Transforming museum industry to cryopreserve Australia’s diverse wildlife. This project aspires to develop methods for collecting, culturing and cryopreserving cells from wildlife in line with museum industry practice. The project expects to generate new knowledge about the collection of live cells from animals under field conditions and their long-term maintenance in museum collections. Expected outcomes of the project include enhanced capacity of museums to build live cell collections and to s ....Transforming museum industry to cryopreserve Australia’s diverse wildlife. This project aspires to develop methods for collecting, culturing and cryopreserving cells from wildlife in line with museum industry practice. The project expects to generate new knowledge about the collection of live cells from animals under field conditions and their long-term maintenance in museum collections. Expected outcomes of the project include enhanced capacity of museums to build live cell collections and to support and collaborate with cellular biologists. Growth of live cell collections in Australian museums will fuel innovation in cellular technologies, advance fundamental biological knowledge, and shift museums from the role of documenting losses of genetic variation to preserving that genetic variation in living form.
Read moreRead less
Chemical staples and chemical probes to dissect dynamins cellular roles. Modulation of protein structure drives cellular function. Dynamin GTPase forms at least two macromolecular structures with different cellular functions. The drivers behind these different structures is unknown. In this project we will leverage our discoveries, and planned enhancements, of chemical biology probes that will modulate dynamin activity by inhibiting at three distinct sites, and one site that stimulates dynamin a ....Chemical staples and chemical probes to dissect dynamins cellular roles. Modulation of protein structure drives cellular function. Dynamin GTPase forms at least two macromolecular structures with different cellular functions. The drivers behind these different structures is unknown. In this project we will leverage our discoveries, and planned enhancements, of chemical biology probes that will modulate dynamin activity by inhibiting at three distinct sites, and one site that stimulates dynamin activity. It is known that Dynamin helices and rings are believed responsible for at least three in cell biological functions: in hormone, neutral and receptor internalisation; cellular mitosis and in actin dynamics. Prior to this work we have lacked the tools to understand the role of shape modulation of protein function.Read moreRead less
Investigating novel pathways in ferroptosis. This project aims to develop new tools to investigate iron-mediated cell death and uncover new pathways involved in ageing. Accumulation of iron leads to frailty in late life, a process that appears common to all animals. Iron becomes reactive and inappropriately triggers a cell death process called ferroptosis leading to dysfunction. To understand these processes and to identify means to intervene, this project aims to use genetic approaches to ident ....Investigating novel pathways in ferroptosis. This project aims to develop new tools to investigate iron-mediated cell death and uncover new pathways involved in ageing. Accumulation of iron leads to frailty in late life, a process that appears common to all animals. Iron becomes reactive and inappropriately triggers a cell death process called ferroptosis leading to dysfunction. To understand these processes and to identify means to intervene, this project aims to use genetic approaches to identify new cell pathways that regulate ferroptosis. This project also aims to develop new tools to study this process. Outcomes of this project may include the identification of potential strategies to alter late life frailty with an expected benefit to life sciences and biotechnology industries.Read moreRead less
Understanding Mitotic Telomere Deprotection. This project aims to study telomeres, the DNA and protein structures that protect chromosome ends. During cell division, cells under stress intentionally uncap their telomeres. This project expects to generate new knowledge that challenges the conventional notion of telomeres as static elements, showing instead that telomeres can be dynamic signalling hubs. Expected outcomes of this project include an understanding of the genetic, proteomic, and signa ....Understanding Mitotic Telomere Deprotection. This project aims to study telomeres, the DNA and protein structures that protect chromosome ends. During cell division, cells under stress intentionally uncap their telomeres. This project expects to generate new knowledge that challenges the conventional notion of telomeres as static elements, showing instead that telomeres can be dynamic signalling hubs. Expected outcomes of this project include an understanding of the genetic, proteomic, and signalling pathways involved in this novel phenomenon. This should provide significant benefits to our fundamental understanding of biological processes that protect human genomes and provide a valuable dataset for research on telomere biology, DNA repair, and genome stability.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE240100707
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$450,926.00
Summary
Towards a molecular fingerprint for human-specific endogenous retroviruses. This project aims to understand how ancient viral sequences resident in the human genome can contribute to cellular processes. Using a novel molecular toolbox that combines affinity-directed proximity labelling mass spectrometry and single molecule microscopy, this project will characterise the cellular fingerprint of a human endogenous retrovirus family HERV-K (HML-2). This fingerprint will comprehensively describe how ....Towards a molecular fingerprint for human-specific endogenous retroviruses. This project aims to understand how ancient viral sequences resident in the human genome can contribute to cellular processes. Using a novel molecular toolbox that combines affinity-directed proximity labelling mass spectrometry and single molecule microscopy, this project will characterise the cellular fingerprint of a human endogenous retrovirus family HERV-K (HML-2). This fingerprint will comprehensively describe how expressed HERV-K loci engage with the homeostasis network in human cells. This will provide significant benefits in the form of new knowledge concerning fundamental aspects of cellular homeostasis, and a state-of-the-art molecular biology toolbox ready to explore quantitatively the role of HERV-K in human health and disease.Read moreRead less
Transcriptional and translational regulation of the neuronal protein tau. The microtubule-associated protein tau is important for brain development and performance. To perform these functions, tau levels and its variants are tightly controlled in brain cells. However, the factors that regulate tau remain largely unknown. This project will employ latest gene technologies to identify the molecular regulators of tau, for each step of the process from DNA to the protein. The outcome of this study wi ....Transcriptional and translational regulation of the neuronal protein tau. The microtubule-associated protein tau is important for brain development and performance. To perform these functions, tau levels and its variants are tightly controlled in brain cells. However, the factors that regulate tau remain largely unknown. This project will employ latest gene technologies to identify the molecular regulators of tau, for each step of the process from DNA to the protein. The outcome of this study will significantly advance our understanding of gene regulation and mechanisms for controlling protein levels and contribute to a deeper understanding of brain function during development and aging.Read moreRead less