Monitoring intuitive expertise in the context of airport security screening. During airport security screening and processing, confusion and error are greatest when systems or contexts are unfamiliar. Poorly designed systems compromise the interactions of airport security personnel and decrease their ability to promptly and accurately respond to situations. This project aims to deliver a suite of automated methods to monitor security operator knowledge and engagement, to assess the real-time sec ....Monitoring intuitive expertise in the context of airport security screening. During airport security screening and processing, confusion and error are greatest when systems or contexts are unfamiliar. Poorly designed systems compromise the interactions of airport security personnel and decrease their ability to promptly and accurately respond to situations. This project aims to deliver a suite of automated methods to monitor security operator knowledge and engagement, to assess the real-time security screening context, and to detect unusual passenger behaviour at the screening check-point. This monitoring aims to provide new knowledge and techniques to enhance security operator performance, refine the screening process, improve passenger experience and, most critically, ensure safety at Australian airports.Read moreRead less
Development of technologies to monitor multimolecular complexes. Development of technologies to monitor multimolecular complexes. This project aims to develop technologies to monitor how proteins and their interacting molecules (such as hormones) form multi-component complexes, and how these complexes function in the cell, including movement from the cell surface, into different cellular compartments and back up to the surface. These technologies are expected to enable monitoring in live cells i ....Development of technologies to monitor multimolecular complexes. Development of technologies to monitor multimolecular complexes. This project aims to develop technologies to monitor how proteins and their interacting molecules (such as hormones) form multi-component complexes, and how these complexes function in the cell, including movement from the cell surface, into different cellular compartments and back up to the surface. These technologies are expected to enable monitoring in live cells in real-time with high sensitivity. This project could have broad benefits for and affect study of all aspects of the life sciences at the cellular and molecular levels. How these protein complexes function in cells underpins much of our understanding of biology, and technological tools.Read moreRead less
Innovative procurement theories to optimise education per cost of school. Innovative procurement theories to optimise education per cost of school. This project aims to develop a whole-of-life procurement decision-making framework so schools can make delivering better education more cost effective. This framework—which draws on state-of-the-art and Nobel prize-winning theories and a new theory the project will develop—will be used in government and private schools. The effectiveness of this fram ....Innovative procurement theories to optimise education per cost of school. Innovative procurement theories to optimise education per cost of school. This project aims to develop a whole-of-life procurement decision-making framework so schools can make delivering better education more cost effective. This framework—which draws on state-of-the-art and Nobel prize-winning theories and a new theory the project will develop—will be used in government and private schools. The effectiveness of this framework in improving schools will be shown using a new approach to make school facilities deliver educational outcomes and account for their total production and transaction costs. This research is expected to deliver more efficient ways to future-proof schools to create a well performing school system and more resilient infrastructure vital to Australia’s future prosperity.Read moreRead less
Investigations into the antibacterial mechanism of action of cannabidiol. This project aims to understand how the compound cannabidiol is able to kill bacteria by examining its interactions with bacteria from a genetic and molecular level. This research is critical, because future development of cannabidiol and design of improved analogs is predicated on knowing how it works. Expected outcomes include the first detailed understanding of how cannabidiol interacts with bacteria. This should lead ....Investigations into the antibacterial mechanism of action of cannabidiol. This project aims to understand how the compound cannabidiol is able to kill bacteria by examining its interactions with bacteria from a genetic and molecular level. This research is critical, because future development of cannabidiol and design of improved analogs is predicated on knowing how it works. Expected outcomes include the first detailed understanding of how cannabidiol interacts with bacteria. This should lead to significant benefits, including high impact publications, additional collaborations with industrial partner Botanix, and a new class of antibiotics to overcome antibiotic resistance.Read moreRead less
Targeting the undruggable: epitope mapping using Phylomers peptides to modulate activity of Transcription Factors. This project aims at expanding the pool of drug targets, by extending drug screening to protein-protein interaction networks. This project aims to assemble a novel technical platform to detect binding between proteins, using a combination of cell-free protein expression, AlphaScreen and single-molecule fluorescence. This pipeline has great potential to accelerate the exploration of ....Targeting the undruggable: epitope mapping using Phylomers peptides to modulate activity of Transcription Factors. This project aims at expanding the pool of drug targets, by extending drug screening to protein-protein interaction networks. This project aims to assemble a novel technical platform to detect binding between proteins, using a combination of cell-free protein expression, AlphaScreen and single-molecule fluorescence. This pipeline has great potential to accelerate the exploration of protein networks, and provides also a generic platform for drug screening on difficult targets. The project intends to screen Phylogica's libraries of peptides called Phylomers to discover tight binders to a Transcription Factor, Sox18. The objective of this project is to determine which Phylomers can disrupt specific interactions between Sox18 and its binding partners involved in lymphangiogenesis.Read moreRead less
A microfluidic array of phylomers for rapid discovery of peptide probes and biomarkers. This project, through an alliance with Phylogica, aims at exploiting a unique source of structural diversity for drug discovery, harvesting the creativity of nature in its most exotic places. The project will develop a novel approach to validate design and validate drug candidates, by gathering them on a single screening chip for a powerful discovery platform.
