Imaging profiling platform explained
Express your interest
Platelet integrin and its signalling pathways are important targets for the existing anti-thrombotic drugs. However, severe bleeding side-effects greatly reduce the usage of these drugs. The development of technologies to characterise and profile blood clotting will accelerate the process of finding more effective diagnostic and therapeutic solutions.
This research project will leverage next-generation super-resolution imaging technologies to provide a comprehensive map of the dynamics of molecular interactions, termed the “interactome”, for blood-clotting platelets.
This program collaborates with experts from molecular imaging, microfluidics haematology and anti-thrombotic medicine. The obtained “imaging database” from sub- to multi-cellular level will delineate platelet integrin interactome during thrombus formation at high spatio-temporal resolution. The gained knowledge will evaluate the performance of novel anti-thrombotic drugs that are currently under clinical trials.
Working on this project, team members would have some prior knowledge of:
- Immunostaining.
- Microscopy.
- Software (Matlab, ImageJ).
Learning opportunities
- Establish a dynamic “interactome” for integrin and downstream signalling pathways.
- To characterise a static “interactome” with high spatial resolution on single platelet cell.
- To map “interactome” with drug treatment.
Applicable knowledge
This project is suitable for students in their 3rd or 4th year.
How many places are available?
There are two (2) student positions available.
Why is this important?
This project aims to develop and establish an imaging-profiling platform at UTS for cardiovascular disease diagnosis and anti-platelet therapeutics, which will deliver the following key components:
- An imaging system for trans-scale characterising single-molecule, single cell and blood clot dynamics.
- An interactome database for human platelets (healthy and type 2 diabetic blood) under drug treatment.
- An imaging chamber for blood clotting, platelet monitoring, drug screening and personalised medicine.
Project leaders
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Senior Lecturer School of Biomedical EngineeringDr Qian Peter Su is an Emerging Leadership 1 Fellow of Australia National Health and Medical Research Council, Postdoctoral Fellow of National Heart Foundation.
