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 28 matching student topics
Displaying 13–24 of 28 results
Engineering 3D osteocyte–tumour microenvironments to study bone metastasis and therapeutic response
Project Reference: #2MPQC-HuECM1Preferred Project Start: Late 2026/Early 2027How do cancer cells communicate with bone cells, and can we recreate these interactions in the laboratory to improve therapy testing?When cancer spreads to bone, tumour cells enter a highly specialised microenvironment containing multiple cell types and a complex extracellular matrix. Osteocytes are embedded throughout this matrix and form an interconnected cellular network that senses and regulates changes within bone. However, their contribution to cancer progression and treatment response remains poorly understood.Conventional two-dimensional …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Health
- School
- School of Biomedical Sciences
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Biomedical Technologies
Development of a 3D Printed Nasal Model to Study Viral-Airway Interactions
As airway infections become pandemic worldwide, airway models to investigate pathogen infection mechanism and nasal drug delivery is now increasingly important. However, current airway models cannot mimic the triad coupling of human nasal anatomical geometries, aerosol flow and biological responses (e.g. infection and inflammation) from the nasal epithelium.Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models are used for simulating pathological airflow patterns resulting from anatomical structural changes of the nasal cavities, but they cannot measure phenotypic or functional alterations in the nasal epithelium …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Biomedical Technologies
Extraction and formulation of astaxanthin produced in Phaffia rhodozyma fermentations
Traditionally derived from unsustainable petrochemicals, astaxanthin (AX) can also be sustainably produced by microbial fermentation. The yeast Phaffia rhodozyma naturally produces AX as its main fermentation product through sugar assimilation.In previous studies, we improved the bioprocess to produce (upstream) AX in P. rhodozyma. This project aims to investigate the extraction, recovery, and formulation (downstream) of the AX produced in our improved AX production process.AX is a carotenoid pigment and potent antioxidant naturally occurring in some ocean animals such as salmonids …
- Study level
- Master of Philosophy
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Biology and Environmental Science
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Agriculture and the Bioeconomy
Advanced materials for perovskite solar cells
Solar cells using metal halides perovskite materials to absorb light is one of the most important scientific discoveries. These cells have the potential to provide cost-effective solar electricity in the future. In the last decades, perovskite solar cells (PSCs) demonstrated unprecedented progress towards this goal. This technology holds the world record for energy conversion efficiency and is comparable to commercial crystalline silicon, but at a much lower cost.Currently their instability and use of toxic lead are key issues that restrict …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Chemistry and Physics
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Materials Science
Centre for Clean Energy Technologies and Practices
Advanced materials for perovskite solar cells
Solar cells using metal halides perovskite materials to absorb light is one of the most important scientific discoveries. These cells have the potential to provide cost-effective solar electricity in the future. In the last decades, perovskite solar cells (PSCs) demonstrated unprecedented progress towards this goal. This technology holds the world record for energy conversion efficiency and is comparable to commercial crystalline silicon, but at a much lower cost.Currently their instability and use of hazardous solvents and toxic lead are key …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Chemistry and Physics
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Materials Science
Smart electrochemical aptamer biosensors for continuous monitoring cell health and function
Microphysiological systems including organ-on-chip platforms and 3D tissue models are transforming how we study human biology, enabling advanced in vitro models for tissue regeneration and drug testing that are far more physiologically relevant than conventional cell culture. However, a critical gap remains in how we monitor these living systems: current approaches rely on destructive or invasive methods that require cell sacrifice or physical sampling. Even the least invasive options are endpoint-based, capturing only a single snapshot in time making continuous, …
- Study level
- PhD
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Biomedical Technologies
Application of fluorescence-activated cell sorting and confocal microscopy for the study of the microbial communities responsible for nutrient removal from domestic wastewater
The removal of nutrients like carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus from wastewater is critical to the prevention of eutrophication in receiving water systems and is carried out by complex microbial communities.Eutrophication can have devastating consequences on aquatic life and natural ecosystems, with toxic algal blooms also posing a risk to human health.Understanding the microbiology of phosphorus (P) removal from wastewater is considered essential to knowledge-based optimisation of enhanced biological P removal (EBPR) systems.Most of the species in these systems are novel …
- Study level
- Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Health
- School
- School of Biomedical Sciences
- Research centre(s)
-
Centre for Microbiome Research
Characterisation of melanoma cell membranes to identify novel drug targets
Cell membrane structure and function are altered during tumour development, but to date comprehensive studies on the characterisation of cell membranes of a given cancer are scarce, or are only focused on a particular property (e.g. overall charge, global lipid composition, or specific lipid). In preliminary work we compared the lipidome (i.e. the lipid profile) of a panel of cells, and found the lipid composition of model melanoma cells to be distinct from that of other cancerous and non-cancerous cells. …
- Study level
- PhD
- Faculty
- Faculty of Health
- School
- School of Biomedical Sciences
Understanding cellular-spatial interplay between osteocyte networks and their environment using bioengineered 3D bone models
Project Reference: #1MPQC-NATP1Preferred Project Start: ImmediateHow do bone-forming cells communicate to build and maintain a functional bone matrix?Osteoblasts produce new bone extracellular matrix, while osteocytes become embedded within this matrix and form an interconnected network that helps regulate bone formation, adaptation and remodelling. Although these cells work closely together in the body, their interactions are difficult to reproduce and investigate using conventional two-dimensional cell culture.Bone-cell behaviour is strongly influenced by the surrounding microenvironment, including its composition, mechanical properties, mineral content, …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Health
- School
- School of Biomedical Sciences
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Biomedical Technologies
Development of a machine learning algorithm for high throughput cell response data in drug therapy
High-throughput screening assays are essential for accelerating drug discovery, but current assays often rely on endpoint measurements that do not capture the dynamic response of cells to drug treatment. Machine learning algorithms (MLAs) have the potential to enable real-time, high-throughput monitoring of cell response to drug treatment by analyzing complex datasets generated by multiplexed live-cell assays. This research project aims to develop an MLA for enabling high throughput cell response data in drug treatment. The project will involve three main …
- Study level
- Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Computer Science
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Biomedical Technologies
Centre for Biomedical Technologies
Metal halide perovskite solar cell performance based on impurity profiles from Australian sourced precursor materials
Australia has the potential to lead globally in supplying precursor materials for next-generation metal halide perovskite solar cells, leveraging its abundant critical minerals and strong mineral processing capabilities with an innovative "mineral to precursor to final product" strategy.This project will demonstrate the performance of next-generation metal halide perovskite solar cells using Australian sourced materials, complimented with computational modelling to understand the elemental interactions of any impurities.
- Study level
- PhD
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering
Bacteria - mammalian cell interactions in implant-associated infections
The recent COVID-19 pandemic reminds us of how difficult it is to control infectious diseases. Pathogenic microorganisms are known to be extremely 'smart' and are able to quickly develop mechanisms against most of our strategies aimed at eradicating them. Our group is focused on bacterial infections to implants and medical devices. We are in the pursuit to outsmart the bacteria to develop the next generation medical device and implant materials.Anthony Gristina conceptualized in 1987 that bacteria compete with tissue cells …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Biomedical Technologies
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