Student topics

Inside each living cell are vast networks of interacting proteins. These protein networks allow the cell to monitor and interpret its environment, and turn this information into a set of instructions that tell the cell what to do – when to divide, when to move/migrate, when to make new proteins, when to switch to an alternative energy source, etc.Although the human genome has now been sequenced, giving us the full set of instructions (genes) contained within the DNA molecule, we …

Lead unit

School of Mathematical Sciences

Sorghum is a productive but drought-tolerant grain crop that originated in Africa. Sorghum is primarily grown in Australia to produce grain for animal feed but is also grown as a forage crop.However, there are varieties of sorghum, known collectively as sweet sorghum, that accumulate high levels of sugar in their stalks (much like sugarcane) and QUT research has shown that sweet sorghum has significant potential as a biorefinery crop to produce food, feed, fibre, fuel, fine chemical, and material products. …

Lead unit

School of Earth, Environmental and Biological Sciences

Disciplines

Energy and process engineering

Biological sciences

Study levels

PhD

Research Masters

Honours

Plasma agricultural, food and biotechnologies, based on low-temperature plasmas, is a rapidly emerging multidisciplinary research and development topic.

Lead unit

School of Chemistry, Physics and Mechanical Engineering

Disciplines

Biomedical engineering and medical physics

Energy and process engineering

Nanotechnology and molecular science

Biological sciences

Environmental systems

Study levels

PhD

Research Masters

Honours

Epigenome is the term that describes an array of reversible chemical modifications that decorate nucleic acids and the surrounding histone proteins. These modifications act as a molecular switch that turns on and off gene expression by influencing chromatin packaging. They have been proposed as key factor contributing to pest insect adaptation to environmental factors such as developing resistance to pesticides.Modern mass spectrometry instrumentation and novel mass spectrometry data acquisition strategies, such as SWATH-MS, allow for relatively inexpensive and ultrasensitive histone …

Lead unit

School of Earth, Environmental and Biological Sciences

Pathogenic bacteria acquire transition metals for cell viability and persistence of infection in competition with host nutritional defences. The human host employs a variety of mechanisms to stress the invading pathogen including the delivery of cytotoxic metal ions and the withholding of essential metal ions.Staphylococcus aureus is responsible for a diverse range of infections and continues to be a significant global health care challenge. To be a successful pathogen, S. aureus must sense and respond to changing environmental stresses. A …

Lead unit

School of Earth, Environmental and Biological Sciences

Study levels

PhD

Research Masters

Honours

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen that is associated with persistent lung infections in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. P. aeruginosa experiences complex physiological and morphological changes in the CF lung, and life-long persistence of P. aeruginosa in the CF lung requires sophisticated, habitat-specific adaptation of the pathogen. The objective of this study is to investigate proteomic and metabolomic changes of P. aeruginosa CF strains in various culture environments. …

Lead unit

School of Earth, Environmental and Biological Sciences

Study levels

PhD

Research Masters

Honours

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is the most common cause of chronic airway infection in cystic fibrosis (CF).The genetic mechanisms underlying chronic-stage adaptations, such as the switch to mucoid phenotype, have been well established for many years. However, little is known about the genetic variability between clonal P. aeruginosa CF strains.The objective of this study is to investigate the genetic divergence of several lineages of P. aeruginosa CF strains.

Lead unit

School of Earth, Environmental and Biological Sciences

Study levels

PhD

Research Masters

Honours

Plasma catalysis is a rapidly emerging multidisciplinary field at the interface of catalysis, nanotechnology, physical chemistry, materials and plasma science. Relevant applications include plasma-assisted catalytic reforming of gas mixtures into fuels, chemicals and synthesis of functional nanomaterials.While the physical properties and reactive chemistry of atmospheric-pressure plasmas (APPs) are relatively well understood, little is known about the mechanisms of the APP interactions with the nanometer-size features on the surface of catalyst nanoparticles (NPs). These mechanisms are crucial to explain the effects …

Lead unit

School of Chemistry, Physics and Mechanical Engineering

Disciplines

Energy and process engineering

Nanotechnology and molecular science

Biological sciences

Environmental systems

Study levels

PhD

Research Masters

Honours

Plasma cleantech is a rapidly emerging multidisciplinary research and development topic focusing on the development of novel advanced technologies for environmental purification and/or processing, manufacturing or other industrial technologies that reduce environmental and human health impacts.

Lead unit

School of Chemistry, Physics and Mechanical Engineering

Disciplines

Energy and process engineering

Nanotechnology and molecular science

Biological sciences

Environmental systems

Study levels

PhD

Research Masters

Honours

The use of body language, whether conscious or unconscious, provides an important mechanism for people to communicate information, such as intent or emotion, to people around them. In order for social robots to work alongside humans, they must therefore be capable of recognising and understanding these subtle cues, and where necessary, to replicate such cues to express their own messages.While providing robots with a complete understanding of body language is still a long way off however, through this project we …

Lead unit

School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

For social robots and service robots to be able to operate effectively 'out of the box' in indoor environments, they must be able to understand the context of those environments without necessarily developing or having access to a complex map.The aim of this project is to develop a visual classifier for the type of rooms encountered in a typical home (bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, living room, laundry, etc.), medical facility (hallway, ward, waiting area, treatment room), commercial office environment (personal office, …

Lead unit

School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Surfaces of any kind which are modified with a thin layer of polymer are of increasing interest to scientist and industry. Therefore, advanced characterisation of these modified surfaces is of paramount importance to better understand the synthetic strategies for tailored surface modification.

Lead unit

School of Chemistry, Physics and Mechanical Engineering

Study levels

PhD

Honours