The Biology And Therapeutic Manipulation Of Lymphatic Vessels In Human Disease
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$5,688,743.00
Summary
This proposal is for an established team of researchers and clinicians to explore the molecular control of the lymphatic system. This network of lymphatic vessels, located in organs throughout the body, is critical for regulation of tissue fluid and immune function. This program will explore the molecules which control the function of lymphatic vessels and their interactions with other cells in the body. It will greatly enhance our understanding of the lymphatic vessels and identify molecular ta ....This proposal is for an established team of researchers and clinicians to explore the molecular control of the lymphatic system. This network of lymphatic vessels, located in organs throughout the body, is critical for regulation of tissue fluid and immune function. This program will explore the molecules which control the function of lymphatic vessels and their interactions with other cells in the body. It will greatly enhance our understanding of the lymphatic vessels and identify molecular targets for medicines designed to treat cancer, cardiovascular disease and lymphoedema.Read moreRead less
Inflammation and cancer are at the heart of many human diseases. This particularly applies to the major global problem of liver fibrosis and liver cancer affecting almost half a billion of the worlds population. This Program brings together researchers with expertise in basic science and the clinic with the aim of exploring these issues at the cellular and molecular level. The ergistic and combinatorial use of basic and clinical skills gives a high likelihood of discoveries leading to new therap ....Inflammation and cancer are at the heart of many human diseases. This particularly applies to the major global problem of liver fibrosis and liver cancer affecting almost half a billion of the worlds population. This Program brings together researchers with expertise in basic science and the clinic with the aim of exploring these issues at the cellular and molecular level. The ergistic and combinatorial use of basic and clinical skills gives a high likelihood of discoveries leading to new therapies.Read moreRead less
The Biology & Therapeutic Manipulation Of Lymphatic Vessels In Cancer & Lymphedema
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,589,101.00
Summary
This proposal brings together a team of researchers from diverse backgrounds who have already made important discoveries about the molecular control of the lymphatic system in normal physiology and cancer. The lymphatic vasculature consists of a network of vessels in organs and tissues that is critical for the regulation of tissue fluid volume and immune function. The lymphatics are also important for the metastatic spread of cancer, as they provide a route by which tumour cells spread to distan ....This proposal brings together a team of researchers from diverse backgrounds who have already made important discoveries about the molecular control of the lymphatic system in normal physiology and cancer. The lymphatic vasculature consists of a network of vessels in organs and tissues that is critical for the regulation of tissue fluid volume and immune function. The lymphatics are also important for the metastatic spread of cancer, as they provide a route by which tumour cells spread to distant sites in the body, and for lymphedema, a condition in which lymphatic dysfunction leads to swelling of tissues. This program will explore the molecular mechanisms that control the growth and differentiation of the lymphatic vessels. It will greatly enhance our understanding of lymphatic vessel growth (lymphangiogenesis) and generate a range of reagents for stimulating or inhibiting this process. These reagents will be tested in animal models for their capacity to modulate lymphatic function in the context of cancer and lymphedema.Read moreRead less
Regulation Of Gene Expression: Biomolecular Interactions In Cellular Development And Disease
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,998,713.00
Summary
This team consists of three of Australia�s younger researchers Merlin Crossley, Joel Mackay and Jacqui Matthews (as Chief Investigators), who are recognized as authorities in the areas of gene regulation and the structural and functional analysis of proteins. They are joined by Mitchell Weiss, a world authority on blood development and clinical disorders,and Alexis Verger, a molecular and cell biologist recruited from France, both as Principal Investigators. Crossley, Mackay and Matthews have wo ....This team consists of three of Australia�s younger researchers Merlin Crossley, Joel Mackay and Jacqui Matthews (as Chief Investigators), who are recognized as authorities in the areas of gene regulation and the structural and functional analysis of proteins. They are joined by Mitchell Weiss, a world authority on blood development and clinical disorders,and Alexis Verger, a molecular and cell biologist recruited from France, both as Principal Investigators. Crossley, Mackay and Matthews have worked as a team for around six years to date, have published together in high-quality international journals, and have received anumber of accolades for their contributions to Australian science. For example, Crossley has won a number of national awards, including the Gottschalk Medal of the Australian Academy of Science; Mackay was recently awarded the Prime Minister�s Prize for Life Scientist of the Year, and Matthews won the only Charles and Sylvia Viertel Medical Research Fellowship to be awarded in 2003. The members of this team have collaborated extensively on the world stage and Crossley, Mackay and Matthews have also taken leadership roles in the Australian scientific community. Mitchell Weiss has been an important collaborator, exchanging reagents and advice, since he and Crossley trained together as postdocs in Stu Orkin�s lab at Harvard in the early 90s. Most recently Weiss, in collaboration with Mackay, has made important discoveries on a-globin production, which has led to several highly significant publications including a seminal paper in Cell in 2004.The program of research put forward in this proposal centres around understanding the mechanisms through which genes are switched on and off, using blood development as a model system, that is also fundamental to human life. The regulation of gene output is essential both during the development of an organism and throughout the course of its life. Problems with this regulation can result in many different disease states, most notably cancer, which includes the many different types of leukemias. At one level, gene output is controlled by networks of specific proteins known as transcription factors that interact both with each other and with DNA. Currently, however, the details surrounding which complexes regulate which genes and the processes that control the making and breaking up of the complexes are not well understood. Knowledge of how these interactions take place will put us in a position to control the output of chosen genes for therapeutic purposes. We propose to use a combination of cell biological, biochemical, and structural approaches to firstly shed light on these complexes and secondly develop reagents that can be used to manipulate the activity of specific genes.Read moreRead less