Andreas Kupz

Andreas is an Associate Professor and NHMRC Investigator at the Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine (AITHM) at James Cook University.

He holds a Diplom (equivalent to MSc) in biology from Humboldt-University in Berlin (2006) and a PhD in microbiology and immunology from the University of Melbourne (2011). He performed postdoctoral training at the Max-Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Germany as an NHMRC CJ Martin Research Fellow from 2013-2016.

Since 2016 he leads the Tuberculosis Vaccinology group at AITHM. His research interests include microbiology, immunology and vaccine development with particular focus on intracellular pathogenic microbes. His expertise in the area is highlighted by consistent publications in high profile journals such as Nature Immunology, Immunity, Journal of Clinical Investigation, PNAS, Science Advances and Cell Host & Microbe.

Andreas' research achievements have been recognised through 17 awards and prizes, including a ‘Dean’s Award for Excellence in a PhD Thesis’, an ASI 'Young Investigator Award’, a JCU ‘Rising Stars ECR Leadership Award’, an ASI ‘Career Advancement Award’ and a ‘Queensland Young Tall Poppy Science Award’.

He is the co-chair of the ‘Live Attenuated Vaccines’ research community at the Collaboration for Tuberculosis Vaccine Discovery (CTVD) at the Gates Foundation.

His research program on tuberculosis vaccine development has led to back-to-back support from highly competitive grants and fellowships from the NIH (R01), the BMGF (lead CI) and the NHMRC (2 fellowships, 1 Project Grant, 1 Ideas Grant, 1 Investigator Grant) totaling $9.7 million in CI funding since 2013.