Industrial Transformation Training Centres - Grant ID: IC160100025
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,259,000.00
Summary
ARC Training Centre in Food Safety in the Fresh Produce Industry. ARC Training Centre in Food Safety in the Fresh Produce Industry. This centre aims to create an innovation platform of food safety researchers and industry personnel who can significantly advance the safety of fruit and vegetables in Australia. The intended outcomes are safer food, leading to enhanced health and wellbeing; industry growth in the food/agribusiness sector; enhanced trust and international reputation; and increased a ....ARC Training Centre in Food Safety in the Fresh Produce Industry. ARC Training Centre in Food Safety in the Fresh Produce Industry. This centre aims to create an innovation platform of food safety researchers and industry personnel who can significantly advance the safety of fruit and vegetables in Australia. The intended outcomes are safer food, leading to enhanced health and wellbeing; industry growth in the food/agribusiness sector; enhanced trust and international reputation; and increased access to growing export markets. Intended benefits to industry are ready-to-use technologies for strengthened food safety, and a new generation of highly-skilled food safety scientists with experience in conducting industry-focused research.Read moreRead less
Industrial Transformation Training Centres - Grant ID: IC140100024
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,061,605.00
Summary
ARC Training Centre for Innovative Horticultural Products. ARC Training Centre for Innovative Horticultural Products. The Australian food industry, and the fresh produce sector in particular, offers enormous opportunities for growth and diversification through development of innovative new products that are safe, convenient, affordable and healthy. The Training Centre will develop fresh foods with improved shelf life and sensory quality, through a suite of food science and market analysis projec ....ARC Training Centre for Innovative Horticultural Products. ARC Training Centre for Innovative Horticultural Products. The Australian food industry, and the fresh produce sector in particular, offers enormous opportunities for growth and diversification through development of innovative new products that are safe, convenient, affordable and healthy. The Training Centre will develop fresh foods with improved shelf life and sensory quality, through a suite of food science and market analysis projects relevant to the horticultural supply chains of Woolworths supermarket. A new model for researcher training, integrating formal course-work and workplace-integrated learning, will deliver professionals who are industry relevant, understand food product innovation and have a trans-disciplinary approach to delivering products that satisfy market demand.Read moreRead less
Integrating electrophysiology and molecular biology to understand the role of cell membranes in bacterial responses to chill and osmotic stress. Modern food manufacture is driven by competing demands: consumers prefer foods that are 'natural', i.e. having received minimal processing and containing less preservatives, and last, but are safe. Thus, a challenge is to find minimal sets of treatments and preservatives that limit microbial growth.
Current methods to for determining limits to microbi ....Integrating electrophysiology and molecular biology to understand the role of cell membranes in bacterial responses to chill and osmotic stress. Modern food manufacture is driven by competing demands: consumers prefer foods that are 'natural', i.e. having received minimal processing and containing less preservatives, and last, but are safe. Thus, a challenge is to find minimal sets of treatments and preservatives that limit microbial growth.
Current methods to for determining limits to microbial growth are time and consuming and empirical. We will assess the potential of a new method (MIFE) to rapidly measure limits of bacterial growth under combinations of treatments. At the same time we will study how cells, and in particular how the cell membrane, responds to these stresses to provide insights for the development of new, minimal - yet safe - food preservation technologies.
