Linking evolutionary and molecular biology to safeguard Australian honeybees. Honeybee populations are declining globally but their pollination services are of central importance for food production. This project will study honeybee proteins that influence both fertility and immunity and their effects in vivo. This knowledge is of interest for the bee breeding industry to avoid or combat bee declines in managed Australian bees.
Characterizing the regulators of mitochondrial biogenesis in Arabidopsis thaliana. The overall aim of this project is to identify and characterise the underlying regulatory factors that control mitochondrial mass and number in plants. The project will exploit a regulatory mechanism that links the mitochondrial import machinery and the respiratory chain. Utilising both forward and reverse genetic approaches, the abundances of protein import translocases will be altered and the changes to mitochon ....Characterizing the regulators of mitochondrial biogenesis in Arabidopsis thaliana. The overall aim of this project is to identify and characterise the underlying regulatory factors that control mitochondrial mass and number in plants. The project will exploit a regulatory mechanism that links the mitochondrial import machinery and the respiratory chain. Utilising both forward and reverse genetic approaches, the abundances of protein import translocases will be altered and the changes to mitochondrial biogenesis will be investigated. This will identify regulatory factors, which can be manipulated and used to alter mitochondrial number and activity.Read moreRead less
Advancing our understanding of plant responses to low phosphorus availability beyond the transcriptome. Phosphorus is essential for plant growth. Plants have evolved mechanisms to cope with the poor availability of phosphorus in many soils. This project will improve Australia's knowledge of how plants alter the expression of genes and proteins to activate their mechanisms for coping with poor phosphorus availability in some soils.
Drugging the undruggable: Development of novel technologies to selectively regulate the expression of targets driving cancer and other diseases. Transcription factors are “undruggable” targets playing a principal role driving cancer. This project will create novel therapeutic strategies to inhibit transcription factors and other elusive targets differentially expressed in diseased cells, without affecting normal tissue. It proposes to construct engineered proteins able to bind and modify specifi ....Drugging the undruggable: Development of novel technologies to selectively regulate the expression of targets driving cancer and other diseases. Transcription factors are “undruggable” targets playing a principal role driving cancer. This project will create novel therapeutic strategies to inhibit transcription factors and other elusive targets differentially expressed in diseased cells, without affecting normal tissue. It proposes to construct engineered proteins able to bind and modify specific key genes deregulated in cancer, to correct their expression and stably reprogram the phenotype of the tumour cell in a normal-like state. It outlines the engineering of novel synthetic agents to block specific protein-protein interactions in cancer cells and to induce potent tumour cell death. This work will generate novel and selective therapeutics to treat un-curable forms of tumours.Read moreRead less
Development and use of novel technologies to improve drugs targeting G protein-coupled receptor complexes involved in disease. The purpose of this project is to develop and use new and innovative technologies to improve many of the drugs taken for a wide range of medical conditions. The expected outcomes are the discovery of better drugs and a greater understanding of the drugs currently on the market, particularly enabling improved management of side-effects.