Australian Institute of Tropical Health & Medicine
Brian Cooke
- Adjunct Professor
- brian.cooke@jcu.edu.au
Amanda Murphy
- Senior Research Fellow
- amanda.murphy@jcu.edu.au
Tessa Knox
- Principal Research Fellow
- tessa.knox@jcu.edu.au
Justin Sexton
- Adjunct Research Fellow
- justin.sexton1@jcu.edu.au
Adeshina Adekunle
- Adjunct Research Fellow
- adeshina.adekunle@jcu.edu.au
Brogan Amos
- Adjunct Research Fellow
- brogan.amos@jcu.edu.au
Rachael Ryan
- Postdoctoral Research Fellow
- rachael.ryan1@jcu.edu.au
Emma McBryde
- Adjunct Professor
- emma.mcbryde@jcu.edu.au
Juergen Reichardt
- Adjunct Professor
- juergen.reichardt@jcu.edu.au
Tanya Russell
- Principal Research Fellow
- tanya.russell@my.jcu.edu.au
Building a simulation model to improve cardiovascular disease risk prediction and treatment for indigenous Australians (Old ID 22925)
Robyn McDermott
01 Jan 2016 - 31 Dec 2020
This project will use a large linked cohort of 2800 Indigenous adults from north Queensland remote communities which looks at reasons for the excess cardiovascular risk in this group. The aim is to get better measures of risk of heart disease and premature death which can be done by primary health care services for better early detection and better management and survival.
Protecting north Queensland from Aedes albopictus, an exotic dengue vector, with Attractive Targeted Sugar Baits (ATSB) (Old ID 26789)
Tanya Russell
13 Mar 2020 - 12 Mar 2022
Aedes albopictus, a documented vector of dengue, Zika and chikungunya, is one of the fastest spreading invasive species worldwide, and was first detected in the Torres Strait in 2005. This pilot project will lay the foundation required to assess the feasibility of Attractive Targeted Sugar Baits (ATSB) to control Aedes albopictus. The overall objective is to determine the frequency that mosquitos’ sugar feed, a parameter critical to the success of ATSBs. This pilot data will be leveraged for funding to trial the use of ATSBs to stop Ae. albopictus from reaching the mainland.
Understanding Babesia Pathogenesis (Old ID 27083)
Brian Cooke
01 Jan 2020 - 31 Dec 2024
This project aims at gaining a deep understanding of the biology of Babesia parasites and how they cause disease (bovine babesiosis) in cattle. The project expects to discover novel parasite proteins involved in the development and persistence of bovine babesiosis and identify their functional role in infection. The main expected outcome is the discovery of parasite proteins that are critical for infection and pathogenesis of bovine babesiosis. The outputs from this project will aid in the development of novel vaccines to control bovine babesiosis and such vaccines would significantly improve beef and dairy production worldwide.
Age-associated properties of intraepithelial lymphocytes, and their relation to intestinal diseases (Old ID 27181)
Roland Ruscher
01 Jan 2022 - 31 Dec 2026
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and colorectal cancer are a severe burden to those affected. While the peak onset age of IBD lies in early adulthood, colorectal cancer predominantly affects people over 50 years of age. How gut immunity fails in the context of age is poorly understood. This program will establish cornerstones of the intestinal immune system over different stages in life, and thereby help to design better treatment strategies that are adjusted to an individual’s age.
Unravelling the correlates of protection against tuberculosis (Old ID 25064)
Andreas Kupz
01 Jul 2018 - 31 Dec 2018
Tuberculosis (TB) is a global health problem and causes significant mortality, due to the low efficiency of the only licensed tuberculosis vaccine, BCG. Despite decades of intense research, the correlates of either natural or BCG-induced protection against TB are still not understood. My research program aims to unravel these correlates, to design an effective vaccine against TB. To bring my research to the next level, I intend to use the Rising Stars Program to gain highly sophisticated skills in live imaging of the immune system, and to strengthen partnerships with international collaborators to become more competitive for international research funding.
Development of a novel wound healing agent (Old ID 28948)
Norelle Daly
01 Apr 2023 - 30 Mar 2024
Ancient traditional medicines, while often not mechanistically well characterised, can be incredibly useful in directing the development of new therapeutics and treatments. Inspired by traditional remedies for wound healing, our Cairns based team (Daly, Widi, Wilson and Smout) has shown that two plant-derived glycosides can act synergistically to promote fibroblast cell proliferation. This in vitro bioactivity correlates strongly with potent in vivo activity in a mouse model of wound healing based on our previous studies with an unrelated parasite-derived peptide. Our research question is whether glycosides acting synergistically can be used in the design of a novel wound healing treatment, and we now aim to carry out in vivo studies on our plant-derived compounds to begin to answer this question.
