Travis Beddoe group
Agriculture Bio-Solutions
The Agriculture Bio-Solutions Lab has access to state-of-the-art facilities for studying host- pathogen interactions in livestock. Due to industrialized farming, there has been an increase in endemic disease that has resulted in multi-milliondollar losses to the farming industry per annum due to poor productivity, failure to thrive and death. The use of antimicrobials to treat these diseases have led to an increase in drug-resistant strains of pathogens. Pathogen control programs based solely on the use of anti-microbial drugs are no longer considered sustainable because of an increased prevalence of bacterial resistance, high costs and concerns regarding residues in the food and environment.
To provide improved sustainable health and welfare outcomes in livestock production, the Agriculture Bio-solutions lab has developed a complete “Bench to Barn” research program focusing on:
- field-deployable diagnostics
- molecular understanding of disease pathogenesis
- sustainable treatment solution (vaccines and breeding).
Research Areas
The ability to quickly diagnosis infectious agents in the field will lead to better treatment and management decisions in real-time. The high sensitivity of LAMP assays enables detection of the pathogens in sample material without time-consuming preparation thus being able to detect pathogens within 30 min. We are working with Australian biotechnology company Geneworks to commercialize these assays for purchase by various Agriculture industries.
Pathogenic microbes that affect livestock have an arsenal of surface and secreted proteins to conquer the many unique niches they occupy throughout the course of infection. We use a combination of biochemistry, biophysical and proteomic approaches to determine the molecular role of these proteins in microbe pathogenesis. These studies will form the basis of further studies to capitalize on the wealth of genomic data.
An alternative way of injection is the establishment of protective mucosal immunity, achieved through vaccination via mucosal routes by non-invasive methods (i.e. oral delivery). Currently, work is underway investigating the use of AB5 toxin family as mucosal vaccine adjuvants and various novel production vaccine platforms such as algae to produce lost cost vaccines.
Approximately, one-third of the Western diet requires bee pollination, honey bees are the primary pollinators of numerous food crops.
We have combined our strengths in research to focus on improving bee health through:
- field-deployable diagnostic test for viruses,
- understanding of the seasonal dynamics and co‐occurrence patterns of honey bee pathogens
- development of novel therapeutic to aid honey bee health.
Meet the Team
Group leader
- Professor Travis Beddoe
Postdoctoral researchers
- Dr Gemma Zerna
- Dr Jaclyn Swan
PhD researchers
- Danielle Ackerly
- Gopika Bhasi
- Hoda Salah Mohamed Abbas
- Luke McKay
- Olivia Ducommun-Dit-Verron
Honours researcher
- Ruby Herbstreit
Publications
See a full list of publications on: