Australian Institute of Tropical Health & Medicine

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

Advancing Immune Discovery in Northern Australia with Spectral Flow Cytometry

Roland Ruscher - Australian Institute of Tropical Health & Medicine

01 Nov 2025 - 01 May 2027

JCU respectfully seeks support from the Ian Potter Foundation to purchase the Cytek Aurora Spectral Flow Cytometer. This instrument is used for identifying, and conducting detailed analyses of single cells. The Cytek Aurora will replace JCU’s current, outdated flow cytometry instrument in Cairns: the FACSCanto II 3-laser eight-colour Flow Cytometer. This equipment is 15 years old and no longer meets JCU’s needs.

Combating antibiotic-resistant infections using a health system approach (Old ID 23169)

Emma McBryde - Australian Institute of Tropical Health & Medicine

03 Jul 2017 - 02 Jul 2020

The march of antibiotic resistance across the globe is leading to what many are calling the “post-antibiotic era”. This puts a massive, preventable burden both on patients and Queensland’s health system, costing millions of dollars each year. North Queensland is geographically vulnerable to emerging infectious diseases, located at the tropical Indo- Pacific gateway, with the highest rates of resistant tuberculosis, and incursions of dengue virus, for example. This project will generate an evidence base for cost and risks of infectious diseases in North Queensland; by linking several health system datasets, to synthesise prospective and retrospective cohorts. Professorial and Infectious Diseases Units at TTH are co-investigators of the project investing personnel to perform the research. Further, TTH infection control and executive policy-makers are the target end-user for translation of the research.

Macrobiome Therapeutics Research Contract

Suchandan Sikder - Australian Institute of Tropical Health & Medicine

23 Oct 2025 - 31 Jan 2027

This project involved Macrobiome contracting JCU to undertake R&D activities relating to the clinical development of two hookworm-derived proteins (MBT001 and MBT002) that are candidate drugs for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease. The aim of this project is to acquire further data on the drug mechanism(s) of action (MOA) and efficacy is various pre-clinical models of colitis, as well as bioinformatically linking the MOA with the appropriate human disease population to target in future clinical trials.

Macrobiome Therapeutics Research Contract

Roland Ruscher - Australian Institute of Tropical Health & Medicine

23 Oct 2025 - 31 Jan 2027

Centre of Research Excellence in Tuberculosis Control on both sides of our border. (Old ID 26555)

Emma McBryde - Australian Institute of Tropical Health & Medicine

01 Jan 2019 - 31 Oct 2024

This is a capacity building project on tuberculosis research including clinical trials, genomics, immunology and modelling for policy decision support. It involves researchers at USyd, U Melb, Monash and JCU. My role is in mathematical modelling of tuberculosis and this work will provide a network of tuberculosis researchers with which to collaborate.