Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE100100096
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$450,000.00
Summary
A unique soft matter high-performance scanning probe microscopy (HP-SPM) facility. Soft matter research touches every aspect of our lives as it covers materials from the range of plastics found in cars, television sets and other mass-manufactured products, to new medical materials for tissue engineering and sensors. The proposed facility will enable Australia's leading scientists in this area to understand better how soft matter, including both biological and new advanced soft materials, behave ....A unique soft matter high-performance scanning probe microscopy (HP-SPM) facility. Soft matter research touches every aspect of our lives as it covers materials from the range of plastics found in cars, television sets and other mass-manufactured products, to new medical materials for tissue engineering and sensors. The proposed facility will enable Australia's leading scientists in this area to understand better how soft matter, including both biological and new advanced soft materials, behaves on the nano-scale level. This will put Australian researchers and engineers in a leading position for developing new treatments against cancer and other diseases, as well as harnessing the power of biology for application in areas such as waste treatment and energy production.Read moreRead less
Theoretical and experimental studies on magnetoelectroelastic bone remodelling process. The project combines biotechnology and material science which will have national economic, social and environment impact. It can benefit industry by providing knowledge that help scientists understand remodeling under coupled fields and is used to develop bone replacement. By better understanding remodeling due to multi-field loading, we can assist scientists in aeronautical industry in developing countermeas ....Theoretical and experimental studies on magnetoelectroelastic bone remodelling process. The project combines biotechnology and material science which will have national economic, social and environment impact. It can benefit industry by providing knowledge that help scientists understand remodeling under coupled fields and is used to develop bone replacement. By better understanding remodeling due to multi-field loading, we can assist scientists in aeronautical industry in developing countermeasures that reduce or eliminate bone loss resulting from long-duration space flight. It can provide knowledge that can be used to explore underlying mechanisms controlling bone remodeling and self-repair in gaining insight into debilitating diseases such as osteoporosis, to develop high-performance prosthetics for medical injury healing.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE0561224
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$267,767.00
Summary
14CHRONOS (Chronologies from High-ResolutiON Organic Separations): a centre for radiocarbon dating of specific compounds for the environmental and archaeological sciences. Accurate timekeeping is central to the environmental and archaeological sciences. Radiocarbon dating is the leading geochronological technique for events of the past 50,000 years, but the issue for sample contamination remains a major source of concern. Avoidance of contaminants can be achieved through the identification of sp ....14CHRONOS (Chronologies from High-ResolutiON Organic Separations): a centre for radiocarbon dating of specific compounds for the environmental and archaeological sciences. Accurate timekeeping is central to the environmental and archaeological sciences. Radiocarbon dating is the leading geochronological technique for events of the past 50,000 years, but the issue for sample contamination remains a major source of concern. Avoidance of contaminants can be achieved through the identification of specific biomolecular compounds that unambiguously formed part of the original sample, and the isolation of these biomolecules for radiocarbon dating using accelerator mass spectrometry. Here we request funds to establish Australia's first compound-specific radiocarbon dating facility, to obtain ages of high accuracy for key studies of climate and landscape change, evolutionary biology and archaeology.Read moreRead less
Molecular dissection of the effects of alpha-actinin-3 deficiency on normal variation in skeletal muscle function. We will study the mechanisms by which a common genetic variant influences muscle bulk, muscle strength and the metabolic efficiency of muscle in the general population. Common genetic variants that influence skeletal muscle function have major potential public health implications as they are likely to influence individuals' response to exercise and diet, and to contribute to suscept ....Molecular dissection of the effects of alpha-actinin-3 deficiency on normal variation in skeletal muscle function. We will study the mechanisms by which a common genetic variant influences muscle bulk, muscle strength and the metabolic efficiency of muscle in the general population. Common genetic variants that influence skeletal muscle function have major potential public health implications as they are likely to influence individuals' response to exercise and diet, and to contribute to susceptibility to common diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and the loss of muscle strength in the elderly. In addition, the identification of genetic factors that influence muscle bulk in vertebrates has implications for breeding programs in sheep and cattle and may provide commercial benefit to the livestock industry.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE0882682
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$100,000.00
Summary
The Australasian Pollen and Spore Atlas. The results generated in this project will enhance Australian research capabilities across multiple disciplines by providing access to key knowledge of pollen and spores in our region. A unified approach to the archiving, presentation and accessibility to existing and evolving databases will provide a considerably improved context for identification and knowledge pooling of any given pollen or spore type. This will create a nexus for novel interactions be ....The Australasian Pollen and Spore Atlas. The results generated in this project will enhance Australian research capabilities across multiple disciplines by providing access to key knowledge of pollen and spores in our region. A unified approach to the archiving, presentation and accessibility to existing and evolving databases will provide a considerably improved context for identification and knowledge pooling of any given pollen or spore type. This will create a nexus for novel interactions between researchers and end users of these data from within and beyond Australia's borders.Read moreRead less
