Honours | Masters | PhD Burnet Institute 2020 Student Research Projects DISEASE ELIMINATION Characterising sexual risk among early adopters of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) Honours, Masters by Research Associate Professor Mark Stoové [email protected] Professor Edwina Wright In Australia, more than three quarters of new HIV dia Life Sciences 2 2020 Project Summary Life Sciences Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies in Papua New Guinea (PNG): Strengthening surveillance and response through The impact of nutrition, malaria, and other infections on multi-pathogen sero-surveillance ............................. 09 pregnant women and infants .................................... 03 Discovery of a new drug class for HIV treatment and Vaginal microbiota and birth weight in a low-income prevention .............................................................. 09 setting ..................................................................... 03 Vaginal microbiota and HIV susceptibility ................. 09 Immunometabolic changes induced by malaria ......... 03 The relationship between inflammation, metabolism and The impact of malaria control measures on the the risk of opioid overdose ....................................... 10 acquisition of immunity to malaria ........................... 04 New methods for measuring extracellular vesicles in Development of novel vaccines against malaria ........ 04 chronic inflammatory diseases ................................. 10 Discovering the mechanisms and targets of immunity Bat antiviral defenses against viruses ....................... 10 against malaria ........................................................ 04 Identifying targets and mechanisms of acquired immunity to severe malaria in children ..................... 05 Understanding malaria transmission and immunity to inform malaria elimination ....................................... 05 Refolding of exported proteins in malaria parasites ... 05 Establishing the roles of Plasmodium falciparum merozoite invasion proteins .................................... 06 Small molecule inhibition of protein secretion in malaria parasites ................................................................. 06 Exported proteins that assist nutrient uptake in malaria parasites ................................................................ 06 Discovering the targets of drugs that stop malaria parasites invading red blood cells ............................ 07 Getting to the heart of cardiovascular disease in HIV .. 07 Developing new diagnostic tests for infectious diseases .. 07 Antibody engineering to study responses mediating protective immunity to malaria and other infectious diseases ................................................................. 08 Novel tools and approaches for malaria elimination .. 08 Novel serological and molecular tools for malaria surveillance and intervention ................................... 08 Please note: It is advised that all students include a copy of their most recent CV and official/unofficial academic transcript when contacting potential supervisors. PROJECTS ARE COLOUR CODED TO THE APPROPRIATE PROGRAM: Maternal and Disease Behaviours and Healthy Ageing Health Security Child Health Elimination Health Risks 3 2020 Projects Life Sciences MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTH DISEASE ELIMINATION Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies in Vaginal microbiota and birth weight Immunometabolic changes Papua New Guinea (PNG) : The impact in a low-income setting induced by malaria of nutrition, malaria, and other infections Honours, Masters, PhD on pregnant women and infants PhD, Masters, Honours Professor Gilda Tachedjian Dr Ricardo Ataide Honours, PhD [email protected] [email protected] Professor James Beeson Dr Joshua Hayward Dr Clovis Palmer [email protected] [email protected] Associate Professor Jack Richards Dr Michelle Scoullar Dr Paul Agius Dr Elizabeth Aitken Associate Professor Freya Fowkes Dr Philippe Boeuf (Melbourne University) Dr Philippe Boeuf Being born small contributes to 80 per Malaria affects 214 million people annually. Malaria is caused by parasites Being born too small is the biggest risk factor cent of neonatal deaths. The risk of that are transmitted to humans by for neonatal death. In resource-poor regions mortality and morbidity significantly mosquitoes. These parasites invade and globally, pregnant women experience high increases when birth weight falls below replicate inside human red blood cells. rates of malaria, under-nutrition, sexually approximately 3kg. This is underscored by The immune system can attack these transmitted infections (STIs), and other viral the programmatic low birth weight (LBW) parasites