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Improving Synthetic Methodology To Prepare Pre-clinical Analogues Of Human Insulin
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$457,708.00
Summary
The glucose regulatory hormone, insulin, remains the only treatment for type I diabetes and up to 30% of type II diabetes, both of which are among the world’s fastest growing chronic diseases today. Because insulin, if taken orally, would be broken down quickly, it has usually been given by injection. This project will develop novel chemical methods for the efficient preparation of novel insulin therapeutics with improved stability and oral bioavailability for prolonged treatment of patients.
Development Of Carbohydrate Based Self-adjuvanting Vaccine Delivery System
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$311,647.00
Summary
The world is in a need for effective vaccines for the treatment/prevention of a range of currently occurring diseases. The aim of this project is to develop sugar/lipid-based delivery systems by revolutionary new chemo-enzymatic technology. Expected outcomes of the project will be numerous biologically active vaccine candidates and novel technologies which will lead to effective therapeutic products.
Novel Fluorogenic Probes For The Selective Detection Of Pathogenic Bacteria
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$542,489.00
Summary
Current methods for the detection of multi-resistant organisms either require expensive instrumentation and expert analysts or are simple, but require 24-48 hours for bacterial identification. The ideal surveillance method would be cost effective, rapid, reliable, and simple to perform. This project aims to prepare a range of fluorescent substrates for incorporation into growth media which will then be evaluated for the specific identification of individual multi-resistant organisms, e.g. MRSA.
Epilepsy is one of the most common chronic neurological disorders; it affects 1% of the world’s population, yet about 1 in 3 patients fail to achieve seizure control with current drugs. We will improve the properties of small molecules (drugs) that specifically target the GTPase activity of the enzyme dynamin, to reduce seizure effect in the brain by a novel mechanism. We will optimize and pre-clinically test these future chemical entities as potential anti-epileptic drugs.
The Novel Role Of Eukaryotic Elongation Factor 2 Kinase (eEF2K) In Atherosclerosis
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$650,531.00
Summary
Atherosclerosis causes build up of cholesterol plaques inside blood vessels that cause heart attacks and strokes. Macrophages are a type of cell that accumulate inside these plaques to make them grow. We work with a molecule called eukaryotic elongation factor 2 kinase (eEF2K), that controls how cells in the body divide and survive. We are studying how eEF2K controls the macrophage build up in plaque to develop new treatments against atherosclerosis that can stop heart attacks and strokes.
Evaluation Of Novel Pyrrolo/Iminoquinone Antimalarial Compounds
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$614,250.00
Summary
The development of new antimalarial drugs is an unmet global health priority. In this project we will investigate novel compounds that have been found to display promising in vitro antimalarial activity. We will modify these compounds to make them more drug-like, and assess their efficacy in vivo using malaria animal models. These studies have the potential to identify compounds that may result in a new therapy for malaria, the worlds' most significant tropical infectious disease.
Membrane-active Antibiotics Against Multi-drug Resistant Gram Negative Bacteria
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$942,299.00
Summary
We are now threatened by bacteria that are resistant to ALL antibiotics. However, there is a new paradigm: antibiotics inspired by nature that attack the membrane of bacteria. This project will re-engineer peptides from lugworms, horseshoe crabs, scorpions and spiders that are part of nature’s ancient defence against bacteria, to identify new antibiotics to combat infections in humans.
Codon Bias: A Hidden Layer Of Translational Regulation By Estrogens
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$420,922.00
Summary
The hormone estrogen signals through its receptors to mediate both transcription in the nucleus and signalling known to affect translation in the cytoplasm. It is currently unknown in which way the response to estrogen is orchestrated by integrating the translation of messenger RNAs with the transcription of target genes. The project aims to determine how estrogen signalling is integrated by carefully dissecting how messenger RNAs are transcribed and translated under its control.
Development Of Next Generation Drugs For Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$632,726.00
Summary
Chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) is one of the four most common types of leukaemia. With current therapies, 15–20% of patients newly diagnosed for CML will die in the next five years, and it is therefore vitally important to discover new treatments. The aim of this project is to develop a new generation of drugs to treat CML based on new approaches (i.e., different type of molecules and different binding site) that can combat the resistance acquired to the current treatments.
Mammalian cells have developed a complex signalling network responsible for monitoring and responding to changes in the levels of growth factors and the availability of nutrients, energy and oxygen in their environment. Deregulation of this network often results in uncontrolled cell growth and diseases including cardiac hypertrophy and cancer. This proposal aims to understand how this network controls cell growth and identify potential targets for diseases driven by uncontrolled growth.