Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology AIBN

The best place to kickstart your career in personalised medicine, advanced biomanufacturing, and nano-engineered materials is here at the AIBN. Last year at AIBN: 🧬 11 PhDs became a first author 🧪 39 published papers, with 12 ending up in the prestigious Nature range 🥼 15 projects were created solely because of their vision 👩🔬 1 climbed the ranks to become a group leader themselves Over the next few weeks, we will be highlighting some of the amazing PhD opportunities available with our researchers. Do the PhD you deserve. Apply today. https://buff.ly/3y51jYG #HDR #PhD #Degree #IndustryTraining

💉🩺Cancer vaccines tailored to individual patients could soon be in production thanks to a new facility at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology.       Backed by a $3.3 million grant from the Medical Research Future Fund’s National Critical Research Infrastructure program, the new hub will bring together the equipment and expertise to enable the design, manufacture and delivery of new mRNA cancer vaccines.     Dr Seth Cheetham, Deputy Director of AIBN’s BASE Facility and recipient of the MRFF funding, said the new lab could transform cancer treatment.    “Despite the huge potential, Australian researchers haven’t had the necessary infrastructure to build these vaccines, leading to a critical gap in the local drug development pipeline.      “This lab changes that, with a leading team of investigators in a purpose-built space, working with local industry and academics to progress a range of high-quality mRNA cancer vaccine candidates from design through to preclinical evaluation, with the aim of enabling future clinical trials.”     The 5-year program will also bring together partner investigators from UQ, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Mater Research, Garvan Institute of Medical Research and the Children's Health Queensland Hospital and Health Service.   💊 Read more about this incredible development here: https://lnkd.in/g5JcNhkQ

🎧Listen to the the inspiring journey of Hemanshi Galaiya, AIBN PhD student with an entrepreneurial streak! In the latest episode of The University of Queensland's Women in Science Podcast, host Associate Professor Kirsty Short sits down with Hemanshi to discover her incredible story from a childhood in Kenya to founding Young Stripes, a STEM education initiative tackling educational inequities. At the AIBN, Hemanshi works with Associate Professor Esteban M. on gas fermentation. Specifically, carbon storage and the production of bio plastics and she was recently named a Top 50 finalist of the Chegg.org GlobalStudentPrize 2024. Listen now to learn about Hemanshi's mission to make a difference in STEM education! 🎤 https://lnkd.in/gNfPEYXs #PhD #Entrepreneurship #Education #WomenInSTEM #WomenInScience

We were delighted yesterday to host members of The Bioprocessing Network as they toured AIBN to explore some of Queensland's bioprocessing capabilities. The BioProcessing Network is an association of scientists, engineers, students and others interested in fostering and advancing the knowledge and understanding of the technical aspects of the biotechnology industry. Members of the network toured the BASE Facility, National Biologics Facility , UQ PEF and IdeaBio facility with Ben Hughes, David Owen, Axayacatl (Axa) Gonzalez and Rachel Yoon Chang.

 🔬😠Thomas Jarrett likes to make polymers angry.     But getting the timing right is key.     “As people, if we’re angry at the wrong things at the wrong time, we can harm things that we love,” he says.     “But if we’re angry at the right thing at the right time, we can use that to enact change on the world around us.”    A PhD student with Professor Kristofer Thurecht, the focus of Thomas’ work is tricking polymers into certain moods so that they can become the ideal tools to fight cancer.     “You could say I have an array of polymers that have different temperaments for different reasons,” he says.     “Some are very zen. Others are very irritable and angry. Others are patient, and turn from zen to angry.     “My PhD is about exploring where on the spectrum of temperament I want my polymers to be in order to deliver radiotherapies to cancer as effectively as possible.”    Not only did Thomas place second in the AIBN 3MT heats, but he also swept the votes to win people’s choice at the UQ Institutes 3MT competition.    Watch Tom pitching his 3MT Thesis below. ⬇⬇  #3MT #ThreeMinuteThesis #Polymers #PhD #Cancer

