Events

Dr Daniel Rawle, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, will describe a serendipitous discovery that, in the course of investigating the physiological role of granzyme A, has revealed the significance of the Nnt gene mutation in the inflammatory responses in mouse models. Remarkably, k-mer mining of the Sequence Read Archive illustrated that ≈27% of Run Accessions and ≈38% of BioProjects listing C57BL/6J as the mouse strain had Nnt sequencing reads inconsistent with a C57BL/6J genetic background. Nnt and mouse background issues have clearly complicated our understanding of granzyme A and may similarly have influenced studies across a broad range of fields. We also show that Nnt genotype and mouse backgrounds can affect SARS-CoV-2 mouse models. I will end the talk by outlining the SARS-CoV-2 mouse models in our lab, and another serendipitous discovery; ACE2-independent SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Dr Stephanie Schweiker from the Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine at Bond University will present on the student-led feedback and modifications made to improve our virtual laboratory experiments developed for multimodal (hybrid) teaching.

Dr Anne Sayer from QAAFI/SCMB will present recent research into the effectiveness of using RNA interference (RNAi)-based plant protection as an environmentally sustainable disease control strategy against fungal pathogens.

Prof Steven L. Castle from the Chemistry & Biochemistry Department, Brigham Young University / Provo, UTAH, USA, will present results from his teams synthetic efforts targeting the peptide yaku’amide A and related analogs, and the anticancer activity of these compounds will be discussed. In addition, efforts to use the methodology developed in this endeavor to evaluate the ability of dehydroamino acids to increase the proteolytic stability of peptides will be described.

Associate Professor David Anderson from the Burnet Institute will provide an update on the development of point-of-care tests for CD4 T-cells (Visitect CD4), syphilis, liver disease and cirrhosis, and dimeric IgA and neutralising antibodies in COVID-19.

EMCRs and HDR students from the Infection and Immunity theme will present their latest research.

Dr Ali Zaid from the Menzies Health Institute, Griffith University, present recent work based on animal models of arthritogenic alphaviruses Ross River virus (RRV) and chikungunya virus (CHIKV), with a focus on immune responses and the role of distinct immune compartments in inflammation, disease, and resolution.

Dr Fengwang Li from the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Sydney, will talk about recent advances in CO2RR to ethylene, a chemical used to produce plastics and the basis of a US$160B global industry. Specifically, molecular tuning catalyst design strategy, membrane electrode assembly (MEA) based electrolyser, and carbon balance in CO2RR will be discussed.

Associate Professor Kirsty Short from the School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, University of Queensland, presents research demonstrating that compared to other wild waterfowl, black swans have not expanded their immune gene repertoire, lack a key viral pattern-recognition receptor and mount a poorly controlled inflammatory response to HPAI.

Dr William Gee, Senior Lecturer at the School of Environment and Science, Griffith University, presents the latest challenge faced by iodine alpha-napthoflavone fingerprint development.

Dr Craig Miller, Director of the Immunopathology Core Laboratory in the Oklahoma Center for Respiratory and Infectious Diseases (OCRID) at Oklahoma State University will present his latest research on infection kinetics in a feline model of natural SARS-CoV-2 infection that results in clinical disease and histopathologic lesions consistent with acute COVID-19 in humans.

Prof Paul Hergenrother from the Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois, will describe his teams creation of close to 1000 bioactive compounds and their application in discovering rules for Gram-negative penetrance, and the use of this information to create a number of novel classes of antibiotics with activity against Gram-negative bacteria. The lecture will also discuss some of his team's latest advances in anticancer drug discovery.

A/Prof Catherine Satzke, who leads the Translational Microbiology Group at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Melbourne, will present her lab's recent data from their pneumococcal vaccine impact studies in low and middle-income settings in the Asia Pacific.

The 17th annual symposium organised by and for SCMB's research (HDR, PGCW and Honours) students. Other UQ research students of all levels and staff are welcome to attend the oral and poster presentations, equipment displays and listen to talks presented by some of SCMB top researchers.

Professor Stephanie Gras, the head of the Viral and Structural Immunology lab at La Trobe University, will present her lab latest research into the T cell response to COVID-19 infection.

Dr Johanna Fraser from the Institute of Vector-borne Diseases at Monash University will present recent findings on the changes to mosquito gene expression profiles that may contribute to the antiviral state following the introduction of the endosymbiotic bacterium Wolbachia into Aedes aegyptii, the main vector of dengue and Zika.

Dr Cadhla Firth, Senior Research Scientist and Program Coordinator at EcoHealth Alliance and Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at the College of Public Health, Medical & Vet Sciences, Australian Institute of Tropical Health & Medicine, James Cook University will present her research on the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of emerging zoonoses at the human-animal interface, with a focus on rapidly changing environments.

Dr Karishma Mody from the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation will discuss her research into exploiting nanotechnology to improve animal health.

Associate Professor Ivan Kassal from the School of Chemistry, University of Sydney, will explain the power of quantum computers for problems in chemistry and survey the range of possible applications. He will also discuss his group’s work on fully nonadiabatic simulations of chemical dynamics using existing trapped-ion quantum computers, which exploits the otherwise-unused motion of the trapped ions to represent the motion of the nuclei.

Presented by Andreas Kupz who is an NHMRC Career Development Fellow and leads the Tuberculosis Immunology group at the Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine (AITHM) at James Cook University.

Presented by Dr Natasha Hungerford from the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, The University of Queensland

Asst. Prof. Ming Joo (MJ) Koh from the Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, National University of Singapore, will describe his team's recent developments in iron- and nickel-catalyzed processes that leverage alkene isomerization as a key step to promote regio- and stereoselective synthesis of various molecules of interest.

Dr Alain Wuethrick from the Centre of Personalised Nanomedicine at the Australian Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, University of Queensland, will discuss his research that focuses on developing liquid biopsy nanodiagnostics for monitoring cancer and the human immune system.

Dr Rebeca Kawahara from the Glycoimmunology group in the Department of Molecular Sciences, Macquarie University, will discuss how new mass spectrometry-based strategies helped uncover the glycan remodelling associated with monocyte-to-macrophage differentiation and present recent data of the immunoglycopeptides derived from SARS-CoV-2 spike protein presented by human leukocyte antigen class II (HLA-II) on monocyte-derived dendritic cells.

Dr Angelo Izzo from the Centenary Institute will present the work done in his lab that has led to a better understanding of how BCG confers protective immunity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis.