Investigating the molecular basis of T-cell receptor cross-reactivity. This project will explore the basis of unexpected immune reactions whereby the immune system mistakes one molecular structure for another, a phenomenon known as cross-reactivity. This project will examine how often this is due to molecular mimicry, potentially explaining why immune T cells sometimes react inappropriately to different agents.
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE180100157
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$600,000.00
Summary
Confocal and single molecule microscopes for systems microscopy. This project aims to establish Australia’s first system microscopy facility with dedicated live-cell confocal and single-molecule fluorescence microscopes. In systems microscopy, the imaging workflow is automated so that large and unbiased data sets of the spatiotemporal organisation of molecules and cells can be generated. Combined with statistical and bioinformatics analyses, image-derived data provides system-wide information th ....Confocal and single molecule microscopes for systems microscopy. This project aims to establish Australia’s first system microscopy facility with dedicated live-cell confocal and single-molecule fluorescence microscopes. In systems microscopy, the imaging workflow is automated so that large and unbiased data sets of the spatiotemporal organisation of molecules and cells can be generated. Combined with statistical and bioinformatics analyses, image-derived data provides system-wide information that is not easily obtainable with other approaches. The project will enable Australian researchers to image and analyse the full complexity of biological systems, potentially transforming cell biology, drug development and understanding the molecular basis of disease. It will also demonstrate how the capacity of microscopy facilities can be enhanced and bias in imaging data reduced by automating data acquisition and mining of image-based data.Read moreRead less
Mid-Career Industry Fellowships - Grant ID: IM230100154
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$1,049,904.00
Summary
Fungi Power: Designer Fungal Cell Factories for Advanced Biomanufacturing. This project aims to build an advanced biomanufacturing platform based on filamentous fungi in collaboration with industry. Using synthetic biology, the project expects to engineer superior fungal host strains customisable to the needs of the industry and to address their technological gaps. The expected outcomes include the development of cost-efficient and sustainable fungal-based bioprocesses for the companies to produ ....Fungi Power: Designer Fungal Cell Factories for Advanced Biomanufacturing. This project aims to build an advanced biomanufacturing platform based on filamentous fungi in collaboration with industry. Using synthetic biology, the project expects to engineer superior fungal host strains customisable to the needs of the industry and to address their technological gaps. The expected outcomes include the development of cost-efficient and sustainable fungal-based bioprocesses for the companies to produce products, such as fine chemicals, pharmaceutical actives and food ingredients. The project would provide significant benefits by enabling existing and emerging companies' commercial successes and competitiveness in global markets, creating new jobs and resulting in the growth of the bio-economy in Australia.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE180100179
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$3,189,000.00
Summary
Automated high resolution and high contrast cryo -TEM for three-dimensional structural biology. This project aims to establish a facility in automated, single-particle cryo-TEM and cryo-TEM tomography (Titan Krios) that will enable atomic and molecular structure research and three-dimensional subcellular and cellular imaging. The project will span all multiscale cryo-TEM modalities from the visualisation of cells, membranes and macromolecular complexes, through to near-atomic-resolution protein ....Automated high resolution and high contrast cryo -TEM for three-dimensional structural biology. This project aims to establish a facility in automated, single-particle cryo-TEM and cryo-TEM tomography (Titan Krios) that will enable atomic and molecular structure research and three-dimensional subcellular and cellular imaging. The project will span all multiscale cryo-TEM modalities from the visualisation of cells, membranes and macromolecular complexes, through to near-atomic-resolution protein structure determination. Cryo-single particle analysis and tomography are recognised as revolutionary technologies in molecular structural biology and powerful enablers of future ground-breaking discovery. The project will deliver significant competitive advantage for Australia in leading-edge structure-based research, drug discovery, new opportunities for applied research and development, and showcasing science to the public.Read moreRead less
Development of technologies to monitor multimolecular complexes. Development of technologies to monitor multimolecular complexes. This project aims to develop technologies to monitor how proteins and their interacting molecules (such as hormones) form multi-component complexes, and how these complexes function in the cell, including movement from the cell surface, into different cellular compartments and back up to the surface. These technologies are expected to enable monitoring in live cells i ....Development of technologies to monitor multimolecular complexes. Development of technologies to monitor multimolecular complexes. This project aims to develop technologies to monitor how proteins and their interacting molecules (such as hormones) form multi-component complexes, and how these complexes function in the cell, including movement from the cell surface, into different cellular compartments and back up to the surface. These technologies are expected to enable monitoring in live cells in real-time with high sensitivity. This project could have broad benefits for and affect study of all aspects of the life sciences at the cellular and molecular levels. How these protein complexes function in cells underpins much of our understanding of biology, and technological tools.Read moreRead less
A new and rapidly evolving class of plant peptides. The project will study a diverse class of drug-like mini-proteins that are thought to have emerged genetically over 12 million years ago. This project will explore why plants have kept making these mini-proteins for so long and whether it is the same reason the founding member of this mini-protein class is such a good drug.
