QUT offers a diverse range of student topics for Honours, Masters and PhD study. Search to find a topic that interests you or propose your own research topic to a prospective QUT supervisor. You may also ask a prospective supervisor to help you identify or refine a research topic.
Found 661 matching student topics
Displaying 493–504 of 661 results
A novel molecular targeted therapy for anaplastic prostate cancer
In advanced PCa, where the cancer has spread into the bone and other organs, the emergence of treatment resistance remains inevitable. For decades the primary form of treatment in advanced PCa has been to target the production and actions of male sex hormones, androgens, the primary developmental and survival factor of prostate tissue. While these therapies result in tumour regression and cancer control, this is temporary and treatment resistance occurs, referred to as castrate resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). In the …
- Study level
- Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Health
- School
- School of Biomedical Sciences
Development of peptides as therapeutics to treat drug-resistant metastatic melanoma
Melanoma is a very aggressive cancer due to its metastatic potential, and the third most common in Australia. Many patients with metastatic melanoma have strong side effects, do not respond, or develop resistance to current therapies, which results in low survival rate (26% in 5-years). This project aims at developing a new class of therapeutic leads to tackle drug-resistance in metastatic melanoma.Currently, the preferred first-line regimen given to patients with metastatic melanoma is immunotherapy with antibodies (i.e. ipilimumab and nivolumab), …
- Study level
- PhD
- Faculty
- Faculty of Health
- School
- School of Biomedical Sciences
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
Understanding the genetics of melanoma susceptibility: many roads lead to DNA repair
Repair of the damage caused by mutagens such as UV and reactive oxygen species is vital to prevent cancer and premature aging and accordingly cells have developed a suite of intricate and specific DNA repair pathways. Loss or abnormal function of components of these pathways lead to cancer pre-disposition syndromes for example breast cancer in individuals carrying mutations in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes. Understanding the complexities of these DNA repair pathways is vital to efforts aimed at preventing or …
- Study level
- Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Health
- School
- School of Biomedical Sciences
Characterising drivers of melanoma cell heterogeneity
Tumour cell heterogeneity is linked to tumour progression through the generation of divergent cellular behaviours such as proliferation, survival, invasion and therapy resistance. Crucially, conventional and targeted therapies generally only target highly proliferative cells in tumours leading to initial tumour regression, however alternative sub-populations underpin the return of treatment refractory disease and facilitate metastatic spread. Our laboratory is focused on understanding the regulatory drivers of cellular plasticity in melanoma to better understand progression and metastatic spread of this disease and …
- Study level
- Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Health
- School
- School of Biomedical Sciences
Creation of fibrous tissue at moving interfaces
Extracellular matrix (ECM) secreted by cells is composed of a meshwork of fibres infiltrated with proteins and/or minerals. This fibre meshwork often matures after its creation by rearranging its structure according to local mechanical clues, or by the infiltration of new molecules.In this project, the fibre meshwork will be represented by a continuous anisotropic field. You will derive evolution equations to describe fibre creation at moving cell membranes and the subsequent maturation of the meshwork.Applications of this model include the:investigation …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Mathematical Sciences
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Biomedical Technologies
Emergence of curvature-dependent growth in mathematical models of tissue invasion
The growth of biological tissues in 3D-printed scaffold pores occurs under strong geometric controls depending on the shape and size of the pores. How this control emerges from the interaction between spatial constraints and biological processes such as cell migration and cell proliferation remains largely unknown. Existing phenomenological models of tissue growth hypothesise growth laws which directly involve curvature without considering cellular mechanisms.Recently, a reaction–diffusion mathematical model of tissue growth in porous scaffolds was proposed to investigate cell-level behaviour using …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Mathematical Sciences
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Biomedical Technologies
Defining human immune responses to a healthy gut microbiome
Many human diseases are thought to involve interactions between the gut microbiome and the immune system which shape the nature and function of immunity. These interactions between host and environment are thought to be critical regulators of health and disease.In autoimmune diseases many studies have associated presence or absence of particular microbial species with diseases and some studies have shown influence of disease-related genetics on the composition of the gut microbiome. However, no studies to date have formally addressed the …
- Study level
- PhD
- Faculty
- Faculty of Health
- School
- School of Biomedical Sciences
- Research centre(s)
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Centre for Microbiome Research
Medical selfies and patient generated health data
Smartphones and wearable technologies provide exciting opportunities for patients and health professionals to transform healthcare.Patients can benefit from photos (“medical selfies”) taken on their smartphone to record a condition that they want to discuss with a health professional. Wearable devices allow patients to semi-automatically collect data about their physical activity, sleep, mood, diet, etc.This data can help patients to better understand a health concern, its underlying causes and the impact of treatments.Clinicians, on the other hand, can benefit from medical …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Computer Science
Designing active play technologies with families
The aim of this project is to design and study digital technologies that enable and support active play in families with young children.To promote healthy growth and development, children aged 1-5 years should be physically active for at least three hours each day. This may include running, jumping and playful activities. With the current COVID-19 pandemic, many playgrounds, childcare facilities, and sports clubs are closed, which means that families look for alternatives to stay active.In this project you'll explore:how parents …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Computer Science
Mathematical modelling of spatial plant patterns in a sub-Antarctic island
Various spatial patterns naturally emerge in ecology. These include stripes, spots, hexagons, and donuts, to name just a few. However, it can be puzzling to figure out how these patterns form.Systems of partial differential equation models can be used to simulate these patterns, and thereby provide ecologists with testable hypotheses for how these patterns formed.
- Study level
- Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Mathematical Sciences
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Data Science
Centre for the Environment
BIOM04 - Unravelling the function of PSA variants in prostate cancer
OverviewProstate cancer (PCa) is the second-most common cancer in men. Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) encoded by the KLK3 gene is the only FDA-approved PCa biomarker for PCa. As a serine protease, PSA can also regulate multiple functions involved in PCa progression and metastasis and is summarised in our recent publications. Immunotherapies, including PSA-targeting therapies, have shown modest improvement in survival, for only a subset of metastatic PCa patients. Not much is known on the immunoregulatory role of PSA or its variants, …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Health
- School
- School of Biomedical Sciences
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Genomics and Personalised Health
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