UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2018 · 2018-01

The molecular control of lymphatic vascular differentiation. This project aims to improve our understanding of how a new vascular system forms and the molecules that control this process. Lymphatic vasculature plays roles in fluid drainage, inflammation, obesity, metastasis and tissue repair, yet we cannot readily promote or inhibit lymphatic vessel formation. This project aims to build new knowledge that is expected to improve our ability to generate lymphatic vessels for stem cell applications, tissue engineering, tissue repair and regeneration. This project will use zebrafish embryos, new genomic datasets and novel tools to uncover the genetic control of this process, and should have implications in stem cell biology, tissue engineering, repair and regeneration. Field of research: 0604 - Genetics

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2018 · 2018-01

Diagnosis and prediction of business process deviances. This project aims to develop an innovative approach based on process execution semantics, to analyse event data logged by IT systems in order to diagnose and predict business process deviance. Anticipated outcomes include novel business intelligence algorithms producing deviance diagnostics, predictions and recommendations and exposing results via interactive visual analytics. The outcomes are expected to aid process workers in steering business operations towards consistent and compliant outcomes and higher performance, and assist analysts and auditors to explain deviant operations. This should significantly benefit industries such as healthcare, insurance, retail and the government where compliance and integrity management are imperative. Field of research: 0806 - Information Systems

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2018 · 2018-01

A novel radio access network for wireless communication networks. This project aims to investigate a novel network architecture that supports ultra-reliable access and coverage for future generation wireless communications. Based on recent developments in fog computing, the project aims to redefine the radio access network of wireless systems to shift from traditional, static cell-centric architecture to a more dynamic cell-free architecture. The intended outcomes of the research are an adaptive network architecture that dynamically forms serving clusters, secure communications protocols that decrease latency and increase communication security and energy-efficient signal processing techniques that support green communications. Field of research: 1005 - Communications Technologies

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2018 · 2018-01

Understanding randomness in networks. This project aims to bring the latest techniques in modelling phone and wireless networks to Australia by developing new methods and models. Increasing demands of internet data in mobile phone networks has forced researchers to adopt new mathematical approaches. One of these is stochastic geometry, a useful combination of probability and geometry, which in recent years has been used by researchers overseas to model phone and other wireless networks. A key point is extending the current, mostly static models, by using methods from queueing theory, resulting in dynamic network models. Another is using theoretical techniques such as large deviations theory that have seen little use in this field, and applying them to network problems. Results from the project will help implement and optimize current network technologies, as well as design future technologies. Field of research: 0104 - Statistics

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2018 · 2018-01

Novel chemical tools to study cathepsin X activation. This project aims to develop new chemical tools that can measure the specific activation of cathepsin X in cells, tissues, and live animals, as well as specific inhibitors for cathepsin X. The cysteine protease cathepsin X mediates basic biological functions that are essential for life, including cell communication, phagocytosis, immune maturation and neuritogenesis. The outcomes should benefit the wider research community. They could have long-term implications for health and disease, and deliver economic benefits through commercialisation of the novel tools. Field of research: 0601 - Biochemistry and Cell Biology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2018 · 2018-01

Neural plasticity in older adult human vision. This project aims to expand our understanding of age related changes in brain function, specifically plasticity. The project will increase knowledge of the role of an inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA in visual plasticity. Expected outcomes include new knowledge regarding the regulation of brain function in adulthood, enabling future research and planning for societal benefit to older Australia. Field of research: 1109 - Neurosciences

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2018 · 2018-01

A predictive tool for low-emission gas turbine combustors. This project aims to develop a powerful tool for prediction of combustion noise using high-fidelity simulations. Combustion-generated sound is a major inhibitor to the development of low-emission, highly-efficient gas turbines as it can initiate "thermoacoustic instability", leading to engine failure in extreme cases. This project will lead to the advancement of fast start-up, low-emission, gas turbines which can complement renewable energy technologies to provide reliable electricity to Australians. Field of research: 0915 - Interdisciplinary Engineering

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2018 · 2018-01

Architectures of imagination: buildings, fictions, and worlds. This project aims to offer an account of the roles played by fiction and imagination in the production of space during the long 18th century (1700-1835), through studies of key buildings (Strawberry Hill, Fonthill Abbey, Abbotsford); the fictions with which they were associated (Otranto, Vathek, Waverley); and the relation between these buildings, texts, and their readers/inhabitants. Drawing on these primary studies, the project will aim to develop a new account of the 18th-century imagination, the emergence of modern architectures of imagination, and the transition from neoclassicism to romanticism, while bringing these developments into dialogue with current debates about space, creativity, and the rapidly expanding field of biopolitics. Field of research: 2005 - Literary Studies

