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The first quarter of 2025 is behind us and the days are rapidly getting shorter with Easter around the corner. We have many things to celebrate in this edition of Infectious IDeas. The establishment of our Theme Leadership groups is one of the ways we encourage better collaboration and joint strategic thinking. The first pathogen genomics focused MRFF grant applications have already been submitted. Thank you to everyone who worked on this over the Christmas break. Building on the success of our pilot EMCR development program we will announce the launch of our formal program in the coming weeks. Remember there are many ways to engage and contribute.
Easter is a great time to prepare for the upcoming flu season and a timely reminder that getting a flu vaccine is the best way to prevent serious illness and protect those around you. Everyone aged six months and older is encouraged to get their annual flu shot. So, hop on over to your local clinic, GP, or pharmacy, get vaccinated, and join us in "Fighting infectious diseases together."
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Oceania Planetary Health Forum (OPHF)
Sydney ID members Ben Marais, Joel Negin and Aaron Jenkins recently travelled to Yanuca Island, Fiji, to participate in the Oceania Planetary Health Forum (OPHF). Over 120 participants from 29 countries gathered to advance planetary health through a distinctly Oceania lens. Associate Professor Aaron Jenkins* did an amazing job chairing the 3-day event. Key outcomes of the forum included a draft call to action that:- Emphasises Indigenous leadership and local knowledge
- Advocates for transformative systems supporting Indigenous self-determination
- Encourages youth engagement in decision-making
- Promotes integrative disease prevention with nature-based solutions
*Working at the School of Public Health, Aaron's research is focused on managing watersheds to protect biodiversity, working and learning with communities to adapt to climate change, improve health and create sustainable solutions for the future.
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Collaborative surveillance to prevent measles outbreaks (CoSMO) in Southeast Asia: a model for future pandemics
Congratulations to our Sydney ID members Meru Sheel (CIA), along with Kristine Macartney and Ying Zhang as CIs, and AIs: Justin Beardsley, Gemma Saravanos, Shuvo Bakar, Majdi Dafallah, Aaagha Kiledar and Cyra Patel who were recently awarded $750,000 under the NHMRC eAsia Scheme Grant to establish a collaborative surveillance platform in Southeast Asia to enhance measles control, focusing on Lao PDR and The Philippines.
It wraps up a great Q1 for Associate Professor Meru Sheel and her research group - Infectious Diseases, Immunisation, and Emergencies (IDIE), who were also awarded $500,000 across two DFAT ARIA grants:- Impact of Electronic Immunisation Register alerts and recall on vaccination rates in Lao PDR
- Co-design and delivery of interventions to increase vaccination coverage in children with disability in Fiji
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New hope for vulnerable patients as groundbreaking antifungal drug trials begin at Westmead Hospital
Sydney ID's FungiSphere leader, Associate Professor Justin Beardsley from the Westmead Clinical School, is overseeing a new clinical trial which is testing a novel antifungal drug, hoping to offer an alternative treatment for patients with life threatening drug resistant fungal infections. Well done Justin. Read more about the study in The Pulse.
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Sydney ID Deputy Director leads groundbreaking study
A new vaccine that boosts immunity against tuberculosis (TB) has been shown to be effective in pioneering pre-clinical trials, as part of a successful collaboration between three leading Australian research institutions.
Professor Jamie Triccas (School of Medical Sciences) study into the vaccine’s effectiveness, published in eBioMedicine, was led by experts from Sydney ID, the Centenary Institute and the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Science (MIPS) at Monash University.
Currently the only approved vaccine for TB is the century-old Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine, which is widely used despite its effectiveness in adults being inconsistent. The study found that the new mRNA vaccine was successful in triggering an immune defence response that helped to reduce TB numbers in infected mice. In addition, the researchers discovered that for mice that had received the BCG vaccine, a booster dose of the new mRNA vaccine significantly improved their long-term protection. The vaccine used mRNA technology, which is where genetic instructions are used to trigger an immune response in the body, as opposed to using a weakened or killed version of a virus or bacteria.“Our findings demonstrate that an mRNA vaccine can induce potent, pathogen-specific immune responses that target TB, a disease that has long evaded effective vaccine development. This represents a major advance in TB vaccine research and provides a strong rationale for further clinical development.”
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NHMRC grant success
- Ideas grant: Carola Venturini from the Sydney School of Veterinary Science received $816,351 for her project ‘Molecular and multi-omics assessment of Klebsiella pneumoniae response to bacteriophages.’
- Ideas grant: Barry Slobedman from the School of Medical Sciences has received $1,564,754.40 for his project ‘Improving Outcomes for Stem Cell Transplant Recipients: Pioneering Biomarkers in Human Cytomegalovirus Infection.
- Ideas grant: Thomas Tu from the Westmead Institute for Medical Research has received $1,288,133 for his project ‘Overcoming viral persistence to cure Hepatitis B.
