Research Projects
Elucidating gene pathways and their interactive networks, important in Multiple Sclerosis (Old ID 27273)
Margaret Jordan
01 Jul 2021 - 31 Dec 2022
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, debilitating diseases affecting young adults in Western society, particularly women in their child-bearing years. While we know that there is both a genetic and environmental component to the disease, we still do not know the cause and there is no cure. My research is to uncover knowledge on the genetics of disease to pinpoint targeted treatments, ensuring fewer side effects, and the hope to prevent disease in the future. This grant would provide seed funding to help develop a ground-breaking method and provide preliminary knowledge to attract funding for a more intensive study.
Novel therapeutics for diabetes sourced from Northern Australian biota. (Old ID 27346)
Paul Giacomin
02 Aug 2021 - 30 Jun 2023
he aim of this project is to develop lead diabetes drug candidates from hookworm saliva and build a package for multinational commercial investment. The project aims to deliver the following outcomes: 1. Screen a synthetic hookworm library (consisting of hundreds of hookworm proteins) for anti-inflammatory activity and express lead candidates using pharmaceutical industry standard techniques. 2. Assess efficacy of leads in mouse models of diet-induced T2D. 3. Understand the mechanism of lead drug action and prioritize candidates for progression into clinical development. 4. Set the scene for a burgeoning biotech industry in Northern Australia that is differentiated from those in the south, and indeed globally, by capitalizing on the unique biodiversity of the region and the therapeutic opportunities it presents.
Ecoacoustic data analysis (Old ID 27596)
Lin Schwarzkopf
04 Jan 2022 - 15 Jun 2023
It is now possible to collect and store vast amounts of environmental sound, or bioacoustic data. The promise of environmental recording is that it could allows us to monitor populations of vocal fauna (birds, mammals and amphibians), but there is so much data, it is not possible for expert human listeners to listen to and identify each species. Thus, artificial intelligence, or AI methods would be useful. However, ecologists also lack the large amounts of labelled data required to easily create convolutional neural networks typically used for such tasks. To develop new AI approaches for monitoring fauna, we require skilled people. This grant is intended to support a post-doctoral fellow to conduct this work.
Developing Partnerships Towards Quantifying the Impacts of Climate Change on the Ocean Ecosystem Economy of the Pacific (Old ID 29030)
Reniel Cabral
01 Mar 2023 - 01 Mar 2025
This project will support the initial work of developing relationships with Pacific Island stakeholders and identifying opportunities for co-designing research based on climate changerelated priorities and needs of the Pacific Island Nations. In addition, this project aims to identify existing climate-related programs and initiatives in the Pacific that our team can build upon when designing our long-term research programs. The funding will be used for travel-related costs.
Geological Services, Geita Gold Mine (Old ID 19263)
Paul Dirks
01 Apr 2011 - 31 Dec 2017
The aim of the project is the development of new gold reserves from satellite pits and from the Kukuluma terrain, by building an integrated geological model for the entire tenement area. The area will be mapped, and a regional geological interpretation will be made as a basis for building a genetic model that will enable gold mineralization to be targeted, through ranking existing targets and generating new ones. A training strategy to improve the mine geology team will be implemented.
Palaeo-vegetation, biodiversity and early human dispersal through island Southeast Asia (Old ID 20779)
Michael Bird
01 Jan 2014 - 31 Dec 2016
This study will use newly developed and fully validated isotope techniques to obtain robustly dated proxy records of vegetation change from the thick deposits of cave guano that occur extensively throughout island Southeast Asia (Sundaland). We will test the hypothesis that during the Last Glacial Period, there was a substantial contraction of the rainforest towards the equator into refugia. This led to the development of an open ‘savannah corridor’ connecting savanna north and south of the equator. The project will shed new light on the palaeoclimatology of the region and provide a major contribution to explaining modern biogeographic patterns across Sundaland, as well as the trajectories of early human dispersal through the region.
Effectiveness of exercise intervention on improving psychological effects in prostate cancer patients (Old ID 22378)
Lisa Simmons
20 May 2015 - 31 Dec 2017
This study aims to detemine whether implementing an exercise program for localised prostate cancer patients at the Townsville Cancer Centre will be an effective tool in reducing the side effects of treatment and improving mental health.
Differentiated care for improved health systems efficiency and health outcomes in Zambia (Efficient Health) (Old ID 22391)
Steph Topp
01 Oct 2015 - 31 Mar 2018
Over the last decade, successful roll out of antiretroviral theraph (ART) for HIV infected individuals in Zambia has resulted in over 600,000 adults and children accessing treatment. However, continued scale-up of treatment services is severely straining already overburdened health centres and hospitals. Working with the Government of the Republic of Zambia, this project will conduct formative and operations research to build a body of evidence on the needs for preferences perceptions and feasibility of further decentralised, community-based ART services.
Environmental Water Knowledge and Research: Vegetation theme (Old ID 22787)
Cassandra James
31 May 2016 - 30 May 2019
The Environmental Water Knowledge and Research Project is a five year, $10 million project to improve the science available to support environmental water management, and thereby contribute to achieving the Murray-Darling Basin Plan objectives.
Applying new technologies to enhance biosecurity and cattle quality. (Old ID 23456)
Ian Atkinson
15 Jan 2018 - 30 Jun 2021
The vast natural environment of Northern Australia feeds the cattle industry; however, biosecurity threats have negatively impacted this. Conventional management of such threats such as weeds are not suited to such broad, harsh landscapes. The project will use an Internet of Things network with low-cost environmental sensors, drone mapping and big data analytics to develop and test data-driven, strategic pest management programs - ultimately improving both cattle industry and natural assets.