Precision Epigenetics: Targeting The Epigenome To Treat Disease
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$1,940,576.00
Summary
Epigenetic marks are changes made to the DNA that allow genes to be switched off in some cells and switched on in others. These marks are critical to normal development and often go wrong in disease. We aim to find genes that add epigenetic marks to the DNA and understand how they co-operate at the molecular level to switch genes off. Our focus is on one such gene, SMCHD1. We are developing new drugs against SMCHD1 to treat incurable neurodevelopmental disorder PWS and muscular dystrophy FSHD.
Unraveling ocean mixing and air-sea forcing along the Indo-Pacific exchange. This project aims to collect unprecedented observations and develop high resolution model simulations to examine changes in the Indonesian Throughflow (ITF) north of Australia. This project expects to develop new knowledge of ocean-atmosphere interactions along the path of the ITF from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean, which are the powerhouse that drives changes in winds and rainfall around Australia and the entire Indo ....Unraveling ocean mixing and air-sea forcing along the Indo-Pacific exchange. This project aims to collect unprecedented observations and develop high resolution model simulations to examine changes in the Indonesian Throughflow (ITF) north of Australia. This project expects to develop new knowledge of ocean-atmosphere interactions along the path of the ITF from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean, which are the powerhouse that drives changes in winds and rainfall around Australia and the entire Indo-Pacific region. Expected outcomes include a 1000-fold increase in the observations of mixing in the Indonesian seas and new understanding of the ocean-atmosphere processes that control water property change along the ITF. This should lead to strong improvement in the skill of climate forecast models in the Australian region.Read moreRead less
Robust methods for heteroscedastic regression models for time series. What is the variability of the exchange rate of the Euro to the Australian dollar? Can the use of the electrocardiogram of a patient be improved as a diagnostic tool for heart disease? A well-known limitation of the existing statistical methods for answering these types of questions is that a small proportion of extreme observations have the potential to lead to results that are more in agreement with the outliers than with bu ....Robust methods for heteroscedastic regression models for time series. What is the variability of the exchange rate of the Euro to the Australian dollar? Can the use of the electrocardiogram of a patient be improved as a diagnostic tool for heart disease? A well-known limitation of the existing statistical methods for answering these types of questions is that a small proportion of extreme observations have the potential to lead to results that are more in agreement with the outliers than with bulk of the data. As a consequence, the statistical analyses may lead to wrong conclusions. This project aims to develop new methodologies to solve this problem for a large class of studies. Applications to stock market risk, exchange rate, and diagnosis of heart diseases will illustrate the new methods.Read moreRead less
New insights into abrupt climate change using isotope model-data fusion. There have been several episodes in the past 60,000 years during which carbon dioxide was released into the atmosphere causing significant and rapid warming. This project aims to determine the source of the carbon responsible for these warming events. This project is significant because it will increase our understanding of the processes underlying abrupt past, and potential future changes. These processes are currently und ....New insights into abrupt climate change using isotope model-data fusion. There have been several episodes in the past 60,000 years during which carbon dioxide was released into the atmosphere causing significant and rapid warming. This project aims to determine the source of the carbon responsible for these warming events. This project is significant because it will increase our understanding of the processes underlying abrupt past, and potential future changes. These processes are currently underestimated or missing in climate models. The expected outcomes include a better understanding of the non-linear responses in the climate system. This should provide significant benefits, such as an assessment of whether the smooth climate changes currently projected through to year 2100 are misleading.Read moreRead less
The weather-climate connection in Australian climate change. This project aims to uncover the key links in Australia's weather-climate connection by identifying the role weather features play in influencing the slowly varying climate and how changes in one might affect changes in the other. Better describing the two-way connection between weather and climate through an innovative combination of research techniques usually applied to only one of weather or climate will allow for a more insightful ....The weather-climate connection in Australian climate change. This project aims to uncover the key links in Australia's weather-climate connection by identifying the role weather features play in influencing the slowly varying climate and how changes in one might affect changes in the other. Better describing the two-way connection between weather and climate through an innovative combination of research techniques usually applied to only one of weather or climate will allow for a more insightful assessment of climate model quality. This assessment will support the identification of the most reliable climate models and, by using them, reduce uncertainties in future predictions. Improved predictions of climate in turn will enable better decision making in all sectors of society.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE190100113
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$420,437.00
Summary
Interactions between volumetric units in modular buildings. This project aims to develop an in-depth understanding of the interactions between volumetric units in modular buildings to develop integration strategies for the interconnection of modules. The uptake of modular construction has been hindered by the technical complexities of the design process for manufacture and assembly, in particular the flexible connection of services. By addressing significant gaps in the guidance on the design of ....Interactions between volumetric units in modular buildings. This project aims to develop an in-depth understanding of the interactions between volumetric units in modular buildings to develop integration strategies for the interconnection of modules. The uptake of modular construction has been hindered by the technical complexities of the design process for manufacture and assembly, in particular the flexible connection of services. By addressing significant gaps in the guidance on the design of modular interconnections and their integration strategies, this project expects to enhance the industry’s capacity to adopt safe, economical and standardised designs of modular systems. This project should significantly reduce the risk in decision making in modular construction, and transformation to advanced building manufacturing technologies in Australia and beyond.Read moreRead less
Local climate changes caused by large bushfire burnt areas. This project aims to quantify the impact on local climate produced by large burnt areas after extreme bushfires. This project expects to generate new knowledge on these previously unexplored fire-scar induced changes to local climate. It will extend an innovative approach that combines satellite based earth observation with very high resolution regional climate modelling to quantify the impacts on land-atmosphere feedbacks and local cli ....Local climate changes caused by large bushfire burnt areas. This project aims to quantify the impact on local climate produced by large burnt areas after extreme bushfires. This project expects to generate new knowledge on these previously unexplored fire-scar induced changes to local climate. It will extend an innovative approach that combines satellite based earth observation with very high resolution regional climate modelling to quantify the impacts on land-atmosphere feedbacks and local climate. Expected outcomes of this project include enhanced methods to quantify local climate changes after extreme fires and their effect on vegetation recovery. This should provide significant benefits to the planning for, and management of, vegetation recovery after extreme fires.Read moreRead less
Trust-Oriented Data Analytics in Online Social Networks. Trust-oriented data analytics is essential in online social networks for reducing deceitful interactions and enhancing trust between users. This project aims to systematically devise innovative solutions by considering rich social contextual information as an important source of trust. The expected outcomes of this project include innovative solutions from a fundamental perspective to the challenges of context-aware trust propagation, trus ....Trust-Oriented Data Analytics in Online Social Networks. Trust-oriented data analytics is essential in online social networks for reducing deceitful interactions and enhancing trust between users. This project aims to systematically devise innovative solutions by considering rich social contextual information as an important source of trust. The expected outcomes of this project include innovative solutions from a fundamental perspective to the challenges of context-aware trust propagation, trust network searching/matching, and trustworthy/malicious user prediction in online social networks. This project is significant as it will advance the knowledge base for enabling a trustworthy social networking environment, benefiting billions of Australian and worldwide online social network users.Read moreRead less
Towards a superannuation system fit for the future. Towards a superannuation system fit for the future. This project aims to develop a stochastic superannuation model and propose alternative post retirement solutions, using data-led understanding of savings habits. Funding for the increasing cost of the growing older population will, if not modelled, forecast and managed adequately, swamp all other welfare and state funded costs. To manage older age costs adequately, governments need to encourag ....Towards a superannuation system fit for the future. Towards a superannuation system fit for the future. This project aims to develop a stochastic superannuation model and propose alternative post retirement solutions, using data-led understanding of savings habits. Funding for the increasing cost of the growing older population will, if not modelled, forecast and managed adequately, swamp all other welfare and state funded costs. To manage older age costs adequately, governments need to encourage people to save and provide ways people can save—but need to better understand how people save money for their old age. This research is expected to enable the “superannuation change“ necessary for the superannuation system to remain sustainable and fund retirees to live well.Read moreRead less
The impact of India-Asia tectonics on climate. This interdisciplinary project aims to determine the controls of tectonics on global climate in the last 50 million years. A combination of tectonics, paleogeography, climate modelling and high-performance computing will be applied to test systematically outstanding issues in the reconstruction of the Indo-Asia region and their landmass/seaways configurations and topography, which have bedevilled previous models of paleoclimate evolution. The propos ....The impact of India-Asia tectonics on climate. This interdisciplinary project aims to determine the controls of tectonics on global climate in the last 50 million years. A combination of tectonics, paleogeography, climate modelling and high-performance computing will be applied to test systematically outstanding issues in the reconstruction of the Indo-Asia region and their landmass/seaways configurations and topography, which have bedevilled previous models of paleoclimate evolution. The proposal expects to generate novel knowledge in the area at the boundary between tectonics, paleoclimate modelling and present-day climate. This provides significant benefits to the interpretation of tectonics–climate coupling as current drivers of climate evolution.Read moreRead less