Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE230100305
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$399,064.00
Summary
Revealing the origin and early evolution of spiralian animal body plans. This project aims to reconstruct the early evolutionary history of the Spiralia, a megadiverse animal group that extends back 540 million years. Their oldest fossils represent some of the earliest known animals and can reveal much about the speed and magnitude of evolution during the Cambrian Explosion, when most animal groups rapidly appeared. This project expects to generate new knowledge on the origin and radiation of so ....Revealing the origin and early evolution of spiralian animal body plans. This project aims to reconstruct the early evolutionary history of the Spiralia, a megadiverse animal group that extends back 540 million years. Their oldest fossils represent some of the earliest known animals and can reveal much about the speed and magnitude of evolution during the Cambrian Explosion, when most animal groups rapidly appeared. This project expects to generate new knowledge on the origin and radiation of some of the first animal body plans to better understand the early history of complex life. Anticipated outcomes and benefits include a new macroevolutionary framework for spiralians, novel approaches to studying invertebrate fossils, and highlighting the scientific importance of Australia’s natural heritage.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE230100998
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$444,576.00
Summary
Should I stay or should I go? How brain stem cells leave quiescence. Most adult stem cells in our brains are sleeping (quiescent). Quiescence helps ensure animals have a lifelong population of brain stem cells, which is crucial for the maintenance of brain circuitry. This project aims to investigate how this process is regulated at a molecular level. This project expects to define the molecular playbook controlling quiescence and explain why brain stem cells progress into deeper states of quiesc ....Should I stay or should I go? How brain stem cells leave quiescence. Most adult stem cells in our brains are sleeping (quiescent). Quiescence helps ensure animals have a lifelong population of brain stem cells, which is crucial for the maintenance of brain circuitry. This project aims to investigate how this process is regulated at a molecular level. This project expects to define the molecular playbook controlling quiescence and explain why brain stem cells progress into deeper states of quiescence during aging by combining novel tissue culture and genetic models, where brain stem cells have disrupted quiescence, with innovative methods of reading gene expression. The benefits of these outcomes include the development of methods to control the quiescence of brain stem cells for bioengineering purposes.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE160100293
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$372,000.00
Summary
Cracking the phosphoinositide code. This project seeks to determine how protein interactions with membrane lipids regulate recruitment to cellular organelles, providing new insight into the complex pathways of cellular homeostasis. Controlling the distribution of proteins within cells is critical for cell signalling and membrane trafficking. This is orchestrated by the interaction of specific protein modules with lipids on the surface of different organelles. The phox homology (PX) domain is a l ....Cracking the phosphoinositide code. This project seeks to determine how protein interactions with membrane lipids regulate recruitment to cellular organelles, providing new insight into the complex pathways of cellular homeostasis. Controlling the distribution of proteins within cells is critical for cell signalling and membrane trafficking. This is orchestrated by the interaction of specific protein modules with lipids on the surface of different organelles. The phox homology (PX) domain is a lipid-binding module found in numerous proteins essential for normal cell trafficking and homeostasis, and perturbed in many conditions including immune dysfunction and cancer. This project plans to investigate molecular determinants of PX-lipid association, generating knowledge about protein-membrane interactions required for cellular function. These insights may underpin future drug design.Read moreRead less
Understanding the dynamics of the dark universe. This project aims to test theories of dark matter and dark energy with the ultimate goal of understanding the properties of the dark components of the universe and how those properties can be explained by new fundamental physics. The project will use two astronomical datasets, the Dark Energy Survey, with measurements of approximately 3000 supernovae, and the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, with measurements of 30 million galaxies. By compar ....Understanding the dynamics of the dark universe. This project aims to test theories of dark matter and dark energy with the ultimate goal of understanding the properties of the dark components of the universe and how those properties can be explained by new fundamental physics. The project will use two astronomical datasets, the Dark Energy Survey, with measurements of approximately 3000 supernovae, and the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, with measurements of 30 million galaxies. By comparing theoretical models to this combination of data the project will help to determine whether dark energy changes with time, measure detailed clustering properties of dark matter, and test advanced theories of gravity.Read moreRead less
Investigating Wnt signaling during human nephron commitment and patterning. Aims: To use gene edited stem cell lines that display cell location, identity and cell state to map human kidney tissue formation in the laboratory. By monitoring how each cell responds to those around it across time and space, we will for the first time map the formation of kidney tissue in the dish.
Significance: Understanding how stem cells form a tissue will help us to improve and control the process. This is key to ....Investigating Wnt signaling during human nephron commitment and patterning. Aims: To use gene edited stem cell lines that display cell location, identity and cell state to map human kidney tissue formation in the laboratory. By monitoring how each cell responds to those around it across time and space, we will for the first time map the formation of kidney tissue in the dish.
Significance: Understanding how stem cells form a tissue will help us to improve and control the process. This is key to advancing tissue engineering.
Expected outcomes: The proposal will pioneer state-of-the-art imaging, gene editing and machine learning approaches, generating models of human development that are currently unavailable.
Benefits: This understanding will guide the development of novel approaches to tissue engineering.
