Intern projects

Supervisor: Dr Amanda Kijas
Email: a.kijas@uq.edu.au
Rowan Group

Undertake pilot evaluations utilising RNA therapeutics to change cutaneous wound healing outcomes. Using in vitro and ex vivo models.

Supervisor: Prof Debra Bernhardt
Email: d.bernhardt@uq.edu.au
Bernhardt Group

Conversion of carbon dioxide to useful products could lead to environmental and economic benefits. We are interested in developing simulation methods that can contribute to developing catalysts for this purpose. The student will be part of a project that aims to reduce the computational effort required to model reactions.

Supervisor: Dr Zhengni Liu
Email: zhengni.liu@uq.edu.au
Wolfram Group

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are messengers that mediate cell-to-cell communication. EVs from cancer cells play an important role in metastatic spread and immunoevasion, highlighting an urgent need to identify biomolecular mechanisms by which EVs promote metastasis to develop new treatment strategies. Leveraging our expertise in EV exploration, we have applied a tangential flow filtration method for EV isolation and characterized glyco-polymer features of EVs through innovative high-throughput glycan node analysis. The results indicate the presence of distinct sulfated glycosaminoglycans on metastatic EVs compared to EVs from parental cells. This project assesses the effects of sulfated EV glycosaminoglycans on natural killer cells, as these cells have an important role in killing cancer cells. Our findings will determine whether EV-associated sulfated glycans can be used as targets for overcoming immunoevasion in cancer therapy. In this project, we aim to isolate EVs from primary and metastatic osteosarcoma cells with full characterization and assess the functional roles of EV-associated sulfated glycosaminoglycans on natural killer cells.

Supervisor: Dr Huadong Peng
Email: huadong.peng@uq.edu.au
Marcellin Group

Inorganic-biological hybrid systems hold the potential to become sustainable, efficient, and versatile platforms for chemical synthesis by combining the light-harvesting properties of semiconductors with the synthetic capabilities of biological cells (Science 362, 813-816, 2018). Meanwhile, yeast was reported to use light as an energy source by adding a special light-sensitive protein (Current Biology 34, 648–654, 2024). Quantum dots (QDs) are semiconductor nanocrystals ranging in size from 2 to 10 nanometers, offering superior light absorption and electron transfer efficiency due to their quantum properties. Few studies have explored the feasibility of this biohybrid strategy for improved cell fitness and producing chemicals. This project aims to utilize state-of-the-art synthetic biology tools to construct advanced yeast cell factories capable of utilizing light or producing high-value compounds. This project is a collaboration between UQ Biosustainability hub and UQ Dow Centre.This project is a collaboration between UQ Biosustainability hub and UQ Dow Centre.

Supervisor: Dr James Humphries
Email: j.humphries@uq.edu.au
Thurecht Group

This project will involve identifying and characterising new leads for positron-emission tomography (PET) tracers that can be used to visualise dynamic immune responses in vivo. The project will involve validating the radiochemistry, developing in vitro assays, and conducting preliminary molecular imaging experiments.

Supervisor: A/Prof Viktor Vegh
Email: viktor.vegh@cai.uq.edu.au
Vegh Group

Foundation models are generally trained using unsupervised, self-supervised learning (SSL) and excel in reducing the demand for training samples in downstream applications (https://doi.org/10.1038/s42256-024-00807-9). Mostly they are pretrained using a set of methods that leverage innate information available within data by learning generalized, task-agnostic representations from large amounts of unannotated samples. In view of the recent proposal of many foundation models in computer vision, this project aims to identify suitable foundation models for cancer imaging as applied to PET images.

Supervisor: A/Prof Idriss Blakey
Email: i.blakey@uq.edu.au
Blakey Group

The surface chemistry of materials, e.g. whether a surface is hydrophilic, hydrophobic, or somewhere in between plays a crucial role in a large number of applications, such as photolithography, microfluidics and microarray based diagnostic devices. The project will involve modifying the chemistry of surfaces using a grafting-to method to attach polymer chains to surfaces. Due to the nature of the chemical functionalities involved in the grafting reaction, the methodology can be applied to a wide range of polymer types and hence a diverse range of chemical surfaces can be achieved.

Supervisor: Dr Stephen Sanderson
Email: stephen.sanderson@uq.edu.au
Bernhardt Group

Knowing the temperature of a system is one of the most fundamental pieces of information required to characterise it. In simulations, the system temperature is usually simply obtained from its kinetic energy. However, for systems out of equilibrium (e.g. those undergoing flow), it becomes difficult to separate the thermal kinetic energy from the streaming motion, especially under flows with turbulence or collective motion/clustering of a solute. Such problems can be avoided in many cases by instead measuring the configurational temperature, yet this is not supported in any large-scale simulation packages. Hence, this project aims to bring support for configurational temperature measurement to the popular open-source molecular dynamics package, LAMMPS.

