Flaviviruses Must Come Of Age: Design Of Stable, Mature Particles By Structural Vaccinology
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$1,149,487.00
Summary
We have established a powerful toolset combining advanced structural biology and rapid virus engineering that allows us investigate the assembly of flaviviruses in novel ways. This project will integrate these approaches to investigate the role of new ligands that we have identified in the structure of medically-relevant flaviviruses including dengue virus and delineate a novel maturation path for flaviviruses, which will be used to design safer and more effective flavivirus vaccines.
Structure And Mechanism Of Activation Of The Mechanosensitive Ion Channel TACAN
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$997,537.00
Summary
We propose to determine the structure and mechanism of activation of TACAN, a recently identified ion channel that defines a novel and uncharacterised class of channels. TACAN is specifically involved in sensing mechanical pain and contributes to mechanosensitive currents in the pain-receptor type of neurons. Our studies will increase knowledge of this novel class of proteins that will allow for the future development of treatments for several chronic pain conditions including arthritis.
The Ins And Outs Of Endocytosis Inhibition: Providing Diverse Opportunities For Treatment Of Incurable Cancers
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$912,353.00
Summary
The best new immune system anti-cancer drugs only work in ~30% of patients. We found a way to move the drug targets around in people's tumours temporarily to reverse resistance and have tested this in clinical trials. Here we propose to use immunology and the world's frontier electron microscope techniques to work out exactly what is happens to the tumours, immune cells and anti-cancer drugs when they interact in real clinical situations. The aim is to reach at least 60% patient response rate.