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Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE200100803
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$405,763.00
Summary
Slicing dead stars to reveal the origin of heavy elements in the Universe. This project aims to improve our understanding of how massive stars forge heavy elements like oxygen, that are key to life. It will use state-of-the-art spectrographs on Australian and Chilean telescopes to observe the ashes of dead stars, and test recent theoretical models. Expected outcomes include spectral maps of young supernova remnants, new observational constraints for theoretical models of massive stars and core-c ....Slicing dead stars to reveal the origin of heavy elements in the Universe. This project aims to improve our understanding of how massive stars forge heavy elements like oxygen, that are key to life. It will use state-of-the-art spectrographs on Australian and Chilean telescopes to observe the ashes of dead stars, and test recent theoretical models. Expected outcomes include spectral maps of young supernova remnants, new observational constraints for theoretical models of massive stars and core-collapse supernovae, and innovative visualization solutions for complex 3D datasets. This project is expected to largely refine our grasp of the formation of heavy elements in the Universe, and thus provide significant cultural benefit in enhancing our understanding of mankind's cosmic origin in the heart of massive stars. Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE160100614
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$363,612.00
Summary
Evolutionary genomics and origin of the molluscan biomineralisation toolkit. The project aims to use new genomes from understudied lineages of Mollusca to identify the genes involved in shell formation (biomineralisation) and infer their function and evolutionary history. The ability of molluscs to biofabricate intricate and robust skeletal structures from sea water is encoded in their genomes. Understanding the ancestral biomineralisation toolkit is of great interest to materials science, which ....Evolutionary genomics and origin of the molluscan biomineralisation toolkit. The project aims to use new genomes from understudied lineages of Mollusca to identify the genes involved in shell formation (biomineralisation) and infer their function and evolutionary history. The ability of molluscs to biofabricate intricate and robust skeletal structures from sea water is encoded in their genomes. Understanding the ancestral biomineralisation toolkit is of great interest to materials science, which seeks to replicate molluscan biomineralisation in vitro for biomedical and other applications. Understanding the toolkit is an important first step toward synthetic biology techniques to 'print' structures like bones in vitro. Moreover, new genomic resources from molluscs will be of interest to researchers in numerous fields.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE240100793
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$463,180.00
Summary
Unraveling a new cytokine working model in immune cell exhaustion. This project will investigate a novel paradigm of how a key messenger protein can be sensed by fundamental immune cells, preventing their ‘exhaustion’. Immune cell exhaustion is a fundamental mechanism to maintain the internal homeostasis of vertebrates. However, it is often hijacked by pathogens to dampen the defensive capacity of the immune system. And this specific messenger protein is the only known soluble factor that can d ....Unraveling a new cytokine working model in immune cell exhaustion. This project will investigate a novel paradigm of how a key messenger protein can be sensed by fundamental immune cells, preventing their ‘exhaustion’. Immune cell exhaustion is a fundamental mechanism to maintain the internal homeostasis of vertebrates. However, it is often hijacked by pathogens to dampen the defensive capacity of the immune system. And this specific messenger protein is the only known soluble factor that can deliver ‘anti-exhaustion’ signals to immune cells. This study will advance basic knowledge in biochemistry and immunology by combining interdisciplinary and cutting-edge approaches. The expected outcomes include the developing new scientific theories and identifying novel molecular basis of biological processes. Read moreRead less
Theoretical Foundations of Ethical Machine Learning. The project aims to develop a systematic theory of ethical machine learning. Machine learning is a powerful and pervasive technology that is already having a huge impact on Australia. When applied to data about people there are a range of ethical harms that can arise (fairness, and privacy are two of them). The project aims to develop a rigorously grounded foundation for managing such ethical harms. For example it will allow the quantification ....Theoretical Foundations of Ethical Machine Learning. The project aims to develop a systematic theory of ethical machine learning. Machine learning is a powerful and pervasive technology that is already having a huge impact on Australia. When applied to data about people there are a range of ethical harms that can arise (fairness, and privacy are two of them). The project aims to develop a rigorously grounded foundation for managing such ethical harms. For example it will allow the quantification of the inevitable trade-offs between fairness and utility. The benefits of the project should include better ways of managing these trade-offs, a competitive advantage for Australian firms developing the technology, and will ensure that the country retains a social license to use the technology.Read moreRead less
Enabling Methodologies for the Synthesis of Biologically Active Compounds. This project seeks to establish flexible methods of chemical synthesis for creating new molecular scaffolds capable of achieving selective enzyme inhibition. The approach aims to exploit the vast and biologically-programmed structural diversity associated with natural products. Unique, small molecule organic compounds will be obtained that reveal details of the operation of key enzymes in bacterial and mammalian systems. ....Enabling Methodologies for the Synthesis of Biologically Active Compounds. This project seeks to establish flexible methods of chemical synthesis for creating new molecular scaffolds capable of achieving selective enzyme inhibition. The approach aims to exploit the vast and biologically-programmed structural diversity associated with natural products. Unique, small molecule organic compounds will be obtained that reveal details of the operation of key enzymes in bacterial and mammalian systems. Such new knowledge would allow for the design of highly selective therapeutic agents relevant to the treatment of a range of diseases including bacterial infections, diabetes and cancer. The high-end scientific training and privileged forms of matter arising from this work would provide major benefit to the biotech sector.Read moreRead less