and yield.Read moreRead less
Correlative Imaging of Brain Lipids. This project aims to develop imaging tools and protocols for the detection of lipids in brain tissue and cells. This project expects to generate advanced methodologies to display specific lipid classes and their corresponding structures within tissues and cells, with the ability to be detected and correlated with multiple techniques, which represent a currently unavailable capacity. The expected outcomes of this project are improved opportunities to study lip ....Correlative Imaging of Brain Lipids. This project aims to develop imaging tools and protocols for the detection of lipids in brain tissue and cells. This project expects to generate advanced methodologies to display specific lipid classes and their corresponding structures within tissues and cells, with the ability to be detected and correlated with multiple techniques, which represent a currently unavailable capacity. The expected outcomes of this project are improved opportunities to study lipid biology at the cellular and sub-cellular level across a wide range of in vitro and in vivo models. The outcomes of this project should provide significant knowledge to tackle modern societal challenges in healthy ageing, brain pathologies and neurodegenerative diseases.Read moreRead less