Developmental programming of adult stress responses: early life nutrition permanently alters stress and immune function. Obese children are more likely to grow up to be obese adults than normal-weight children are. Their early life diet may be at least partly to blame. Early life nutrition can also compromise ability to respond to stress or inflammation. This project will investigate how this occurs and if these effects are specific to the developmental period.
Masterminding Reproduction: Kisspeptin and RFamide-Related Peptide. There are a number of concerning trends in reproductive health. Women are reporting difficulty conceiving and maintaining pregnancies; while sperm count and quality are declining in men. More concerning is the increase in reproductive cancers. Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) antagonist and agonist have been used for decades to treat reproductive cancers (such as breast cancer and prostate cancer), infertility and precociou ....Masterminding Reproduction: Kisspeptin and RFamide-Related Peptide. There are a number of concerning trends in reproductive health. Women are reporting difficulty conceiving and maintaining pregnancies; while sperm count and quality are declining in men. More concerning is the increase in reproductive cancers. Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) antagonist and agonist have been used for decades to treat reproductive cancers (such as breast cancer and prostate cancer), infertility and precocious puberty. Kisspeptin and RF-related peptide may offer more physiological alternatives to GnRH, without detrimental side effects. We will fully explore these two newly defined and major players in reproduction and provide a physiological framework for their progression to clinical use.Read moreRead less
Studies on the regulation of the pro-apoptotic protein Bim in mammalian development and cancer. This project is aimed at understanding the regulation of a gene, which is a tumour suppressor and is often mutated or down regulated in many different forms of cancers. A better understanding of how this gene works may eventually lead to better therapeutics to treat these cancers. This is relevant in the Australian context given that our aging population and obesity epidemics (the link between obesity ....Studies on the regulation of the pro-apoptotic protein Bim in mammalian development and cancer. This project is aimed at understanding the regulation of a gene, which is a tumour suppressor and is often mutated or down regulated in many different forms of cancers. A better understanding of how this gene works may eventually lead to better therapeutics to treat these cancers. This is relevant in the Australian context given that our aging population and obesity epidemics (the link between obesity, insulin resistance and various forms of cancers is well established) are leading to a rapid increase in new cancer cases, thus driving a rapid increase in demand for better treatments. This is particularly relevant in Indigenous health where obesity is on the rise following the transition from a traditional to an urban lifestyle.Read moreRead less