Bioengineering Biosensors for Infectious Disease Diagnosis

 Supervisor Dr Christopher Howard

The project will focus on the development of innovative diagnostic reagents for the detection of infectious diseases using protein bioengineering and yeast based bionanomaterial systems. Molecules targeting the Sars Cov2 spike protein and surface proteins of Influenza virus will be fused with sensory and reporter protein elements to build an “all in one” viral sensor. The project will utilise molecular biology, protein design and engineering and bionanomaterial characterisation.

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Building yeast based bionanomaterials as diagnostic, vaccine and therapeutic platforms

 Supervisor Dr Christopher Howard

The project will focus on the development of yeast bionanomaterials as a platform for the display of proteins for application as potential diagnostics, vaccines or therapeutics. Anchor proteins displayed on the surface of yeast will be genetically modified to display the spike/envelope proteins of Sars Cov2, influenza and other pathogenic viruses. Yeast based bionanomaterials will be developed and tested for functional binding to virus targets and potential ability to induce antibody responses. The project will utilise aspects of molecular biology, protein design and engineering and bionanomaterial characterisation.

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Developing nanotechnology to explore the beneficial molecular mechanisms of exercise during cancer treatment

 
The project is a collaboration exploring health and survival outcomes in ovarian and other gynaecological cancers, using molecular profiling blood-based biomarkers to understand why cancer survival is enhanced by exercise. Nanotechnology aspects of the research project will focus on using two fundamental molecular diagnostic applications: the first would be monitoring of immune cytokine response in cancer patients; the second would involve next-generation sequencing applications, bioinformatics, epigenetics and liquid biopsy monitoring from blood samples collected from cancer patients during the trial. Applicants can expect to engage in a program of research involving nanofabrication techniques, molecular biology and next-generation sequencing, molecular diagnostics, and its application in real-world cancer care and clinical exercise science. All students interested in molecular diagnostics, applied clinical science, and nanotechnology in a cancer setting are encouraged to enquire; as are students in clinical exercise physiology interested in exploring the biochemistry underlying clinical exercise science in a cancer setting.
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eSV integration

 Supervisor Dr Richard Lobb, Professor Matt Trau

The project will focus on the development of yeast bionanomaterials as a platform for the display of proteins for application as potential diagnostics, vaccines or therapeutics. Anchor proteins displayed on the surface of yeast will be genetically modified to display the spike/envelope proteins of Sars Cov2, influenza and other pathogenic viruses. Yeast based bionanomaterials will be developed and tested for functional binding to virus targets and potential ability to induce antibody responses. The project will utilise aspects of molecular biology, protein design and engineering and bionanomaterial characterisation.
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What to do

  1. Review each project description and find one which matches your areas of interest.
  2. Contact the research group leader or project advisor directly to discuss the project and arrange a meeting or visit to the AIBN lab.

Contact 

If you have general enquiries about studying at AIBN please contact our HDR team.
hdr.aibn@enquire.uq.edu.au

See all honours projects