🧠 Want to help defeat Motor Neuron Disease, and supercharge your research career? An exciting domestic PhD opportunity has just opened up with one of the world’s foremost MND experts. Associate Professor Shyuan Ngo is looking for a rising scholar to join her lab at UQ’s Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology to help pave the way for new MND therapeutics and treatments. MND is a rare neurodegenerative condition that gradually weakens muscles and removes a person’s ability to walk, talk, eat, and breathe. In 2024, there is still no cure for MND, with those diagnosed living 27 months on average. Associate Professor Ngo is working hard to change this. In partnership with colleague Dr Ruirui Qiao, she believes there might be answers to be found at the crossroads of stem cell biology and nanomaterials. And they are looking for a PhD student to help. “Essentially, we are exploring whether or not we can use nanoparticles or mechanical stress to turn stem cells into neurons,” Associate Professor Ngo says. “We're going to compare these neurons to the neurons that we generate classically in the lab, to see how similar they are and whether they respond to drug treatments in a similar way. “It’s a litmus test that we hope will show whether or not there are alternative ways to make neurons for MND purposes, or even Parkinsons or Huntington’s diseases.” 🧪 This 3.5 year project scholarship (with scope for an extension) with Associate Professor Ngo and Dr Qiao is funded by the Federal government to assist PhD students with their living costs and tuition fees. If you want an opportunity to further develop your wet lab abilities and enhance stem cell engineering skills, this project is for you. Apply now by clicking through here: https://lnkd.in/gX-6sdv2 #MND #MotorNeuronDisease #StemCells #Nanoparticles

🚀What if we could create snacks, energy, clothes, medicines, and even shelter to survive and thrive on Mars? Thanks to the science of synthetic biology, biomanufacturing a planet could be possible. 🌎 Read on to learn more: https://lnkd.in/e2iDpj8x #biomanufactuing #SyntheticBiology

It is always a thrill to see our researchers succeed, which is why we’re excited to congratulate AIBN PhD scholar Hemanshi Galaiya. This week Hemanshi was named as a Top 50 finalist of the Chegg Inc. Chegg.org #GlobalStudentPrize 2024! At the AIBN, Hemanshi works with Associate Professor Esteban M. on gas fermentation. Specifically, carbon storage and the production of bio plastics. Read on to find out how Hemanshi is working with companies to create a circular bioeconomy out of waste. https://lnkd.in/gPc2UkXm

🦠😷During COVID-19 we all got used to wearing face masks to prevent viral transmission. But surgical face masks have limitations – they are inefficient for filtering small particles like viruses, and the accumulation of microbes on the face mask over time increases the chance of being infected. Could the solution come from something sweet? 🍭 AIBN PhD Student Divya Rajah, under the supervision of Dr Nasim Amiralian is working on developing an innovative anti-microbial coating that reduces the viability of microbes on face masks. This coating uses copper nanoparticles, which are well known for their anti microbial efficiency and combines them with thin nano fibres from sugar cane waste. These nanofibers keep the copper nanoparticles in place and preventing them from clumping – a common problem with copper nanoparticles that can increase the risk of exposure for mask wearers. Divya has demonstrated the coating's efficacy against a wide range of bacteria and viruses, including the flu virus, in just 30 minutes without any toxicity to mask wearers. Divya summarised her thesis in AIBN's Three Minute Thesis heats where she swept the votes to win people's choice. Watch Divya pitching her 3MT Thesis below. ⬇⬇  #3MT #ThreeMinuteThesis #Antimicrobial #Facemask #nanoparticles 

🏢 🔬 We love visitors at the AIBN – especially when we get a chance to show off the work our researchers are doing, and the amazing technology that helps make it happen.     Just recently we welcomed our friends from the Sanofi Translational Science Hub for a peek at some of the cool things we’ve been up to.     Sanofi and the AIBN have forged a close partnership over the past couple of years through the $280 million Translational Science Hub, and our combined efforts to establish Queensland as a global vaccine hub.     🧬Guests on the tour got a look at the state-of-the-art BASE Facility, and insights from Dr Timothy Mercer, Dr Helen Gunter, Dr Natasha Chaudhary, PhD, Sneha Lakshmandas Hemdev, and Magdalena Budzinska.     🧪Dr Ben Hughes took everyone through the doors of National Biologics Facility before handing over to Professor Kristofer Thurecht, who teamed up with Nicole Atcheson, Ljubco Najdovski, Gary Cowin, and Karine Mardon to show everyone the 7T MRI machine, cyclotron, and radiochemistry facilities at our Centre for Advanced Imaging.     In all – a great morning, and we even managed to get a few snaps along the way.     Thanks for visiting Laurence Macia, Michelle Williams, Cécile Delhumeau Cartier, Ph.D, Kimberley Nelson, PhD, Scott McNeil, Anna Arefyeva, Lorena Preciado Llanes, Cheng-Han (Kerwin) Lin, Claudia Gonzalez Torres, and Jolien Reid (née Visser). See you all next time!