The University of Wollongong (UOW)

Australia

At UOW we recognise that the search for solutions to the world’s challenges must be a global one. That’s why we have established an international network of campuses, partners and bright minds to foster a supportive research community that drives real change.

Our research priorities are working tirelessly to solve complex, real-world problems. We’ve discovered human ancestors, partnered with NASA to find clues to climate change, collaborated with Twitter to manage monsoon flooding, built a bionic bra from intelligent fabrics and invested in a Titan Krios cryo-electron microscope that will allow us to move from developing treatments to finding cures.

UOW’s strategic research initiative, the Global Challenges Program, provides a distinctive environment for collaborative challenge-led research to ultimately transform lives and regions. It encourages and develops creative and community-engaged research that helps drive social, economic and cultural change in our region, with the potential to be translatable across the globe.

UOW’s strong research partnerships with world-renowned organisations and industry work towards building a sustainable and equitable future for the 21st century. Through engagement, UOW builds bridges between academics, businesses and researchers and is working with our partners to grow the Illawarra’s innovation ecosystem and pursue the uptake of disruptive technologies that deliver positive economic impacts.

Our Innovation Campus (IC) is a world-class, award-winning research and commercial precinct, home to a number of UOW’s leading research institutes working on developing “intelligent” innovative materials; superconductors that make energy transmission more efficient, new techniques for sustainable building design and maritime law and security. IC is also home to iAccelerate, a purpose-built business incubator and accelerator, with its two-stream program being the first of its kind in Australia. iAccelerate supports students, staff and the greater Illawarra community by providing the infrastructure, mentoring and education programs for great ideas to grow and helps connect entrepreneurs with funding opportunities.

UOW is proud to be among the best modern universities in the world. Throughout our 42 years as an independent university, we’ve built an international reputation for world-class research and exceptional teaching quality. UOW is consistently ranked in the top 1% of universities in the world for the quality of our graduates, ranking 151-200 in the 2017 QS Graduate Employability Rankings. UOW is also ranked as the 17^th best modern university in the world by QS Top 50 Under 50 2018.

1 July 2017 - 30 June 2018

Region: Global
Subject/journal group: All

The table to the right includes counts of all research outputs for The University of Wollongong (UOW) published between 1 July 2017 - 30 June 2018 which are tracked by the Nature Index.

Hover over the donut graph to view the FC output for each subject. Below, the same research outputs are grouped by subject. Click on the subject to drill-down into a list of articles organized by journal, and then by title.

Note: Articles may be assigned to more than one subject area.

AC	FC
99	25.63

Outputs by subject (FC)

Subject	AC	FC
Chemistry	45	10.50
Physical Sciences	53	13.33
Earth & Environmental Sciences	8	1.57
Life Sciences	15	5.22

Highlight of the month

Bacterial DNA damage control

© SCIENCE ARTWORK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Getty

A new study shows that an enzyme’s role in helping bacteria cope with DNA damage differs from what scientists previously thought.

Researchers from the University of Wollongong in Australia, and US colleagues tagged DNA polymerase IV (pol IV) with a fluorescent molecule to observe, in real-time, where it goes within live Escherichia coli cells after their DNA is damaged with substances like the antibiotic ciprofloxacin, or ultraviolet light.

DNA polymerases help bacterial cells tolerate damage. It was thought pol IV does this by helping the DNA replication machinery, called the replisome, replicate past the damaged site in a process called translesion synthesis. Enzymes involved in this process are highly error prone, which can lead to increased mutation rates in bacteria, fuelling the evolution of antibiotic resistance.

The team found that, when DNA was damaged, only a small proportion of the pol IV enzymes gathered at replisomes. Those that gathered, stayed only temporarily. The results indicate that pol IV promotes cell tolerance to DNA damage mainly through roles outside the replisomes, contrary to conventional thought.

Supported content