An Interdisciplinary Approach Towards Antiviral Therapy Discovery
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,000,000.00
Summary
Viruses cause significant life-threatening diseases and our armament against viral infections is extremely limited. When coupled with resistance development, humanity is at the mercy of existing and emerging life-threatening viruses. This project will provide new insight into how clinically- significant viruses that cause flu, croup and hand foot and mouth disease attack human cells, as well as discover new drug candidates that combat these viruses.
Counteracting Age-associated Neurodegenerative Diseases Using Chaperone-based Amyloid Disaggregases
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$645,205.00
Summary
In neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, proteins form clumps through changes in structure due to mutations or proteotoxic chemical insults. The formation of these toxic clumps causes brain cells to die prematurely triggering symptoms such as dementia. I have identified a molecular machine in human cells that efficiently clears these clumps. We are now developing strategies to activate this machine to repair damaged brain cells to slow/reserve neurodegenerative diseases.