Research Projects
Evaluating Next Generation Live Attenuated TB Vaccine Candidates (Old ID 27396)
Andreas Kupz
01 Oct 2021 - 30 Jun 2026
A key strategic goal of the BMGF Global Heatlh TB team is to prevent M. tuberculosis infection and/or TB disease through vaccination to decrease the morbidity public health burden of this epidemic. One pillar of this strategy is to accelerate development of a robust pipeline of 'next generation' candidates. This investment will evaluate novel vaccine candidates that belong to the important platform of live, attenuated mycobacterial strains. Using a head-to-head comparison ion a standardized mouse model of TB, this invesment aims to contribute to that pipeline by identifying a lead live, attenuated mycobacterial candidate(s) for further evaluation and potential development. This head-to-head comparison includes our own vaccine candidate covered by JCU IP.
A machine-learning training library of intertidal seagrass ecosystems to support Australia's National Ocean Accounts. (Old ID 27414)
Nicholas Murray
06 Dec 2021 - 01 Apr 2022
The Australian Government, as a member of the High Level Panel for Sustainable Ocean Economy (Ocean Panel), has committed to a range of priority actions, including the development of a complete sequence of national ocean accounts. Seagrass extent and annual change is an integral part of the accounts. Training data on intertidal seagrass extent is needed to support the development of a national intertidal seagrass extent map, which will be a key deliverable of the National Ocean Accounts. This project will therefore conduct the necessary image interpretation tasks to deliver a machine-learning ready training set of Australia’s intertidal seagrass ecosystems.
The ecological and evolutionary legacy of extreme climatic events for food web resilience (Old ID 27891)
Megan Higgie
01 Jan 2023 - 31 Mar 2026
There is growing evidence that extreme events such as heatwaves will have the most immediate and harmful effects on plants and animals as the climate changes. This is particularly true for species-rich tropical ecosystems, where recent heatwaves have already caused severe population crashes for some species. We therefore need to understand what happens when whole communities of interacting species are subjected to a heatwave or other extreme climatic event. To understand fully how and why ecological communities are altered by extreme events, we need to carry out experiments simulating extreme conditions and follow the consequences over multiple generations. In most contexts such experiments would be practically or ethically impossible. However, we can design experiments that do exactly this by focusing on a special study system: food webs of Drosophila fruit flies and the parasitic wasps that consume them in the rainforests of tropical Queensland.
Forecasting of Vector Borne Diseases (VBD) Capability Development for Improve Deployed Force Planning (Old ID 27925)
Emma McBryde
01 Dec 2022 - 30 Jun 2025
This research project will utilise existing data on vector trapping, weather and disease prevalence to provide capability for outbreak detection and forecasting that are relevant to both military and civilian settings. Thus, we aim that this project will deliver a VB disease surveillance and forecasting system that is capable of: • Incorporating lessons from COVID-19 pandemic responses in coordinating smooth data fusion techniques in gathering VB health data applicable to military and civilian settings. • Extend existing model on ento-epidemiological and climate models, fusing the two models to understand the dynamics of both vector and diseases in region of interest. • Adopt Pypfilt/EpiFX for forecasting and parameter estimation for VB diseases (currently only used for COVID-19). This is to help inform the commander in understanding the risk of VBD to members at AO.
PS311 – JCU NQ Social Worker Placement in General Practice Expansion (Townsville & Cairns) (Old ID 29007)
Ines Zuchowski
01 Jul 2023 - 31 Mar 2026
The aim of this project is to research the benefits and challenges of social work practice in GP clinics to develop evidence-based pathways and integrated care options focused on improving holistic health outcomes for the community and in particular older people, people with chronic disease and first Nation people. This will be achieved by providing funding to GP clinics to hire and support social workers and social work students in their practice. The research will evaluate the project, document and examine the social work contributions and outcomes in GP, and investigate pathways for funding social work in GP.
Enhancing AI detection of dugong and other marine megafauna species (Old ID 30032)
Christophe Cleguer
15 Jun 2023 - 01 May 2024
Standardised aerial surveys have been conducted across northern Australia for over three decades to monitor dugong populations. JCU is currently monitoring dugongs across the entire eastern Queensland coast using conventional observer survey approach. In parallel to the monitoring work, JCU is experimenting the use of aerial images to conduct these large scales surveys. Preliminary results from the image processing work reveals that substantial efforts need to be put in to streamline and fast-track the processing of large image datasets to make imagery survey a cost-effective approach in the future. An AI for detecting dugongs is available but was developed based on images collected in Western Australian waters, a different habitat compared to eastern Queensland inshore waters. Preliminary tests ran by our team suggest that the current AI requires additional research work to improve its level of precision while other competitive AIs also need to be investigated. Upon completion of our tests, our team will outline steps toward the improvement of the current AI and/or exploration of alternative methods with the end goal of producing an automated approach that fast-tracks the processing of large image datasets collected during large-scale marine wildlife surveys.
Seagrass monitoring for Inshore Marine South Zone for the Mackay-Whitsunday-Isaac Healthy Rivers to Reef Partnership (Old ID 31079)
Michael Rasheed
01 Jul 2023 - 30 Jun 2026
Continuation of annual seagrass monitoring program and development and implementation of seagrass condition report card in the south zone of the Mackay-Whitsunday-Isaac region.
Tropical Disease - Immunity, pathogenesis and vaccine development: global translation (Old ID 20729)
Alex Loukas
01 Jan 2013 - 31 Dec 2017
Tropical diseases create a significant human and economic burden worldwide - particularly in resource-poor settings. Around half of the world's population is at risk of malaria. In Australia, Streptococcal and parasitic worm infections are particularly common in indigenous communities. This Program brings together leading experts to tackle these major health challenges. They are investigating how the body reacts to infection and creating new drugs and vaccines to eradicate these diseases.
Sub-catchment scale monitoring, modelling and extension design to support reef water quality improvement (Old ID 22241)
Aaron Davis
01 Jul 2015 - 31 Mar 2016
This project aims to develop a sub-catchment scale water quality monitoring program in key cane growing catchments to provide more refined spatial and extension targeting of management action change to reduce nutrient and pesticide runoff from cane areas in order to meet GBR Reef Plan targets. The project will be developed in two key catchments, with a small pilot component to provide 'proof of concept'. The subsequent plan will provide the template for GBR catchment wide water quality monitoring by government agencies.
Integrated online platform for delivery of digital health services by a multi-disciplinary team of allied health professionals (Old ID 23626)
Ruth Barker
10 Apr 2018 - 06 Apr 2019
This project aims to create an integrated online platform for multi-disciplinary allied health professionals to provide evidence-based digital health support and services to communities, organisations and clients, especially those in rural and remote communities, vulnerable groups and/or those who would otherwise not be able to access quality health services within Queensland, Australia and other countries. This project provides solutions to challenges associated with a sustainable design for service delivery compared to current models that involve significant funding in order to access these populations. This project has the potential to reach these geographically dispersed communities while reducing costs through decreased travel.