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Found 14 matching student topics

Displaying 1–12 of 14 results

Understanding and manipulating bacterial motility for infection control (PhD)

The recent COVID 19 pandemic reminds us of how difficult it is to control infectious diseases. Pathogenic microorganisms are known to be extremely 'smart' and are able to quickly develop mechanisms against most of our strategies aimed at eradicating them. Our group is focused on bacterial infections to implants and medical devices. We are in the pursuit to outsmart the bacteria to develop the next generation medical device and implant materials.Bacterial motility/movement and group-coordination on surfaces and in 3-dimensional environment …

Study level
PhD
Faculty
Faculty of Engineering
School
School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering
Research centre(s)
Centre for Biomedical Technologies

Bacteria - mammalian cell interactions in implant-associated infections

The recent COVID-19 pandemic reminds us of how difficult it is to control infectious diseases. Pathogenic microorganisms are known to be extremely 'smart' and are able to quickly develop mechanisms against most of our strategies aimed at eradicating them. Our group is focused on bacterial infections to implants and medical devices. We are in the pursuit to outsmart the bacteria to develop the next generation medical device and implant materials.Anthony Gristina conceptualized in 1987 that bacteria compete with tissue cells …

Study level
PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
Faculty
Faculty of Engineering
School
School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering
Research centre(s)
Centre for Biomedical Technologies

Understanding and manipulating bacterial motility for infection control

The recent COVID 19 pandemic reminds us of how difficult it is to control infectious diseases. Pathogenic microorganisms are known to be extremely 'smart' and are able to quickly develop mechanisms against most of our strategies aimed at eradicating them. Our group is focused on bacterial infections to implants and medical devices. We are in the pursuit to outsmart the bacteria to develop the next generation medical device and implant materials.Bacterial motility/movement and group-coordination on surfaces and in 3-dimensional environment …

Study level
PhD
Faculty
Faculty of Engineering
School
School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering
Research centre(s)
Centre for Biomedical Technologies

Race for the surface: helping implants to win the race

The recent COVID-19 pandemic reminds us of how difficult it is to control infectious diseases. Pathogenic microorganisms are known to be extremely 'smart' and are able to quickly develop mechanisms against most of our strategies aimed at eradicating them.Our group is focused on bacterial infections to implants and medical devices. We are in the pursuit to outsmart the bacteria to develop the next generation medical device and implant materials.When a biomaterial is implanted into the body and bacteria get into …

Study level
PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
Faculty
Faculty of Engineering
School
School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering
Research centre(s)
Centre for Biomedical Technologies

Can virus-based defective interfering particles (DIPS) be used to treat dengue infection?

Infection by dengue virus causes incapacitating and potentially dangerous acute disease in humans. Dengue is a mosquito-borne infectious disease with about 100 million serious clinical infections annually. Considerable effort in drug development is underway, but no effective drug therapy is available. A major difficulty for drug development is the rapid evolution of RNA viruses, like dengue virus, which presents a major challenge for controlling virus transmission and infection using conventional pharmaceuticals and vaccines.This project is based on the observation that …

Study level
Master of Philosophy
Faculty
Faculty of Health
School
School of Biomedical Sciences

A preclinical evaluation pipeline for new antivirulence drugs targeting multidrug resistant bacterial pathogens

A post-antibiotic era—in which common infections and minor injuries can kill—far from being an apocalyptic fantasy, is instead a very real possibility for the 21st century.’ - WHO, 2014 (1). Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global public health priority. If no action is taken, AMR is predicted to kill more people than cancer and diabetes combined by 2050, with 10 million deaths estimated each year and a global cost of up to 100 trillion USD. New therapies to tackle multidrug …

Study level
Master of Philosophy, Honours
Faculty
Faculty of Health
School
School of Biomedical Sciences

Understanding the immunological mechanisms that regulate increased susceptibility to respiratory syncytial viral infection after stem cell transplantation

Allogeneic stem cell transplantation (alloSCT) is considered the gold standard procedure for the treatment of blood cancers. Globally, over 9000 patients per year undergo this high-risk, life-saving therapy. However, major complications limit the therapeutic potential of this treatment which include graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and infections due to the severe immunosuppression in these patients. Respiratory syncytial viral (RSV) infection is frequent in these patients, is often fatal and clearly a significant clinical problem. Thus, there is a pressing need for new …

Study level
PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
Faculty
Faculty of Health
School
School of Biomedical Sciences

Antibiotic-loaded polymer nanoparticulate inhaled formulations against lung infections associated with COPD and CF

Lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) are one of the fatal diseases of the lungs that have severe impacts on public health especially the Indigenous people. The currently available antibiotics administered orally for the treatment of LRTIs need high doses with frequent administration and cause dose-related adverse effects.To overcome this problem, we will investigate the development of antibiotic-loaded polymer nanoparticles (NPs) for potential pulmonary delivery from dry powder inhaler (DPI) formulations. This study will address the release profile of the antibiotic …

Study level
PhD
Faculty
Faculty of Health
School
School of Clinical Sciences
Research centre(s)
Centre for Materials Science
Centre for Immunology and Infection Control

Dissecting the molecular and cellular basis of melanoma susceptibility

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

Characterisation of emerging multidrug resistant E. coli pathogens

The last fifteen years have witnessed an unprecedented rise in the rates of antimicrobial resistance among Gram-negative bacteria, described by the World Health organisation as a global health crisis (1). Escherichia coli sequence type 131 (E. coli ST131) is a ‘high-risk’ group of Gram-negative pathogens that have emerged rapidly and spread worldwide in the period of the last 10 years (2). E. coli ST131 strains are typically resistant to multiple classes of antibiotics and cause bloodstream and urinary tract infections …

Study level
Master of Philosophy, Honours
Faculty
Faculty of Health
School
School of Biomedical Sciences

Developing and evaluating an evidence-based and practical system approach to reduce surgical site infections

A surgical wound is an incision in the skin that is made during a surgical procedure and generally expected to heal within two to four weeks by primary intention in an orderly manner through the normal wound healing process. However, this process can be disrupted by many factors, leading to complications such as wound dehiscence, non-healing wounds, surgical site infections and sepsis. On average, there are 11 surgical wounds infected for every 100 surgical wounds and these surgical site infections …

Study level
PhD, Master of Philosophy
Faculty
Faculty of Health
School
School of Nursing
Research centre(s)
Centre for Healthcare Transformation

Understanding capsular polysaccharide diversity is key to next generation therapies for multi-drug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii infections

Bacteriophage therapy is an attractive innovative treatment for infections caused by extensively drug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, for which there are few effective antibiotic treatments remaining.Capsular polysaccharide (CPS) is a primary receptor for lytic bacteriophage, thus knowledge of the chemical structures of CPS produced by the species underpins the identification of suitable phage for therapeutic cocktails.As many phage depolymerases cleave a specific CPS linkage formed by either a glycosyltransferase or polymerase enzyme, characterisation of these proteins are essential.However, these remain largely …

Study level
PhD
Faculty
Faculty of Health
School
School of Biomedical Sciences
Research centre(s)

Centre for Immunology and Infection Control

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