Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE120100020
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$520,000.00
Summary
Collaborative high bio-containment immunological research facility. Emerging infectious diseases are a serious threat to animals and humans, with most new human infections originating in animals. Our capacity to study these infections and their effects on the immune system is limited. This Facility will provide core equipment for analysis of immune responses to infection at the highest levels of bio-containment.
Signalling pathways for sexual differentiation of apicomplexan parasites. This project aims to study the sexual development of apicomplexan parasites, which cause major diseases in humans, livestock and wildlife, including malaria. Only sexually differentiated cells can survive in the mosquito vector and hence this development is essential for the parasite's life-cycle. This project will employ a new approach that separates female from male parasites, thus enabling new information to be gleaned ....Signalling pathways for sexual differentiation of apicomplexan parasites. This project aims to study the sexual development of apicomplexan parasites, which cause major diseases in humans, livestock and wildlife, including malaria. Only sexually differentiated cells can survive in the mosquito vector and hence this development is essential for the parasite's life-cycle. This project will employ a new approach that separates female from male parasites, thus enabling new information to be gleaned about the development of these parasites. The expected outcomes are an understanding of the mechanisms of sexual differentiation and a functional characterisation of novel sex-specific molecules. This will provide significant benefits, such as pivotal prerequisites for new approaches to parasite intervention.Read moreRead less
Mosquito-borne viruses - how they cause disease and novel approaches to prevention. In Australia, Ross River virus (RRV) is the most common insect borne virus that affects human health. There were more than 60,000 confirmed cases of RRV between 1993 and 2008. While not fatal, the disease is responsible for significant morbidity that has both social and economic costs for the individual, their family and the community. This project has several national benefits. It will elucidate whether there is ....Mosquito-borne viruses - how they cause disease and novel approaches to prevention. In Australia, Ross River virus (RRV) is the most common insect borne virus that affects human health. There were more than 60,000 confirmed cases of RRV between 1993 and 2008. While not fatal, the disease is responsible for significant morbidity that has both social and economic costs for the individual, their family and the community. This project has several national benefits. It will elucidate whether there is an association between RRV strain and the severity of disease and if there are human factors that affect the seriousness of symptoms. Knowledge of both of these could provide new avenues for the design of prevention and treatment strategies.Read moreRead less