Epithelial Transport Laboratory - Honours projects available in 2009
An Honours project undertaken in this lab would be administered by the Discipline of Physiology.
- Use of replication-deficient adenoviruses and retroviruses to investigate control of epithelial sodium channels in epithelia
Supervisor + contact details:
- Professor David I Cook
Use of replication-deficient adenoviruses and retroviruses to investigate control of epithelial sodium channels in epithelia.
There are several different aspects of this project, each of which would be suitable for an honours project. One aspect will be to examine to mechanism by which pathogens and particularly viruses regulate sodium channel activity. Another is to investigate the role of the sgkkinase in regulating sodium channel activity. The third is to examine the mechanisms by which extracellular nucleotides such as ATP regulate sodium channel activity. Each of these projects combines molecular biology with electrical measurements of sodium transport across epithelia.
- Identification of novel regulators of sodium channels
Supervisor + contact details:
- Professor David I Cook
This project will use the yeast 2-hybrid technique to identify novel proteins regulating sodium channel activity.
- Use of replication-deficient adenoviruses to investigate regulation of cytosolic calcium
Supervisor + contact details:
- Professor David I Cook
This project combine molecular biological and fura-2 methods to investigate the mechanisms by which agonists such as acetylcholine and ATP regulate the rate of Calcium transport out of cells.
- Characterisation of ClC family chloride channels in salivary and other epithelia
Supervisor + contact details:
- Professor David I Cook
This project will use patch-clamp methods in cultured epithelia to characterise the chloride channels found in their membranes and to investigate the mechanisms by which their activity is controlled.
- Investigation of the role of sodium-bicarbonate cotransport in early embryonic development
Supervisor + contact details:
- Professor David I Cook
- Dr Margot Day
This project will be jointly supervised by with Margot Day. It will use RT-PCR, western blotting and cytosolic pH measurements with the pH sensitive dye BCECF and will determine which isoforms of the sodium-bicarbonate cotransporter are present in pre-implantation mouse embryos and whether they play a role in regulation of cytosolic pH.