Mathematical and computational models for agrichemical retention on plants. Mathematical and computational models for agrichemical retention on plants. This project aims to build interactive software that simulates agrichemical spraying for multiple virtual plants reconstructed from scanned data. Mathematical modelling and computer simulation could offer an alternative to expensive experimental programs for agrichemical spraying of plants. This project will use contemporary fluid mechanics to bu ....Mathematical and computational models for agrichemical retention on plants. Mathematical and computational models for agrichemical retention on plants. This project aims to build interactive software that simulates agrichemical spraying for multiple virtual plants reconstructed from scanned data. Mathematical modelling and computer simulation could offer an alternative to expensive experimental programs for agrichemical spraying of plants. This project will use contemporary fluid mechanics to build practical mathematical models for droplet impaction, spreading and evaporation on leaf surfaces, and experimentally calibrate and validate the models. The software is expected to drive the development of agrichemical products that increase retention, minimise environmental impacts, and reduce costs for end-users.Read moreRead less
Defining the Brassica pan-genome and establishing methods for gene conversion based crop improvement. Gene content varies between individual varieties. The project aims to apply novel genomic tools to identify and characterise the fixed and variable gene content in the important crop canola and use this to understand genome evolution as well as develop tools to accelerate canola breeding. The project team have developed and used a high-resolution genotyping approach to demonstrate that gene conv ....Defining the Brassica pan-genome and establishing methods for gene conversion based crop improvement. Gene content varies between individual varieties. The project aims to apply novel genomic tools to identify and characterise the fixed and variable gene content in the important crop canola and use this to understand genome evolution as well as develop tools to accelerate canola breeding. The project team have developed and used a high-resolution genotyping approach to demonstrate that gene conversions, short recombination events which lead to the non-reciprocal exchange of genomic regions during meiosis, are abundant in crop genomes. The project aims to develop methods and resources to characterise gene conversion in canola and establish a basis for gene conversion based crop improvement.Read moreRead less
In vitro expression of macrocyclic peptides. This project aims to develop a novel strategy for the production of polypeptides with unnatural chemical groups using a sense codon reassignment approach. Novel peptides could be used in a range of pharmaceutical applications. Peptides made of 20 natural amino acids cover only a very small fraction of the available chemical and functional space. While a peptide’s functionality can be extended with unnatural amino acids, the methods for their site-sele ....In vitro expression of macrocyclic peptides. This project aims to develop a novel strategy for the production of polypeptides with unnatural chemical groups using a sense codon reassignment approach. Novel peptides could be used in a range of pharmaceutical applications. Peptides made of 20 natural amino acids cover only a very small fraction of the available chemical and functional space. While a peptide’s functionality can be extended with unnatural amino acids, the methods for their site-selective incorporation are inefficient. The project’s strategy relies on the depletion of selected tRNAs from an in vitro protein translation system and their replacement with synthetic tRNAs, charged with unnatural amino acids. It is expected that the developed technology could be used to rapidly generate and screen highly diversified macrocyclic peptide libraries.Read moreRead less
Transforming Lives and Communities: Impact of Quality Indigenous Education. The project aims to advance knowledge, policy and practice by exploring the impact of Indigenous education programs in transforming lives and communities. There is a revolution in Australian education whereby private boarding schools are actively enabling Indigenous students to reap the rewards of a quality education. While there is anecdotal evidence suggesting that these programs have long-term and far-reaching effects ....Transforming Lives and Communities: Impact of Quality Indigenous Education. The project aims to advance knowledge, policy and practice by exploring the impact of Indigenous education programs in transforming lives and communities. There is a revolution in Australian education whereby private boarding schools are actively enabling Indigenous students to reap the rewards of a quality education. While there is anecdotal evidence suggesting that these programs have long-term and far-reaching effects for the students that extend to Indigenous communities, non-Indigenous peers, and the whole-school community, the actual impact of and pathways through which these benefits are achieved is unknown.Read moreRead less