The recirculation of myeloid dendritic cells. This project aims to understand dendritic cell recirculation. It will use virological tools to track dendritic cell migration, and identify key decision points. Expected outcomes include enhanced capacity in basic research and greater interdisciplinary collaboration between virology and immunology research groups. Significant benefits will include a new understanding of how G protein coupled receptor signalling and other tissue cues guide dendritic c ....The recirculation of myeloid dendritic cells. This project aims to understand dendritic cell recirculation. It will use virological tools to track dendritic cell migration, and identify key decision points. Expected outcomes include enhanced capacity in basic research and greater interdisciplinary collaboration between virology and immunology research groups. Significant benefits will include a new understanding of how G protein coupled receptor signalling and other tissue cues guide dendritic cell recirculation, and what consequences the recirculation has for immune cell function. This understanding will significantly advance our basic understanding of the immune system.Read moreRead less
Interrogating the extremes of skeletal muscle plasticity in vertebrates. This project aims to interrogate how muscles adapt to growth and endurance stimuli at different stages of life, relevant to addressing challenges facing the world’s ageing population. Using innovative gene technologies and molecular physiology in zebrafish and mice, this project will answer important, unresolved questions in muscle biology. The project will generate knowledge needed to develop interventions to improve quali ....Interrogating the extremes of skeletal muscle plasticity in vertebrates. This project aims to interrogate how muscles adapt to growth and endurance stimuli at different stages of life, relevant to addressing challenges facing the world’s ageing population. Using innovative gene technologies and molecular physiology in zebrafish and mice, this project will answer important, unresolved questions in muscle biology. The project will generate knowledge needed to develop interventions to improve quality of life for older Australians and address the physical realities of an ageing workforce. Benefits extend to enhancing workplace safety and productivity, improving farming efficiencies for livestock and aquaculture industries, and training emerging leaders in the biological sciences.Read moreRead less
Understanding how an old heart gets stiff. Aging is accompanied by a stiffening of the heart and reduced function, which is accelerated by cardiovascular disease and leads to heart failure. How the heart stiffens is poorly understood. A new mechanism is proposed here, involving structural membrane proteins (termed caveolae and cavins) and a signalling molecule (nitric oxide). The current research aims to unravel the interplay between cardiac cells and these proteins/signals to cause stiffness an ....Understanding how an old heart gets stiff. Aging is accompanied by a stiffening of the heart and reduced function, which is accelerated by cardiovascular disease and leads to heart failure. How the heart stiffens is poorly understood. A new mechanism is proposed here, involving structural membrane proteins (termed caveolae and cavins) and a signalling molecule (nitric oxide). The current research aims to unravel the interplay between cardiac cells and these proteins/signals to cause stiffness and to determine whether this process governs normal aging of the heart. This work will advance understanding of how heart function is determined and reveal how the human heart changes with normal aging. Read moreRead less
The grand challenge of predicting human movement energetics. This Project aims to advance our understanding of how the neuromuscular system uses energy during movement by exploring the interplay of different factors that influence movement energetics. The Project will explore different levels of organisation; from how muscle fibres consume energy to how those fibres interact and are subsequently controlled within a complex neuromuscular system. Expected outcomes of this Project will be an improv ....The grand challenge of predicting human movement energetics. This Project aims to advance our understanding of how the neuromuscular system uses energy during movement by exploring the interplay of different factors that influence movement energetics. The Project will explore different levels of organisation; from how muscle fibres consume energy to how those fibres interact and are subsequently controlled within a complex neuromuscular system. Expected outcomes of this Project will be an improved capacity to predict energy expenditure of the vast array of movements that humans perform. This will enable accurate monitoring of human energy expenditure and will provide benefits for individualised exercise prescription, enhancing work productivity or designing devices to augment human performance.Read moreRead less
Sarcoplasmic reticulum-mitochondrial functional interactions in muscle. Muscle in the body of animals and human has the ability to adapt to stress placed on it, to improve performance. This allows new physical tasks that have been unfamiliar to become easier. One form of stress on the muscle is the demand to work longer without fatigue. This can be important for animal survival or athletes training for sport. A single session of intense muscle contractions can lead to the muscle increasing its c ....Sarcoplasmic reticulum-mitochondrial functional interactions in muscle. Muscle in the body of animals and human has the ability to adapt to stress placed on it, to improve performance. This allows new physical tasks that have been unfamiliar to become easier. One form of stress on the muscle is the demand to work longer without fatigue. This can be important for animal survival or athletes training for sport. A single session of intense muscle contractions can lead to the muscle increasing its capacity for endurance within 24 hrs. This project aims to examine this phenomenon in animals and human to decipher the mechanism involved in the beneficial muscle changes experienced in such a brief time. It will provide benefits such as the potential to manipulate human muscle condition and animal muscle (meat) quality.Read moreRead less
