A genomic approach to the mechanism of meiotic recombination in Neurospora. Recombination shuffles DNA sequences between homologous chromosomes during the reduction division in the life cycle of higher organisms. Along with mutation, it is a key process in evolution. Understanding of the molecular processes involved in recombination is largely based on yeast, which is intolerant of significant levels of sequence mismatch, limiting the resolution of analyses of normal recombination events. We hav ....A genomic approach to the mechanism of meiotic recombination in Neurospora. Recombination shuffles DNA sequences between homologous chromosomes during the reduction division in the life cycle of higher organisms. Along with mutation, it is a key process in evolution. Understanding of the molecular processes involved in recombination is largely based on yeast, which is intolerant of significant levels of sequence mismatch, limiting the resolution of analyses of normal recombination events. We have shown that Neurospora, like other less tractable multicellular eukaryotes, is tolerant of sequence mismatch, allowing high resolution analysis of individual recombination events. This project will build on fundamental advances we have already made in understanding how recombination occurs.Read moreRead less
Defining New Building Blocks for the Construction of Artificial Genetic Circuits. By characterising the components of a natural genetic switch, we will make available a set of well defined genetic building blocks for construction of rationally designed biological circuits. The ability to build such circuits would have significant economic benefit in areas such as metabolic engineering, to improve the efficiency of production of natural compounds from micro-organisms, and in biomedicine, for the ....Defining New Building Blocks for the Construction of Artificial Genetic Circuits. By characterising the components of a natural genetic switch, we will make available a set of well defined genetic building blocks for construction of rationally designed biological circuits. The ability to build such circuits would have significant economic benefit in areas such as metabolic engineering, to improve the efficiency of production of natural compounds from micro-organisms, and in biomedicine, for the controlled release of therapeutic compounds. The involvement of Honours and Ph.D students in this project will expose the next generation of Australian scientists to this emerging discipline. International collaboration leading to publications in high impact scientific journals will enhance Australia's scientific reputation.Read moreRead less
IMPROVING NITROGEN USE EFFICIENCY IN CROP PLANTS: ROLE OF THE AMMONIUM TRANSPORT FAMILY AMT. Improving nitrogen use efficiency in crop plants will reduce the use of environmentally damaging nitrogen fertilisers that threaten through leaching the sustainability of Australia's agricultural sector and local water ecosystems. Plants contain genes that encode transport proteins required for the uptake of nitrogen (ammonium and nitrate) from the soil. We will identify the in planta activity of the A ....IMPROVING NITROGEN USE EFFICIENCY IN CROP PLANTS: ROLE OF THE AMMONIUM TRANSPORT FAMILY AMT. Improving nitrogen use efficiency in crop plants will reduce the use of environmentally damaging nitrogen fertilisers that threaten through leaching the sustainability of Australia's agricultural sector and local water ecosystems. Plants contain genes that encode transport proteins required for the uptake of nitrogen (ammonium and nitrate) from the soil. We will identify the in planta activity of the AMT family of ammonium transporters and associated signalling pathways which control the uptake and assimilation of ammonium in plants. This project will confirm the mechanisms involved in ammonium uptake from the soil and lead to the development of ammonium-nitrogen efficient crop plants.Read moreRead less
Tracking targets in large scale surveillance camera networks. The research is expected to provide a significant boost in the effectiveness of safety and security measures for public facilities and open spaces that are monitored by surveillance cameras. The general public benefits from this through a decreased need for intrusive security measures, and increased deterrence of crime and anti-social behaviour. This capability is in demand worldwide for both public and private camera networks, whose ....Tracking targets in large scale surveillance camera networks. The research is expected to provide a significant boost in the effectiveness of safety and security measures for public facilities and open spaces that are monitored by surveillance cameras. The general public benefits from this through a decreased need for intrusive security measures, and increased deterrence of crime and anti-social behaviour. This capability is in demand worldwide for both public and private camera networks, whose usefulness is currently limited by the difficulty of monitoring them. We therefore anticipate considerable commercial interest in Australia and internationally.
