Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE140101268
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$386,820.00
Summary
Stochastic mathematical modelling of the Wnt signalling pathway. The Wnt signalling pathway is pivotal in multicellular organisms, regulating cellular processes such as proliferation, apoptosis and migration. Faulty Wnt signalling is associated with degenerative diseases, developmental disorders and cancers and is therefore a potential target for therapeutic drugs. This project will perform a stochastic spatial simulation of the Wnt signalling pathway which will be matched to experimental data. ....Stochastic mathematical modelling of the Wnt signalling pathway. The Wnt signalling pathway is pivotal in multicellular organisms, regulating cellular processes such as proliferation, apoptosis and migration. Faulty Wnt signalling is associated with degenerative diseases, developmental disorders and cancers and is therefore a potential target for therapeutic drugs. This project will perform a stochastic spatial simulation of the Wnt signalling pathway which will be matched to experimental data. The model will be extended to integrate with the cell cycle. Increased proliferation in tumours has been linked to mutations in Wnt components. Using the extended model, the effect of Wnt-targeting therapeutic cancer drugs on cancer cell proliferation rates will be predicted and compared to experiments.Read moreRead less
A coordinate-independent theory for multi-time-scale dynamical systems. Biochemical reaction networks operate inherently on many disparate timescales, and identifying this temporal hierarchy is key to understanding biological behaviour. Currently, the existing dynamical systems theory is not able to rigorously analyse many important biological systems and networks due to this inherent non-standard multi-time-scale splitting. This project aims to remove these stumbling blocks and develop a coordi ....A coordinate-independent theory for multi-time-scale dynamical systems. Biochemical reaction networks operate inherently on many disparate timescales, and identifying this temporal hierarchy is key to understanding biological behaviour. Currently, the existing dynamical systems theory is not able to rigorously analyse many important biological systems and networks due to this inherent non-standard multi-time-scale splitting. This project aims to remove these stumbling blocks and develop a coordinate-independent mathematical theory that weaves together results from geometric singular perturbation theory, differential and algebraic geometry and reaction network theory to decompose and explain the structure in the dynamic hierarchy of events in non-standard multi-time-scale systems and networks.Read moreRead less
Accurate and fast quantum simulation to predict chemistry. Quantum mechanical simulation is the most accurate tool available for predicting and understanding chemical reactions. Traditional techniques for performing quantum mechanical simulations of molecular collisions and reactions cannot be applied to more than five or six atoms, meaning that it is not possible to study most chemical reactions in full detail. In this project a new technique for performing these accurate simulations, recently ....Accurate and fast quantum simulation to predict chemistry. Quantum mechanical simulation is the most accurate tool available for predicting and understanding chemical reactions. Traditional techniques for performing quantum mechanical simulations of molecular collisions and reactions cannot be applied to more than five or six atoms, meaning that it is not possible to study most chemical reactions in full detail. In this project a new technique for performing these accurate simulations, recently invented at the Australian National University and allowing the study of much larger systems, will be developed and applied to important outstanding problems in chemical dynamics, ranging from roaming in formaldehyde to atom migration in proteins.Read moreRead less
Efficient and convergent first-principles chemical dynamics. This project develops a new method for studying chemical systems using first principles quantum mechanics. The new method can solve a much larger range of chemical problems than its predecessors, allowing detailed and accurate descriptions of reactions and dynamics driven by thermal energy or activated by light.