Novel semio-chemical approach to control the Australian Sheep Blowfly . The Australian Federal Government through the 'Smart Farming' initiative highlights the need for improved multidisciplinary measures in order to remain at the global forefront of the invention and adoption of technology. This multidisciplinary project (entomology, biotechnology, analytical chemistry and genomics) will rapidly inform the management of fly strike on an important Australian resource merino sheep. This will bui ....Novel semio-chemical approach to control the Australian Sheep Blowfly . The Australian Federal Government through the 'Smart Farming' initiative highlights the need for improved multidisciplinary measures in order to remain at the global forefront of the invention and adoption of technology. This multidisciplinary project (entomology, biotechnology, analytical chemistry and genomics) will rapidly inform the management of fly strike on an important Australian resource merino sheep. This will build the key biochemical data in order to develop a novel fly lure technology (at scale) to be used on farm delivering national benefit through improved animal welfare and safety considerations for producers, and will establish the best approach to disseminate this scientific information to stakeholders such as farmers.Read moreRead less
Australian Laureate Fellowships - Grant ID: FL200100220
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$3,364,492.00
Summary
Understanding host-microbiome signalling axes in ageing. Ageing is an inevitable biological phenomenon and is characterised by alterations in multiple biochemical, immunological and mechanical processes, which are influenced by the gut bacteria. Poor ageing exerts a heavy socioeconomic burden both nationally and globally. The aim of this proposal is to deepen understanding of host-microbiome signalling in ageing by bringing together next generation sequencing technologies to characterise age-ass ....Understanding host-microbiome signalling axes in ageing. Ageing is an inevitable biological phenomenon and is characterised by alterations in multiple biochemical, immunological and mechanical processes, which are influenced by the gut bacteria. Poor ageing exerts a heavy socioeconomic burden both nationally and globally. The aim of this proposal is to deepen understanding of host-microbiome signalling in ageing by bringing together next generation sequencing technologies to characterise age-associated change in gut bacterial composition, metabolic profiling to identify changes in functionality of the ageing microbiome and a combination of in vitro and in vivo screening approaches to establish molecular mechanisms. The new knowledge will facilitate development of improved models of health care.Read moreRead less
Cracking post-translational modification codes in high molecular definition. This project aims to markedly improve the analysis of post-translational modifications (PTM) via intact protein mass spectrometry. Differences in the PTM forms of a protein (modforms) can be crucial in many physiological and metabolic processes. However, current conventional methods cannot accurately separate nor fully assign most protein modforms. A recent discovery has resulted in the ability to separate whole protein ....Cracking post-translational modification codes in high molecular definition. This project aims to markedly improve the analysis of post-translational modifications (PTM) via intact protein mass spectrometry. Differences in the PTM forms of a protein (modforms) can be crucial in many physiological and metabolic processes. However, current conventional methods cannot accurately separate nor fully assign most protein modforms. A recent discovery has resulted in the ability to separate whole protein ions that have the same mass, charge, and collision cross section, but subtly different charge sites. This project aims to leverage this breakthrough by developing novel approaches for separating intact protein modforms and mapping PTM sites. This is expected to be important for future biological discovery.Read moreRead less
Ultrasensitive chemical analysis of single cells by mass spectrometry. This project aims to significantly improve the analysis of single cells by mass spectrometry with ultrahigh sensitivity. Molecular differences between cells in large populations can be important in many processes, including cell differentiation and signalling. However, most measurements result in the chemical heterogeneity between cells being masked by the bulk population. Recent discoveries now make it feasible to measure th ....Ultrasensitive chemical analysis of single cells by mass spectrometry. This project aims to significantly improve the analysis of single cells by mass spectrometry with ultrahigh sensitivity. Molecular differences between cells in large populations can be important in many processes, including cell differentiation and signalling. However, most measurements result in the chemical heterogeneity between cells being masked by the bulk population. Recent discoveries now make it feasible to measure thousands of proteins and small molecules from single cells. This project aims to leverage these breakthroughs to allow heterogeneity to be characterised in single cells with unprecedented molecular detail. This is expected to be important for future biological discovery, as well as disease prediction and drug discovery.Read moreRead less
