The Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) invites you to participate in a short survey about your
interaction with the ARDC and use of our national research infrastructure and services. The survey will take
approximately 5 minutes and is anonymous. It’s open to anyone who uses our digital research infrastructure
services including Reasearch Link Australia.
We will use the information you provide to improve the national research infrastructure and services we
deliver and to report on user satisfaction to the Australian Government’s National Collaborative Research
Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) program.
Please take a few minutes to provide your input. The survey closes COB Friday 29 May 2026.
Complete the 5 min survey now by clicking on the link below.
Improving Synthetic Methodology To Prepare Pre-clinical Analogues Of Human Insulin
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$457,708.00
Summary
The glucose regulatory hormone, insulin, remains the only treatment for type I diabetes and up to 30% of type II diabetes, both of which are among the world’s fastest growing chronic diseases today. Because insulin, if taken orally, would be broken down quickly, it has usually been given by injection. This project will develop novel chemical methods for the efficient preparation of novel insulin therapeutics with improved stability and oral bioavailability for prolonged treatment of patients.
Development Of Carbohydrate Based Self-adjuvanting Vaccine Delivery System
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$311,647.00
Summary
The world is in a need for effective vaccines for the treatment/prevention of a range of currently occurring diseases. The aim of this project is to develop sugar/lipid-based delivery systems by revolutionary new chemo-enzymatic technology. Expected outcomes of the project will be numerous biologically active vaccine candidates and novel technologies which will lead to effective therapeutic products.
Next Generation Relaxin Molecular Probes And Therapeutics
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$763,845.00
Summary
The peptide hormone relaxin is poised to be the first new treatment for acute heart failure in more than 40 years. However, like other therapeutic peptides, it has a very short duration of action due to its rapid clearance by the body. My work will utilize powerful medicinal chemistry methods to develop new analogues of relaxin that have much longer action by complexing it with sugar or making relaxin polymers. I will also produce smaller relaxin analogues that will be cheaper to manufacture.
Chronic pain from damage to the nervous system is extremely debilitating and notoriously difficult to treat. The current drug of choice, gabapentin, has serious side effects and only works in two-thirds of patients. We have developed a drug, derived from sea snail venom, that exhibits ten times the activity of gabapentin. This proposal seeks to progress our drug to clinical trials and attract a commercial partner for its development into the market.
I am a peptide and protein chemist principally engaged in the study of the structure and function relationships of insulin-like peptides and the development of their therapeutic potential.
Further Development Of The Clinical Potential Of H2 Relaxin
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$651,768.00
Summary
The hormone relaxin mediates cardiovascular and kidney changes during pregnancy. These important functions have led to its current use in clinical trials for the treatment of acute heart failure, a condition affecting millions of patients worldwide. However, there is an urgent need for a longer lasting form of relaxin for prolonged treatment of patients. Our studies will focus on understanding the blood breakdown of the peptide to lead to the design of longer lasting relaxin analogues.
Peptide Conjugates Of Splice-correcting Oligonucleotides For Enhanced In Vitro And In Vivo Delivery For Neuromuscular Disease Therapy.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$332,347.00
Summary
Currently, there is no known cure for certain neuromuscular genetic disorders. However, recently identified synthetic DNA-type biomolecules have shown promising results in reversing such diseases in mice. These biomolecules cannot easily enter the cells in high enough quantity to elicit their beneficial effects. Therefore, this project will aim at identifying novel vecotrs that, when coupled to these biomolecules, are capable of delivering them into specific cell types as well as into the brain.
Solid phase synthesis of side-chain cross-linked peptide oligomers. This research will provide a unique opportunity to investigate the biological pathways and causative factors leading to diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease. Such information will guide the design and development of therapeutic strategies and diagnostic reagents.
Thioamide ligations: new technologies for peptide and protein synthesis. This project aims to develop novel amide-bond forming reactions for the chemical synthesis of peptides and proteins. New peptide ligation strategies, including an asparagine-based ligation and a residue-independent ligation will be developed that exploit the recent discovery of silver-promoted coupling reactions of thioamides. A novel late-stage, chemo-selective assembly of N-glycosylated asparagine residues in peptides and ....Thioamide ligations: new technologies for peptide and protein synthesis. This project aims to develop novel amide-bond forming reactions for the chemical synthesis of peptides and proteins. New peptide ligation strategies, including an asparagine-based ligation and a residue-independent ligation will be developed that exploit the recent discovery of silver-promoted coupling reactions of thioamides. A novel late-stage, chemo-selective assembly of N-glycosylated asparagine residues in peptides and proteins will also be developed. The outcomes of this research will lead to breakthroughs in synthetic methodologies for the assembly and functionalisation of peptides and proteins, thereby enabling access to a range of homogeneous, post translationally modified proteins though total chemical synthesis. These research outcomes will expand Australia's research capability and global competitiveness in the field of biotechnology, delivering significant benefits to the third largest manufacturing sector in Australia.Read moreRead less
Development Of New Anticancer Drugs Using Sortase-mediated Ligation
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$618,274.00
Summary
There is a great need for new cancer treatments. We are developing cyclic peptides as the next generation of safe and effective cancer drugs. Cyclic peptides, unlike their linear counterparts, display high stability and oral bioavailability, as well as high solubility and negligible immune response. One of the hurdles is the cyclisation process and we aim to develop enzyme-mediated cyclisation as a convenient and cost effective method for cyclic peptide production.