Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE170101514
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$372,000.00
Summary
The control of neuroplasticity in the brain. This project aims to determine how neuroplasticity – the brain’s ability to remodel and make new circuits – is controlled in both excitatory and inhibitory neurons. This capacity, vital for all cognitive functions, diminishes as people age. It is imperative to determine neuroplasticity’s mechanisms and how and why they change, but it is not known how both excitatory and inhibitory neurons contribute to neuroplasticity and how these dynamic alterations ....The control of neuroplasticity in the brain. This project aims to determine how neuroplasticity – the brain’s ability to remodel and make new circuits – is controlled in both excitatory and inhibitory neurons. This capacity, vital for all cognitive functions, diminishes as people age. It is imperative to determine neuroplasticity’s mechanisms and how and why they change, but it is not known how both excitatory and inhibitory neurons contribute to neuroplasticity and how these dynamic alterations are controlled. Understanding neuroplasticity is vital for learning, memory and healthy ageing throughout life.Read moreRead less
Novel tractography-guided MRI methods for studying healthy brain ageing. Advances in imaging, and particularly Magnetic Resonance Imaging, have opened a new era in the study of the brain enabling a myriad of neuroscience discoveries. This project aims to develop new analysis methods to study and understand the variability in the human brain during ageing, exploiting the wealth of information contained in the so-called tractogram, a mapping of the brain’s wiring. This project expects to develop i ....Novel tractography-guided MRI methods for studying healthy brain ageing. Advances in imaging, and particularly Magnetic Resonance Imaging, have opened a new era in the study of the brain enabling a myriad of neuroscience discoveries. This project aims to develop new analysis methods to study and understand the variability in the human brain during ageing, exploiting the wealth of information contained in the so-called tractogram, a mapping of the brain’s wiring. This project expects to develop innovative imaging biomarkers to characterise the brain changes in the course of healthy brain ageing. Expected outcomes include novel imaging tools for neuroscience, which should allow us to map trajectories of normative healthy brain ageing and use them to identify lifestyle factors that impact these trajectories.Read moreRead less
Multimodal retinal imaging provides "insight" into cerebrovascular ageing. Multimodal retinal imaging provides "insight" into cerebrovascular ageing. This project aims to develop a multi-modal imaging technology platform to simultaneously measure amyloid beta and its neurovascular sequelae to identify novel early biomarkers of ageing in the eye and brain. The growing ageing population is an increasing socioeconomic burden. The central nervous system is particularly susceptible to ageing, which i ....Multimodal retinal imaging provides "insight" into cerebrovascular ageing. Multimodal retinal imaging provides "insight" into cerebrovascular ageing. This project aims to develop a multi-modal imaging technology platform to simultaneously measure amyloid beta and its neurovascular sequelae to identify novel early biomarkers of ageing in the eye and brain. The growing ageing population is an increasing socioeconomic burden. The central nervous system is particularly susceptible to ageing, which is difficult to measure at its onset. Critically, as the eye is an easily accessible extension of the cortex, retinal imaging may be a non-invasive surrogate to assess ageing changes in the brain. Anticipated outcomes are a sensitive detector of neural ageing, improved preventative measures, reducing the socioeconomic burden of ageing, and improved quality of life.Read moreRead less
The role of P2X7 and P2X4 receptor mediated innate phagocytosis in pathogenesis and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. This project will identify how inherited variation in two proteins of the brain can accelerate the removal of neurones and predispose to a range of neurodegenerative diseases. Knowledge of the biological basis of this finding will allow a search for new compounds which will slow and protect against this form of neurodegeneration.
Harnessing non-invasive brain stimulation to improve language function in healthy and pathological ageing. This project will examine how the ability of the ageing brain to process language can be improved by non-invasive brain stimulation. The findings have the potential to reveal new ways to treat language impairments in ageing-associated brain injury and disease.
The genetics of ageing in human populations. This project aims to test whether genetic differences among individuals influence changes in cognition and physiological function in later life. Differences among individuals, in terms of distinct changes in their physiology as they age, lead to differences in their susceptibility to negative later-life outcomes and ultimately to differences in lifespan. Using a combination of genomic techniques, novel data analysis methods, and the largest dataset of ....The genetics of ageing in human populations. This project aims to test whether genetic differences among individuals influence changes in cognition and physiological function in later life. Differences among individuals, in terms of distinct changes in their physiology as they age, lead to differences in their susceptibility to negative later-life outcomes and ultimately to differences in lifespan. Using a combination of genomic techniques, novel data analysis methods, and the largest dataset of its kind, the project intends to identify the genomic regions and biochemical pathways associated with these changes, and to test for genetic associations between early-life reproduction and later-life outcomes. This is crucial to understanding, predicting and managing transitions across different human life stages.Read moreRead less
Australian Laureate Fellowships - Grant ID: FL180100072
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$3,460,832.00
Summary
Causes and consequence of human trait variation. This project aims to exploit the availability of Big Data from the genomics revolution to understand the relationship between the genome, the environment and complex human traits. New statistical methods and user-friendly software tools will be developed and applied to datasets on millions of individuals to generate new knowledge on human life history variation and healthy ageing. This project will position Australia to benefit from rapid advances ....Causes and consequence of human trait variation. This project aims to exploit the availability of Big Data from the genomics revolution to understand the relationship between the genome, the environment and complex human traits. New statistical methods and user-friendly software tools will be developed and applied to datasets on millions of individuals to generate new knowledge on human life history variation and healthy ageing. This project will position Australia to benefit from rapid advances in genomic technologies, to build and sustain critical capacity in statistical genetics, and better understand the causes and consequence of individual differences in human traits from genetic and environmental factors across the entire human lifespan.Read moreRead less