Summer and Winter Research Programs

ACWEB offers UQ undergraduate students the chance to gain hands-on research experience through the UQ Summer and Winter Research Programs. Students will work alongside leading researchers, developing skills in analysis, critical thinking, and scientific communication.

Projects focus on real-world challenges in areas like sustainable water management, contaminant control, and advanced wastewater treatment.

Summer & Winter Research Scholarships:

Summer & Winter Research Scholarships: The Australian Centre for Water and Environmental Biotechnology (ACWEB) offers several cutting-edge research projects to UQ-enrolled undergraduate/masters students, through the UQ Summer & Winter Research programs.

These research projects aim to develop your analytical and critical thinking, and communication skills, through research, providing with an opportunity to gain research experience working alongside some of the university's leading academics and researchers.

Please visit the UQ Summer & Winter Research Programs website for detailed information on the eligibility and how to apply, program timelines, and conditions of participations. If you want to know more about the projects or explore if the summer research scholarship opportunity is right for you, don't hesitate to get in touch with the project supervisor or ACWEB.

Summer 2025 projects offered:

Isolation and characterisation of bacteriophage targeting foodborne pathogens

Hours of engagement & delivery mode: For the Summer program, students will be engaged for 6 weeks only. The project will be offered on-site, with proposed hours of engagement per week 25 hours per week.

Description: Foodborne illnesses caused by contamination by foodborne pathogens is a big threat to the public health. Even with the best practice in place, the risk of contamination can still be present. This project focuses on utilizing bacteriophage (a bacteria eating virus) as novel antimicrobial agent to prevent food contamination. We’ve previously isolated few bacteriophage candidates targeting Salmonella and E.coli, and would like to expand our collection targeting other foodborne pathogen including Listeria monocytogenes.

Expected learning outcomes and deliverables: In this project, scholars will gain skills and knowledge in bacteriophage biology, but also different aspects involved in conducting a research experiment, which include experiment planning, data analysis and communication skill with researcher. Additionally, student may also can engage with researchers in generating data for publication purposes. This would help in their future progress for preparation of reports and presentations.

Suitable for: This project is suitable for students preferably Master or 4th year student with background in microbiology and familiar with the wet microbiology skills.

Primary Supervisor: Dr Lyman Ngiam

Email: l.ngiam@uq.edu.au

Bacterial adaptive responses to water chlorination disinfectants

Hours of engagement & delivery mode: Hours of engagement will be between 20 – 36 hrs per week and fall within the official program dates (13 Jan – 21 Feb 2025). All the work will be conducted in the PC2 lab.

Description: Chlorination disinfection technology is a common strategy to control biological contamination downstream water distribution systems. A growing body of studies shows that chlorine disinfectants can promote bacterial evolution of antimicrobial resistance as a survival mode. However, little is known the adaptive mechanism behind, i.e., how these bacterial cells respond to chlorine disinfect treatment. This project will investigate the impact of free chlorine on the adaptation of plasmidbearing strains, regarding the growth, killing effect, and plasmid duplication or amplification during exposure process. This evidence will advance our understanding on bacterial survive water chlorination and correspondingly propose efficient technologies to secure drinking water quality.

Expected learning outcomes and deliverables: The scholars can gain multi-skills in both chemistry and microbiology: in chemistry, the candidates are able to measure chlorine concentration and understand the potential reactions associated to chlorine disinfectants; in microbiology, the candidate will be involved in bacterial culturing and incubation, and basic analysis of gene expression. Based on the outputs of this project, the students probably generate a publication and will sufficiently produce a report or oral presentation as required.

Suitable for: This project is open to all applications from students with a background in engineering, chemistry or microbiology.

Primary Supervisor: Dr Zhigang Yu

Further info: If you are interested in this project, please contact him by email (zhigang.yu@uq.edu.au) or visit him personally for further discussion in level 6-649, ACWEB, Building 60.