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 112 matching student topics
Displaying 1–12 of 112 results
Scalable software solutions for improving the CRISPR gene editing system
The CRISPR-Cas9 technology allows the modification of virtually any gene in any organism of interest. It has generated a lot of interest, both in the research community and the general population.One of the crucial components of CRISPR experiments is the design of the 'guide RNAs' that will control where modifications occur. We have developed a software pipeline, named Crackling, to identify safe and effective guide RNAs across entire genomes.We are seeking to expand and improve various aspects of our current …
- Study level
- Honours, Vacation research experience scheme
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Computer Science
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Data Science
Visualisation of CRISPR targets
CRISPR-Cas9 technology allows us to modify virtually any gene in any organism of interest. It has generated a lot of interest, both in the research community and the general population.One of the crucial components of CRISPR experiments is the design of the 'guide RNAs' that will control where modifications occur.We have developed a software pipeline, named Crackling, to identify safe and effective guide RNAs across entire genomes. We're now seeking to develop a visualisation to communicate the results produced by …
- Study level
- Honours, Vacation research experience scheme
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Computer Science
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Data Science
High-performance bioinformatic analysis of gene editing targets using Python Standard Libraries
The CRISPR-Cas9 technology allows the modification of virtually any gene in any organism of interest. It has generated a lot of interest, both in the research community and the general population.One of the crucial components of CRISPR experiments is the design of the 'guide RNAs' that will control where modifications occur. It is vital that the modification is made efficiently and at the desired location. This calls for bioinformatic approaches to design these guide RNAs.Our existing Python-based bioinformatic pipeline is …
- Study level
- Vacation research experience scheme
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Computer Science
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Data Science
Therapeutic opportunities targeting epigenetic-metabolism crosswalks in cancer
Epigenetic and metabolic pathways in cancer cells are highly interconnected. Epigenetic landscape in cancer cells is modified by oncogene-driven metabolic changes. Metabolites modulate the activities of epigenetic modifying enzymes to regulate the expression of specific genes. Conversely, epigenetic deregulation that occurs in cancer affect the expression of metabolic genes, thereby altering the metabolome. These changes all coordinately enhance cancer cell proliferation, metastasis and therapy resistance.The overall aim of the project is to understand the link between the activity of epigenetic …
- Study level
- Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Health
- School
- School of Biomedical Sciences
Epigenetic regulation of non-coding RNAs in hypoxic tumours
In solid tumours, hypoxia occurs as a result of limitation on oxygen diffusion in avascular primary tumours or their metastases. Persistent hypoxia, significantly reduces the efficacy of radiation and chemotherapy and lead to poor outcomes. This is mainly due to increase in pro-survival genes that suppress apoptosis, enhance tumour angiogenesis, the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, invasiveness and metastasis. Much of tumour hypoxia research has been centred on examining the transcriptional targets of hypoxia inducible factors (HIFs).HypothesisEpigenetic changes mediate the effect of hypoxia …
- Study level
- Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Health
- School
- School of Biomedical Sciences
Computational drug repurposing for neuropsychiatric disease
While hundreds of robust genetic associations have been found for neuropsychiatric disease (such as schizophrenia, major depression, and anxiety) understanding the exact molecular mechanisms leading to disease onset and progression remains challenging. Inherited (i.e. genetic) risk factors for many neuropsychiatric diseases converge on genes that are co-ordinately expressed (co-expressed) in a disease-relevant tissue (e.g. brain). The study of how genetic risk factors affect co-expressed genes (i.e. gene co-expression analysis) has the potential to uncover new biological processes underlying disease onset. …
- Study level
- Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Health
- School
- School of Biomedical Sciences
Immunotherapy for autoimmune disease using T cell receptor-modified T-regulatory cells
Autoimmune diseases affect approximately 5% of Australians. Well known examples include type I diabetes, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. These diseases have unpleasant, and sometimes tragic, consequences for the affected person and are a costly burden on our health system. As treatment is often limited to managing symptoms, new therapies for autoimmune diseases are much desired.Many autoimmune diseases are tightly associated with inheritance of a particular allele at the major histocompatibility complex (MHC, also called human leucocyte antigen or HLA). …
- Study level
- Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Health
- School
- School of Biomedical Sciences
Determining the theapeutic efficiency of epigenetic drugs in ovarian cancer
Because cancer and many diseases arise from a combination of genetic propensity and the response of cells to external factors mediated through changes to the expression of key genes, it is important to understand epigenetic regulation. The epigenome is crucial to the changes of gene expression and there is now strong evidence that epigenetic alterations are key drivers of cancer progression. However, very few drugs targeting epigenetic modifiers have been successful, in part due to the lack of effective means …
- Study level
- Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Health
- School
- School of Biomedical Sciences
Investigating genetic variants involved in Wilson disease and copper metabolism using genome editing
Wilson disease (WD) is a genetic disorder of copper metabolism. It can present with hepatic and neurological symptoms, due to copper accumulation in the liver and brain (1). WD is caused by compound heterozygosity or homozygosity for mutations in the copper transporting P-type ATPase gene ATP7B. Over 700 ATP7B genetic variants have been associated with WD. Estimates for WD population prevalence vary with 1 in 30,000 generally quoted. Early diagnosis and treatment are important for successful management of the disease. …
- Study level
- Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Health
- School
- School of Biomedical Sciences
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Genomics and Personalised Health
Identifying novel pheno-endotypes in children with chronic cough
Chronic wet cough is among the commonest symptoms of chronic lung disease. In Australia, the most common cause of childhood chronic wet cough is protracted bacterial bronchitis (PBB), a clinical entity we first described. It has now been shown to be a precursor to bronchiectasis, which causes substantial morbidity and mortality, especially from acute respiratory exacerbations. Lung inflammation in children with persistent chronic wet cough is an important driver of ongoing and progressive tissue damage, leading to bronchiectasis, highlighting the …
- Study level
- PhD
- Faculty
- Faculty of Health
- School
- School of Public Health and Social Work
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Healthcare Transformation
Australian Centre for Health Services Innovation
Unleashing the full potential of terminators for the regulation of gene expression in plants
Ultimately, the proper development of a plant and its ability to adapt to its environment is the result of how plants’ genes are expressed and interact with each other. Hence, it is of extreme importance to understand the mechanisms used by plants to regulate gene expression.Modification of the expression pattern of a gene is particularly important in modern biology. By changing the expression levels of a gene, it is possible to learn about its function, increase the production of a …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours, Vacation research experience scheme
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Biology and Environmental Science
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Agriculture and the Bioeconomy
Overcoming the challenges of sensitive data via synthetic data generation (case study)
In the 21st Century, there is an abundance of data, often containing insights that could benefit a number of stakeholders. However, despite this opportunity, it is often the case that the data is sensitive and can not be released by organisations or government agencies due to privacy concerns. One possible solution to the above dilemma is to instead carefully construct a 'twin' data set that contains similar information (and ideally, the same insights) as the original data set, but without …
- Study level
- Honours, Vacation research experience scheme
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Mathematical Sciences
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Data Science
Contact us
If you have questions about the best options for you, the application process, your research topic, finding a supervisor or anything else, get in touch with us today.