Student Projects

We have a wide range of student projects, and many can be tailored to a student’s project research interests. View a list of projects available to students studying their PhD, Honours or Masters.

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Genetic causal inference in diverse populations

PROJECT DESCRIPTION: Mendelian randomization (MR) is a genetic-based causal inference technique to assess the relationship between specific risk factor and disease outcome of interest through the use of suitable genetic proxies. Success of MR is primarily attributed towards the abundance of gene-mapping discoveries accumulated to date. In the past, our group had made significant contribution […]

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Surveillance, prediction and control of mosquito-borne zoonotic disease outbreaks in Australia: case studies on Ross River Virus and Japanese Encephalitis

Vector-borne diseases are responsible for a large proportion of the global infectious disease burden. In Australia this includes the endemic mosquito-borne disease Ross River Fever and the emergence of Japanese Encephalitis. The incidence of both viruses has strong seasonal and climatic drivers, which in turn affect the ecology of mosquito vectors, vertebrate hosts and transmission. […]

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Investigating the Anti-Cancer Activity of the Epxoytigliane Familiy

Suitable for Honours, PhD and clinical students Previous work performed by the Drug Discovery Group, together with QBiotics Ltd. (an Australian based biotech company situated in North Queensland), has led to the identification of a family of natural products (the Epoxytigliane family) with significant anti-cancer potential. Intratumoural injection of the prototypical member of this family, […]

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Olfactory stem cells for investigating the causes and progression of dementia

BACKGROUND With no clinical success yet achieved from amyloidtargeting strategies, there is an urgent need to gain new insights and develop effective treatments for people who have dementia. New stem cell-based approaches have generated much excitement in dementia research with the potential to study patient-derived neurons and supporting cells. However, the commonly used ‘pluripotent’ stem […]

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Eye disease genetics

Suited to someone with an undergraduate or Master’s degree in genetic epidemiology, epidemiology, statistics or bioinformatics. Experience in the analysis/manipulation of large datasets and a good knowledge of computing is desirable. Experience in ophthalmic genetics advantageous but not essential. Non-statistical applicants must be able to demonstrate some knowledge of statistics. For statistical applicants, some knowledge […]

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Complex neoantigen prediction in cancers

Suitable for PhD, Masters or Honours Students. The project requires knowledge of python or R, preferably both. Next generation sequencing has allowed researchers to characterise the somatic landscape of cancer genomes, which has led to the discovery of biomarkers that may be predictive and prognostic to targeted therapies. However, the efficacy of current targeted therapies […]

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Identifying risk factors for problematic internet use and video gaming in Australian adults

Suitable for Honours students only. This project is most suitable for students with a strong background in Psychology/Psychiatry and statistical analysis. The proliferation of computers, gaming consoles and widespread use of the internet in the last 15 years has resulted in the emergence of behavioural addictions to digital technology, namely the internet and video games, […]

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Generating Alzheimer’s microglia for testing patient responses to immune-modulating compounds

Alzheimer’s disease is anticipated to affect 100 million patients with an annual cost of US$1 trillion by 2050. Promising amyloid-clearing therapies have failed to translate to clinical outcomes, and new approaches targeting the underlying molecular pathways of Alzheimer’s disease are urgently required. There has been a ‘re-awakening’ to the critical role of microglia in Alzheimer’s […]

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Development of metal-based therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases

PhD project but may also be considered for an Honours project Biological trace elements, also known as trace minerals, or biometals include copper, zinc, iron, selenium and manganese. These and other biometals have essential roles in many areas of brain function including energy metabolism, transcription factor activity, antioxidant regulation and synaptic signalling. During ageing and […]

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