Microscopy Australia: Disaster preparedness and response

Microscopy Australia is supporting innovation and the development of sovereign capability to help us respond to disasters and keep Australians safe. This is a selection of the research enabled by our facilities.

Bush fires

• Supporting ongoing bush fire impact investigations – multiple
• Understanding when to conduct hazard reduction burns to reduce the impact on sensitive native plants – RMIT
• Development of fire resistant building materials from waste and fungus – RMIT
• Creating fire-retardant paints now sold around the world – UAdel for First Graphene
• Understanding the impact of bushfire ash on lung disease – UNSW
• Testing cell therapy to treat smoke inhalation – USyd

Infectious diseases

• Two COVID-19 vaccines in clinical trials – UQ/CSL & Vaxine/Sypharma/Merck
• Broad spectrum flu and pneumococcal vaccines – Gamma Vaccines and GPN Vaccines at UAdel
• More effective, non-inflammatory adjuvant to enhance a wide range of vaccines – Vaxine at Flinders
• Nanopatch revolutionary dry-coated vaccine delivery patch heading into production – Vaxxas at UQ
• Cryo-TEM, along with other methods, is helping to find new approaches to beating antibiotic resistance – ANU & Monash

Emergency medicine

• MeTro, a modified elastin glue which is a faster, bio-compatible alternative to stitches for surgery and emergency medicine – USyd
• Worlds smallest mobile X-ray units – easily transportable to emergency situations – Micro-X at UniSA & Flinders
• Anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant-coated bandages – UniSA
• Helping industries pivot to making masks (Detmold) and developing new mask materials – UniSA & QUT
• Wearable, disposable micro-sensors for real-time monitoring of seriously ill COVID-19 patients that are cheaper and faster than current methods, in clinical trials – WearOptimo at ANU

Safe water

• Using metal-organic frameworks and sunlight to transform brackish water and sea water into safe, clean drinking water – Monash
• Polymers made from waste can remove heavy metal and oil contaminants to clean up water and soil – Flinders
• Reduced graphene oxide sponge to absorb water contaminants – ARC GEIT at UAdel
• Nanostructured surfaces for oil/water separation – USyd

Drought & pests

• Revealing how plants protect themselves during drought and how they rehydrate afterwards – ANU
• Improving water retention and crop yield using waste biomass as biochar – UNSW
• Developing technology to improve ironstone gravel soils to increase crop yields – GRDC at UWA
• Understanding how parasitic nematodes hijack water and nutrients in wheat roots, improving crop yields – UAdel

Emergency power

• Supercapitors made form jackfruit for more efficient, eco friendly batteries that could be used for emergency power supply – USyd
• Flexible, transparent solar film that can be applied to many surfaces to produce energy even in low light – UQ
• Multiple projects working to extract more energy from sunlight for more efficient solar – ANU & UNSW
• Wearable flexible electronics that are powered by the body’s movement – RMIT