- Investigator grant: Phoebe Williams (School of Public Health) - The neonatal microbiome and antibiotic resistance: Utilising metagenomics to reduce infant morbidity and mortality across Australia and Southeast Asia ($1.5 million)
- Investigator grant: Archita Mishra (School of Medical Science) - Shaping early-life Immunity: The role of microbes in immune development from the womb to the world ($688,405)
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 | Academic promotions
Over the past few years, Sydney ID has been dedicated to nurturing the next generation of infectious disease leaders through our EMCR program. Congratulations to all our EMCRs and Sydney ID members on their well-deserved promotions in the latest round!
- Emily MacLean (NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre)
- Gemma Saravanos (Susan Wakil School of Nursing and Midwifery
- Cristyn Davies (Children's Hospital Westmead Clinical School)
- Aaron Jenkins (School of Public Health)
- Phoebe Williams (School of Public Health
- Ameneh Khatami (Children's Hospital Westmead Clinical School)
- Sophie Stocker (Sydney Pharmacy School)
- Jenny-Ann Toribio (Sydney School of Veterinary Science)
| |  | Officer of the Order of Australia
Congratulations to Associate Professor Thomas Gottlieb, Concord Clinical School, who was appointed as an Officerof the Order of Australia (AO) for his distinguished service to medicine as an infectious disease and microbiology specialist, author and researcher, and to professional organisations. Read full article: SLHD - Sydney Connect | |
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 | Summer School in Pathogen Genomics
Hosted by CIDM-PH, Sydney ID was proud to support The Sydney Summer School in Pathogen Genomics last month. Topics covered in the 5-day course included: main concepts of translational microbial genomics, genomics data analytics and visualisation, genomic surveillance, and next generation sequencing and metagenomics. Congratulations to Vitali Sitchenko, Rebecca Rockett, Lou Orszulak and the entire team who run this Summer School to educate researchers, clinicians and public health professionals interested in the field of translational pathogen genomics and communicable disease control.
| |  | One Health Vector Borne Diseases
Sydney ID members from the Sydney School of Veterinary Science and the School of Public Health Victoria Brookes, Mike Walsh and Jenny-Ann Toribio recently travelled to Manila as part of the One Health Vector Borne Diseases Symposium. This event brought together experts from the Philippines, Scotland, and Australia to tackle arboviral diseases through a transdisciplinary One Health approach.
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- Early registration and abstract submissions are now open for the upcoming QFIG Q Fever Symposium. Being held in Byron Bay from 14-15 June 2025, the symposium will explore the latest advancements in diagnosis, management and prevention of Q Fever.
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PUBLICATIONS
- Archana Koirala, Philip Britton, Annaleise Howard-Jones, Vitali Sintchenko, Ellen Donnan, Ben Marais. The Journal of Infectious Diseases. Protracted Tuberculosis Outbreak in a Pasifika Diaspora in Western Sydney, Australia: The Importance of Community Engagement
- Rebecca Burrell, Gemma Saravanos, Alison Kesson, Nicholas Wood, Philip Britton. PLOS One. Respiratory virus detections in children presenting to an Australian paediatric referral hospital pre-COVID-19 pandemic, January 2014 to December 2019
- Gemma Saravanos, Alvin Teo, Niramonh Chanlivong, Julie Leask, Kristine Macartney, Meru Sheel. BMJ Global Health. Immunisation health workforce capacity building in Southeast Asia: reflections from training programme implementation in Cambodia and Lao PDR.
- Desmarini Desmarini, Pooja Sethiya, Bethany Bowring, Julianne Djordjevic. ACS Infectious Diseases. Synthesis of a New Purine Analogue Class with Antifungal Activity and Improved Potency against Fungal IP3–4K
- Sharon Chen, Tania Sorrell. Clinical Infectious Disease. Predictors of Cryptococcus gattii Clinical Presentation and Outcome: An International Study
- Jeff Errington, Yousef Dashti. ACS Infectious Diseases. Mode of Action and Mechanisms of Resistance to the Unusual Polyglycosylated Thiopeptide Antibiotic Persiathiacin A
- Yousef Dashti. ACS Infectious Diseases. Discovery and Biosynthesis of Persiathiacins: Unusual Polyglycosylated Thiopeptides Active Against Multidrug Resistant Tuberculosis
- Meru Sheel. BMJ Global Health. Impact of measles vaccination strategies on vaccination rates in low-income and middle-income countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis
- Meru Sheel. PLOS Global Public Health. "Fear of the unknown": Health, disability, and stakeholder perspectives on the behavioral and social drivers of vaccination in children with disability in Fiji
- Greg J Fox, , Emily L MacLean, H Manisha Yapa, Elyse Guevara-Rattray, Ben J Marais, Nguyen Thu Anh. N Engl J Med. Levofloxacin for the Prevention of Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis in Vietnam
- Thu Anh Nguyen, Ben Marais, Greg Fox. NEJM Evid. A Meta-Analysis of Levofloxacin for Contacts of Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis
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