Machine learning analysis of imaging and sequencing data for cancer diagnosis and prognosis.
This project is suitable for students with experience in computational programming, with a good theoretical background in statistics and machine learning, and are familiar with sequencing data and imaging data. BACKGROUND Almost all suspected cancer patients undergo tissue biopsies stained and examined by pathologists using light microscopy. This method is highly variable, blind to cancer […]
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ASCENT: Randomised controlled feasibility trial to investigate the impact of prepartum antibiotics exposure on childhood allergy
This project is suitable for PhD students. Background Early life from conception to infancy is a delicate stage where the immune system is highly susceptible to the environment. This project was initiated in response to concerns about the routine use of antibiotics during scheduled caesarean sections, despite their known impact on newborns’ microbiota and immune […]
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Mosquito-borne disease transmission in a changing world
Background In recent decades, arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses) have emerged or re-emerged as human and animal pathogens with important implications for public health. These include dengue, Zika and chikungunya viruses, which circulate between humans and the urban mosquitoes, Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus, as well as zoonoses with complex transmission pathways that involving multiple vectors and […]
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Iron homeostasis in developing red blood cells
This project is suitable for PhD students. Background Most of the iron in the body is contained within red blood cells in the form of haemoglobin and is important for the transport of oxygen around the body. During development, red blood cells must have a highly efficient iron uptake pathway to obtain sufficient iron for […]
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Iron homeostasis during pregnancy and the effect of iron supplements
This project is suitable for PhD students. Background Adequate dietary iron intake is vitally important during pregnancy as the consequences of iron deficiency at this time can be severe. Complications can include pre-term delivery, intrauterine growth restriction and irreversible neurological damage in the developing infant. With a recent study suggesting that a staggering 60-70% of […]
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Disease mechanisms, novel therapeutics and molecular diagnostics for scabies
Prospective students (Honours/Masters or PhD) will learn a wide range of molecular biology techniques, protein technology, including protein expression and purification techniques, microscopy, animal work and more. Scabies and associated co-infections cause substantial illness and a major health burden in Indigenous communities of Northern Australia. In particular scabies-caused childhood pyoderma (bacterial skin infection) can cause […]
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The regulation of body iron homeostasis
This project is suitable for PhD students. BACKGROUND Human conditions with disrupted iron homeostasis are very common and most involve the inappropriate production of the peptide hormone hepcidin, which regulates body iron metabolism. Hepcidin is produced by the liver and secreted into the bloodstream where it acts as a negative regulator of intestinal iron absorption […]
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Anti-inflammatory small molecule inhibitor development to control liver inflammation associated with hepatic fibrosis in chronic liver disease
Projects can be adapted to suit Honours, PhD or clinical students. Inflammation is integral in driving early liver scarring (fibrogenesis). The association between hepatic inflammation and circulating ferritin levels in chronic liver disease is well known. However, rather than simply acting as a marker of inflammation, our research has demonstrated that the H-subunit of Ferritin […]
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MicroRNAs as anti-fibrotic agents to treat liver scarring, fibrosis and cirrhosis in chronic liver disease
Projects can be adapted to suit Honours, PhD or clinical students. Virtually all biological processes in eukaryotic cells are regulated by microRNAs that control protein-coding gene expression. Our laboratory has identified a number of different microRNAs that regulate the expression of collagen in liver disease and that can be manipulated to control liver scarring or […]
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