Molecular and Cell Biology

Mila Grinblat

Mila Grinblat

Dena Francis

Dena Francis

David Whitmore

David Whitmore

Margaret Jordan

Margaret Jordan

Patrick Schaeffer

Patrick Schaeffer

Sacha Jensen

Sacha Jensen

Lionel Hebbard

Lionel Hebbard

Craig McFarlane

Craig McFarlane

Alanna Sorenson

Alanna Sorenson

Alan Baxter

Alan Baxter

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: Grant reviewer for Heart Foundation Vanguard Grants
Reseracher: Craig McFarlane (Associate Professor)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2025
Title: Logan Foundation Travel Scholarship
Reseracher: Margaret Jordan (Senior Research Fellow)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2007
Title: Day of Immunology event, JCU, 2013
Reseracher: Margaret Jordan (Senior Research Fellow)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2013
End Date: 01 Jan 2013
Title: National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Ideas Grant
Reseracher: Craig McFarlane (Associate Professor)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2019
Title: Travel award to attend Brisbane Immunology Group Meeting, Sunshine Coast, Brisbane
Reseracher: Margaret Jordan (Senior Research Fellow)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2019
Title: NHMRC A*STAR Molecular Mechanisms of Obesity and Metabolic Diseases Scientific Symposium, Sydney
Reseracher: Craig McFarlane (Associate Professor)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2015
Title: Food & Nutrition session chair at A*STAR scientific conference.
Reseracher: Craig McFarlane (Associate Professor)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2014
Title: Co-organizer of the A*STAR Scientific Conference
Reseracher: Craig McFarlane (Associate Professor)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2014
Title: Aging & Metabolism session chair at A*STAR scientific conference.
Reseracher: Craig McFarlane (Associate Professor)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2013
Title: Selected to participate in the inaugural scientific debate team at the A*STAR scientific conference
Reseracher: Craig McFarlane (Associate Professor)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2013