Research Projects
State of the Arts in Cairns (Old ID 26201)
Lisa Law
02 Mar 2018 - 31 Dec 2023
Cairns Regional Council has aspirations to become the Arts and Culture Capital of Northern Australia and has embedded this in their Strategy for Culture and the Arts 2022. This research works alongside the Strategy to: * Develop indicators that can measure the extent and change in the arts and creative industries over time (using Census data, Council/Stakeholder data) * Identify opportunities for growth in the creative sector (using the Culture Map, interviews with arts/culture industries). * To produce a State of the Arts in Cairns Report summarising the data and analysis (which can inform appropriate, place-based development of creative industries policies).
Quantifying the acute physical, cognitive and physiological responses of various training modalities in Australian Soldiers (Old ID 26736)
Brian Heilbronn
05 Feb 2020 - 31 Dec 2025
The project sets out to answer the following research question: What is the degree of stress, fatigue and recovery experienced by Australian Soldiers after bouts of occupationally specific physical activities? To answer this question, the project will develop an evidence-based assessment protocol to assess levels of fatigue and stress in Soldiers after bouts of occupationally related strenuous activities across various periods of employment. This will inform the chain of command on appropriate recovery times for different modalities of training, ensuring that soldiers remain combat-ready throughout their training cycles and minimise symptoms overtraining.
CHRONIC PELVIC PAIN FAECAL MICROBIOME STUDY (Old ID 27087)
Donna Rudd
11 Dec 2020 - 25 Sep 2025
Chronic pelvic pain (CPP) is defined as non-cyclical pain in the area of the pelvis for most days for more than 3-6 months, unrelated to pregnancy. Prevalence of CPP worldwide is estimated to be between 15 % to 25.4%.In the recent years the important role the human gut microbiome plays in health has been elucidated. Several studies have indicated a strong link between dysbiosis of the gut microbiome and CPP aetiology. There is growing interest in the interaction between the gut microbiome and CPP. This project will analyse the microbiome of patients with CPP and explores any possible associations.
Novel biologics for pediatric inflammatory bowel disease and necrotising enterocolitis, inspired by host-parasite co-evolution. (Old ID 27128)
Roland Ruscher
01 Feb 2021 - 31 Aug 2022
Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) pose a major health burden with severe symptoms, and IBD onset in childhood is on the rise. Necrotising enterocolitis (NEC) is another inflammatory bowel condition that affects preterm infants, and in which inflamed parts of the gut die. Current treatment methods are insufficient. Intestinal parasites have developed strategies to modulate our immune responses through secreted proteins. We identified seven helminth-secreted proteins that suppress gut inflammation. We now would like to assess which of our preselected proteins are best in the context of early life IBD and NEC.
Development and deployment of a subunit vaccine against bovine babesiosis (Old ID 27171)
Brian Cooke
01 Sep 2020 - 28 Feb 2024
Bovine babesiosis caused by Babesia bovis is a tick‐transmitted disease that causes severe, often fatal disease in cattle, resulting in significant economic losses to beef and dairy industries worldwide, as well as to individuals and small subsistence farmers in endemic areas. This project aims to make a dual‐acting, subunit vaccine against babesiosis that is practical and easily deployable in babesiaendemic regions worldwide to prevent both acute disease in infected animals and parasite transmission by tick vectors. Farmers will benefit by protecting their animals against bovine babesiosis and achieve improved livestock production to meet local and global demand for animal products.
Unravelling novel immune parameters that correlate with BCG vaccination in humans. (Old ID 27409)
Andreas Kupz
02 Nov 2021 - 02 Nov 2022
Tuberculosis (TB) is a leading infectious cause of death globally and is over-represented in Indigenous people in Far North Queensland. The only licensed TB vaccine, Bacille Calmette– Guérin (BCG), which is universally used to prevent TB in children, fails to protect against pulmonary TB in adults, and it is not known why protection wanes in adolescence. This project aims to unravel the immunological correlates that correlate with BCG-mediated protection in humans. Using high-dimensional immune profiling and microbiome analyses we will compare immune responses to BCG vaccination with Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection in children in the FNQ/Torres Strait region.
AuScope Geochemistry Laboratory Network (AGN) – IsoTropics Partnership (Old ID 27574)
Brandon Mahan
22 Mar 2022 - 30 Jun 2023
Curtin has received funding from AuScope Pty Ltd for a research project entitled AuScope Geochemistry Laboratory Network (AGN). As part of the project, Curtin is looking to collaborate with new partners to expand its AusGeochem data repository to allow it to become a key resource in quantitatively understanding the evolution of earth system processes that have shaped the Australian continent and its resource endowment. In 2021, AuScope released additional funding to Curtin to allow an expansion of the AGN through a Data Partnerships Expansion (DPE) project. Expectations of new AGN Data Partner institutions will be to: (1) manage the employment contract for the AGN Data Scientist; (2) register and upload a minimum of 150 geochemical datasets obtained from rock or mineral samples to AusGeochem. At JCU, AUD$50,000 (excl GST) is being provided to support the costs of employing an AGN Data Scientist. The funding will be paid upon invoice to be accompanied by a statement of expenditure.
GBRF EOI Island Monitoring (Old ID 27698)
Scott Smithers
01 Jun 2022 - 30 Jun 2024
The more than 1000 islands and cays in the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) World Heritage Area (GBRMPA spatial data, 2019) support a diverse range of ecological, cultural and economic values. Many are threatened by climate change, but monitoring and management is difficult as many cays are remote and difficult to access. This project will develop and implement an efficient drone-based hierarchical monitoring protocol based on the recognition and use of ‘natural ground control points’ that will enable more rapid and resource efficient capture of reef island status to inform management decisions.
CYWP Annan Sediment Tracing (Old ID 27825)
Zoe Bainbridge
14 Oct 2022 - 30 Nov 2024
Prepare, analyse and report on Annan Catchment tributary water samples for geochemistry and grain size, to assess the sources of sediment to Walker Bay.
Investigating the archaeological values of Marra cultural heritage sites (Old ID 31114)
Cassandra Rowe
01 Jan 2023 - 31 Dec 2027
This project aims to investigate the archaeological landscape of Limmen National Park, the traditional Country of the Marra people, and to inform the creation of a cultural heritage management plan. It builds on a long-standing relationship with the Marra and the urgency to preserve their cultural knowledge associated with the Park. The project will use a two-way thinking methodology, combining contemporary Aboriginal knowledge with archaeological and anthropological data to understand the meaning of the archaeological record for Aboriginal people today. Key outcomes include data for continent-wide archaeological narratives, a holistic blueprint to help manage the Park’s cultural heritage, and an archive for Traditional Owner research.