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Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE100100015
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$200,000.00
Summary
Purchase of an ultra-performance liquid chromatograph - triple quadrupole mass spectrometer. The diverse research supported by the proposed instrument group addresses several national research priorities. It will lead to a better fundamental understanding of the hormonal control of plant growth, improved catalysts for organic synthesis including pharmaceuticals and improved food safety. In forestry it will help to increase forest productivity through mitigating losses from insect and mamm ....Purchase of an ultra-performance liquid chromatograph - triple quadrupole mass spectrometer. The diverse research supported by the proposed instrument group addresses several national research priorities. It will lead to a better fundamental understanding of the hormonal control of plant growth, improved catalysts for organic synthesis including pharmaceuticals and improved food safety. In forestry it will help to increase forest productivity through mitigating losses from insect and mammalian pests and enhancing wood quality. In pharmaceutics, improved treatments for asthma are expected. This facility will provide the infrastructure essential for many researchers to maintain internationally competitive profiles in their areas and continue to offer postgraduate training and postdoctoral opportunities.Read moreRead less
Understanding algal bloom microbiome function to improve seafood safety. Current phytoplankton ecological theory is derived primarily from lab cultures, but in nature phytoplankton have unique microbiomes that support their growth and ongoing ocean primary production. This project aims to establish the structure and function of these natural microbiomes, and how they contribute to seafood poisoning caused by bacteria and algal biotoxins. Using advanced flow cytometry with single-cell microbial ....Understanding algal bloom microbiome function to improve seafood safety. Current phytoplankton ecological theory is derived primarily from lab cultures, but in nature phytoplankton have unique microbiomes that support their growth and ongoing ocean primary production. This project aims to establish the structure and function of these natural microbiomes, and how they contribute to seafood poisoning caused by bacteria and algal biotoxins. Using advanced flow cytometry with single-cell microbial profiling, we will sample nano-scale plankton microbiomes and synthetic microbiome phylogenomics to the link between microbiomes and seafood poisoning outbreaks. The outcomes will underpin enhanced predictive modelling of seafood risk to ensure the safety and export security of Australia's $2 billion seafood industry.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE130100924
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
Living with bushfires: generating essential evidence for sustainable fire management. Planned burning is a crucial tool for bushfire management yet a side effect is smoke pollution. This research will use ambulance data to assess the acute community health impacts of smoke from wild and planned fires to provide essential evidence for increasing the safety and acceptability of planned burning operations in Australia.
Bushfires, smoke, and people: assessing the risks and benefits from planned burning on the urban-rural interface. A key strategy to protect people from wildfire is the use of planned burns to reduce fire hazards. The exposure of communities to smoke pollution is a serious side-effect of this intervention. This project will be critical in enabling authorities to protect public health by determining acceptable levels of smoke originating from planned burns.
Multi-Country Study on Health Effects of Bushfire Air Pollution. Catastrophic bushfires are a major natural disaster, causing serious air pollution. However, aligning bushfire air pollution and public health policies becomes a significant challenge, because limited studies are available on relationships between bushfire air pollution and human health, particularly for the prolonged exposure. We will characterize the nature of the relationships between bushfire air pollution and mortality/morbidi ....Multi-Country Study on Health Effects of Bushfire Air Pollution. Catastrophic bushfires are a major natural disaster, causing serious air pollution. However, aligning bushfire air pollution and public health policies becomes a significant challenge, because limited studies are available on relationships between bushfire air pollution and human health, particularly for the prolonged exposure. We will characterize the nature of the relationships between bushfire air pollution and mortality/morbidity by developing a multi-country study; and estimate the burden of diseases attributed to bushfire air pollution. This project will provide essential scientific evidence to policy-makers and stakeholders in the development, prioritization and implementation of health protection strategies and policies.
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Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE140100129
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$249,000.00
Summary
Microflow ultra high pressure liquid chromatography - high resolution mass spectrometry for chemical exposure monitoring. Microflow ultra high pressure liquid chromatography – high resolution mass spectrometry for chemical exposure monitoring: Identifying new chemicals of interest in environmental or biological samples is the first critical step toward understanding their impact to human and environment. A state-of-the-art microflow ultra high performance liquid chromatography high resolution ma ....Microflow ultra high pressure liquid chromatography - high resolution mass spectrometry for chemical exposure monitoring. Microflow ultra high pressure liquid chromatography – high resolution mass spectrometry for chemical exposure monitoring: Identifying new chemicals of interest in environmental or biological samples is the first critical step toward understanding their impact to human and environment. A state-of-the-art microflow ultra high performance liquid chromatography high resolution mass spectrometer is fundamental to extend our research capabilities to new environmental contaminants and environmental exposure biomarkers, as well as consumption biomarkers of new illicit drugs and their metabolites. This instrument will fill an important gap in our capacity to link health/ecological risk to unknown chemicals and will allow interdisciplinary researchers to advance work in environmental toxicology, chemistry and forensics.Read moreRead less