Novel biologics for pediatric inflammatory bowel disease and necrotising enterocolitis, inspired by host-parasite co-evolution. (Old ID 27128)
Roland Ruscher
01 Feb 2021 - 31 Aug 2022
Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) pose a major health burden with severe symptoms, and IBD onset in childhood is on the rise. Necrotising enterocolitis (NEC) is another inflammatory bowel condition that affects preterm infants, and in which inflamed parts of the gut die. Current treatment methods are insufficient. Intestinal parasites have developed strategies to modulate our immune responses through secreted proteins. We identified seven helminth-secreted proteins that suppress gut inflammation. We now would like to assess which of our preselected proteins are best in the context of early life IBD and NEC.
Development and deployment of a subunit vaccine against bovine babesiosis (Old ID 27171)
Brian Cooke
01 Sep 2020 - 28 Feb 2024
Bovine babesiosis caused by Babesia bovis is a tick‐transmitted disease that causes severe, often fatal disease in cattle, resulting in significant economic losses to beef and dairy industries worldwide, as well as to individuals and small subsistence farmers in endemic areas. This project aims to make a dual‐acting, subunit vaccine against babesiosis that is practical and easily deployable in babesiaendemic regions worldwide to prevent both acute disease in infected animals and parasite transmission by tick vectors. Farmers will benefit by protecting their animals against bovine babesiosis and achieve improved livestock production to meet local and global demand for animal products.
Unravelling novel immune parameters that correlate with BCG vaccination in humans. (Old ID 27409)
Andreas Kupz
02 Nov 2021 - 02 Nov 2022
Tuberculosis (TB) is a leading infectious cause of death globally and is over-represented in Indigenous people in Far North Queensland. The only licensed TB vaccine, Bacille Calmette– Guérin (BCG), which is universally used to prevent TB in children, fails to protect against pulmonary TB in adults, and it is not known why protection wanes in adolescence. This project aims to unravel the immunological correlates that correlate with BCG-mediated protection in humans. Using high-dimensional immune profiling and microbiome analyses we will compare immune responses to BCG vaccination with Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection in children in the FNQ/Torres Strait region.
Immunogenicity of Inovio SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine candidate in Ferrets. (Old ID 27533)
Socorro Miranda-Hernandez
11 Feb 2022 - 30 Jun 2022
This project aims to characterise the immune responses following two doses of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidates produced by Inovio Pharmaceuticals. The Inovio vaccine candidates are DNA-based vaccines (as opposed to RNA-based, such as the Pfizer vaccine; or viral vector-based, such as the AstraZeneca vaccine) and rely upon the injection of a circular DNA (plasmid) that, when it gets into a cell, tells the cell to produce a particular protein from SARS-CoV-2 (in this case the Spike protein, found on the surface of the virus particle). Completion of these studies will further support the Inovio vaccine candidate along its pathway to licensure for use in humans, in the context of emerging variants of concern, thus aiding in the testing of a vaccine that may be used to protect humans from SARS-CoV-2 infection in the future.
Phylodynamic Inference of Bacterial Outbreak Parameters Using Nanopore Sequencing
- 2022
- Oxford University Press
- Researchers:Emma McBrydePaul Horwood
Zoonotic malaria transmission and land use change in Southeast Asia: what is known about the vectors
- 2022
- BioMed Central
- Researchers:Tanya RussellTom Burkot
Inducing metamorphosis in the irukandji jellyfish Carukia barnesi
- 2022
- Nature Publishing Group
- Researchers:Jamie Seymour
Start Date:
01 Jan 2024
Start Date:
01 Jan 2018
End Date:
01 Jan 2020
Start Date:
01 Jan 2008
End Date:
01 Jan 2012
Start Date:
01 Jan 2012
End Date:
01 Jan 2017
Start Date:
01 Jan 2020
Start Date:
01 Jan 2022
End Date:
01 Jan 2023
Start Date:
01 Jan 2021
End Date:
01 Jan 2023
Start Date:
01 Jan 2020
End Date:
01 Jan 2020
Start Date:
01 Jan 2016
End Date:
01 Jan 2020