Honours Research

There are a number of Honours Research Opportunities available within our Units at LIWA, these include:

BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

Molecular Genetics Unit

A. Genetic variants of PGE2 receptor genes in asthma.

• Genotyping of previously identified single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in a defined asthma cohort to determine whether an association exists between the SNP and disease;
• Use a variety of cell-based assays to determine the functional significance of SNPs found to be associated with disease; and
• Perform real-time PCR analysis of alternative splice variants of the PGE2 receptor genes in asthmatic and non-asthmatic individuals.

        Techniques:

• Literature search / project design
• Primer design
• PCR
• Population screening
• SNP association and statistical analysis
• Construct design and Cloning
• Luciferase assay

        Contact person (s): Dr Estri Arthaningtyas
        estri@liwa.uwa.edu.au

Inflammation & Immunology Unit

• Expression of prostaglandin and leukotriene pathway enzymes and receptors,and interactions with kinins in dendritic cells of asthmatic patients (1);
• Effects of des-Arg9-bradykinin on migration of mature DC (2) ; and
• Analysis of functional correlation between signalling pathways of transforming growth factor B1 and kinin receptors (3).

        Contact person (s): Dr Niel Misso (1)
        nmisso@liwa.uwa.edu.au
        Ph: +61 8 9346 3198

        Dr Mirjana Fogel-Perovic (2, 3)
        mirjanaf@liwa.uwa.edu.au
        Ph: +61 9346 3198

CLINICAL SCIENCES

Epidemiology Unit

• Health impacts of living near busy highways (1);
• Mapping of hospital and emergency department disease admissions to assess the impact of living near main roads (2); and
• Measurement of air pollutants emitted by road traffic in metropolitan Perth (3);
• Effect of indoor air pollution on respiratory symptoms in asthmatics (4); and
• Does indoor air pollution worsen disease outcomes in people with COPD (5); and
• Triggers of respiratory disease in rural Australia (6).

        Contact person (s): Dr Joanne Youd (1, 2, 3)
        jyoud@sph.uwa.edu.au
        Ph: +61 8 6488 2987 or

        Dr Chantal Tomkins (1, 2, 3)
        chantal@sph.uwa.edu.au

        Contact person (s): Dr Peter Franklin (4, 5)
        peterf@sph.uwa.edu.au
        Ph: +61 8 6488 1275

        Contact person (s): Dr Angus Cook (6)
        acook@sph.uwa.edu.au
        Ph: +61 8 6488 7804

Advance Lung Disease and Pulmonary Vascular Unit

• The adequacy of quality of Life measurements in the assessment of patients with PAH

        Contact person (s): A/Prof Dr Eli Gabbay
        eli.gabbay@health.wa.gov.au
        Ph: +61 8 9224 7983