Biodiscovery Research

This theme focuses on the discovery of bioactive natural products and proteins from natural sources for applications mainly in the medical space but also as cutting edge technologies for aquaculture and to explore and understand the biology of life. The research conducted within this theme relies on state-of-the-art spectroscopy and spectrometry capabilities within the Advanced Instrument Facility at the Sippy Downs campus, such as triple quadrupole LC MS/MS, quadrupole Time-of-Flight MS/MS and NMR. The major areas of focus are discovery and characterisation of novel compounds with therapeutic potential (targeting bacteria, cancer, pain, epilepsy, gastrointestinal disorders and wounds) sourced primarily from plants, actinomycetes, fungi, arthropod venoms, aquatic species and bee products.

This theme currently includes significant research programs focusing on:

• Antibacterial natural products from plant species from Far North Queensland, Australia
• Wound healing compounds from Leptospermum honeys
• Bio-active peptides from arthropod venom targeting cancer, pain, parasites and epilepsy (our team houses the world’s largest arthropod venom collection)
• Bio-active compounds from actinomycetes as agro-biologicals (our team houses Australia’s largest actinomycete collection)
• Wound healing and anti-cancer natural products from native stingless bee propolis
• Bio-insecticides from arthropod venoms
• Human milk and plasma lipidomics
• Crustacean lipidomics
• Application of bacteriophages and phage lysins as antimicrobials
• Bioactive peptides from Australian tree frogs, targeting antibiotic resistant bacteria and human papillomavirus infection.
• Bioactive peptides from the venom of Crown-of-Thorns Starfish as anti-biofouling agents.
• Bioactive peptides from snails to prevent helminthic diseases.

Research Funding

Our research is funded both through strong industry partnerships as well as through competitive grants involving diverse collaborations from across the globe.