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Long-acting antimalarials for malaria chemovaccination NHMRC Ideas Grant - GNT2036883
Associate Investigator
Mitigating heat stress in tropical sheep systems through novel feed solutions
Rising temperatures and intensifying heatwaves in tropical Australia pose a growing threat to sheep welfare, productivity, and the long-term sustainability of the livestock sector. This project investigates the use of feed additives as innovative strategies to reduce the impact of heat stress in sheep.
Sensors to detect body temperature in heat-stressed sheep
This study aims to validate sensors as a reliable indicator of core body temperature in heat-stressed sheep.
Supporting expanded and new research opportunities between JCUS IT and JCU’s Australia campuses
Proposal to visit JCU campuses to create new cross-discipline research opportunities as well as further exploit existing research that has been conducted solely in JCUS so far.
Prototyping virtual field trip resource design with an active immersive blend
JCU Learning and Teaching Innovation Grant, 2024 recipient, for developing virtual field trips
Success and failure in climate (im)mobility policy solutions around the Indo-Pacific
There is a prescient and ongoing need to better understand the drivers, patterns, and required support structures for people, households, and communities engaging with decisions around climate-related (im)mobilities. What we also know is that in these spaces of climate and disaster governance, preparation is exponentially more cost-effective than rapid response.
We propose two key activities to manage the problem of understanding success and failure in climate policy possibility solutions in the Indo-Pacific.
The first aspect is developing a baseline of climate (im)mobility policy solutions. This would involve developing a typology of climate (im)mobilities policy clusters to both highlight the diversity of mobility types that exist within this broad governance area and provide clarity towards what policy and practice should focus on for improved outcomes for people and communities.
The second aspect of this project extends beyond its academic research-based roots to share the findings with policymakers and practitioners across the region. Therefore, we will directly engage with key stakeholders, sharing policy-focused interpretations of the findings and opening up a dialogue to understand the barriers to putting in place the practices we argue for. After these consultations, we will progress to a short, impactful monograph that brings together the academic and the practical to express both the state of climate mobilities governance across Oceania and where the field is heading in the future.
Leveraging native soil microbiota to target melioidosis pathogens in Northern Queensland
Melioidosis is a serious disease caused by the soil bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei (Bps). It is a major health concern in Northern Queensland and other tropical regions. As our modelling predicted, and as confirmed by the sharp rise in local cases in 2025, the incidence of melioidosis is likely to increase with ongoing climate change. At the same time, growing resistance to life-saving carbapenems is making treatment more difficult.
In previous work, we identified Burkholderia ubonensis, a harmless soil bacterium that can selectively inhibit Bps. This finding suggests that native soil microbes may offer a new way to control Bps in the environment and could also provide a source of novel antimicrobial compounds. This project builds on that discovery. We will identify and characterise additional Bps-inhibiting microbes and compounds from Northern Queensland soils, with the aim of developing both environmental control strategies and new therapeutic options for melioidosis.
The role of restoration in conserving matters of national environmental significance (MNES) (Old ID 25011)
This project will review and assess the capacity of active restoration to secure conservation outcomes for Matters of National Environmental Significance across four habitats: giant kelp forests, seagrass communities, saltmarsh communities, and shellfish communities.
Hookworm peptide therapeutic for oral treatment of IBD (Old ID 26317)
We intend to develop an orally delivered peptide that can modulate the immune system and be developed as a therapeutic for inflammatory bowel disease. We have identified a peptide, derived from a hookworm protein, that alleviates the clinical symptoms of experimental colitis when orally administered to mice. The peptide has bioactivity with human cells ex vivo and displays desirable drug-like properties. The aim of this project is to acquire further data on the mechanism of action and formulation conditions to facilitate formal product development prior to licensing and clinical trials.
Rare Earths-Critical Metals for Future Applications
This is a new project. This project aims to develop unusual oxidation state rare earth metal (critical metal) organic complexes with high properties (e.g. reactivity, luminescence, strong magnetism), and small molecule activation of these new species. The project expects to advance knowledge of rare valent rare earth chemistry and to enhance the understanding of direct reactions and C-F activations and rare earth complexes involving organic radical anions. Expected outcomes include expansion of tetravalent lanthanoid chemistry and new structures, reactivity, and magnetic properties. Significant benefits are the applications of Australia's abundant rare earths in catalysis as well as the development of new extraction and separation techniques. The results for LnIV will provide key information for the isolation of stable lanthanoids (IV) complexes with high oxidizing abilities, which is important for the expansion of tetravalent lanthanoid chemistry and its applications in catalysis as well as the development of new separation techniques. Divalent and mixed valent rare earth compounds will expand their synthesis and application. All of them require considerable synthetic innovation and would be a major contribution to knowledge and would open exciting reaction chemistry. The innovation is to build –C-F-Ln bonds and induce C-F activation of fluorine substituted ligands by the direct reactions or redox transmetallation RT reactions from free rare earth metals. The redox-active ligand is a particularly attractive linker to promote magnetic coupling in lanthanoids resulting in complexes displaying exchange coupling and single molecule magnet behaviour. These radical-bridged complexes can be accessed using simple N/O supporting ligands. These findings will pave the way for the synthesis of radical-bridged complexes and suitable tuning of the supporting ligand should lead to improved magnetic communication, exchange-coupled SMMs, and understanding the magnetic properties of the 4f-block metal compounds. The main benefits of the project are advancement of knowledge of rare earth chemistry, especially of highly reactive metal-organic compounds, maintenance of Australia’s position as one of the leaders in this field. Knowledge and innovations acquired in this research will facilitate advances in use of Australia's abundant rare earths in chemical manufacture, catalysis, and recycling. It will add value to Australia’s abundant rare earth resources by providing a base for downstream applications. Moreover, the production of rare earth complexes with improved magnetic properties provides an opportunity for advanced manufacturing in Australia’s fine chemicals industry. The most expensive items are rare earth metals for the synthesis of tetravalent rare earth complexes. e.g. Eu $1200/20g, Yb $1252/100g, Dy $939/100g, Tb, $1565/50g, Pr 782/100g, Lu and Tm are much more expensive. Other necessary expensive reagents include pentafluorobenzene $688/500g, 2,6-Difluoroaniline 349/100g, 2,6-Diisopropylaniline $320/100g, 2,3,4,5-Tetrafluoroaniline $195/25g, 2,3,5,6-Tetrafluoroaniline $276/25g, 2,3,4,5,6-Pentafluoroaniline $342/100g, triethyl orthoformate $277/1L, pyrrole $189/100ml, 3-Pentanone $100/1kg needed to prepare organometallic reagents and ligands. Other important reagents include tris(4-bromophenyl)ammoniumyl hexachloroantimonate $105/5g (the oxidizing agent), Benzophenone ($122/1kg), 4,4´-Dipyridyl ($202/25g), iodine ($147/100g), K/Na metal, et al. A supply of deuterated solvents is needed for NMR spectroscopy, e.g. C6D6 ($495/100g) and C4D8O ($477/10g). Microanalyses are a major cost for a synthetic project as the analyses are determined in London (air-sensitive sample $45/C, H, N) and SQUID measurement will be determined at EPSRC National EPR Facility University of Manchester ($160/h).