Discovery And Development Of Better Pain Treatments
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$9,613,850.00
Summary
Many forms of pain remain poorly treated, leading to significant quality of life and economic losses. This Program grant will discover and characterise new peptides from cone snails and spiders that modulate specific channels in nerves that are critical to the transmission of pain signals to the brain. Using advanced chemical and structural approaches, promising leads will be optimised for potency and stability and evaluated in disease and pathway-specific models of pain to establish their clini ....Many forms of pain remain poorly treated, leading to significant quality of life and economic losses. This Program grant will discover and characterise new peptides from cone snails and spiders that modulate specific channels in nerves that are critical to the transmission of pain signals to the brain. Using advanced chemical and structural approaches, promising leads will be optimised for potency and stability and evaluated in disease and pathway-specific models of pain to establish their clinical potential.Read moreRead less
Bioactive Peptides as Pharmacological Tools and Novel Drug Leads. Bioactive peptides are produced by all organisms and play numerous critical physiological roles, including in cellular communication, host defence and capture of prey. Peptides have huge potential as tools for studying roles of signalling pathways and as novel drugs due to their high affinity and selectivity for various therapeutically relevant targets. However their use has been limited by poor in vivo stability. This project is ....Bioactive Peptides as Pharmacological Tools and Novel Drug Leads. Bioactive peptides are produced by all organisms and play numerous critical physiological roles, including in cellular communication, host defence and capture of prey. Peptides have huge potential as tools for studying roles of signalling pathways and as novel drugs due to their high affinity and selectivity for various therapeutically relevant targets. However their use has been limited by poor in vivo stability. This project is focused on studying structural features of a range of peptides and their contributions to both activity and to resistance against degradation, with the aim to develop stabilised bioactive peptide sequences for in vivo applications, allowing the full potential of peptides as drugs to be realised.Read moreRead less
Special Research Initiatives - Grant ID: SR0354892
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$40,000.00
Summary
The Australian Protease Network. Proteases are pivotal enzymes during birth, life, ageing and death of all organisms. Proteases regulate most physiological processes by controlling protein activation, synthesis and turnover and are essential for replication and spread of viruses, bacteria and parasites that cause infectious diseases. Blockbuster drugs and diagnostics already target a few proteases. Australians have made innovative contributions individually to understanding and regulating these ....The Australian Protease Network. Proteases are pivotal enzymes during birth, life, ageing and death of all organisms. Proteases regulate most physiological processes by controlling protein activation, synthesis and turnover and are essential for replication and spread of viruses, bacteria and parasites that cause infectious diseases. Blockbuster drugs and diagnostics already target a few proteases. Australians have made innovative contributions individually to understanding and regulating these enzymes. However this initiative aims to network their efforts by value-adding to the current protease research through promoting national and international collaborations to improve our understanding of biology, and encourage exploitation of proteases/inhibitors/receptors for pharmaceutical and industrial applications.Read moreRead less
Gut Absorption of Constrained Peptides for Local and Systemic Targeting. Aims: This project aims to investigate how peptides are absorbed across the intestinal wall and distributed to organs and fluids in a rodent model by combining bio-analysis and pharmacokinetics with high-resolution microscopy and imaging.
Significance: This project expects to generate the most comprehensive survey to date of the pathways and mechanisms of peptide absorption, biodistribution and immune cell targeting, by ....Gut Absorption of Constrained Peptides for Local and Systemic Targeting. Aims: This project aims to investigate how peptides are absorbed across the intestinal wall and distributed to organs and fluids in a rodent model by combining bio-analysis and pharmacokinetics with high-resolution microscopy and imaging.
Significance: This project expects to generate the most comprehensive survey to date of the pathways and mechanisms of peptide absorption, biodistribution and immune cell targeting, by implementing innovative approaches.
Expected Outcomes: Expected outcomes include significant new knowledge and a new multi-disciplinary platform for measuring peptide absorption.