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2018 · 2018-01

Work in franchises: searching for solutions at the regulatory frontier. This project aims to provide empirical and theoretical insights into the effective regulation of work-related rights and responsibilities of franchise workers, franchisees and franchisors. By combining comparative doctrinal analysis of labour and competition and consumer laws with mixed methods research, this project will expand our knowledge of the way in which public and private regulatory mechanisms influence the regulatory behaviour of key stakeholders. This will contribute to the development of a normative framework designed to inform enforcement strategy, policy-making and work quality within franchises. Field of research: 1801 - Law

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2018 · 2018-01

Understanding interactions between gut epithelial stem cells and neurons. This project aims to investigate the interaction between gut neurons and the epithelial stem cell compartment, as well as the relationship between age-related loss of enteric neurons and changes in gut epithelial stem cells. This project will include novel co-culturing of organoids and enteric neurospheres, which will identify mechanisms by which nerves influence the epithelia. The outcome of the project will be a better understanding of the biology of the body’s most highly proliferative, long-lived stem cells, intestinal epithelial stem cells. This could have significant long term impact on the quality of life in an ageing population. Field of research: 1103 - Clinical Sciences

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2018 · 2018-01

The brain in real time: a neural model of rhythmic action and perception. This project aims to study a fundamental function of the human brain: its temporal architecture. It will provide an innovative perspective on the neural mechanisms underlying and relating perception, intention, and voluntary action in real time, though a combination of eye-tracking, behaviour, and neural recordings. By providing a common language with which to relate perception, cognition, volition and action, this will provide significant benefits that will transform the way we think about brain function. Field of research: 1701 - Psychology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2018 · 2018-01

Automatically summarising and measuring software development activity. This project aims to create technologies for automatically repackaging, interpreting, and aggregating software development activity. The project will devise new natural-language summarisation approaches and productivity metrics that use all data available in a software repository. This is likely to lead to knowledge and tools that allow organisations to quickly integrate new developers into existing software projects, to improve project awareness, and to increase productivity goals. The outcomes would include a comprehensive decision and awareness support system for software projects, based on automating the creation and continual updating of developer activity summaries and measures. Field of research: 0803 - Computer Software

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2018 · 2018-01

Continuous intent tracking for virtual assistance using big contextual data. Recently launched Virtual Assistant products such as Amazon Echo and Google Home are commanded by voice and can call apps to do simple tasks like setting timers and playing music. The next-generation virtual assistants will recommend things to be done proactively rather than waiting for commands passively. This project aims to develop algorithms that can predict what a user intends to do and therefore help virtual assistants make recommendations that suit users’ needs accurately. It will benefit many service industry sectors of Australia by enabling virtual assistants to provide services proactively. Field of research: 0806 - Information Systems

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2018 · 2018-01

Chemo-sensation in Ascaris infection. This project aims to show the role of chemo-sensation as an equally important target for worm control, and explore pathways to prevent infection. Parasitic worms cost global food/textile industry more than $100 billion dollars per year, and cause disease in more than 1 billion people and domesticated animals world-wide. This project will use a combination of imaging, systems biology, chemical biology and microfluidic methods to provide significant benefits, such as exploring Ascaris chemo-sensation during larval migration, identify the key host queues and parasite genes regulating this process, and probe helminth chemosensation as a novel target for anti-parasitic treatments. Field of research: 0605 - Microbiology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2018 · 2018-01

Quantitative micro-computed tomography for mechanobiological measurement. This project aims to investigate novel measurement approaches for complex cartilage and joint systems by utilising engineering and software design, imaging physics and musculoskeletal biology. Accurate measurement of these living biological systems in action expects to generate new knowledge and a fundamental understanding of their mechanobiological processes. This project will enhance understanding of this complex system and facilitate our capacity to innovate functional solutions in biomedical engineering and biosciences. Field of research: 0903 - Biomedical Engineering

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2018 · 2018-01

New synthetic strategies to small cyclic peptides. This project aims to invent new synthetic strategies that enable chemical manipulation of small cyclic peptides, a promising class of biologically active molecules with high metabolic stability. Combining theory and practice, this project will develop novel acyl transfer reactions that will allow traceless, site-selective, ring expansion and contraction of small cyclic peptides. This project will result in new synthetic methodology that will simplify the synthesis of an important class of small drug-like molecules. This will provide significant benefits, such as a breakthrough in the synthetic approach to small cyclic peptides, which will strengthen Australia’s international standing in peptide research and provide new strategies for translation to the growing biotechnology industry. Field of research: 0305 - Organic Chemistry

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2018 · 2018-01

Understanding political debate and policy decisions using big data. This project aims to empirically test a novel framework for analysing the relationship between political debates and policy decisions. Using digital sources and computational modelling approaches, it will investigate three specific issues to test this framework. These issues, all drawn from different policy sectors, will be examined as a series of debates linked to specific decisions, over the last two decades. The expected outcomes will provide insights into links between political debates and policy decisions with potential benefits for politics and policy-making. Field of research: 1605 - Policy and Administration