and the better the immune and bacterial infections, which can lead cut-off of 2.5kg, which the World Health response, the better the clinical outcome to maternal morbidity and mortality and in Organization has targeted for a 30 per for the patient. Monocytes and Neutrophils infants, low birth weight (LBW) resulting in a cent reduction by 2025. are very effective cells that can find and significant number of infant deaths. In these eliminate parasites that are circulating or settings, LBW is due to fetal growth restriction Burnet Institute’s Healthy Mothers, are sequestered. and preterm delivery. However the link Healthy Babies (HMHB) program seeks to identify preventable causes of LBW, between nutrition, malaria, STIs, and other Understanding how metabolic processes infections on birth outcomes is unknown. with the ultimate goal of designing interventions to improve neonatal heath contribute to the activation of immune cells, and the ways used by pathogens Burnet’s research program, Healthy Mothers, and mortality. to modify this activation, has become a Healthy Babies, in partnership with the PNG major focus of research in recent years Institute of Medical Research, East New The HMHB program is an observational with very significant findings in fields Britain Provincial Government, University of prospective cohort study in PNG, as diverse as HIV, TB and Dengue. The PNG, the National Department of Health, and comprising 700 pregnant women and immunometabolism of macrophages others, has undertaken a longitudinal study their babies, from their first antenatal and neutrophils– or the metabolic of 700 pregnant women attending antenatal visit to one-year postpartum. The changes that occur during activation – care, and followed them through to delivery. composition of the vaginal microbiota of have not been studied in the context of Among these women, we will measure markers pregnant women is now recognised as malaria infection. of nutrition and evaluate micronutrient a racially- and geographically-variable determinant of the health of mothers deficiencies, determine malaria and STIs. We This project aims to characterise, in vitro, are also using new powerful metabolomics/ and their babies. Vaginal microbiota may be described as ‘non-optimal’ and the metabolic responses of Monocytes and proteomic approaches to identify nutritional Neutrophils to parasite-derived antigen. and inflammatory markers that may contribute associated with genital inflammation and adverse sexual and reproductive health For your Honours project you will focus to poor pregnancy outcomes, especially low primarily on the metabolism of glucose – birth weight. The association of nutrition, outcomes, compared to ‘optimal’ vaginal microbiota (McKinnon et al 2019 AIDS Res the uptake of glucose, its consumption, malaria, STIs, inflammation and other factors levels of by-products of the glycolytic during pregnancy with pregnancy outcomes Hum Retroviruses). Projects are available to characterise the vaginal microbiota of pathway, the expression of receptors (low birth weight, pre-term delivery, anemia) associated with the uptake of Glucose to will then be assessed. pregnant women in PNG and its stability following birth and the role of the vaginal the cell and the functionality of these cells after exposure. In this project, you will The objective is to determine the major microbiota in modulating birth weight use techniques as diverse as parasite and preventable causes of poor maternal health using next generation sequencing and human cell culture, ELISA, Western Blot, and LBW to enable the development of computational biology. Flow-Cytometry and qRT-PCR. future interventions to improve health and pregnancy outcomes. This project is offered as a laboratory or epidemiological project, or a combination of the two. FOR MORE INFORMATION GO TO burnet.edu.au 4 2020 Projects Life Sciences The impact of malaria control Development of novel Discovering the mechanisms measures on the acquisition vaccines against malaria and targets of immunity of immunity to malaria against malaria Honours, Masters, PhD Honours, PhD Honours, PhD Professor James Beeson Professor James Beeson [email protected] Professor James Beeson [email protected] [email protected] Dr Gaoqian Feng Associate Professor Freya Fowkes Dr Herbert Opi Development of a highly effective vaccine Associate Professor Leanne Robinson against malaria is greatly needed for Dr Linda Reiling Malaria caused by Plasmodium falciparum global elimination of malaria. However, Antibodies are an important component remains a major cause of morbidity currently this is hindered because of a of acquired immunity against malaria, as and mortality globally. It has decreased limited knowledge of the mechanisms and demonstrated