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Deputy Director, Sydney ID confirmedFollowing the announcement of Ben Marais as the Director of Sydney ID earlier this year, we are thrilled to announce that Jamie Triccas has accepted the position of Deputy Director. Jamie has been a long serving member of our Research Steering Group and has been part of the institute for many years. Jamie (pictured above with his research group) is excited to be part of the leadership team and will continue to advocate for infection research at the university. Learn more about Jamie's vaccine development research here
This week we have our annual colloquium "Leadership for good: infectious diseases in the Indo-Pacific". Please join us, as we welcome our keynote speaker Lucas de Toca PSM, First Assistant Secretary of the Global Health Division (GHD), and Head of the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security at DFAT. This week Lucas was appointed as Australia's Ambassador for Global Health. Lucas will discuss how Australia supports partner countries in the Pacific and Southeast address their health priorities. Lucas will speak to the Australian Government’s $620 million Partnerships for a Healthy Region initiative and how implementation of this flagship program is shaped by the new International Development Policy. Presentations will also include a panel discussion titled "making a difference in the Indo-Pacific" as well as presentations from Sydney ID researchers showcasing their research work in the region.
Friday, 10 November 2023
12:30pm - 4:45pm followed by networking drinks and canapes
Auditorium, Charles Perkins Centre
Register now
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Disrupting the biofilm matrix In partnership with Whiteley Corporation we have been able to co-fund a post-doctorial fellowship to advance research into Chronic Urinary Tract Infection (CUTI). Arthika Manoharan's project will look at disrupting the biofilm matrix to eradicate antibiotic resistance in catheter associated urinary tract infections. We are thankful to our generous donors at the Whiteley Corporation for supporting this important research. Arthika is a welcomed member of our Sydney ID EMCR community (pictured 2nd from the left, where she presented at FMH EMCR conference at Westmead).
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Australian Academy of Health and Medical SciencesCongratulations to Prof Lyn Gilbert who was recently named as an AAMHS fellow. In announcing her fellowship the AAMHS noted her contribution to guiding public health and infectious disease policy through influential studies of epidemiology, infection prevention and control, and ethical implications of diseases of public health importance.
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Croonian Medal by Royal SocietyCongratulations to Professor Eddie Holmes has been awarded the Croonian Medal and Lecture, one of the most prestigious prizes in the biological sciences.
The Croonian Medal and Lecture was awarded to Professor Holmes for being a global authority on virus evolution and emergence, including playing a key role in the discovery and characterisation of SARS-CoV-2 and the first to publicly release the genome sequence.
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We were pleased to support Dr Kerrie Wiley from the Sydney School of Public Health to attend the Australasian Medical Writers Association Conference Auckland, New Zealand 24-26 August. Read her conference report below:
Making a difference is something that’s important to me, so I jumped at the chance to attend this year’s Australasian Medical Writers Association (AMWA) conference, the theme of which was “making a difference”. This was my first foray into the world of medical writing and I was surprised at the overlap between my own work in applied public health research, and the work that medical writers do in a wide range of fields and capacities. I was privileged to hear from some amazing speakers on a range of highly relevant and thought-provoking topics. Associate Professor Siouxie Wiles opened the conference, sharing her journey to becoming one of New Zealand’s most recognized front-line science communicators during the pandemic, reflecting on what she learned along the way and highlighting to me just how important good public engagement is for health research. I learned a lot about generative AI and it’s applications in health and medical communications from Dr Mangor Pedersen, Dr Suzie Tyree and Yasmin Wilkinson. Dr Karaitiana Taiuru’s thought-provoking talk on Maori perspectives on AI really got me thinking about the implications for Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Generative AI has the potential to empower First Nations communities if they are part of the design process from the very beginning, and I see that now is the time for us to start those conversations. Dr Koa Webster’s talk on working with patients / research participants as co-authors got me thinking about new ways to include consumers in the entire research process, and the workshop on publication extenders introduced me to new approaches and content formats for extending the reach of traditional peer-reviewed publications. Most of all, the AMWA community were a welcoming, vibrant group of people with whom I am now connected and can continue to work with. Thank you, Sydney ID for supporting me with this opportunity.
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Seed Funding winners
Congratulations to the following applicants who were successful in the 2023 seed funding round. We look forward to hearing about the research outcomes in the coming year.
- Mary Petrone: Characterising viruses that infect disease-causing Apicomplexa
- Michelle Harrison: ACORN - A clinically-oriented antimicrobial resistance infection surveillance network
- Michael Gotsbacher: Labelling bacteriophages for Flow Cytometry and PET Imaging
- Ramon Shaban: Establishing Minimum Practice Standards for Infection Control Professionals in Residential Aged Care (Project RACHPracICP)
- Constance Bailey: Discovery of Novel Antibiotics from the Biodiversity of Australia that Target the Bacterial Outer Membrane
- Francisca Samsing: Genomics in a Backpack: A rapid and portable workflow for 'pond side' sequencing of bacterial pathogens for sustainable aquaculture (final corrected version)
- Carola Venturini: Impact of OMV production on antimicrobial activity against non-typhoidal Salmonella
- Kenya Fernandes: Exploring fungus and native bee interactions for ecosystem and human health
- Philip Kwok: Inhalable pentamidine powder for pulmonary fungal infections
- Pooja Sethiya: Investigating human cell cycle inhibitors as novel antifungal drug therapy in cancer patients
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In case you missed it ...(Tweet us @Sydney_ID)
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#WeAreSydneyIDNew videos added
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Members publications
- @cristyn_davies and @srachelskinner article in HPV world - School-based vaccination is key to reducing HPV-related diseases.
- Baird, S., Ashley, C.L., Marsh-Wakefield, F., Alca, S., Ashhurst, T.M., Ferguson, A.L., Lukeman, H., Counoupas, C., Post, J.J., Konecny, P., Bartlett, A., Martinello, M., Bull, R.A., Lloyd, A., Grey, A., Hutchings, O., Palendira, U., Britton, W.J., Steain, M. and Triccas, J.A. Clin Transl Immunol A unique cytotoxic CD4+ T cell-signature defines critical COVID-19.
- Hossain M, Kennedy KJ, Wilson HL, Slapeta J et al. Emerging Infectious Diseases Human Neural Larva Migrans Caused by Ophidascaris robertsi Ascarid.
- Allkj J., Roudbary M, Alves A, Cerakova L, Rodrigues C. Critical Reviews in Biotechnology Biomaterials with antifungal strategies to fight oral infections
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Please drop us an email if there is any news you'd like to share with our community - we want to hear what everyone is up to!
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