Improving the diagnosis, management and control of chlamydial infections in Australian livestock. Chlamydial diseases, such as arthritis and encephalomyelitis, are associated with significant economic losses for Australian livestock producers. Effective surveillance and management of Chlamydia infections is problematic due to: the absence of epidemiological data; the lack of an accurate and easily interpretable diagnostic test; and the lack of an available vaccine. This project aims to evaluate ....Improving the diagnosis, management and control of chlamydial infections in Australian livestock. Chlamydial diseases, such as arthritis and encephalomyelitis, are associated with significant economic losses for Australian livestock producers. Effective surveillance and management of Chlamydia infections is problematic due to: the absence of epidemiological data; the lack of an accurate and easily interpretable diagnostic test; and the lack of an available vaccine. This project aims to evaluate factors associated with chlamydial disease in Australian livestock and thereby improve on-farm diagnosis. With the concomitant development of a chlamydial vaccine for sheep, this project aims to provide veterinarians and producers with important tools to reduce the on-farm impacts of chlamydial disease.Read moreRead less
Development of new tools for surveillance of chlamydial infections in sheep. This project aims to improve health in sheep and reduce on-farm losses for Australian producers, by developing new serological tests for chlamydial infections in sheep. These infections can result in significant on-farm losses and loss of trade in the live export industry. Currently, surveillance of chlamydial infections is hindered by outdated serological tools that are unreliable and difficult to interpret. The ser ....Development of new tools for surveillance of chlamydial infections in sheep. This project aims to improve health in sheep and reduce on-farm losses for Australian producers, by developing new serological tests for chlamydial infections in sheep. These infections can result in significant on-farm losses and loss of trade in the live export industry. Currently, surveillance of chlamydial infections is hindered by outdated serological tools that are unreliable and difficult to interpret. The serological tests to be developed aim to be species-specific tests to detect the most important chlamydial sheep pathogens. This in turn endeavours to improve domestic surveillance, reducing on-farm losses and costs, and improve market opportunities for Australian sheep exporters as well as informing veterinary populations on best practice treatment.Read moreRead less
Development of an immune enhancing vaccine to protect Tasmanian devils against a contagious cancer. The iconic Tasmanian devil is threatened with extinction from a uniformly fatal transmissible facial cancer. Our team has shown in proof of concept that the cancer cells can be recognised by the devil immune system. This project will develop and test a vaccine against the tumour, which will ultimately protect devils in the wild.
Host-tumour interplay in Tasmanian devils with devil facial tumour disease: can immune cells be harnessed for therapy? Tasmanian devils only exist naturally in Tasmania and Devil Facial Tumour Disease, an infectious cancer, could cause the extinction of the Tasmanian devil. This project will determine if Devil Facial Tumour Disease reduces the effectiveness of the devil's immune system and test if activated immune cells can protect against this disease.
An immunological and immunogenetic approach to understand and to protect Tasmanian devils against Devil Facial Tumour Disease. The Tasmanian devil is the world's largest living carnivorous marsupial. From an environmental perspective, devils play a fundamental role through scavenging. Dead and dying animals were removed nightly from Tasmania's landscape and therefore decaying carcases did not require removal. Loss of this top order scavenger will alter the balance of biodiversity and non-native ....An immunological and immunogenetic approach to understand and to protect Tasmanian devils against Devil Facial Tumour Disease. The Tasmanian devil is the world's largest living carnivorous marsupial. From an environmental perspective, devils play a fundamental role through scavenging. Dead and dying animals were removed nightly from Tasmania's landscape and therefore decaying carcases did not require removal. Loss of this top order scavenger will alter the balance of biodiversity and non-native animals (such as foxes, feral cats, crows, and even European wasps) will then compete for this scavenger role. As these animals are non-selective they will also prey on living animals and many of Tasmania's native animals (such as Eastern barred bandicoot, potoroos, quolls etc.) will be seriously threatened and our biodiverse landscape could be irreversibly altered.Read moreRead less
ARC/NHMRC Research Network for Parasitology. The ARC Network for Parasitology will focus and coordinate Australia's world class fundamental, strategic and applied parasitology research. This targeted approach will raise Australia's standing in the field, assist in the community's understanding of parasitology and biosecurity and maintain and improve Australia's capacity for keeping its stock, crops, wildlife and people disease-free. On an international scale, the Network will work with other cou ....ARC/NHMRC Research Network for Parasitology. The ARC Network for Parasitology will focus and coordinate Australia's world class fundamental, strategic and applied parasitology research. This targeted approach will raise Australia's standing in the field, assist in the community's understanding of parasitology and biosecurity and maintain and improve Australia's capacity for keeping its stock, crops, wildlife and people disease-free. On an international scale, the Network will work with other countries to develop new technologies for the detection and eradication of parasites. This emphasis will not only protect Australia's borders but will assist our near neighbours and lead to the development of technologies with an economic benefit to Australia.
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Does mother know best? Unifying proximate causation and ultimate explanation in mammalian sex allocation. The study of parental effects is a fundamental area in evolutionary ecology, but is characterised by poor integration of theory (ultimate causation) and physiology (proximate causation). This is true in sex allocation research that focuses almost exclusively on ultimate causation without integrating the physiological mechanisms for sex ratio adjustment. Using a combination of experiments and ....Does mother know best? Unifying proximate causation and ultimate explanation in mammalian sex allocation. The study of parental effects is a fundamental area in evolutionary ecology, but is characterised by poor integration of theory (ultimate causation) and physiology (proximate causation). This is true in sex allocation research that focuses almost exclusively on ultimate causation without integrating the physiological mechanisms for sex ratio adjustment. Using a combination of experiments and modelling, the project addresses this gap in understanding mammalian sex allocation, specifically: the lack of known mechanism; the connection between proximate mechanistic explanation and adaptive fitness explanations; and, knowledge on constraints. This project argues that one mechanism, pre-implantation glucose levels, links adaptive hypotheses with proximate causation. Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE180100484
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$365,058.00
Summary
Tipping the balance from tolerance to immunity for the devil facial tumour. This project aims to develop a single-shot vaccine for the Tasmanian devil facial tumour disease. The disease is an enigma because the transmissible tumours are simultaneously cancer, infections, and genetically mismatched tissue grafts. This project will focus on immune molecules that are revolutionising human oncology, and will develop techniques to understand and systematically test the function of these key molecules ....Tipping the balance from tolerance to immunity for the devil facial tumour. This project aims to develop a single-shot vaccine for the Tasmanian devil facial tumour disease. The disease is an enigma because the transmissible tumours are simultaneously cancer, infections, and genetically mismatched tissue grafts. This project will focus on immune molecules that are revolutionising human oncology, and will develop techniques to understand and systematically test the function of these key molecules in Tasmanian devils. Understanding the role of these immune molecules will accelerate development of a vaccine to help save the devil and has the potential to shed light on general principles relating to how the immune system balances tolerance and immunity.Read moreRead less
Immunisation to protect against transmissible cancers in Tasmanian devils. This project aims to identify the immune escape mechanisms that the transmissible cancers, Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD) use to avoid being killed by the immune system. Since the discovery of the second transmissible cancer (DFT2) mystery surrounds whether the devils immune system can respond to this cancer, hence this project will investigate the immune response to DFT2. The final aims are to develop a vaccine with ....Immunisation to protect against transmissible cancers in Tasmanian devils. This project aims to identify the immune escape mechanisms that the transmissible cancers, Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD) use to avoid being killed by the immune system. Since the discovery of the second transmissible cancer (DFT2) mystery surrounds whether the devils immune system can respond to this cancer, hence this project will investigate the immune response to DFT2. The final aims are to develop a vaccine with the potential to protect healthy devils and cure devils with DFTD.Read moreRead less
Developing a chlamydial vaccine for koalas. Developing a chlamydial vaccine for koalas . This project aims to produce an optimised, safe, field-tested, protective Chlamydia vaccine for koalas. In many regions of Australia, Chlamydia infection severely reduces female koala reproductive rates, threatening the species’ long term survival. This project builds on work developing a prototype vaccine for koala Chlamydia, and intends to produce a vaccine ready for potential registration and use by koala ....Developing a chlamydial vaccine for koalas. Developing a chlamydial vaccine for koalas . This project aims to produce an optimised, safe, field-tested, protective Chlamydia vaccine for koalas. In many regions of Australia, Chlamydia infection severely reduces female koala reproductive rates, threatening the species’ long term survival. This project builds on work developing a prototype vaccine for koala Chlamydia, and intends to produce a vaccine ready for potential registration and use by koala care centres, wildlife hospitals and government departments.Read moreRead less