Honours Project Book - Faculty of Health Sciences - University of ...

Reproductive Biotechnology Group
Supervisors
Associate Professor Mark Nottle
Dr Ivan Vassiliev
Location: Medical School
Contact Person
A/Prof Mark Nottle
Phone: 8313 4087
mark.nottle@adelaide.edu.au
The Reproductive Biotechnology group has an international reputation in the general areas of reproductive biology
and the development of associated technologies for biomedical and agricultural applications. In collaboration with
a number of university, institute and hospital research groups in Australia as well as overseas, current research is
focused on developing organ, tissue and cell replacement therapies.
PROJECT: (Basic) Making embryos for Research.
R. O&G.
Project Backgound
Our Laboratory uses in vitro produced (IVP) pig
embryos for much of its research. This uses abattoir
derived ovaries from which oocytes are removed,
matured in culture, fertilised and then cultured up to
six days. While IVP can produce embryos for research
purposes these are of a lesser quality than those that
would be found in the reproductive tract. The current
project aims to improve one or more steps in this
process so that we can ultimately produce embryos
of the same quality. Project s are available in this
general area and will provide students with research
experience across a range of areas including
molecular and cell biology and embryology.
PROJECT: (Basic) Reducing early embryonic loss.
R. O&G.
Project Backgound
Around 30% of embryos are lost early in pregnancy,
with the reasons for this unknown. Our Lab is
examining the hypothesis that the majority of these
losses are due to differences in oocyte quality as a
result of changes in nutrition , season, disease etc. In
particular we are examining how these influence
oocyte quality and embryo development. Project s
are available in this general area and will provide
students with research experience across a range of
areas including molecular and cell biology and
embryology.
PROJECT: (Basic) Saving endangered species.
R. O&G.
Project Backgound
Somatic cell nuclear transfer or cloning a sit more
commonly know has been proposed as a way of
saving endangered species. However this approach
is limited because not enough oocytes are
available from endangered females. The use of
oocytes from another species has been proposed
as a way of overcoming this shortage. However so
called interspecies nuclear transfer is still in its
infancy . The current project aims improve the
efficiency of interspecies nuclear transfer.
Projects are available in this general area and will
provide students with research experience across a
range of areas including molecular and cell biology
and embryology
PROJECT: (Basic) Isolation and characterisation of
embryonic stem cells.
R. O&G.
Project Backgound
As human stem cell research advances there is an
increasing need for a large animal model for
bridging the gap between mouse studies and
clinical trials. We have developed a new method for
isolating ESCs and are using this to develop the pig
as a large animal model for stem cell research. This
includes the isolation and characterisation of
embryonic stem cells from a range of sources
including parthenogenetic embryos. Project s are
available in this general area and will provide
students with research experience in cell biology,
embryology and stem cells .
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