Student topics

This project will explore the current attitudes of Australian industry players, startups and consumers towards lab grown ‘real’ meats (ie chicken, beef etc - not vegetarian products). It aims to give projections regarding behaviour when a new product is launched and how to develop suitable marketing recommendations on how to launch, branding, costs, who would actually buy this new product, and creating demand for these products.

Study level

PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours

School

School of Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations

Epithelial Cells (ECs) constitute the border between the host immune system and an environment teeming with inhaled antigens. Work from us and others has highlighted that ECs have the ability to express the antigen processing and presentation machinery, Major Histocompatibility Complex class II (MHC II) that is important in initiating immune responses. MHC II expression and function on mucosal epithelial cells, is not well understood.Whilst MHC II is expressed by ECs, and is altered with inflammation, there is a paucity …

Study level

Master of Philosophy, Honours

Faculty

Faculty of Health

School

School of Biomedical Sciences

The effective regeneration of brain tissue requires an understanding of the factors mediating the damage as well as the integration of new/replacement cells to form new functional neural networks. The isolation and expansion of human stem cells and limited neural lineage differentiation have provided the foundation for strategies in the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders. We utilise iPSC-derived NPCs and patient-derived (Alzheimer’s disease; AD) iPSCs and neural lineage differentiation of hMSCs, iPSC NPCs and AD iPSCs in neuronal and glial culture …

Study level

PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours

Faculty

Faculty of Health

School

School of Biomedical Sciences

Neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s Disease continue to impact the quality of life of a significant number of Australians, yet they remain untreatable. If we focus on how human neural stem cells behave normally and compare them to similar cells from Alzheimer’s patients, we will likely gain a better understanding of what has gone wrong and potentially how to stop it or fix it.

Study level

PhD, Honours

Faculty

Faculty of Health

School

School of Biomedical Sciences

Research centre(s)

Centre for Genomics and Personalised Health

Chronic wet cough is among the commonest symptoms of chronic lung disease. In Australia, the most common cause of childhood chronic wet cough is protracted bacterial bronchitis (PBB), a clinical entity we first described. It has now been shown to be a precursor to bronchiectasis, which causes substantial morbidity and mortality, especially from acute respiratory exacerbations. Lung inflammation in children with persistent chronic wet cough is an important driver of ongoing and progressive tissue damage, leading to bronchiectasis, highlighting the …

Study level

PhD

Faculty

Faculty of Health

School

School of Public Health and Social Work

Research centre(s)

Centre for Healthcare Transformation
Australian Centre for Health Services Innovation

Prostate cancer remains one of the leading causes of global death. The tumour microenvironment (TME) including blood vessels, immune cells, fibroblasts, and the extracellular matrix (ECM) possesses disease-specific biophysical and biological factors that are difficult to recapitulate using conventional in vitro cell culture models.The absence of these factors, however, causes cells to display abnormal morphologies, polarisation, proliferation, and drug responses, thereby limiting the ability to translate research findings from traditional cell culture into clinical practice.Recent advances in organ-on-a-chip technology enable …

Study level

Honours

Faculty

Faculty of Health

School

School of Biomedical Sciences

Several factors strongly influence an individual’s chance of developing melanoma. Paramount amongst these are the number of moles (nevi) present on the skin, cumulative levels of UV exposure and skin pigmentation phenotype. Numerous Genome Wide Association Studies (GWAS) we have identified gene variants at a number of loci that are strongly associated with cutaneous nevi (mole) counts, UV damage response and accordingly susceptibility of individuals to develop melanoma. Currently the functional impact of genetic variants in the genes IRF4, PLA2G6 …

Study level

Master of Philosophy, Honours

Faculty

Faculty of Health

School

School of Biomedical Sciences

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are membrane bound packages of information constantly being released by all living cells, including bacteria. There are many types and sizes of EVs. Each EV type contains its own distinctive cargo consisting of characteristic DNA, RNA, and proteins. We are just beginning to understand the many roles of EVs to maintain the health of the cell producing the EVs, and to communicate with other cell types that take up the EVs produced by neighbouring cells. Since EVs …

Study level

Honours

Faculty

Faculty of Science

School

School of Mathematical Sciences

Osteosarcoma (OS) is the most common malignant bone tumour affecting children and adolescents. Importantly, clinical outcomes have not improved for decades, and bone tumours remain to be a leading cause of cancer-related death in adolescents.By identifying ideal treatment approaches for each individual patient, precision oncology has the potential to significantly improve these outcomes. Yet, its widespread application is hindered by a lack of biomaterials that support the reproducible and robust generation of patient-derived osteosarcoma organoids in vitro.Therefore, this project will …

Study level

PhD, Master of Philosophy

Faculty

Faculty of Health

School

School of Biomedical Sciences

Research centre(s)

Centre for Biomedical Technologies