Department of Anatomy Honours Projects

Prof K Ashwell
Evolution of monotreme and marsupial brains; Sexual dimorphism and control of sexual behaviour in marsupial brains.

Dr P Carrive
Functional/anatomical study of the brain pathways mediating cardiovascular and behavioural responses to stress, fear and anxiety. Cardiovascular/behavioural coupling; limbic forebrain and sympathetic nervous system. Organisation of amygdala outputs. Projects will be defined at a later stage in the year. One project for 2010 could involve a study of the descending GABAergic projections of the limbic forebrain in GAD67-GFP transgenic mice. This is a purely anatomical project.

Dr T Fath
Project 1. The region specific characterization of actin-filament populations in the mouse brain: The study addresses the role of the cytoskeleton in regulating and supporting the function of neurons in a brain region specific manner. The focus aims to understand the mechanisms by which actin-associated proteins regulate filament dynamics in sub-cellular compartments of neuronal cells.
Skills learnt: Immunohistology, Co-immunoprecipitation assays, Cell culture, Western Blotting, Immunocytochemistry

Dr C Gorrie
Project 1. Spinal Cord Injury: A study of the inflammatory reaction and glial scar formation following spinal cord injury in two species of rat, one lacking mature T cells.  Do differences in the inflammatory reaction contribute to better functional recovery?
Skills learnt: Spinal cord injury and behavioural assessments of spinalised rats. ELISA, immunohistochemistry, histological techniques and microscopy.

Dr C Hardman
Project 1: A quantitative comparison of the primate motor thalamus. Are the relative numbers of neurons within each subnuclei of the motor thalamus consistent across humans and primate species used to model human neurodegenerative disorders?
Project 2: A quantitative comparison of the primate pontocerebellothalamic pathway. Are the relative numbers of neurons within the pontine, dentate, red and inferior olivary nuclei consistent across humans and primate species used to model human neurodegenerative disorders?

Dr C Hardman / Prof G Halliday (Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute)
Do neurones of the pontocerebellothalamic pathway degenerate in Parkinson's disease and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy? If so can the observed patterns of degeneration account for the gross differences in basal ganglia involvement for these two hypokinetic disorders?

Dr M Hill
Study of living neurons during their growth and differentiation by introducing genes for fluorescent fusion proteins. Transfection of fusion protein genes into neural cell lines and the inhibition of gene expression through the use of antisense technology. Two disorders studied in the lab are the eye disease glaucoma and mental retardation by Fragile X.

Dr A Kee / Prof E Hardeman
Project 1: Can altering the actin cytoskeleton improve insulin sensitivity in Type II diabetes? We will examine whether a component of the actin cytoskeleton can improve insulin sensitivity and glucose homeostasis in a type II diabetic mouse model (diet-induced obesity). This will help establish the actin cytoskeleton as a potential novel target for the control of diabetes and obesity.
Project 2: The role of tropomyosin in regulating glucose transport via its control of the actin cytoskeleton. The effect of altered actin filament dynamics on glucose transport will be examined in adipocytes isolated from transgenic and knock-out mice.
Skills learnt: Whole body metabolic measurements, glucose uptake assays, receptor signalling assays, cell culture, Western blotting, immunohistochemistry.

Dr A Lee / Prof E Hardeman
Project 1: Defining the regenerative potential of muscle stem cell populations. Different populations of muscle stem cells isolated by flow cytometry will be characterised in terms of their production of chemokines and cytokines and their capacity to contribute to regenerated muscle.
Skills learnt: Somatic stem cell isolation and sorting, flow cytometry, ELISA, histology, immunochemistry, live animal imaging, fluorescent and confocal microscopy

Dr G Moalem-Taylor
Mechanisms of chronic neuropathic pain following peripheral nerve injury and the involvement of immune cells and inflammatory mediators in the development of persistent pain.
Project 1. The effects of specific subsets of T lymphocytes and their mediators on pain hypersensitivity caused by peripheral nerve injury.
Project 2. Identification and modulation of novel proteins involved in animal models of nerve injury to study their role in neuropathic pain.
Skills learnt: Peripheral nerve injury, behavioural assessments of pain, immunohistochemistry, fluorescent microscopy, cell culture, Western blotting.

Dr R Morris
The focus of my research is to use adenoviral vectors to up-regulate levels of neurotrophins into spinal cord motor neurones in an animal model of partial spinal cord transection. It is hypothesised that this gene therapy scenario will assist the recovery of fine motor control of the hand as measured with diverse behavioural tasks.
Project 1. Characterisation of the time course of expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the spinal cord that results from intramuscular injections of an adenoviral vector encoding BDNF gene.
Project 2. Development and behavioural characterization of an animal model of rubrospinal tract injury at cervical levels.
Skills learnt: partial lesions of the spinal cord, behavioural assessments and intramuscular injections of adenovirus in the rat, ELISA, immunohistochemistry, histological techniques and microscopy.

Dr S Palmer / Prof E Hardeman
Project 1: Identification of genes involved in the specification of muscle fibre types. We have genetically altered the ratio of fast and slow twitch fibres in transgenic mice. This study will use molecular genetics and proteomics to identify the pathways that decide muscle fibre type.
Project 2: Characterising genes involved in the neurocognitive/behavioural disorder Williams syndrome. Two genes that are disrupted in the human condition Williams syndrome, Gtf2ird1 and Gtf2i, are implicated in aspects of human cognition and behaviour. Molecular genetic techniques and knockout mouse models will be used in this study to investigate the function of these genes.
Skills learnt: General molecular biology (cloning, sequencing, PCR, DNA and RNA extraction and manipulation), in situ hybridization, quantitative RTPCR, protein fractionation, protein synthesis, DNA binding assays, yeast-2-hybrid analysis and bioinformatics.

Dr N Pather
Project 1: Cell Biology - The focus of my research is to study of the process of healing and tissue regeneration.  This project aims to elucidate the influence of growth factors and cytokines on cell differentiation and migration during healing and the role of angiogenesis in promoting healing and regeneration..
Project 2: Clinical Anatomy - The focus of this research is paediatric growth and development.  This specific project deals with facial anomalies including those of the ocular and periorbital region that occur in numerous disorders and syndromes and that can be used as a screening tool to increase early diagnosis and treatment. 

Dr D Vu
Anatomy and biomechanics of ligaments; 3-D visualisation and representation of human anatomy; virtual reality in human anatomy; blood supply of the intervertebral disk and nucleolysis; any project involving human gross anatomy.