Sydney Infectious Diseases Institute
Infectious IDeas
Q3 2024
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Led by our Associate Director, Dr Jocelyne Basseal and our India Lead, A/Prof Shailendra Sawleshwarkar, a Sydney ID delegation recently visited India to discuss how how the two organisations can develop One Health initiatives — programs that consider the health of humans, the environment and animals in unison.
The University of Sydney's $100,000 commitment towards research with the Public Health Foundation of India will allow leading public health researchers in Australia and India to work together on pressing health issues including antibiotic resistance and the rise of infectious diseases. The new funding will see the 15-year relationship between the two institutions expand from training public health professionals to researching emerging health threats in both countries. The program will now focus on four areas: disease surveillance, antimicrobial resistance, innovation (including vaccine development), and continued training of the next generation of health professionals. Read more about this exciting initative and the formalisation of the partnership beween the University of Sydney and the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI).
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Prof Paul Kelly retirement
Sydney ID wishes Professor Paul Kelly a wonderful retirement from his position as Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of the Department of Health and Aged Care. He will be remembered for his strong leadership in navigating the COVID-19 pandemic. Sydney ID has been working more closely with him over the last few years as we advocate for the establishment of the Australian CDC. We wish him all the best for a long and happy retirement.
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Kenya was successful with Fungisphere Seed Funding in 2023, where she collected the preliminary data used in her proposal to DECRA. Well done Kenya!
| |  Sydney ID and DDI partnership: Sydney Anti-Bacterial Accelerator (SABA)Backed by committed funding from Sydney ID and Drug Discovery Initiative (DDI), the program will focus on the development of novel antibiotics and virulence inhibitors of bacterial cell envelope targets. The program is led by Sydney ID's Dr Matthew Doyle and co-led by Professor Jeff Errington (School of Medical Sciences). SABA is for anyone interested in the development of molecules to treat bacterial infections and to accelerate anti-bacterial research by working to solve the problems holding back their ideas. SABA will help build this research space through several mechanisms including: organising bacteriology and antibiotic focussed seminars (BacChats Seminar Series) and research workshops, and through Anti-Bacterial Discovery Funding to seed a program of focused research. Learn more about SABA.
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Uncovering the Viral 'Dark Matter' in the Virosphere
In recent Nature and Cell papers, Prof Edward Holmes and his team used novel AI protein structure prediction tools to probe the viral ‘dark matter’ that surrounds us everywhere. The secrets of the virosphere has remained hidden until now. It is estimated that there are more than 100 million viruses on Earth, of which only a small fraction has been described, but this new technology is shifting the frontier, as acknowledged by the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded to the scientists who pioneered this technology.
Sydney ID researchers are leading the way in discovering novel viruses, understanding their evolutionary trajectories, and exploring potential risks that they may pose for human health, as well as potential societal benefits locked up in their genes. Sydney ID, together with SoMS, congratulate Edward Holmes, John-Sebastian Eden, Jonathon Mifsud, Vincenzo Costa, and the whole team on these papers.
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 | Goldsworthy Oration 2024
The Goldsworthy Oration, held every two years, to celebrate the career of a pre-eminent microbiologist. Sydney ID's Jocelyne Basseal presented to a full house at The Australian Society for Microbiology NSW/ACT Branch sharing her career as a microbiologist in infection control and her personal story of resilience.
| |  | Westmead Family Day
Sydney ID was pleased to partner with the Baludarri Precinct for the inaugural Westmead "Bring your family to work" Day. Held during the University's wellness week we hosted more than 80 children, cooked and served over 250 sausage sandwiches, meet police dogs, made mozzies and met many wonderful staff and "what truly matters" to them - their families!
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- In August we held our inaugrual EMCR retreat in the Blue Mountains entitled ‘Scientifically Speaking: Your guide to being a confident Health Communicator’ led by award-winning broadcast journalist, Sophie Scott OAM and University of Sydney’s media advisor, science writer and communicator, Ivy Shih. It was a wonderful retreat, and aside from the amazing media sessions, many connections and friendships were formed. Thank you to our amazing EMCR's for sharing their stories and for their enthusiastic participation.
- Our Sydney ID annual colloquium "New Horizons in Infectious Disease: Vaccines, Advanced Therapeutics and Innovative Research IDeas" is being held on Thursday, 31 October 2024.The meeting will focus on fostering research partnerships in NSW, with an emphasis on vaccine development and immunisation. We will also showcase innovative research by our Horizon Fellows working in infectious diseases. Registrations are now open.
- We were excited to have many of our Sydney ID colleagues contribute to the FMH Global Health Research Showcase in August. Always a pleasure to be amongst passionate individuals dedicated to advancing global health research.
- Congratulations to Kenya Fernandes who earlier this year won the Australian Society for Microbiology NSW-ACT Branch 2024 Postdoctoral Award. This allowed her to present at ASM Annual Meeting in Brisbane in July, and a chance to present her research in an ECR session, competing with the winners from the other states for a best ECR talk prize. Her talk titled "Bee-associated fungal communities and the antifungal activity of hive products" won the best ECR talk prize, which was 500 euros sponsored by the Federation of European Microbiology Societies. A great year so far for Kenya!
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Our members publicationsHave you had a publication recently? Send it to us so we can share the great work being done by our members.
Tanya Golubchik
Nature Communications
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Carl Suster, Jen Kok, Vitali Sintchenko
Frontiers in Bacteriology
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Phoebe Williams
The Lancet, Child & Adolescent Health
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Mary Wyer, Lyn Gilbert
American Journal of Infection Control
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Kenya Fernandes, Dee Carter
FEMS Microbiology Ecology
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John-Sebastian Eden, Edward Holmes
Cell
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Jonathon Mifsud, Vincenzo Costa, Edward Holmes
Nature
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Edward Holmes
Nature
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