Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE120100181
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$650,000.00
Summary
Strengthening merit-based access and support at the new National Computing Infrastructure petascale supercomputing facility. World-leading high-performance computing is fundamental to Australia's international research success. This facility will provide access to the new National Computational Infrastructure facility by world-leading researchers from six research universities, and sustain ground-breaking work in an increasingly competitive environment.
The systems biology of stem cells. Using new bioinformatic methods, this project aims to identify new classifiers of different stem cell populations, develop statistical models that address population heterogeneity and provide molecular predictors of the differentiation potential of stem cells. Understanding, predicting and directing the processes of differentiation are major goals in the disciplines of stem cell biology, developmental biology, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Molec ....The systems biology of stem cells. Using new bioinformatic methods, this project aims to identify new classifiers of different stem cell populations, develop statistical models that address population heterogeneity and provide molecular predictors of the differentiation potential of stem cells. Understanding, predicting and directing the processes of differentiation are major goals in the disciplines of stem cell biology, developmental biology, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Molecular atlas projects have successfully revealed rules of genome output and regulation, by mining patterns that are evident across multiple cell types and datasets. By applying this philosophy to relevant, well-curated stem cell experiments, this project aims to create new methods for the integration and interrogation of smaller individual datasets. These methods should have broad utility and enable new avenues in tissue engineering.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE160100248
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$368,600.00
Summary
Annotating unknown microbial gene functions with organic matter change. This project intends to develop a new method for determining the function of microbial genomes. Microbes are all pervasive on Earth. It is now possible to routinely sequence microbial genomes. However, the function of most genes encoded on these genomes remains elusive, severely limiting our understanding of most ecosystems. This project seeks to develop new methods to assign function to uncharacterised genes, by correlating ....Annotating unknown microbial gene functions with organic matter change. This project intends to develop a new method for determining the function of microbial genomes. Microbes are all pervasive on Earth. It is now possible to routinely sequence microbial genomes. However, the function of most genes encoded on these genomes remains elusive, severely limiting our understanding of most ecosystems. This project seeks to develop new methods to assign function to uncharacterised genes, by correlating changes in metabolite abundance with gene expression in a model permafrost thaw peatland. Determining the function of uncharacterised genes has widespread implications for microbial ecology and its numerous real-world applications, from determining soil greenhouse gas emissions to understanding human intestinal flora.Read moreRead less
Australian Sea Anemone Venoms: Bioprospecting & Evolution. Australian sea anemones are a highly promising and largely unexplored source of peptides and proteins with potential therapeutic and diagnostic applications. This project aims to evaluate this potential by undertaking transcriptomic analyses of a number species of anemones from Australian waters and identifying peptides and proteins in their venoms by mass spectrometry. It will also demonstrate the value of transcriptomics in informing t ....Australian Sea Anemone Venoms: Bioprospecting & Evolution. Australian sea anemones are a highly promising and largely unexplored source of peptides and proteins with potential therapeutic and diagnostic applications. This project aims to evaluate this potential by undertaking transcriptomic analyses of a number species of anemones from Australian waters and identifying peptides and proteins in their venoms by mass spectrometry. It will also demonstrate the value of transcriptomics in informing taxonomic classification of anemones. In addition this project will assess toxin diversity within and between species based on nematocyst function from specific tissue sources and provide a clearer understanding of the evolution of venoms in Australian Actiniaria.Read moreRead less
A molecular/morphological view of animal evolution based on marsupials. This project aims to provide high-accuracy methods of evolutionary inference extendable to nearly all other organisms. It aims to research the evolution of animal diversity and calibrate evolutionary timescales on a case study of marsupial mammals, and differentiate between internal and external factors that govern animals’ ability to adapt and diversify. The project will collate a large, open-source three-dimensional catalo ....A molecular/morphological view of animal evolution based on marsupials. This project aims to provide high-accuracy methods of evolutionary inference extendable to nearly all other organisms. It aims to research the evolution of animal diversity and calibrate evolutionary timescales on a case study of marsupial mammals, and differentiate between internal and external factors that govern animals’ ability to adapt and diversify. The project will collate a large, open-source three-dimensional catalogue of the evolving marsupial skeleton, which could provide a detailed and publicly accessible narrative of the evolutionary past and future adaptability of Australian marsupials. The proposed development of methods to quantify the effect of past and present biodiversity crises (e.g. environmental change) is expected to inform longer-term conservation planning.Read moreRead less