Aptamer imaging mass spectrometry for biomarker quantification. This project aims to develop novel methods for quantifying bio-markers in histological specimens using aptamers, lanthanide visualising tags and laser ablation plasma mass spectrometry. Aptamers are short synthetic strands of nucleic acid with complex three dimensional structures that bind targets with exquisite specificity. This technology meets a major gap in current imaging modalities, has wide application to basic biology and di ....Aptamer imaging mass spectrometry for biomarker quantification. This project aims to develop novel methods for quantifying bio-markers in histological specimens using aptamers, lanthanide visualising tags and laser ablation plasma mass spectrometry. Aptamers are short synthetic strands of nucleic acid with complex three dimensional structures that bind targets with exquisite specificity. This technology meets a major gap in current imaging modalities, has wide application to basic biology and diagnostics, and will eliminate the subjective interpretation of immunohistochemical stains.Read moreRead less
Probing antimicrobial drug resistance by multimodal molecular analysis. This project aims to investigate drug resistance in microbial agents. With the emergence of "super bugs" there is a need to understand the biochemistry of antimicrobial resistance. Combining vibrational spectroscopic approaches and metabolomic techniques, the project will investigate cell populations, single cells and subcellular structures in search of biomarkers for drug resistance. The discovery of such biomarkers could l ....Probing antimicrobial drug resistance by multimodal molecular analysis. This project aims to investigate drug resistance in microbial agents. With the emergence of "super bugs" there is a need to understand the biochemistry of antimicrobial resistance. Combining vibrational spectroscopic approaches and metabolomic techniques, the project will investigate cell populations, single cells and subcellular structures in search of biomarkers for drug resistance. The discovery of such biomarkers could lead to improved disease management and eradication programs through identification and treatment of drug resistant pathogens in individuals that have the potential to re-infect the community.Read moreRead less
Photodissociation mass spectrometry for lipidome analysis. This project aims to develop and apply novel bioanalytical mass spectrometry-based methods and workflows to illuminate the otherwise hidden structural diversity and molecular complexity of the lipidome. The structure of individual lipids define their specific biological functions. A major requirement of analytical methods employed for lipid analysis on a lipidome-wide scale, therefore, is to enable the detailed structural characterisatio ....Photodissociation mass spectrometry for lipidome analysis. This project aims to develop and apply novel bioanalytical mass spectrometry-based methods and workflows to illuminate the otherwise hidden structural diversity and molecular complexity of the lipidome. The structure of individual lipids define their specific biological functions. A major requirement of analytical methods employed for lipid analysis on a lipidome-wide scale, therefore, is to enable the detailed structural characterisation of the, potentially, tens of thousands of individual molecular lipid species that may be present within a sample of interest. This project will develop and optimise novel, ultraviolet photodissociation-tandem mass spectrometry methods which will be integrated within an automated lipidome analysis workflow, to enable comprehensive global lipidome profiling and to reveal the structural diversity of lipids involved in fundamental cellular signalling processes.Read moreRead less
Imaging metal homeostasis in the ageing brain. This fellowship aims to deliver new tools to visualise how changes to blood vessels during ageing effect the amount and distribution of metal ions in brain cells in animal models. This will be a significant advance as current methods cannot image these parameters. Metal ions are essential for brain function, but the effects of ageing on metal ions within brain cells is largely unknown. The results are expected to associate brain-blood vessel permeab ....Imaging metal homeostasis in the ageing brain. This fellowship aims to deliver new tools to visualise how changes to blood vessels during ageing effect the amount and distribution of metal ions in brain cells in animal models. This will be a significant advance as current methods cannot image these parameters. Metal ions are essential for brain function, but the effects of ageing on metal ions within brain cells is largely unknown. The results are expected to associate brain-blood vessel permeability with changes to metal ion content during ageing. The methods developed, and the fundamental new knowledge they reveal will benefit national and international neuroscientists seeking to elucidate the fundamental neurobiology of metal ions with respect to maintaining healthy brain function.Read moreRead less
Developing next-generation mass spectrometry imaging with isomer resolution. Mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) is a rapidly emerging technology for mapping molecular distributions within biological samples. This project will bring together market-leading MSI instrumentation from the industry partner Waters Corporation with unique technologies developed at QUT and UOW to develop an integrated MSI-platform capable of achieving high mass- and spatial-resolution, as well as discrimination of lipid iso ....Developing next-generation mass spectrometry imaging with isomer resolution. Mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) is a rapidly emerging technology for mapping molecular distributions within biological samples. This project will bring together market-leading MSI instrumentation from the industry partner Waters Corporation with unique technologies developed at QUT and UOW to develop an integrated MSI-platform capable of achieving high mass- and spatial-resolution, as well as discrimination of lipid isomers. Resolution of lipid isomers using this instrumentation will afford researchers a first glimpse of isomer-resolved images that will be used to visualise tissue-specific changes resulting from underlying chemical, physical or metabolic processes; changes that are currently invisible to contemporary imaging technologies.Read moreRead less