ARC Discovery Project Success!
We're excited to announce that our team has been awarded funding for three years ($414,436) by the Australian Research Council (ARC) in their most recent Discovery Project Scheme round (commencing 2018) to study amphibian chytrid fungus with a novel modelling approach!
DP180101415: "A novel modelling approach for understanding wildlife disease dynamics"
Investigators:
Professor Hamish McCallum (Griffith University, QLD Australia)
Dr David Newell (Southern Cross University, NSW Australia)
Professor Cheryl Briggs (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA)
Associate Professor A. Marm Kilpatrick (University of California, Santa Cruz, USA)
Dr Laura Grogan (Griffith University, QLD Australia) is the 'named research associate' on the application
This project aims to develop a novel framework for field wildlife disease systems, applied to chytrid fungal infection of an endangered frog species as a case study. The project expects to develop models able to be applied to many disease systems, improve understanding of host resistance and tolerance to infection, and improve capacity for mitigation of emerging infectious diseases. This work should have international impact and provide significant national benefits in ensuring the conservation of Australia’s biodiversity.
![](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/566f9a_5e0345ea2dc94c3ca8c07588a37af2f2~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_980,h_883,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/566f9a_5e0345ea2dc94c3ca8c07588a37af2f2~mv2.jpg)
Above: Fleay's barred frog (Mixophyes fleayi) is an endangered high-altitude rainforest stream-associated frog. Fleay's barred frog will be the focal species for our field and laboratory work, which will help with the specification and validation of our modelling framework.