Development Of Novel Anti-malaria Drugs That Block Parasite Invasion
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$1,035,623.00
Summary
Malaria is a devastating parasitic disease that kills over 400,000 people a year. Antimalarial drugs play a crucial role in helping eradicate malaria but of great concern is that parasites are becoming resistant to current drugs. We are developing drugs that prevent parasites from invading and proliferating in human blood which causes malaria. We are also discovering how the drugs work with the aim of greatly improving their performance towards clinical uptake.
Gonococcal Vaccine Development Guided By A Cross-protective Meningococcal Vaccine
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$826,490.00
Summary
Neisseria gonorrhoeae, the bacteria responsible for the sexually transmitted infection gonorrhoea, is a significant health problem worldwide. Control of gonorrhoea depends on the development of a vaccine due to the continuing increase of antibiotic resistance and the staggering outcomes of infection, including infertility and increased transmission of HIV. This work will identify vaccine targets and determine the way in which they mediate protection against gonococcal infection.
How A Multidrug Resistant Bacterial Pathogen Has Become Pandemic
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$1,116,544.00
Summary
The pandemic spread of antibiotic resistant E. coli ST131 is a major human health problem. ST131 is the globally dominant cause of urinary tract and bloodstream infections. This project will use advanced genetics and animal infection models to understand the features of ST131 that have fueled its global dominance. The outcomes will unravel the molecular mechanisms that enable ST131 to persist and cause repeat infection, and guide the development of new precision medicine therapeutics.
Virulence Associated Small RNAs In Acinetobacter Baumannii
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$964,148.00
Summary
This proposal aims to understand how a superbug that causes severe infections in hospitalised patients worldwide and is known to be resistant to almost all available antibiotics, causes disease. We then plan on using this information to guide the development of a new type of therapy to treat this severe infection.
Identification Of Therapy-resistant Cells Driving Relapse In Medulloblastoma From Integrated Spatial Transcriptomics And Tissue Imaging
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$749,272.00
Summary
Medulloblastoma (MB) is the most common cause of cancer related mortality in children, with relapsed MB nearly a universally fatal event. Relapsed MB can be caused by pre-existing rare cells that escape treatment and continue to evolve. This project will identify the organisation of all cell types within patient derived xenograft models of MB, monitoring how this changes throughout tumour progression and drug treatment. We will identify rare cells responsible for driving recurrence.
Novel Antibiotics That Harness Innate Immunity To Overcome Multi-drug Resistant S. Aureus
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$872,355.00
Summary
Controlling infection with antibiotics is essential in medicine. However, bacterial resistance to antibiotics is growing rapidly. Here, we propose new strategies to treat multi-drug resistant Staphylococcus aureus by combining existing clinical antibiotics with either a targetted immune response or by removing the ability of bacteria to hide from our immune system. These novel approaches will allow us to overcome infections caused by resistant bacteria, which are a serious and growing problem.
Plasma Activated Hydrogel Therapy For Combatting Antimicrobial Resistance In Chronic Wounds
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$755,023.00
Summary
The aim is to advance wound care using electrical ionised gas discharge (plasma) to deliver antimicrobial and healing agents through tailored hydrogel dressings into wounds. The technology will be configured for real-world wounds and clinical settings and its antimicrobial delivery system will be optimised to eradicate all wound pathogens and prevent re-infection. The technology has potential to revolutionise chronic wound care and alleviate the growing problem of antimicrobial resistance.
An Integrative Approach To Define And Attenuate Genomic Risk Of Coronary Artery Disease
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$988,454.00
Summary
One in four individuals that have a heart attack do not have traditional risk factors such as high blood cholesterol levels. This highlights the importance of 'family history', which we can now quantify as 'genetic risk'. These studies will determine (i) which genes are important in contributing to this genetic risk (ii) how these genes change biological pathways to increase risk and (iii) the effectiveness of modulating these biological pathways to reduce the risk of heart disease.
HTLV-1 is a lifelong infection of immune cells that sustains high infection rates up to 45% in key Australian communities. Despite HTLV-1 causing serious malignancy and inflammatory co-morbidities that shorten lifespan, few biomedical interventions are available. We will examine how the virus grows and alters immune responses to cause disease. With this, we can develop antiviral treatments to reduce virus infected cells, and make new diagnostic biomarker assays suitable for remote settings.
Structure And Biophysical Analysis Aided Design Of Novel Toxoid Vaccines For A Major Class Of Bacterial Toxins.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$608,425.00
Summary
Inactivated bacterial toxins (toxoids), such as the tetanus vaccine, are safe and effective vaccines. Cholesterol dependent cytolysins (CDCs) are bacterial toxins produced by many important human pathogens including Group A Streptococcus (GAS) and Pneumococcus. GAS has no available vaccine and Pneumococcus does not have a universal vaccine. We have developed a new way of inactivating CDCs based on new knowledge of how they target human cells and will use this knowledge to make new vaccines.