Antibiotic Resistance And Host Immune Evasion In Staphylococcus Aureus
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$644,428.00
Summary
Staphylococcus aureus is one of the most common bacteria that infects humans. This project aims to characterise the mechanisms that Staph uses to develop resistance to one of our last-line antibiotics, and will determine the effects of this resistance on the ability of the bacteria to cause human disease. The work will also investigate new treatment strategies to tackle this challenging bacteria.
Role Of Hypoxia Inducible Factor In Innate Immune Function Against Gram-positive Pathogens
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$241,352.00
Summary
Our society is currently facing the rise of drug-resistant pathogens ("superbugs") such as the potentially devastating methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or _MRSA�. Recently, a molecule known as HIF has been shown to control the ability of our white blood cells to kill bacteria. This proposal aims to investigate the use of HIF boosting drugs to treat infections. These novel HIF agonists could be used alongside conventional antibiotics to improve infectious disease.
Investigation Of The Effects Of Polymicrobial Infection On The Induction Of Otitis Media
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$235,511.00
Summary
Middle ear infection is a highly prevalent paediatric disease characterised by an inflammation of the middle ear and is the most prevalent illness of childhood. It is reported that greater than 80% of children have had at least one episode of acute otitis media by 3 years of age and almost 40% of children have more than 6 episodes by age 7 years. The cause and pathogenesis of middle ear infection are multifactorial and influence of prevalence and chonicity of the infections. Prevention of bacter ....Middle ear infection is a highly prevalent paediatric disease characterised by an inflammation of the middle ear and is the most prevalent illness of childhood. It is reported that greater than 80% of children have had at least one episode of acute otitis media by 3 years of age and almost 40% of children have more than 6 episodes by age 7 years. The cause and pathogenesis of middle ear infection are multifactorial and influence of prevalence and chonicity of the infections. Prevention of bacterial middle ear infection caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae, nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae and Moraxella catarrhalis requires a much better knowledge of how these bacteria interact with each other and with the host. The poor efficacy of the current pneumococcal paediatric vaccine for preventing middle ear infections highlights this deficiency in our knowledge and will impede the development of a suitable multvalent vaccine to prevent infection by the 3 major bacterial pathogens. This study will investigate how the bacteria colonising the respiratory tract interact during infection and how they affect the host.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE120101340
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
Subversion of innate immune responses by pathogenic Escherichia coli. This project will determine how bacteria that cause diarrhoeal diseases prevent the immune system from signalling efficiently. It will provide important information not only about how the bacteria establish disease, but also provide insight into the host response in the early stages of infection.
Bacterial And Host Drivers Of Fulminant Community-acquired Acinetobacter Baumannii Infection
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$729,315.00
Summary
This proposal aims to understand how a bacterial pathogen causes severe, life-threatening infections in people from the community in northern Australia. This severe infection particularly impacts people who drink excess alcohol or have diabetes mellitus, and importantly impacts Indigenous Australians the greatest. This work will provide, for the first time, important insights into new prevention and treatment strategies for a serious infection impacting Australians and those in our region.
Tuberculosis is one of the most threatening infectious diseases worldwide due to the low efficiency of the only licensed anti-tuberculosis vaccine, BCG. This project aims to interrogate two previously neglected immune mechanisms and their potential to enhance vaccine-induced immunity by incorporating these mechanisms into new genetically modified BCG strains. We will also investigate alternative BCG vaccination routes to generate long-lived immune cells that can rapidly control the infection.
Enhancing Host Defence Mechanisms In Severe Bacterial Infections
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$830,447.00
Summary
New options to treat bacterial infections are needed because of the rapid increase in antibiotic resistance. One very attractive strategy is to boost the body’s own defence mechanisms against bacteria. This project defines novel molecular mechanisms that can be manipulated to better control a bacterial infection. Novel drugs targeting these molecular pathways are already being developed, albeit for cancer. This project will help assess if these drugs may be useful to treat infections.
Host-pathogen Interactions In Clostridial Myonecrosis
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$897,617.00
Summary
This project will show how the bacteria that cause gas gangrene interact with host cells in an infection. We will examine the expression of genes from both the host and the pathogen in a mouse disease model. The aims are to determine the impact of bacterial genes that are differentially regulated in an infected lesion, how gene expression of both the host and pathogen is modulated throughout the course of an infection and the role of host pathways in controlling the infection process.
Host innate defence relies on the activation of several signalling pathways that regulate inflammation and cell death. Several important bacterial pathogens of humans inject virulence “effector” proteins into infected cells that interrupt host cell signalling pathways. We recently discovered a family of new effector proteins that directly degrade host proteins and block cell death. Here we will characterise this and other members of the family to understand their role during infection.
Glycosyltransferase Effectors From Bacterial Enteric Pathogens
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$772,600.00
Summary
Many disease-causing microbes subvert host cell defences to establish infection in part by transporting virulence proteins, termed “effector” proteins, into host cells via specialized protein secretion systems. We have discovered a new family of bacterial effectors that modify host proteins with a sugar and thereby inactivate them. Here we will characterise the function of these effector proteins during infection with E. coli and Salmonella.