A research project to develop advanced AI techniques to analyse retinal blood vessels and one to improve mango plant disease resistance are two QUT PhD research projects that have been successful in the first round of the new National Industry PhD Program.
Tree genomics expert Dr Stephanie Kerr from the QUT Centre for Agriculture and the Bioeconomy will supervise a PhD research candidate from the Northern Territory Department of Industry, Tourism and Trade.
The project, titled “Genetic investigation into mango defence responses to safeguard the future of the Australian mango industry” will use advanced molecular tools to investigate disease resistance and growth enhancement to support Australia’s $217 million mango industry.
Dr Kerr said pests and diseases were major factors influencing commercial mango production which is located mainly in northern Australia.
“Diseases and pests affect the trees’ vigour and survival and can impact canopy and root growth, fruit set, the quality of the fruit and, of course, the crop yield,” Dr Kerr said.
“Australia’s four or five main varieties of mango differ significantly in their responses towards major pests and diseases which is why a well-researched genomic study of these differences is critical for appropriate interventions.
“Our aim is to identify which cultivars are susceptible or resistant to several different pathogens in various growing regions and then to test plant defence activators on each cultivar.
“Understanding how mango varieties respond to disease and to defence activators will allow growers to make informed decisions about which varieties to use in future plantings, particularly in disease-prone areas.”
Professor Yuefeng Li from the QUT School of Computer Science will supervise a PhD researcher for a project titled “Intelligent Retinal Blood Vessel Analysis on Multiple Imaging Modalities”.
Professor Li said the project’s outcomes would contribute to prediction of cardiovascular disease risk, early detection and monitoring of heart disease.
“Retinal blood vessels are the only visible vessel network in the human body available for non-invasive imaging methods,” Professor Li said.
“The project will build on prior research that found changes in the blood vessels on the retina of the eye can be indicative of heart disease and our aim is to conduct correlation analysis between retinal blood vessel changes and cardiovascular disease.
“The primary goal of the project is to develop advanced image processing methods, artificial intelligence (AI) based algorithms (including deep learning) and data fusion models.
“These methods will enable us to detect, segment and classify retinal arteries and veins efficiently from multimodal retinal images.
“We will then develop retinal blood vessel analysis algorithms to measure the corresponding parameters from the segmented and classified retinal blood vessels.”
Approximately 1.2 million people have heart disease in Australia and 27 per cent of all deaths are related to diseases of the circulatory system.
Professor Li said the completed project would contribute to the Australian Research Council’s Science and Research Priorities in health to improve wellbeing and achieve a global competitive advantage.