ARC Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology. The ARC Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology (CoESB) will provide the technical innovation critical for Australia to develop a vibrant bioeconomy building on the nation’s strengths in agriculture. For thousands of years we have used microbes to create bread, wine, cheese. Now, our Centre will pioneer new approaches to the design of synthetic microbes, enabling the development of custom-designed microbial communities, synthetic organelles and ne ....ARC Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology. The ARC Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology (CoESB) will provide the technical innovation critical for Australia to develop a vibrant bioeconomy building on the nation’s strengths in agriculture. For thousands of years we have used microbes to create bread, wine, cheese. Now, our Centre will pioneer new approaches to the design of synthetic microbes, enabling the development of custom-designed microbial communities, synthetic organelles and new to nature biological pathways and enzymes. CoESB will combine engineering with molecular biology to design and construct novel biological systems that can convert biomass from agriculture or waste streams to biofuel, bioplastics and other high-value chemicals.Read moreRead less
Buried treasure: bioactive plant seed proteins evolving inside hosts. This project aims to examine how evolution in plants shortcuts the creation of new proteins by burying one within another. Scientists now realise that new genes and proteins appear frequently. A recent discovery in plant seeds involves DNA sequence insertions in a gene that makes two proteins instead of one. This project will reveal a new family of buried seed proteins, determine the rules for burying them and search plants fo ....Buried treasure: bioactive plant seed proteins evolving inside hosts. This project aims to examine how evolution in plants shortcuts the creation of new proteins by burying one within another. Scientists now realise that new genes and proteins appear frequently. A recent discovery in plant seeds involves DNA sequence insertions in a gene that makes two proteins instead of one. This project will reveal a new family of buried seed proteins, determine the rules for burying them and search plants for new examples. The first examples from plants create strongly bioactive products so the ability to dig for similar plant events will reveal new and bioactive natural products with biomedical and biotechnology applications.Read moreRead less
How do sunflowers make protein drugs in their seeds? We recently discovered in sunflower the origin of a small protein ring that chemists have used for a decade to base designed drugs upon. This project aims to know how sunflowers make it so we may manipulate other plants to manufacture ring-based drugs.
In vitro expression of macrocyclic peptides. This project aims to develop a novel strategy for the production of polypeptides with unnatural chemical groups using a sense codon reassignment approach. Novel peptides could be used in a range of pharmaceutical applications. Peptides made of 20 natural amino acids cover only a very small fraction of the available chemical and functional space. While a peptide’s functionality can be extended with unnatural amino acids, the methods for their site-sele ....In vitro expression of macrocyclic peptides. This project aims to develop a novel strategy for the production of polypeptides with unnatural chemical groups using a sense codon reassignment approach. Novel peptides could be used in a range of pharmaceutical applications. Peptides made of 20 natural amino acids cover only a very small fraction of the available chemical and functional space. While a peptide’s functionality can be extended with unnatural amino acids, the methods for their site-selective incorporation are inefficient. The project’s strategy relies on the depletion of selected tRNAs from an in vitro protein translation system and their replacement with synthetic tRNAs, charged with unnatural amino acids. It is expected that the developed technology could be used to rapidly generate and screen highly diversified macrocyclic peptide libraries.Read moreRead less