Diagnosis, treatment and prevention of medically relevant prion diseases
- Research Opportunity
- Masters by Research, Honours students
- Department / Centre
- Microbiology and Immunology
- Location
- Doherty Institute
Primary Supervisor | Number | Webpage | |
---|---|---|---|
Associate Professor Vicki Lawson | vlawson@unimelb.edu.au | Personal web page |
Summary Projects are available that use mouse adapted human prion strains in cell-free, in vitro and in vivo assays using a range of techniques to investigate the effect of prion strain variation on diagnosis, treatment and prevention of prion disease.
Project Details
Prion diseases are invariably fatal neurodegenerative disorders that affect both humans and animals. Prion diseases are caused by the propagation of a misfolded form of the normal cellular prion protein. Despite advances in our understanding of the nature of the transmissible agent of prion diseases there is still no treatment that has been shown to be effective in slowing or preventing progression of disease in humans. Furthermore, there is currently no pre-symptomatic diagnostic method that can identify patients with early disease who might respond to therapeutic intervention should it become available or identify individuals who are at risk of transmitting disease. A further challenge to the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of prion diseases is the existence of prion strains that reflect different conformations of the misfolded prion protein. The existence of these strains, which manifest in different disease phenotypes, can affect treatment and diagnosis of disease and effect decontamination of surgical equipment. Projects are available that use mouse adapted human prion strains in cell-free, in vitro and in vivo assays using a range of techniques to investigate the effect of prion strain variation on diagnosis, treatment and prevention of prion disease.
Faculty Research Themes
School Research Themes
Research Opportunities
Masters by Research, Honours students
Students who are interested in joining this project will need to consider their elegibility as well as other requirements before contacting the supervisor of this research
Key Contact
For further information about this research, please contact a supervisor.
Department / Centre
Research Group / Unit / Centre
Lawson laboratory: Transmissible neurodegeneration
Research Node
Doherty InstituteMDHS Research library
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