Projects
Chytrid fungal infections are responsible for the extinction of over 90 frog species. In 1998, Australian researchers identified the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) as the causative agent for chytridiomycosis, a deadly skin disease affecting frog populations globally.
Theme
- Host-microbe biology
- Infection and immunity
Student intake
Open for Honours, Master, PhD students
Status
Current
People
- Peter Solomon, Collaborator
- Wai-Hong Tham, Supervisor
Using yeast surface display synthetic biology for a nanobody production platform.
Theme
- Infection and immunity
Student intake
Open for Bachelor, Honours, Master, PhD students
Status
Current
People
- Aude Fahrer, Collaborator
- Joseph Brock, Principal investigator
Reducing the cost of seawater desalination by copying the action of cell membranes.
Theme
- Bioinformatics and bio-mathematical modelling
- Membrane transporters and channels
In recent years, C. elegans (a soil-dwelling nematode) has become an attractive animal model to study host-pathogen interactions. My group is investigating the feasibility of this model to study Shigella pathogenesis at the molecular level.
Theme
- Host-microbe biology
- Infection and immunity
The environment encountered by the malaria parasite in the mosquito is very different from the surrounding in the human host (temperature, available nutrients, immune system,....). We are looking at the necessary differentiation a malaria parasite undergoes before it can be taken up from human blood by the mosquito vector. These changes are irreversible and essential for transmission. A better understanding of these processes could provide clues how to prevent the transmission of malaria and therefore deliver additional instruments in the fight against this disease.
Theme
- Host-microbe biology
- Membrane transporters and channels
- Parasitology
Student intake
Open for Bachelor, Honours, Master, PhD students
Status
Current
People
- Alexander Maier, Supervisor
The nessy mouse has a mutation which prevents normal development of T cells. The mutation affects a protein (kleisin beta) involved in chromosome structure. This is an unexpected finding which links two exciting fields of research.
Theme
- Infection and immunity
The project will involve coding efficient parallelised programs that can calculate the electrical properties of cells over time, and will appeal to anyone that wants to use computer science to understand the physical basis of neuroscience.
Theme
- Membrane transporters and channels
- Bioinformatics and bio-mathematical modelling
Capacity to regenerate varies among animals, with “simple” animals, such as sponges, cnidarians and planarians often having higher regenerative capacity than the more complex ones, including insects and mammals.
Theme
- Behavioural, evolutionary and physiological ecology
- Bioinformatics and bio-mathematical modelling
- Phylogenetics, population genetics and biodiversity
Student intake
Open for Honours, PhD students
Status
Current
People
- Maja Adamska, Supervisor
- Marcin Adamski, Collaborator
In 2007 chronic pain was experienced by 3.1 million Australians and it is estimated to cost the country 34 Billion each year in health costs and lost productivity.
Theme
- Bioinformatics and bio-mathematical modelling
- Membrane transporters and channels
Dr Fahrer has published a hypothesis paper suggesting a new method of treating tumours, using an old and inexpensive preparation, that could be of considerable benefit to patients and their cancer management.
Theme
- Infection and immunity
Projects are available to characterise these transporters and to study human mutations causing membrane transporter diseases.
Theme
- Membrane transporters and channels
Yeast fermentation is a multi-billion dollar global industry, at the basis of many new Synthetic Biology companies. A key aspect of this technology is being able to efficiently excrete high value protein products from the yeast cells which significantly simplifies downstream purification.
Infection with the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum causes modifications of the erythrocyte membrane composition and rigidity. In particular protrusions of the red blood cell membrane are induced – so called knobs. These knobs are believed to provide an elevated platform and anchor point from which a major virulence factor is sticking out.
Theme
- Host-microbe biology
- Membrane transporters and channels
- Parasitology
Student intake
Open for Bachelor, Honours, Master, PhD students
Status
Current
People
- Alexander Maier, Supervisor
A significant proportion of Plasmodium falciparum proteins are being exported to the cytoplasm of the host red blood cell. On their way from the parasite to the red blood cell these proteins have to transverse several membranes. In order to cross the membranes the proteins have to be unfolded, translocated and refolded again on the other side.
Theme
- Host-microbe biology
- Parasitology
Student intake
Open for Bachelor, Honours, Master, PhD students
Status
Current
People
- Alexander Maier, Supervisor
Autotransporters are a large family of virulence proteins produced by Gram-negative bacterial pathogens responsible for infectious diseases such as diarrhoea, whooping cough, cholera, chlamydia, and bacterial meningitis.
Theme
- Infection and immunity
- Membrane transporters and channels
Although critical in biology, telling potassium from sodium is harder than you think!
Theme
- Bioinformatics and bio-mathematical modelling
- Membrane transporters and channels
Single genes, through differential splicing, can encode several different proteins.
Theme
- Bioinformatics and bio-mathematical modelling
- Evolutionary genetics and genomics
This project will focus on two pan-animal signaling pathways, Wnt and TGF-beta, which are involved in a variety of developmemtal processes, such as symmetry breaking during embryonic development, axial patterning and regeneration.
Theme
- Behavioural, evolutionary and physiological ecology
- Bioinformatics and bio-mathematical modelling
- Evolutionary genetics and genomics
In 'higher animals' these factors are involved in specification and patterning of the endodermal derivatives (such as gut), and we have recently demonstrated that in sponges they are expressed during formation and maintenance of the choanoderm (the innermost feeding layer which we hypothesise is homologous to the gut).
Theme
- Behavioural, evolutionary and physiological ecology
- Bioinformatics and bio-mathematical modelling
- Evolutionary genetics and genomics
How do lipids regulate ion channels?
Theme
- Infection and immunity
- Membrane transporters and channels