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2018 · 2018-01

Decision Processes in Visual Working Memory. This project aims to investigate a new theory of rapid human decision making and memory processes in contexts of a continuous choice set. Many real-world, action-oriented decisions, such as those made while driving, walking, or cycling, require the decision maker to choose from a continuous set of alternatives and decisions are often based on memories of past events. This project will use human experimentation and computational modelling methods to increase our understanding of the processes involved in an important class of memory-based decision tasks. The expected outcomes will provide an improved understanding of cognitive computation, which may aid in the future development of associated technologies. Field of research: 1701 - Psychology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2018 · 2018-01

Molecular approaches to limit herpesvirus recombination. This project aims to generate safer attenuated herpesvirus vaccines for use in veterinary medicine by genetically manipulating the herpesvirus genome to reduce virus recombination. Recombination is recognised as a safety concern for a range of attenuated herpesvirus vaccines. This project is expected to generate viruses that have an impaired capacity to recombine with other viruses. These viruses will then be tested as candidate vaccines for use in veterinary medicine. This offers a new approach to developing safer veterinary vaccines that will benefit our important animal industries. Field of research: 0707 - Veterinary Sciences

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2018 · 2018-01

Mixed valence coordination polymers and their electronic properties. The project aims to synthesise and examine the properties of crystalline coordination polymers that exhibit unusual and technologically useful properties arising from long-range electronic communication. The focus will be on materials in which the modular components (ligands, metals and counterions) are present in mixed valence states. The experimental investigation will be supported by dispersion-corrected, periodic-boundary DFT calculations which will be employed to both rationalise behaviour and provide direction for the generation of new materials. Field of research: 0302 - Inorganic Chemistry

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2018 · 2018-01

High resolution timeframe for hominin evolution in the Turkana Basin, Kenya. This project aims to establish a high-resolution timeframe for hominin evolution in the famed Omo-Turkana Basin, Kenya. The Basin hosts a vast array of hominin fossils that cover more than four million years of human evolution, and interbedded volcanic deposits within the Basin sediments has provided much of our current constraints on the timing of hominin evolution. However critical knowledge gaps remain. Using new instrumentation and dating methods, this project will provide an ultra-precise chronological framework for the basin. This is critical for transforming our understanding of hominin evolution and migration, under changing climatic and environmental conditions. Field of research: 0403 - Geology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2018 · 2018-01

Novel chemoenzymatic synthesis and bioconjugation of peptides and proteins. This project aims to solve the critical difficulty of producing the complex peptide insulin and related insulin-like peptides (INSLs) and their analogues. The project will use unique, recyclable enzymes which ligate smaller peptide segments with extraordinary site and substrate selectivity. The expected outcome of the project is novel, cheaper and scalable, enzyme-mediated engineering of this critical class of peptides as biological probes and potential therapeutic agents. Field of research: 0304 - Medicinal and Biomolecular Chemistry

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2018 · 2018-01

The potential and limits of international adjudication. This project aims to analyse the place of adjudication in international affairs, using a case study of Australia’s extensive engagement with the International Court of Justice. The project will provide a detailed account of the context and impact of the cases in which Australia has been involved before the Court, and will assess the complex roles that adjudication and advisory opinions can play in the resolution of international disputes more generally. This project will document an historic set of engagements spanning 70 years and provide guidance on when international adjudication may be productive for Australia, the Asia-Pacific region and the international legal order. This will provide deeper knowledge of the capacities of international judicial institutions to resolve disputes relating to economic, health, social, cultural and environmental issues. Field of research: 1801 - Law

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2018 · 2018-01

Mitochondria: a target for intracellular bacterial pathogens. This project aims to understand how intracellular bacterial pathogens target mitochondria. Coxiella burnetii is a unique and significant pathogen of humans and commercially important animals that uses effector proteins to control host cell functions. A cohort of these effectors target mitochondria. Since mitochondria are key players in cell health, the intended outcome of this research is to understand the role of the mitochondrially-targeted effector proteins. The project will determine the importance of mitochondrial protein trafficking for Coxiella pathogenesis and how mitochondrial function is altered during infection. This will provide understanding of how bacterial pathogens manipulate organelles like mitochondria for their survival. Field of research: 0601 - Biochemistry and Cell Biology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2018 · 2018-01

Enhancing sleep and wellbeing in working families. This project aims to investigate the role of sleep on individuals’ health by measuring Australians' sleep patterns relative to work and family demands. This project expects to generate new knowledge in the sociology of sleep using innovative data collection bringing together cross-national, nationally representative, longitudinal and physiological data on Australians’ sleep patterns. Expected outcomes of this project are to identify the social and biological determinants of sleep and their links with health, family and economic policy recommendations. Field of research: 1603 - Demography