Targeting Glycointeractions To Generate New Opportunities To Treat And Prevent Bacterial Infections.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$774,540.00
Summary
Bacteria and bacterial toxins can interact with complex sugar structures on human cells called glycans. My research team has identified new and important glycan interactions used by bacteria that cause diseases ranging from pneumonia, meningitis and food borne infections to urinary tract and sexually transmitted diseases. Now that these interactions have been discovered, they can be exploited to create drugs and vaccines that may treat and prevent disease by blocking the glycan interactions.
I am a structural biologist with a background in pharmacy. My research focuses on dissecting the molecular mechanisms of disease-causing proteins to underpin the development of new and improved therapeutics
Pathogenesis, Treatment And Prevention Of Bacterial Infectious Diseases
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$852,458.00
Summary
Bacterial infectious diseases remain a serious threat to human health, accounting for over 10 million deaths each year. My research program aims to better understand the dynamic interactions between major disease-causing bacteria and their human hosts, and to directly apply this new knowledge to the development of improved vaccines and novel treatment strategies. These are urgently needed to combat bacterial infectious diseases in the 21st century.
Halting The Spread Multidrug Resistant Uropathogenic E. Coli
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$687,975.00
Summary
Uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) is a major cause of urinary tract infection (UTI) and increasingly associated with resistance to multiple antibiotics. This project will study the virulence of multidrug resistant UPEC and use this knowledge to develop new approaches to treat and prevent UTI. The outcomes will be applicable to one of the most common infectious diseases of humans and have broad-reaching impact on our understanding of other infections caused by Gram-negative pathogens.
This research aims to advance my novel discoveries of mechanisms through which hormones and enzymes control and coordinate optimal female fertility. The findings are being applied to novel technologies in reproductive medicine. This work further aims to characterize mechanisms of growth and metastasis in reproductive organ cancers. New diagnostics and therapeutics for patients with metastatic reproductive cancers are arising from this research.
It remains unclear what the causes of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders are and what the most effective interventions are for preventing onset of disorder in those at risk. The current research program consists of a number of interrelated studies of how psychosis develops, the most effective sequential treatments to prevent the onset of disorder in high risk young people, and testing clinical criteria to identify young people at risk of a range of serious mental illnesses.
Developing Innovative Pathways For The Prevention Of Lifelong Cardiovascular Risk
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$753,300.00
Summary
My research aims to develop better ways to predict the risk of heart disease, better approaches to disease prevention and treatment and to ultimately develop more effective approaches to implementing these strategies into health care delivery.
A/Prof Thomas' Senior Research Fellowship will provide support for the continued development of a broad-based, national and international research program focused on the biology and clinical aspects of connective tissue tumours. A/Prof Thomas' career goals are to continue work in basic, translational and clinical research into these tumours which include osteosarcoma, liposarcoma, giant cell tumour of bone and the inherited risk of development of these neoplasms.
The three interlocking aims of this fellowship are to address the contribution of specific genes to melanoma development in: (i) families (ii) the general population (iii) tumour progression. The findings will be used to develop better models to predict which individuals in the population are at greatest risk of melanoma and to identify molecular targets for the design of new therapies to treat this disease.