Regulated muscle-based thermogenesis for body temperature regulation. Mammals maintain a constant core body temperature by generating heat in resting muscles in response to changes in the environmental temperatures. This project aims to show how the skeletal muscles that are closer to the body core contribute the majority of heat, how the muscles of the limbs have their heat generation curtailed as necessary, and how this is coordinated by the body in response to ambient temperature. Project out ....Regulated muscle-based thermogenesis for body temperature regulation. Mammals maintain a constant core body temperature by generating heat in resting muscles in response to changes in the environmental temperatures. This project aims to show how the skeletal muscles that are closer to the body core contribute the majority of heat, how the muscles of the limbs have their heat generation curtailed as necessary, and how this is coordinated by the body in response to ambient temperature. Project outcomes include defining, for the first time, how heat generation in the muscles of the body is regulated. This should provide critical knowledge of mammalian evolution and ways to manipulate metabolism, which may provide ways to assist the production of meat by managing hypothermia and hyperthermia risk in agriculture.Read moreRead less
Mapping and defining inter-organ cross talk during exercise. This project aims to examine precisely how organs communicate and interact. These interactions are particularly important during exercise, when continued movement demands intricate organ communication, and have major ramifications for the whole organism as it ages. Precisely how this communication takes place is unclear, but we now know that the movement of cargo with extracellular vesicles (EVs) plays an integral role in organ to orga ....Mapping and defining inter-organ cross talk during exercise. This project aims to examine precisely how organs communicate and interact. These interactions are particularly important during exercise, when continued movement demands intricate organ communication, and have major ramifications for the whole organism as it ages. Precisely how this communication takes place is unclear, but we now know that the movement of cargo with extracellular vesicles (EVs) plays an integral role in organ to organ communication. This project expects to build upon unprecedented recent developments we have made in the biology of inter-organ communication via EVs. The expected outcomes will have broad impact across life science and biotechnology.Read moreRead less
Heat regulation by the fibre types in muscle. Mammals maintain a constant core body temperature by generating heat in resting muscles in response to changes in the environmental temperatures. This project aims to show how the fibre types that make up skeletal muscles regulate heat generation against other muscle function, to maintain core body temperature and the normal movement and posture of the mammal. Project outcomes include defining, for the first time, how heat generation in the muscles o ....Heat regulation by the fibre types in muscle. Mammals maintain a constant core body temperature by generating heat in resting muscles in response to changes in the environmental temperatures. This project aims to show how the fibre types that make up skeletal muscles regulate heat generation against other muscle function, to maintain core body temperature and the normal movement and posture of the mammal. Project outcomes include defining, for the first time, how heat generation in the muscles of the body is regulated. This should provide critical knowledge of mammalian evolution and ways to manipulate metabolism, which may provide ways to assist with achieving a desired meat quality and yield in beef and other commercially important animals.Read moreRead less
Preventing railway suicide: An open-systems perspective. Preventing railway suicide: An open-systems perspective. This project aims to develop an automated suicide risk detection system to reduce the incidence and impact of railway suicide, which has a devastating effect on victims’ families, station staff, train drivers, emergency workers, and bystanders. This project will use open-systems theory to develop two complementary information systems for more effective detection and reporting of suic ....Preventing railway suicide: An open-systems perspective. Preventing railway suicide: An open-systems perspective. This project aims to develop an automated suicide risk detection system to reduce the incidence and impact of railway suicide, which has a devastating effect on victims’ families, station staff, train drivers, emergency workers, and bystanders. This project will use open-systems theory to develop two complementary information systems for more effective detection and reporting of suicide risk; use these systems to investigate how different situational factors interact with different combinations of service interventions to influence suicide risk; and share the findings to reduce railway suicide in Australia and overseas.Read moreRead less
A novel approach in understanding regulation of development in mosquitoes. This project aims to explore the role of microRNAs in regulation of the synthesis of a key hormone, juvenile hormone, involved in mosquito development and reproductive maturation. The development of novel approaches in mosquito control or inhibition of transmission are urgently required to combat against mosquito-borne pathogens. One such approach is to interrupt the reproduction or reduce the fitness of mosquitoes. This ....A novel approach in understanding regulation of development in mosquitoes. This project aims to explore the role of microRNAs in regulation of the synthesis of a key hormone, juvenile hormone, involved in mosquito development and reproductive maturation. The development of novel approaches in mosquito control or inhibition of transmission are urgently required to combat against mosquito-borne pathogens. One such approach is to interrupt the reproduction or reduce the fitness of mosquitoes. This project will increase our understanding of the regulation of mosquito reproduction and development, but also lead to the discovery of potential target molecules to interfere with mosquito reproduction/development.Read moreRead less