Supervisor: Dr Denys Villa Gomez
Email: d.villagomez@uq.edu.au
Marcellin Group

Critical metals, such as cobalt and rare earths, are becoming increasingly important to the global economy due to the advancement of alternative energy and electronic technologies. Biological molecules, particularly proteins and peptides, have emerged as a promising alternative to conventional extraction techniques. These biomolecules can selectively bind to specific metals, offering a more environmentally friendly and potentially efficient method for metal recovery. Our research group has made significant progress in this field, identifying over 80 proteins with statistically significant metal-binding capabilities. However, the current process of identifying these proteins is time-consuming and lacks efficiency. This project aims to develop and test a rapid screening method for identifying metal-binding proteins, specifically those that interact with critical metals. The outcomes of this research will contribute to the creation of a sustainable, bio-based method for recovering these highly sought-after critical metals.

Supervisor: Prof Michael Monteiro
Email: m.monteiro@uq.edu.au
Monteiro Group

This research project focuses on synthesizing and evaluating the nano-buffering capacities of polymer micelle nanostructures, emphasizing their potential in biomedical applications. Students will analyse several polymer block combinations, utilizing advanced laboratory techniques for comprehensive characterization. The biomedical relevance lies in the potential of these nanostructures to enhance our understandings of enzyme pathways and other physiological mechanisms within cells. Students will have the opportunity contribute to new biomedical technologies.

Supervisor: Dr Nicholas Fletcher
Email: n.fletcher1@uq.edu.au
Thurecht Group

Nanomedicine, the application of nanotechnology and biotechnology to medicine, is a rapidly expanding field of research with great promise for making meaningful changes in the way we treat many diseases including cancer. Targeted nanomedicines capable of selectively delivering radiotherapies to tumours in a precision medicine approach are particularly appealing as these enhance tumour treatment while limiting unwanted off-target effects. We have recently developed a variety of targeting approaches, where we are able to decorate the surface of either nanomaterials or tumours with ligands able to enhance nanomaterial tumour accumulation (Figure). This project will work to further develop these targeting strategies for novel cancer types, and improve our understanding of bionano interactions by studying the cellular interactions of nanomaterials within the tumour and clearance organs in the body.

Supervisor: Dr Justin Goh
Email: justin.goh1@uq.edu.au
National Biologics Facility 

CHO cells are the preferred mammalian host for producing recombinant proteins and therapeutics. Recent advances in cell culture technology have resulted in significant improvements in protein production, with titers exceeding 10 g/L. However, huge market demands necessitate ongoing optimisation and enhancement of production technologies. This project will investigate recent advancements in vector design and cell culture strategies for the enhanced protein production in CHO cells.

Supervisor: A/Prof Idriss Blakey
Email: i.blakey@uq.edu.au
Blakey Group

Gold nanoparticles have interesting optical properties. An example of this is their remarkable ability to convert light energy into heat. In this project you will be encapsulating biomolecules such as enzymes with polymer microcapsules that are embedded with gold nanoparticles. When these microcapsules are irradiated with specific wavelengths of light, this causes the capsules to rupture and release the biomolecule payload. For enzymes this allows time and site-specific release so that the biological enzymatic function can be controlled both spatially and temporally at will.Queensland Eye Institute

Supervisor: Dr Quang Kim Loi
Email: k.loi@uq.edu.au
Bernhardt Group

The use of concentrated brine for the purpose of separation of KCl and NaCl minerals via the flotation process has been a research focus for many years due to the complex nature of the mineral-water interfaces. This project aims to use quantum calculations (DFT and ab-initio MD) to understand the role of the electric double layers at high salt concentration and their effects on the mineral-water interfaces.

Supervisor: Dr Alexander Martyn
Email: a.martyn@uq.edu.au
Thurecht Group

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a challenging and lethal disease, often due to late‑stage detection and chemoresistance. The proposed project aims to develop a novel theranostic approach for treatment of PDAC, combining targeted radiotherapy with the small molecule inhibitor, berzosertib. This project will involve synthesis of berzosertib derivatives to house radionuclides for imaging or treatment.

Supervisor: Prof Debra Bernhardt
Email: d.bernhardt@uq.edu.au
Bernhardt Group

Improving and developing materials for battery technologies is important to support the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. The diffusion of ions through an electrolyte material is essential to allow current flow to and from the battery. This project will aim to use molecular simulations to study the molecular mechanisms and behaviour of ion transport in various electrolyte materials.

Supervisor: Dr James Wood
Email: j.wood1@uq.edu.au
Thurecht Group

Targeted alpha therapy presents attractive benefits for the treatment of cancers. Due to their high energy and strong therapeutic potential, the correct pharmaceutical platforms are required to utilise these radioisotopes. This project will focus primarily on the chemistry of these radioisotopes, aiming to produce new platforms to extend the potential applications. Of particular interest is the application of these new platforms as theranostics, allowing targeted alpha therapeutics to be used in a diagnostic and imaging setting also.