Novel antimicrobial target discovery by an integrated approach. The project aims to uncover the molecular targets of BDM-I, a novel antimicrobial candidate discovered by the start-up Australian company BioDiem Ltd. BDM-I is active against many drug resistant bacterial and fungal microorganisms and it is currently in pre-clinical development. However, the lack of resistant phenotypes makes it difficult to identify BDM-I’s mechanism of action. The project plans to use an integrated approach that c ....Novel antimicrobial target discovery by an integrated approach. The project aims to uncover the molecular targets of BDM-I, a novel antimicrobial candidate discovered by the start-up Australian company BioDiem Ltd. BDM-I is active against many drug resistant bacterial and fungal microorganisms and it is currently in pre-clinical development. However, the lack of resistant phenotypes makes it difficult to identify BDM-I’s mechanism of action. The project plans to use an integrated approach that combines a novel technique of in silico screening with experimental validation. Project outcomes are anticipated to include the first computational method to integrate target and ligand similarity for proteome-scale target and off-target discovery, which will advance the global fight against drug-resistant microorganisms.Read moreRead less
Evolution of the marsupial gut microbiome and adaptation to eucalypt toxins. Eucalyptus leaves comprise all or part of the diet of some marsupials including koalas. Gut microbiota assist in the ability of these folivores to tolerate eucalyptus toxins although present understanding of this process is rudimentary. This project aims to use culture-independent molecular methods to identify and characterise gut populations involved in phytochemical detoxification by comparative analysis with diprotod ....Evolution of the marsupial gut microbiome and adaptation to eucalypt toxins. Eucalyptus leaves comprise all or part of the diet of some marsupials including koalas. Gut microbiota assist in the ability of these folivores to tolerate eucalyptus toxins although present understanding of this process is rudimentary. This project aims to use culture-independent molecular methods to identify and characterise gut populations involved in phytochemical detoxification by comparative analysis with diprotodont relatives that are not capable of digesting eucalyptus leaves. This will highlight evolutionary convergence of gut microbiomes in toxic folivores and reveal mechanisms by which microorganisms respond to and metabolise eucalypt toxins. A broader evolutionary context of marsupial digestive function will assist in ongoing conservation efforts.Read moreRead less
A biological model to understand caveolin-1 and lipid raft function in health and disease. This project will generate a biological model for pathological caveolin-1 action on cell membrane domains called lipid rafts to determine how they trigger chronic diseases such as cancer and diabetes. The tools developed in this project will help Australia find new drug targets for the treatment and prevention of these prevalent diseases.
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE120100071
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$290,000.00
Summary
Chemi–biology computational platform for lead discovery in infectious disease. A challenge in fighting infectious disease is in finding new bioactive compounds. This facility will provide a high performance computational environment designed to accelerate the discovery of quality compounds for use in anti-infective medicine.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE190100116
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$415,737.00
Summary
Cell types and cell states revealed by single-cell regulatory networks. This project aims to use single-cell gene regulation networks to predict cell types. Computational approaches are needed to recapitulate how the over 37 trillion cells program the shared genome sequence in a human body to create astoundingly diverse forms and functions. This project integrates millions of high-resolution single-cell gene expression profiles with large-scale population regulatory data to systematically recons ....Cell types and cell states revealed by single-cell regulatory networks. This project aims to use single-cell gene regulation networks to predict cell types. Computational approaches are needed to recapitulate how the over 37 trillion cells program the shared genome sequence in a human body to create astoundingly diverse forms and functions. This project integrates millions of high-resolution single-cell gene expression profiles with large-scale population regulatory data to systematically reconstruct gene regulatory networks. These networks are the molecular basis for understanding human cells. This projects outcomes intend to include the first reference single-cell regulatory database and novel methods and software to predict individual cells. This project will contribute to advancing Australia's capabilities in single-cell, precision medicine, and big biological data analysis leading to significant scientific, societal and commercial benefits.Read moreRead less