Project: Expanding the diversity of animal astroviruses through transcriptome mining
Howden Group
Astroviruses cause a number of diseases in humans and human astroviruses are responsible for 2-4% of endemic diarrhea worldwide. This virus family is also responsible for disease in food production animals, and small scale studies have strong suggested at a large undescribed diversity. Through interrogation of transcriptomic libraries in the Sequence Read Archive (SRA), a large diversity of Astroviruses are present and undescribed. This computation project will centre around annotation of Astroviruses in libraries of interest, such as those from birds and food production animals to substantially expand known virus diversity. Furthermore, through phylodynamic analysis, we may better understand the evolution of these viruses, and the risk for cross-species transmission events between the human:animal, and production animal: wildlife interfaces.
This is a computation project aimed at expanding the diversity of animal astroviruses. The first component will be mining the Sequence Read Archive (SRA) for previously undescribed Astroviruses, identified through serratus. The evolution of this virus family will be clarified through phylodynamic analysis
Contact project supervisor for further
information and application enquiries
Howden Group
2 vacancies
The Howden lab has a strong interest in understanding the various facets of antimcirobial resistance (AMR), spanning discovery research in AMR mechanisms and evolution through to translational projects to imporve AMR detection and surveillance, and treatment of resistant infections.
Howden Group Current Projects
-
Assessing the suitability of lateral flow devices for highly pathogenic avian influenza surveillance
Honours
-
Exploring the genomic landscape of Staphylococcus aureus antibiotic adaptation
Master of Biomedical Science, Honours
-
Understanding Staphylococcus aureus adaptation to intracellular lifestyle
PhD/MPhil, Master of Biomedical Science, Honours
-
Defining the impact of recurrent natural Staphylococcus aureus mutations on virulence and anti-microbial resistance
PhD/MPhil, Master of Biomedical Science, Honours
-
Investigating novel strategies to study drug synergy/antagonism in combination therapy for key bacterial pathogens
PhD/MPhil, Master of Biomedical Science, Honours
-
Exploring resistance to old antibiotics in multi-drug resistance gram-negative bacteria using functional genomics
PhD/MPhil, Master of Biomedical Science, Honours
-
Expanding the diversity of animal astroviruses through transcriptome mining
Honours
-
Ecology and diversity of Avian orthoavulavirus 1, the causative agent of Newcastle Disease virus, in Australian wild birds
Honours