Research Projects
Probiotic Egg Allergen Immunotherapy for Treatment of Egg Allergy (Old ID 26604)
Ludwig Lopata
01 Jan 2018 - 12 Dec 2021
Eight percent of children have a food allergy and prevalence is increasing. There is no cure so management requires food avoidance which is difficult to achieve. Accidental ingestion of allergen is common, and can result in life-threatening anaphylaxis of death. A curative treatment is vital to improve management. We recently developed a novel treatment of peanut allergy that resulted in the best response rates yet reported for any therapy in development - a combination treatment comprising Probiotics and Peanut Oral Immunotherapy (PPOIT). It is now essential to conduct a larger trial to enhance the study design and confirm these findings in order to progres this treatment to practice, which is the focus of this research.
Pyrogenic Carbon Sequestration in Australian Soils (Old ID 26923)
Michael Bird
01 Jan 2021 - 31 Dec 2023
Pyrogenic Carbon (PyC; 'charcoal') is a porrly understood component of the global carbon cycle. It is important because it is resistant to degradation and hence has potential soil carbon sequestration benefits. This project applies a new technique (hydrogen pyrolysis) in combination with spectroscopic techniques to quantify PyC in a pan-Australian soil sample set, collected using uiniform stratified sampling and preparation protocols. This will enable the mapping of soil PyC stocks in relation to environmental and soil variables across Australia. The results will enable the understanding of the controls on PyC sequestration potential in Australian soils and contriobute to ongoing efforts to quantify soil stocks and dynamics globally.
Reducing End-of-Catchment Fine Sediment Loads and Ecosystem Impacts (Old ID 26961)
Stephen Lewis
01 Jan 2020 - 10 Dec 2020
A wide range of NESP TWQ Hub projects have focused on the source, transport, fate and impact of sediments on estuarine, coastal and reef ecosystems. These projects have responded to the Reef 2050 Plan water quality targets and Water Quality Improvement Plan aiming to reduce the loss of sediments from catchments to the marine environment. To better manage sediment losses and prioritise remedial actions, it is important to be able to understand and contextualise all of the issues that are involved in this sediment story, from managing catchment sources to defining which types of sediment cause the most harm in the marine environment. The synthesis report will include a list of gully prioritisation tools and sampling methods for detecting sediment and bioavailable nutrients. This project will provide a narrative and synthesis to bring all these threads together. Synthesis of this new knowledge will provide advice on practical on-ground actions for land and sea managers, policy implications and identify remaining gaps for future research and management investments.
Carbon capture and dissemination amongst mangrove forests. (Old ID 27216)
Norm Duke
21 Apr 2021 - 28 May 2021
The aim of this project is to provide the Department, including its specified experts and consultants, with key unpublished and published field data collected by Dr Duke and MangroveWatch - based on broadly defined parameters for carbon capture and dissemination amongst mangrove forests. These data have been gathered over three decades and relate to the significant mangrove ecosystem.
Geospatial analysis and modelling support. (Old ID 27234)
Emma McBryde
01 May 2021 - 30 Apr 2022
One of the major inequities in delivery of health services and of health outcomes occurs at a subnational level with more remote parts of countries suffering poorer health outcomes and lower levels of services. For many diseases, including TB, this is made more difficult to assess owing to poor surveillance infrastructure in remote communities. Hence there are an estimated 3 million missing cases of tuberculosis each year. This can be addressed by geospatial analysis and modelling to identify hidden hotspots and areas of need. Increasingly, more unified and complete data collection systems are in place (DHIS2) allowing geospatial analysis of data sources for facility-based and community-based activities. Understanding the health systems along which these operate; such as referral pathways, and patient/medication/service transport networks allows for simulation of new programs.
Biosecurity in northern Australian prawn aquaculture (Old ID 25021)
Dean Jerry
01 Jul 2018 - 30 Jun 2020
This project addresses biosecurity risk through conducting the first comprehensive and widespread biosecurity audit of Australian prawn farms. This project has two components. The first is to conduct a biosecurity metanalysis using traditional and molecular diagnostic tools to establish what pathogens currently occur on prawn farms and how they relate to productivity. Secondly, once the pathobiome is established the project will formulate a risk management strategy for industry and provide on-farm biosecurity training. Understanding the risk of disease, and increased capacity to detect and monitor on-farm, will lead to more effective management practices for northern Australian prawn aquaculture.
A student-led service model to improve the health and wellbeing of older adults in East Arnhem (Old ID 26276)
Ruth Barker
02 Jan 2019 - 31 Dec 2019
Older persons from remote Aboriginal communities experience disabling consequences of chronic diseases at a disproportionally higher rate than mainstream Australians (Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet 2017). Paradoxically, there is limited and fluctuating availability of allied health professional (Battye & McTaggart, 2003) services to support them. The primary aim of this study is to pilot a student-led service model to improve the health and wellbeing of older persons from East Arnhem who live with the disabling consequences of chronic diseases. The Triple Aim framework will be used to determine health benefits in terms of a) older persons, family and community satisfaction b) health outcomes and c) cost. The secondary aim is to collect preliminary data on the feasibility of the service model and trial protocol within the remote community context. This project will lead to development of a specific protocol for a proposed full-scale multi-site project across northern Australia.
Geology and ore genesis of the Dover Castle Sn + polymetallic ore field, North Queensland (Old ID 26398)
Carl Spandler
01 Apr 2019 - 28 Oct 2019
Recent exploration work in the Dover Castle mining district in North Queensland has defined economically significant polymetallic (Sn-W-Zn-Ag-Pb-In) resources. Geological understanding of how these diverse metal associations occur at economic levels is currently poor, as is the knowledge of potential for further minerlisation at depth. This project will provide crucial baseline geological data, including geochronology, mineralogy, geochemistry, and igneous and hydrothermal alternation characterisation, to better understand the origin of the mineralisation, and the geological controls on its location. This project outcomes will allow more focussed mineral exploration targeting to improve the probability of discovery of further economically significant resources.
Restoring Seagrasses and their Blue Carbon in the Wet Tropics region of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area (Old ID 27910)
Michael Rasheed
16 May 2023 - 30 Jun 2027
Our project team will restore tropical seagrass meadows in far north Queensland and monitor their recovery as well as the response of important ecosystem services they provide. The foundation seagrass species at Mourilyan Harbour disappeared in 2010 following consecutive storm and flood events and has not returned naturally due to isolation from other populations. Recent pilot studies have successfully trialled methods demonstrating seagrass survival and growth more than 12 months after planting. Our Team comprises marine scientists, Indigenous rangers and recreational fishing volunteers. The restoration of these habitats should restore ecosystem functions and services such as the capture and storage of blue carbon, increased biodiversity including economically-important fish, prawn and crab species, improved water quality by trapping sediments and nutrients and enhanced cultural links for Indigenous communities by returning feeding grounds for dugong and turtles.
On the evolutionary rescue of Antarctic marine fauna – did the IPCC AR6 get it right? (Old ID 29003)
Sally Lau
22 May 2023 - 22 May 2025
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Sixth Assessment Report (IPCC-AR6) proposed Southern Ocean biodiversity to be rescued under designated refugia with assisted migration. These arbitrary refugia are defined by areas south of 70°S in West Antarctica, and Prydz Bay in East Antarctica. The decisions should instead be informed via species’ current genetic fitness across the Southern Ocean, a direct measure of extinction risk and success potential for assisted migration. By quantifying genetic fitness, this project 1) demonstrates whether IPCC-AR6’s conservation proposal accelerates species extinction, and 2) establishes genetic-informed refugia and translocation pathways that ensures animal evolutionary resilience under climate change.