QUT offers a diverse range of student topics for Honours, Masters and PhD study. Search to find a topic that interests you or propose your own research topic to a prospective QUT supervisor. You may also ask a prospective supervisor to help you identify or refine a research topic.
Found 120 matching student topics
Displaying 97–108 of 120 results
Development of peptides as therapeutics to treat drug-resistant metastatic melanoma
Melanoma is a very aggressive cancer due to its metastatic potential, and the third most common in Australia. Many patients with metastatic melanoma have strong side effects, do not respond, or develop resistance to current therapies, which results in low survival rate (26% in 5-years). This project aims at developing a new class of therapeutic leads to tackle drug-resistance in metastatic melanoma.Currently, the preferred first-line regimen given to patients with metastatic melanoma is immunotherapy with antibodies (i.e. ipilimumab and nivolumab), …
- Study level
- PhD
- Faculty
- Faculty of Health
- School
- School of Biomedical Sciences
Dissecting the molecular and cellular basis of melanoma susceptibility
Several factors strongly influence an individual’s chance of developing melanoma. Paramount amongst these are the number of moles (nevi) present on the skin, cumulative levels of UV exposure and skin pigmentation phenotype. Numerous Genome Wide Association Studies (GWAS) we have identified gene variants at a number of loci that are strongly associated with cutaneous nevi (mole) counts, UV damage response and accordingly susceptibility of individuals to develop melanoma. Currently the functional impact of genetic variants in the genes IRF4, PLA2G6 …
- Study level
- Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Health
- School
- School of Biomedical Sciences
Understanding the genetics of melanoma susceptibility: many roads lead to DNA repair
Repair of the damage caused by mutagens such as UV and reactive oxygen species is vital to prevent cancer and premature aging and accordingly cells have developed a suite of intricate and specific DNA repair pathways. Loss or abnormal function of components of these pathways lead to cancer pre-disposition syndromes for example breast cancer in individuals carrying mutations in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes. Understanding the complexities of these DNA repair pathways is vital to efforts aimed at preventing or …
- Study level
- Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Health
- School
- School of Biomedical Sciences
Characterising drivers of melanoma cell heterogeneity
Tumour cell heterogeneity is linked to tumour progression through the generation of divergent cellular behaviours such as proliferation, survival, invasion and therapy resistance. Crucially, conventional and targeted therapies generally only target highly proliferative cells in tumours leading to initial tumour regression, however alternative sub-populations underpin the return of treatment refractory disease and facilitate metastatic spread. Our laboratory is focused on understanding the regulatory drivers of cellular plasticity in melanoma to better understand progression and metastatic spread of this disease and …
- Study level
- Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Health
- School
- School of Biomedical Sciences
Determining the response to PARP inhibitor treatment of ovarian cancer in mouse xenograft model
Our cellular DNA is constantly under threat from both exogenous and endogenous factors. DNA repair pathways function to maintain genomic stability, preventing deleterious mutations that may ultimately lead to cancer initiation. When a tumour forms, it becomes genetically unstable, allowing environmental adaptation. This genetic instability can also result in gene mutations and protein expression alterations that can be targeted to induce cancer-specific cell death (phenomenon also known as synthetic lethality). For example, it has been shown that cells deficient in …
- Study level
- Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Health
- School
- School of Biomedical Sciences
Characterising the role of PARPs in DNA repair and cancer therapy
The genome of our cells is damaged multiple times each day, by various factors including sunlight and reactive oxygen species. In order for the DNA damage response to be efficient, our cells utilise highly coordinated repair pathways that function accurately and rapidly throughout the damaged cell. Cells that do not repair DNA damage correctly will accumulate damage and display increased genomic instability, which is a key hallmark of cancer cells, promoting their survival and rapid growth. DNA repair pathways are …
- Study level
- Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Health
- School
- School of Biomedical Sciences
The role of genetics in the development and mechanism of human traits
The Statistical and Genomic Epidemiology Laboratory (SGEL) studies the role of genetics in the development and mechanism of human traits, with particular emphasis on migraine, and the specific goal of identifying genetic risk factors and detecting common genetic links with other disorders, in particular depression, endometriosis, and epilepsy.
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy
- Faculty
- Faculty of Health
- School
- School of Biomedical Sciences
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Genomics and Personalised Health
Restoring adiponectin signalling to prevent prostate cancer progression
Advanced prostate cancer (PCa) is a leading cause of cancer-associated death in Australian men. Anti-androgens, which exploit the tumour’s reliance on androgens for its growth and spread, offer temporary remission in advanced PCa patients, but due to treatment resistance, fail to be curative. A further complication of anti-androgens is that they trigger a deleterious suite of metabolic side-effects resembling obesity/Metabolic syndrome. These symptoms not only impact patient health but promote the tumour to be more aggressive and resist treatment. Vital …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Health
- School
- School of Biomedical Sciences
Targeting leptin's signalling axis to prevent treatment resistance in prostate cancer
Advanced prostate cancer (PCa) is a leading cause of cancer-associated death in Australian men. Anti-androgens, which exploit the tumour’s reliance on androgens for its growth & spread, offer temporary remission in advanced PCa patients, but due to treatment resistance, fail to be curative. A further complication of anti-androgens is that they trigger a deleterious suite of metabolic side-effects resembling obesity/Metabolic syndrome. These symptoms not only impact patient health but promote tumours to be more aggressive & resist treatment. Vital new …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Health
- School
- School of Biomedical Sciences
Human robotic interaction prototyping toolkit
Design relies on prototyping methods to help envisage future design concepts and elicit feedback from potential users. A key challenge the design of human-robot interaction (HRI) with collaborative robots is the current lack of prototyping tools, techniques, and materials. Without good prototyping tools, it is difficult to move beyond existing solutions and develop new ways of interacting with robots that make them more accessible and easier for people to use.This project will develop a robot collaboration prototyping toolkit that combines …
- Study level
- PhD
- Faculty
- Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice
- School
- School of Design
- Research centre(s)
-
Design Lab
Robotic intention visualisation
Complex manufacturing environments characterised by high value and high product mix manufacturing processes pose challenges to Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC). Allowing people to see what robots are ‘thinking’ will allow workers to efficiently collaborate with co-located robotic partners. A tighter integration of work routines requires improved approaches to support awareness in human-robotic co-working spaces. There is a need for solutions that also let people see what the robot is intending to do so that they can also efficiently adjust their actions …
- Study level
- PhD
- Faculty
- Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice
- School
- School of Design
- Research centre(s)
-
Design Lab
Machine Learning-based pedictive tool for energy storage
The fundamental idea behind the ML approach is to analyze and map the relationships between the physical,chemical, and energy storage properties of materials with their associated output data. This early understanding of the energy storage capabilities through the ML approach helps the material scientists to clearly understand, discover, and optimize the fabrication process to develop highly efficient energy storage systems. It also provides key steps in the device fabrication process omitting excessive experimental stages.
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Chemistry and Physics
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Materials Science
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