The Role Of Host Proteases In Modulating Enteric Infectious Disease
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$1,267,155.00
Summary
Bacterial pathogens that cause gut diseases result in 2.5 million deaths per year. The gut is a complex environment consisting of numerous factors that must be balanced to maintain enteric health. When these factors are unbalanced, disease can occur, and infections can cause imbalances. This project will increase our understanding of the role that host proteins play in gut infections, providing knowledge critical for developing improved strategies for disease treatment and prevention.
Virulence Associated Small RNAs In Acinetobacter Baumannii
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$964,148.00
Summary
This proposal aims to understand how a superbug that causes severe infections in hospitalised patients worldwide and is known to be resistant to almost all available antibiotics, causes disease. We then plan on using this information to guide the development of a new type of therapy to treat this severe infection.
Antibiotic Conjugates: Joining Together To Fight Antimicrobial Resistance
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$697,675.00
Summary
New strategies are urgently needed to treat the rise of infections from multidrug-resistant bacteria, with standard antibiotic therapies becoming obsolete. This project will develop multiple innovative approaches to overcome antibiotic resistance, based on a core concept of appending additional functionality to existing antibiotic scaffolds. New conjugates will be synthesized, tested for antimicrobial activity, then optimized via a validated antimicrobial development pipeline.
How A Multidrug Resistant Bacterial Pathogen Has Become Pandemic
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$1,116,544.00
Summary
The pandemic spread of antibiotic resistant E. coli ST131 is a major human health problem. ST131 is the globally dominant cause of urinary tract and bloodstream infections. This project will use advanced genetics and animal infection models to understand the features of ST131 that have fueled its global dominance. The outcomes will unravel the molecular mechanisms that enable ST131 to persist and cause repeat infection, and guide the development of new precision medicine therapeutics.
Developing New Immunotherapeutics Through Studying Immune Effectors In Situ
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$1,369,054.00
Summary
The immune system deploys pore forming proteins to clear viral and bacterial infections and to eliminate cancerous cells. The unwanted activities of these molecules, however, results in chronic disease and in transplant rejection. We aim to understand how pore forming immune weapons interact with our own cells, with the goal of using this information to develop new approaches to treat immune driven disease and to improve the success of transplantation therapy.
Should You Be Eating That? Food-derived Bacteria And Their Role In Treating Disease
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$1,405,182.00
Summary
The clinical application of medicines based on the microbes that exist as part of microbiomes is now a reality. Despite these rapid advances understanding how the bacteria are transmitted and recolonise after disruption is essential. Our preliminary data suggests that the average Australian adult consumes over 10 million bacteria per day in their diet. This project seeks to understand these relationships and how they can be exploited to develop the next generations of microbiome based medicine.
Novel Antibiotics That Harness Innate Immunity To Overcome Multi-drug Resistant S. Aureus
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$872,355.00
Summary
Controlling infection with antibiotics is essential in medicine. However, bacterial resistance to antibiotics is growing rapidly. Here, we propose new strategies to treat multi-drug resistant Staphylococcus aureus by combining existing clinical antibiotics with either a targetted immune response or by removing the ability of bacteria to hide from our immune system. These novel approaches will allow us to overcome infections caused by resistant bacteria, which are a serious and growing problem.
Therapeutic Targeting Of Interleukin-22 For Severe Paediatric Urinary Tract Infection And Associated Renal Complications
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$997,139.00
Summary
Urinary tract infections are among the most common bacterial infections and are associated with the development of chronic kidney disease. The bacteria that cause these infections are becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotic therapy. Therefore, new strategies that target the immune system rather than the bacteria are urgently needed. This study will provide evidence for re-purposing novel immunotherapies targeting the protein interleukin-22 that are being developed for other diseases.
First-in-human Evaluation Of A Novel Immunobiotic To Prevent Respiratory Infection
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$1,180,080.00
Summary
Respiratory infections are a leading cause of death and illness throughout the world. We have discovered a 'friendly' bacteria that can be applied up the nose to prevent ear infections and the 'flu in mice. We will now test this novel therapy in humans to check it is safe and that it stimulates the human immune system in the same way that it does in mice. This will provide essential information to conduct clinical trials, with the aim to produce a medicine that prevents respiratory infections.
Structure And Biophysical Analysis Aided Design Of Novel Toxoid Vaccines For A Major Class Of Bacterial Toxins.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$608,425.00
Summary
Inactivated bacterial toxins (toxoids), such as the tetanus vaccine, are safe and effective vaccines. Cholesterol dependent cytolysins (CDCs) are bacterial toxins produced by many important human pathogens including Group A Streptococcus (GAS) and Pneumococcus. GAS has no available vaccine and Pneumococcus does not have a universal vaccine. We have developed a new way of inactivating CDCs based on new knowledge of how they target human cells and will use this knowledge to make new vaccines.