Determining The Causes And Consequences Of Epigenetic Remodelling In Cancer And Disease
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$863,413.00
Summary
The study of epigenetics and its role in gene control is proving to be the next major contributor to our future understanding and improvement of health outcomes. Professor Clark and her team are on a quest to unravel the secrets of human epigenome to help reduce the burden of human disease. Their research will help contribute to the discovery of genetic and epigenetic aberrations in cancer and other complex diseases with the development of new diagnostic tests and potential new epigenetic-based ....The study of epigenetics and its role in gene control is proving to be the next major contributor to our future understanding and improvement of health outcomes. Professor Clark and her team are on a quest to unravel the secrets of human epigenome to help reduce the burden of human disease. Their research will help contribute to the discovery of genetic and epigenetic aberrations in cancer and other complex diseases with the development of new diagnostic tests and potential new epigenetic-based therapies.Read moreRead less
Mechanisms Of Gene Regulation - Structure, Function And Design
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$697,209.00
Summary
The human genome contains at least 20000 genes. The activity of these genes must be tightly controlled throughout an individual’s life and problems with the regulation of genes lie at the heart of many common and serious diseases, including most forms of cancer. My program of research is focused on understanding the mechanisms underlying gene regulation and on the design of new reagents that could be used to manipulate the activity of genes that behave aberrantly in disease states.
Epilepsy is a very common and serious brain disorder. Epilepsy often includes other disabilities, reduction in quality of life and is associated with increased risk of early death. 30% of people with epilepsy are unable to gain control of their seizures with currently available medications. The genetic causes of the large majority of epilepsy cases have not yet been found. This project aims to identify new genetic causes of epilepsy and its related disorders.
A common characteristic of cancer is the failure of cells to die when they normally would. One of the problems with many cancer therapies is that they rely on the integrity of signalling pathways to the normal ‘death machinery’ of the cell to do their job. By understanding how the molecular death machine operates we are fashioning new drugs that can target it directly, thus bypassing the very pathways that are so frequently disrupted in tumour cells.
I aim to decipher the role of heritable, genetic DNA variation in human neurological disease. I will use next generation genomics technologies together with sophisticated cellular models to address the important questions of the biology of epilepsy and intellectual disability in particular. I aim to develop a treatment for a specific type of epilepsy, which affects only girls from the age of 6 months. My ultimate goal is to improve the life of the patients and their relatives.
The genetic material is packaged in the cell nucleus with histone proteins. Modifications of histones determine if a particular area of the genome is active or repressed. We are investigating the roles of a family of histone modifying proteins, the MYST proteins. Mutations in these proteins cause intellectual disability and cancer. The research program will provide knowledge that may become the basis for the development of drugs for the treatment of cancer and neurodegenerative disorders.
I am a Molecular Biologist who has built up a large set of transgenic animal models based around the NPY system to use them in an integrated physiology approach to investigate important regulatory mechanisms in the interaction of the brain with peripheral
High-Throughout Identification And Targeting Of New Breast Cancer Genes.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$640,210.00
Summary
Recent studies have identified DNA sequence variations within the human genome that are associated with an increased risk or can influence the outcome of breast cancer. This research program will identify the key genes affecting cancer development and assess their contribution to cancer growth. I will then use this knowledge to assess their suitability for drug development. Understanding how our DNA contributes to breast cancer will provide new avenues for prevention or treatment.
My research is aimed at understanding how the structure and dynamics of proteins dictates their function. I use X-ray crystallography to determine the shapes of proteins. Proteins are not static, however - they move in complicated ways, and often their motion is critical to their function (molecular motors, for example). It is very difficult to 'watch' this movement in the lab, so I use computer simulation to try to understand how proteins move.
Cancer is a genetic disease – it occurs because of genetic changes in the body that change how a cell grows, and because it occurs more often in people who have an inherited predisposition to cancer. My aim is to uncover more of the genetic events that give rise to cancer, particularly of the breast, ovary and stomach, so that we can identify people at high risk, and advice them accordingly, and also so that we can devise better treatments directed at particular genetic alterations.