Research Projects
Filters for Projects
Research Units
Limiting Environmental Impacts While Optimizing Benefits of Rapid Road Expansion in the Asia-Pacific Region (Old ID 22967)
We will assess the impacts of roads and other infrastructure on terrestrial ecosystems of the Asia-Pacific region, focusing on rapidly developing frontier areas in Indonesia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea. Key goals will include devising land-use planning models to reduce environmental costs, maximise economic benefits, and predict the impacts of new roads and infrastructure on the environment. We will work actively with local partners and stakeholders, and engage in a variety of outreach and dissemination activities, to promote more sustainable infrastructure development in our environmentally critical study area.
Torres Strait Seagrass Research (Old ID 23045)
This seagrass research program continues collaborations with TSRA LSLMU Rangers in the Dugong Sanctuary, and will conduct seagrass baseline surveys at Dungeness Reef. The baseline assessment will form the foundation for ongoing monitoring, and provide essential information to the TSRA, Australian and Queensland Governments for dugong and turtle management plans, complimenting dugong and turtle research studies in the region and building skills and capacity of Traditional Owners and Rangers.
Bringing Modern Genomics to the Management of Lung Cancer in Queensland (Old ID 23121)
Our project will overcome many of the issues slowing the implementation of cancer genomics and personalised medicine in the state, including (and where relevant, in partnership with the QGHA capability projects): • We will develop models of care covering all aspects from consent, sample collection and handling, genomic profiling, data analysis and reporting of both somatic and heritable variants, to enable clinical uptake. • We will develop education programs for health care workers and patients. • We will establish protocols for cancer genomics in Indigenous populations in consensus with Indigenous communities. • We will perform a comprehensive analysis of the performance of all aspects of the upgraded model of care and compare it with the current standard of care to identify areas for improvement, and to establish the case for its broader implementation. A system of performance analysis and systems improvement will be built into the care pathways developed, to ensure continuous service improvement beyond the life of this project.
Mangrove Watch NT Pilot Project (Old ID 23562)
The li-Anthawirriyarra, Numbulwar and Yugul Mangi Rangers will participate in the pilot MangroveWatch project in the Northern Territory (Gulf of Carpentaria), in Collaboration with James Cook University and the Territory Natural Resource Management group (TNRM). The Rangers will undertake 2 days of training in the MangroveWatch monitoring methodology and another 2 days of supervised shoreline monitoring assessment in the Gulf of Carpentaria region in early Sept 2017. After this, the Rangers will conduct independent surveys using this training until June 2018. Data collected by the Rangers with be assessed and reported on by the TropWATER scientist partners who will give appropriate feedback to the TNRM and the Ranger groups on the health and condition of shoreline ecosystems in the south-western Gulf region. It is of note that this region was heavily impacted with extensive mangrove dieback in late 2015 as a result of extreme climatic conditions.
Developing a physical activity program for Aboriginal families with Machado Joseph Disease (MJD) living in the Top End of Australia (Old ID 24672)
Worldwide, no research has been conducted to investigate the impact of physical activity on individuals with MJD. MJD is 100 times more prevalent in Aboriginal communities in the Top End than anywhere else in the world. This project will develop a physical activity program derived from the voices of the Warnindilyakwa people with MJD, scientific literature and strengthened using a modified Delphi consensus approach. The program is expected to: • Reduce the impact of MJD and keep families ‘stronger for longer’. • Be transferrable to other communities • Build capacity of community research partners • Develop resources for health services to improve care for MJD families in Australia.
Qcide® Oil Extraction and Processing Technology with the aim to improve the oil extraction process (Old ID 26262)
Implement an on-site experimentation program to establish baseline parameters (temperature, pressure, flow rates, oil yield) for the existing static oil extraction system using instrumentation acquired and installed as part of a previous (Phase 1) project. Evaluate the effect of key extraction process variables on the quantity and quality of the oil, and evaluate product change with process variable(s). Correlate the measurement results with the oil content results to develop an understanding of steam flow, biomass-stream contact and the oil extraction dynamics, and their possible variations from batch to batch. Analysis and reporting of experimentation results.
Barocycler Pressure Cycling Technology Sample Preparation System (Old ID 26471)
To purchase a Pressure Biosciences NEP3229-002 Barocycler Pressure Cycling Technology Sample Preparation System. This instrument is specifically designed for the rapid, robust, versatile, reproducible, and quantitative extraction of nucleic acids, proteins, and small molecules from a wide variety of sources including viruses, bacteria, plant and animal cells and tissues for mass spectrometry applications in genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics. This will drastically improve the reproducibility, speed and cost efficiency and reduces potential contaminations during sample preparation to generate very high quality data.
Probiotic Egg Allergen Immunotherapy for Treatment of Egg Allergy (Old ID 26604)
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)
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)
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.