Research Projects
Culturally Responsive Diabetes Prevention (CDP) Program for Children of First Nations in North Queensland –A Pilot Study
Hyacinth Udah
01 Jan 2024 - 31 Dec 2024
A Pilot Study to understand culturally responsive diabetes prevention (CDP) program for children of First Nations in North Queensland
JCU-NEEPU joint PhD program-MOU
Jiajia Yang
08 Oct 2024 - 08 Oct 2027
James Cook University and Northeast Electric Power University intend to work towards the establishment of an exchange and training program for postdoctoral and Ph.D. candidates in electrical power systems, renewable energy and electronic information.
JCU-NEEPU joint PhD program-MOU
Jiajia Yang
08 Oct 2024 - 08 Oct 2027
James Cook University and Northeast Electric Power University intend to work towards the establishment of an exchange and training program for postdoctoral and Ph.D. candidates in electrical power systems, renewable energy and electronic information.
Geodynamic Andes eXploration Initiative (GAXI)
Daniel Wiemer
01 Sep 2024 - 31 Aug 2028
The project is aimed to advance understanding of the spatial and temporal distribution and genesis of Cu-Mo-Au/Au-Cu and Au-Ag mineral systems and the potential for other associated critical minerals and their exploration targeting along the western margin of South America. The project’s South America focus region provides exceptional opportunities to drive new greenfield ore discoveries. The project is designed to enhance the overall discovery potential of western South American margin and unlock new prospective areas for diverse commodities and deposit types and reduce search space through increased predictive power and effectiveness in ongoing exploration programs.
Workshopping a reef restoration toolkit for Wallis et Futuna as a model for Pacific Island nations
Hillary Smith
11 Oct 2024 - 01 May 2026
This project aims to achieve two main objectives:
1) Rapid analysis of recent mass coral bleaching and recovery in Wallis and Futuna. Utilising existing photographic data (from April 2024), we will use CoralNet point-count software to identify severely affected reef sites and assess bleaching severity and susceptibility of coral species between sites. Follow-up surveys in October 2024 will determine bleaching-related mortality and recovery progress prior to summer 2024/2025. These surveys, conducted by the Wallis and Futuna Service Territorial de l’Environnement (STE), will compare data with the April surveys. Additionally, discussions are underway with National Geographic to include a summer 2025 survey. This analysis will guide prioritisation of reefs for restoration intervention and identify resilient reefs for protection.
2) Support three representatives from the Wallis and Futuna STE to attend specialised training in Townsville, Australia in February 2025, with online preparatory training from August 2024 to February 2025. Townsville is a leading hub for reef restoration research, with state of the art facilities and leading scientists. Training will focus on participatory reef monitoring, restoration techniques, and experimental design, facilitated by collaborators at the Australian Institute of Marine Science. Activities include visits to restoration sites, training on technologies such as CoralClip, coral gardening, ReefSeed, ‘sea-weeding,’ and ReefCloud, presentations on emerging restoration methods, and workshops for adapting techniques to local contexts. Reciprocal knowledge exchange will help guide both future Australian research to be applicable for Pacific islands, as well as arm Wallisian and Futunian delegates with knowledge to develop strategies for reef monitoring and management into the future.
Rejuvenating agricultural soils to enhance productivity, resilience and carbon sequestration
Paul Nelson
15 Oct 2024 - 31 Dec 2028
This project builds on earlier work to validate scaled application of weatherable minerals to effectively wind back the highly weathered infertile nature of soils across 8 regions of Australia. Basalt as a triple-purpose agricultural input will deliver a low-cost synthetic fertiliser substitute, a means for effective carbon sequestration through both soil organic and soil inorganic pathways and it will build physical soil resilience through improved structure and water-use efficiency. We expect outcomes will improve the efficiency of farm inputs, enhance the condition of natural resources, and increase the resilience of agricultural landscapes to climatic variations, both short and long-term.
Improving skin cancer research capacity by establishing a skin cancer biobank at Townsville University Hospital
Ludwig Lopata
01 Aug 2024 - 30 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.
Circulating human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA for surveillance of HPV-related oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (HPV-OPSCC)
Ludwig Lopata
01 Aug 2024 - 30 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.
Am I Talking to a Real Person? Experimental Investigations into Human Perceptions of Therapeutic Chatbots
Therapeutic chatbots could enhance the accessibility of psychological treatments, reducing wait times and costs; yet questions remain about user acceptance. Millet et al. (2023) highlight biases against AI-generated art, suggesting a similar bias may exist for perceptions of therapeutic chatbots. This program of experimental research will investigate whether therapeutic communications are perceived as less empathetic when attributed to therapeutic chatbots, as opposed to humans, across three populations: the general community; therapists/counsellors; and mental health app users. This research will inform future integration of chatbots into digital interventions, including their suitability across different contexts, and highlight targets for improved user experience.