Benefits: This should provide significant benefits by informing the future design of peptides for supplements, therapeutics and carriers. Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE240100134
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$796,206.00
Summary
Super-resolution platform to accelerate biological and molecular research. This application aims to establish a new molecular analysis platform integrating a microfluid capillary electrophoresis interface directly to a mass spectrometer with advanced data scanning technology. This enables label-free detection, quantitation and characterisation of intact proteins, lipids and metabolites with unprecedented sensitivity, resolution and throughput. It will enhance ARC projects spanning natural produc ....Super-resolution platform to accelerate biological and molecular research. This application aims to establish a new molecular analysis platform integrating a microfluid capillary electrophoresis interface directly to a mass spectrometer with advanced data scanning technology. This enables label-free detection, quantitation and characterisation of intact proteins, lipids and metabolites with unprecedented sensitivity, resolution and throughput. It will enhance ARC projects spanning natural product discovery, biotechnology, agriculture, and animal, plant and marine biology, as well as single-cell proteomics, lipidomics and metabolomics. It will ensure Australia remains at the forefront of molecular and biological research and create new training and collaborative opportunities both nationally and internationally.Read moreRead less
Australian Sea Anemone Venoms: Bioprospecting & Evolution. Australian sea anemones are a highly promising and largely unexplored source of peptides and proteins with potential therapeutic and diagnostic applications. This project aims to evaluate this potential by undertaking transcriptomic analyses of a number species of anemones from Australian waters and identifying peptides and proteins in their venoms by mass spectrometry. It will also demonstrate the value of transcriptomics in informing t ....Australian Sea Anemone Venoms: Bioprospecting & Evolution. Australian sea anemones are a highly promising and largely unexplored source of peptides and proteins with potential therapeutic and diagnostic applications. This project aims to evaluate this potential by undertaking transcriptomic analyses of a number species of anemones from Australian waters and identifying peptides and proteins in their venoms by mass spectrometry. It will also demonstrate the value of transcriptomics in informing taxonomic classification of anemones. In addition this project will assess toxin diversity within and between species based on nematocyst function from specific tissue sources and provide a clearer understanding of the evolution of venoms in Australian Actiniaria.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE200100190
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$620,000.00
Summary
Electrophysiology Platform for Ion-channel Characterisation. Ion channels are ubiquitous pore-forming membrane proteins, with the human genome encoding >300 ion channels. The diverse roles of ion channels include action potential generation, control of ion flow across secretory and epithelial cells, and regulation of cell volume, motility and proliferation. Pharmacological modulators are powerful tools for probing ion channel function, but for most channels these tools are lacking. Thus, this p .... Electrophysiology Platform for Ion-channel Characterisation. Ion channels are ubiquitous pore-forming membrane proteins, with the human genome encoding >300 ion channels. The diverse roles of ion channels include action potential generation, control of ion flow across secretory and epithelial cells, and regulation of cell volume, motility and proliferation. Pharmacological modulators are powerful tools for probing ion channel function, but for most channels these tools are lacking. Thus, this project aims to develop the first comprehensive toolbox of ion channel modulators using an integrated in vitro/in vivo electrophysiology platform. These pharmacological tools will be made freely available to the Australian research community for probing the mechanism and physiological function of ion channels.Read moreRead less
ARC Centre of Excellence in Advanced Molecular Imaging. The Centre of Excellence in Advanced Molecular Imaging will innovatively integrate physics, chemistry and biology to unravel the complex molecular interactions that define immunity. The Centre will develop new imaging methods to visualize atomic, molecular and cellular details of how immune proteins interact and
effect immune responses. Outcomes: (i) new technological innovations leading to new imaging methods and products; and (ii) fundame ....ARC Centre of Excellence in Advanced Molecular Imaging. The Centre of Excellence in Advanced Molecular Imaging will innovatively integrate physics, chemistry and biology to unravel the complex molecular interactions that define immunity. The Centre will develop new imaging methods to visualize atomic, molecular and cellular details of how immune proteins interact and
effect immune responses. Outcomes: (i) new technological innovations leading to new imaging methods and products; and (ii) fundamental advances in understanding details of immune responses in health and disease. The Centre will enable Australia to be an international leader in biological imaging, to train next
generation interdisciplinary scientists, and to provide new insights for combating common diseases that afflict society.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE100100226
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$424,000.00
Summary
Advanced molecular discovery and characterisation facility. Natural product drug discovery in Australia requires access to high throughput functional assays to guide the separation and of novel bioactives with therapeutic potential. By establishing the advanced molecular discovery and characterisation facility in an academic environment across two institutions, research programs in early drug lead discovery and characterisation will be accelerated. It will provide unique capabilities not curren ....Advanced molecular discovery and characterisation facility. Natural product drug discovery in Australia requires access to high throughput functional assays to guide the separation and of novel bioactives with therapeutic potential. By establishing the advanced molecular discovery and characterisation facility in an academic environment across two institutions, research programs in early drug lead discovery and characterisation will be accelerated. It will provide unique capabilities not currently available in Australia, and help Australian researchers remain internationally competitive in breakthrough science and frontier technologies. The research enabled by this facility will lead to development of new drug candidates by the emerging Australian biotechnology industry.Read moreRead less