Special Research Initiatives - Grant ID: SR0567379
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$110,000.00
Summary
The Australasian Pollen and Spore Atlas. This proposal will enable online accessibility to the largest collection of pollen and spores information in the Australasian region that is currently located at the Australian National University. This will be a searchable database that is accessible over the web and suitable for professional as well as the technical novice involved in pollen and spore identification. Novel approaches to the federation of other smaller existing pollen and spores database ....The Australasian Pollen and Spore Atlas. This proposal will enable online accessibility to the largest collection of pollen and spores information in the Australasian region that is currently located at the Australian National University. This will be a searchable database that is accessible over the web and suitable for professional as well as the technical novice involved in pollen and spore identification. Novel approaches to the federation of other smaller existing pollen and spores databases will result in The Australasian Pollen and Spores Atlas. The Atlas will be a flexible and powerful knowledge management tool applicable to research development by a wide range of users including those within the archaeology, biology, geology, and airborne allergy specialists.Read moreRead less
Stable isotopes in marsupials: reconstruction of environmental change in Australia. This project will establish the application of stable isotope analysis of marsupial bones for the reconstruction of past environments, a key area to advance Australian prehistory. On a continental scale, it will establish the relationship between stable isotopes (C, O, N) in bones and environmental factors (e.g., plant distribution, humidity, temperature); on a local scale, the relationship between stable isotope ....Stable isotopes in marsupials: reconstruction of environmental change in Australia. This project will establish the application of stable isotope analysis of marsupial bones for the reconstruction of past environments, a key area to advance Australian prehistory. On a continental scale, it will establish the relationship between stable isotopes (C, O, N) in bones and environmental factors (e.g., plant distribution, humidity, temperature); on a local scale, the relationship between stable isotopes and aboriginal land management. The project will provide a late Quaternary environmental reconstruction along a transect from the coastal regions in South Australia into the Lake Eyre Basin and explore the methodological limitations at sites with long fossil records.Read moreRead less
Exploring evolvability: its causes, consequences and practical applications in a changing environment. Are some species better able to adapt to a changing world? This question has been the focus of theoretical debate, but, as the scale of current environmental change becomes apparent, it has increasing practical importance, because it concerns the ability of biological communities to respond to climate change and the potential for agriculture to adapt a changing landscape. This project is the fi ....Exploring evolvability: its causes, consequences and practical applications in a changing environment. Are some species better able to adapt to a changing world? This question has been the focus of theoretical debate, but, as the scale of current environmental change becomes apparent, it has increasing practical importance, because it concerns the ability of biological communities to respond to climate change and the potential for agriculture to adapt a changing landscape. This project is the first of its kind, because it translates theoretical concepts into practical information needed for the development of salt-tolerant crops, new strategies for avoiding the growing problem of resistance in parasites, and new ways of detecting biological communities at risk of extinction and invasion. Read moreRead less
Reconstructing landscapes for biodiversity: From predictive modelling to future scenarios. Many landscapes around the world have been effectively denuded of natural vegetation, causing precipitous declines in native biodiversity. Mitigation of such effects in the near/medium-term future requires substantial ecological advice. We will employ our skills developed in modelling distributions of species across landscapes based on terrain, soils and climate to assess alternative landscape-reconstructi ....Reconstructing landscapes for biodiversity: From predictive modelling to future scenarios. Many landscapes around the world have been effectively denuded of natural vegetation, causing precipitous declines in native biodiversity. Mitigation of such effects in the near/medium-term future requires substantial ecological advice. We will employ our skills developed in modelling distributions of species across landscapes based on terrain, soils and climate to assess alternative landscape-reconstruction scenarios. This links use of existing data sets for initial modelling, a validation phase for testing model reliability and for refining models, and a subsequent GIS-based modelling phase in which alternative options for reconstructing landscapes are evaluated for their effectiveness in sustaining landscape-scale native biodiversity.Read moreRead less
ARC Research Network for Understanding and Managing Australian Biodiversity. Biodiversity research is strong in Australia but is highly uncoordinated and, along with recent major breakthroughs in both theory and techniques, has highlighted the need for a Network to properly integrate research and focus it on the most appropriate scale. This Network aims to bring together a diverse spectrum of highly experienced and early career researchers to pool their ideas and expertise to allow them to deter ....ARC Research Network for Understanding and Managing Australian Biodiversity. Biodiversity research is strong in Australia but is highly uncoordinated and, along with recent major breakthroughs in both theory and techniques, has highlighted the need for a Network to properly integrate research and focus it on the most appropriate scale. This Network aims to bring together a diverse spectrum of highly experienced and early career researchers to pool their ideas and expertise to allow them to determine how best to describe Australia's current biodiversity and the biological and environmental history leading up to the present. A major outcome will be the ability to predict the impacts of environmental change on biodiversity to assist management decisions across Australia, with lessons of global importance.Read moreRead less