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Deep visual understanding: learning to see in an unruly world. Deep Learning has achieved incredible success at an astonishing variety of Computer Vision tasks recently. This project aims to convey this success into the challenging domain of high-level image-based reasoning. It will extend deep learning to achieve flexible semantic reasoning about the content of images based on information gleaned from the huge volumes of data available on the Internet. The project expects to overcome one of the ....Deep visual understanding: learning to see in an unruly world. Deep Learning has achieved incredible success at an astonishing variety of Computer Vision tasks recently. This project aims to convey this success into the challenging domain of high-level image-based reasoning. It will extend deep learning to achieve flexible semantic reasoning about the content of images based on information gleaned from the huge volumes of data available on the Internet. The project expects to overcome one of the primary limitations of deep learning and will greatly increase its practical application to a range of industrial, cultural or health settings.Read moreRead less
Added depth: automated high level image interpretation. Humans are very good at understanding the world through imagery, but computers lack this fundamental capacity because they lack experience of what they might see. This project will provide this experience by combining the large volumes of imagery on the Internet with three dimensional information generated by humans for other purposes.
New biocatalysts for selective chemical oxidations under extreme conditions. This project will identify and design new enzyme biocatalysts which function under extreme conditions such as elevated temperature and high concentrations of peroxides. These enzymes will be sourced from microorganisms which are located in extreme biological environments e.g. hot springs (the so-called extremophiles). The expected outcome of this project are the identification of robust enzymes which can catalyse select ....New biocatalysts for selective chemical oxidations under extreme conditions. This project will identify and design new enzyme biocatalysts which function under extreme conditions such as elevated temperature and high concentrations of peroxides. These enzymes will be sourced from microorganisms which are located in extreme biological environments e.g. hot springs (the so-called extremophiles). The expected outcome of this project are the identification of robust enzymes which can catalyse selective oxidation reactions in complex organic molecules, such as steroids. The new biocatalysts developed in this project will have significant benefit in the development of new routes to access bespoke molecules of value in fine chemical synthesis and drug development.
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New Insights into the Structure and Function of Pyruvate Carboxylase. Pyruvate carboxylase plays an essential roles in insulin secretion by pancreatic islets and in normal brain function, but excess expression of this enzyme in liver and adipose tissue is associated with diabetes and obesity.
Understanding the function of each structural feature in the reaction mechanism of an enzyme is essential to designing safe and effective pharmaceuticals that are required to modulate its activity.
Th ....New Insights into the Structure and Function of Pyruvate Carboxylase. Pyruvate carboxylase plays an essential roles in insulin secretion by pancreatic islets and in normal brain function, but excess expression of this enzyme in liver and adipose tissue is associated with diabetes and obesity.
Understanding the function of each structural feature in the reaction mechanism of an enzyme is essential to designing safe and effective pharmaceuticals that are required to modulate its activity.
This project, which will use cutting edge techniques in an experimental model, seeks to characterise this important enzyme's function so that better treatments can be developed in future for diabetes and obesity.
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Improving Extensible Markup Language (XML) data quality using XML integrity constraints. The first benefit of the project will be the of development a new technology that will improve the data quality in Australian organizations using the rapidly growing Extensible Markup Language (XML) technology. It will also be of benefit to the Australian software industry, since the outcome of the project is a software tool for cleaning XML data that is aimed at eventual commercialisation in a quickly gro ....Improving Extensible Markup Language (XML) data quality using XML integrity constraints. The first benefit of the project will be the of development a new technology that will improve the data quality in Australian organizations using the rapidly growing Extensible Markup Language (XML) technology. It will also be of benefit to the Australian software industry, since the outcome of the project is a software tool for cleaning XML data that is aimed at eventual commercialisation in a quickly growing area of the software market. The project will also boost international research collaboration through the involvement of an overseas partner investigator, and expand Australia's expertise in the new area of XML technology through the training of a Ph.D. student.Read moreRead less
Statistical Methods of Model Fitting and Segmentation in Computer Vision. Electronic sensors such as cameras and lasers can provide a rich source of information about the position, shape, and motion of objects around us. However, to extract this information in a reliable, automatic, and accurate way requires a sophisticated statistical theory of the process. Example applications include: video surveillance (better automatic detection of moving people and vehicles and of characterising what those ....Statistical Methods of Model Fitting and Segmentation in Computer Vision. Electronic sensors such as cameras and lasers can provide a rich source of information about the position, shape, and motion of objects around us. However, to extract this information in a reliable, automatic, and accurate way requires a sophisticated statistical theory of the process. Example applications include: video surveillance (better automatic detection of moving people and vehicles and of characterising what those people and vehicles are doing), industrial prototyping and inspection (measuring the size and shape of objects), urban planning (laser scanning streetscapes to create computer models of cities), entertainment industry (movie special effects and games), etc. Read moreRead less