Research Projects
Prophylactic dressing to minimise sacral pressure injuries in high risk hospitalised patients: A pilot study
Rachel Walker
01 Jan 2013 - 01 Jan 2014
grant
Prophylactic dressing to minimise sacral pressure injuries in high risk hospitalised patients: A pilot study
Rachel Walker
01 Jan 2013 - 01 Jan 2014
grant
Fish Detection Conference
Ghazalnaz Sharifonnasabi
15 Oct 2024 - 20 Oct 2024
. In the evolving landscape of aquaculture, maintaining optimal fish health is pivotal for sustainability and productivity. Traditional health monitoring methods are labor-intensive and subject to human error, leading to inconsistencies in early disease detection and treatment. Utilizing the data obtained from James Cook University Singapore Aquaculture Laboratory consisting of videos of seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax) movements. We implemented a YOLOv8-based detection system to facilitate faster and more accurate detection of seabass under typical farming conditions. Our results demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach, achieving a mean Average Precision (mAP) at the 50th percentile intersection over union (IoU) threshold of 0.824 and a mAP between the 50th and 95th percentiles of 0.358. Future work will focus on expanding this detection system to perform real-time behaviour analysis through fish trajectory tracking under various environmental conditions, enhancing early disease detection capabilities.
ARC Industrial Transformation Training Centre in Plant Biosecurity
Lori Lach
01 Aug 2024 - 30 Aug 2029
The Biosecurity Training Centre aims to deliver a solution for Australia’s increasing biosecurity risk through generational change in its workforce coupled with breakthrough technologies. It will launch an innovative training program for future leaders who will build relationships with end users and engage meaningfully with communities for effective implementation strategies. The Centre will provide data-driven systems, behavioural change for adoption and authentic industry engagement. This suite of graduates and technologies will transform the biosecurity sector and protect Australia’s critical agricultural industries.
Eco-evolutionary dynamics and the maintenance of organismal diversity
Megan Higgie
03 Jun 2024 - 31 Dec 2025
This project is a collaboration Megan Higgie at JCU and Jan Hrcek of the Czech Academy of Sciences. It is funded by a European Research Council Consolidator Grant (2024-2028) to Jan Hrcek, with Megan Higgie as a named collaborator: the project looks at rapid evolution in species interactions between Drosophila and parasitoid wasp species investigating the mechanisms involved in the maintenance of diversity in communities and variation in populations of tropical rainforests.
Australian tropical rainforests in the face of climate change
Lucas Cernusak
01 Jul 2024 - 31 Dec 2026
This project aims to investigate the roles of increasing atmospheric water stress and rising carbon dioxide in driving changes in tree performance and species composition in Australian tropical rainforests. Forest census plots indicate increasing tree mortality, but the mechanisms through which this is occurring are unknown. Experiments will be conducted to unravel the underlying physiological processes. Community-level behaviour will be investigated with eddy covariance and remotely sensed data. The project expects to generate new knowledge about responses of Australian tropical rainforests to climate change. The expected outcome is an enhanced capacity to understand and manage a unique and highly valued component of the Australian forest estate.
Improving skin cancer research capacity by establishing a skin cancer biobank at Townsville University Hospital
Ulf Schmitz
01 Aug 2024 - 31 Jul 2026
Australia has the highest incidence of skin cancer worldwide and of all states and territories, Queensland has the highest rate in Australia.
The skin cancer biobank will provide a prospectively collected pre-treatment and post-treatment tissue and serum cohort to allow us to study the biomarkers of tumour and its immune microenvironment with next generation tools (e.g. spatial analysis of proteomic and genomic, single cell sequencing, artificial intelligence, machine learning, etc). We aim to use these biomarkers along with our prospective registry of patients with high-risk skin cancer to further characterise the cancer and immune biology of high-risk skin cancer, response to treatment, and develop new treatment targets in the future.
How magnetic resonance impacts on immune regulatory factor secretion from brain tumour cells during radiotherapy
Ulf Schmitz
01 Aug 2024 - 31 Jul 2026
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
1. To investigate how magnetic resonance impacts on brain tumour cell growth and immune regulatory factor secretion from brain tumour cells during radiotherapy
2. To identify and quantify specific immune regulatory factors which are observed during irradiation within a magnetic field and without
Circulating human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA for surveillance of HPV-related oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (HPV-OPSCC)
Ulf Schmitz
01 Aug 2024 - 31 Jul 2026
We hypothesize that cHPV-DNA-based post-treatment surveillance via capture-based
NGS would have excellent negative predictive value (NPV) and positive predictive value
(PPV) similar or superior to PCR-based testing in patients with HPV-OPSCC, leading to
improvement in outcome prediction. We also hypothesize that cHPV-DNA-based surveillance
is more cost-effective compared with standard routine clinical follow-up.