Molecular and Cell Biology

David Miller

David Miller

Mechanisms determining Marfan syndrome severity (Old ID 27110)
Sacha Jensen
01 Jan 2021 - 31 Dec 2023
Marfan syndrome (MFS), caused by defects in the protein fibrillin-1, has a wide spectrum of severity with symptoms affecting the heart, bones and eyes. The cause of this variation in severity is unclear. Severe, neonatal MFS and Beal's syndrome result from mutations in corresponding parts of the proteins fibrilin-1 and fibrillin-2. Using clues from these diseases, this project will use new cell engineering techniques to determine why some fibrillin mutations are more severe than others. The results are relevant not only to understanding MFS, but also to understanding how the tissues in our bodies are developed and maintained.
Improving Hepatocellular Carcinoma Immunotherapy
Craig McFarlane
31 Jul 2025 - 31 Dec 2026
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) constitutes 80-90% of all liver cancers and is the third leading cause of cancer-related death globally. There are just a few therapeutic options available for HCC patients. The most promising is immunotherapy, which uses the antibodies atezolizumab, an immune check point inhibitor, and bevacizumab an angiogenic inhibitor, that direct the immune system to kill HCC tumour cells. However, immunotherapy is effective in just 30% of HCC patients and can in some instances promote tumour progression and have adverse effects. The major reason for this is that the HCC immune environment is immunosuppressed in 70% of patients, and the molecular events leading to this are poorly understood. This project will use murine HCC models and atezolizumab and bevacizumab therapeutic equivalents, single cell sequencing and advanced cell biology to decipher how HCC escapes immunotherapy, and hence determine new therapeutic targets to treat immunosuppressed HCC.

EST analysis of the cnidarian Acropora millepora reveals extensive gene loss and rapid sequence divergence in the model invertebrates

The evolutionary history of the coral genus Acropora (Scleractinia, Cnidaria) based on a mitochondrial and a nuclear marker: reticulation, incomplete lineage sorting, or morphological convergence?

A simple plan: cnidarians and the origins of developmental mechanisms

Patterns of coral-dinoflagellate associations in Acropora: significance of local availability and physiology of Symbiodinium strains and host-symbiont selectivity

Maintenance of ancestral complexity and non-metazoan genes in two basal cnidarians

Cnidarians and ancestral genetic complexity in the animal kingdom

Spawning times, reproductive compatibilities and genetic structuring in the Acropora aspera group: evidence for natural hybridization and semi-permeable species boundaries in corals

The role of hybridization in the evolution of reef corals

Sympatric populations of the highly cross-fertile coral species Acropora hyacinthus and Acropora cytherea are genetically distinct

Light-responsive cryptochromes from a simple multicellular animal, the coral Acropora millepora

Title: MSRA Project grant co-investigater [$240 000]
Reseracher: Margaret Jordan (Senior Research Fellow)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2013
Title: RIBG [$48 000]
Reseracher: Margaret Jordan (Senior Research Fellow)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2014
Title: Doctor of Philosophy, University of Pennsylvania
Reseracher: Dena Francis (Lecturer, Molecular Genetics)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2009
End Date: 01 Jan 2015
Title: ASI Travel grant to attend ICI (International congress of immunology), Milan, Italy 2013
Reseracher: Margaret Jordan (Senior Research Fellow)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2013
Title: Equipment grant
Reseracher: Margaret Jordan (Senior Research Fellow)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2013
Title: Wellcome Trust international travel award to attend The Genomics of Common Diseases conference, Oxford, UK.
Reseracher: Margaret Jordan (Senior Research Fellow)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2013
Title: JCU gene scientist Dr Margaret Jordan has been awarded the prestigious Betty Cuthbert Fellowship for her research on Multiple Sclerosis., WIN News
Reseracher: Margaret Jordan (Senior Research Fellow)
Start Date: 18 Jan 2013
Title: Hope for MS cure within the decade, Townsville Bulletin
Reseracher: Margaret Jordan (Senior Research Fellow)
Start Date: 18 Jan 2013
Title: A $2.1 million boost for multiple sclerosis research in 2013, Geelong Business news
Reseracher: Margaret Jordan (Senior Research Fellow)
Start Date: 01 Feb 2013
Title: A winner for Betty Cuthbert Fellowship for 2013. , MS Next
Reseracher: Margaret Jordan (Senior Research Fellow)
Start Date: 01 Feb 2013