Affiliates and Partners

University of Sydney

We are the largest affiliated medical research institute with the University of Sydney.

Founded in 1850, the University of Sydney is Australia's first university and is regarded as one of its most prestigious, ranked as the world's 27th most reputable university.

In 2013, the University was ranked 37th and in the top 0.3% in the QS World University Rankings. Five Nobel and two Crafoord laureates have been affiliated with the university as graduates and faculty.

The University’s Sydney Medical School is one of the Asia Pacific region's most highly rated education and research institutions, offering unparalleled opportunities to study medicine in Australia.

Its graduates play leading roles in health fields around the world and its research investigates diseases which affect millions of lives, including cancer, obesity, chronic disease and ageing, neurosciences and mental health, infectious diseases, and reproductive, maternal and child health.

Since its establishment in 1978, the Westmead Clinical School at Westmead Hospital has been a place of innovation and growth. The Westmead Clinical School serves the largest area and population of any of the University of Sydney's clinical schools and has a patient population of approximately 1.1 million.

The great number and diversity of people within the Sydney West Area serves to enrich medical student training and experience. Students who choose to study at Westmead can expect to graduate with an extremely well-rounded experience, secure in their clinical abilities.

Westmead Hospital

The Westmead Institute has close links to Westmead Hospital and the wider health system.

Operating since 1978, Westmead Hospital is a specialised tertiary referral hospital for the western Sydney metropolitan area, serving one of the largest growing population areas in NSW. Westmead Hospital is the major teaching hospital of the University of Sydney for medical and dental students and is one of Australia’s largest centres for postgraduate training at specialist level in all fields.

The hospital includes a dental school, and a unit for emotionally disturbed children, Redbank House. 

Other services include acute intervention medicine, aged care, neurology, rehabilitation, allied health, brain injury, cardiac, chronic care, radiology, pathology, a 24 hour emergency department, surgery, intensive care service, neonatal intensive care service, mental health, renal, transplant surgery and outpatient services.

Patients are admitted by referral and through an extensive accident and emergency and outpatients service.

The hospital consists of:

• Ward areas
• Communications and co-ordination facilities
• Diagnostic and treatment areas
• Administrative and education facilities
• The Dental Clinical School
• The Institute of Clinical Pathology and Medical Research

ACH2

The Australian Centre for HIV and Hepatitis Virology Research (ACH2) is one of Australia’s four national centres for HIV and Hepatitis research and is funded by the Commonwealth Government as represented by the Department of Health and Ageing.

The purpose of the Centre is to deliver virological and immunological research outcomes of significance to improve the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of HIV and HCV in Australia and in a broader regional and international context.

The Centre operates as a virtual institute with open access to all HIV and hepatitis researchers in Australia. The executive officer of ACH² operates out of the Westmead Institute for Medical Research.

CREID

At the Centre of Research Excellence in Protecting the Public from Emerging Infectious Diseases (CREID) we aim to create a vibrant, multidisciplinary community of researchers, linked with public health laboratories and government agencies, working together to safeguard Australia and our region from emerging infectious disease threats.

Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity

The Westmead Institute hosts the Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity (MBI) - a multidisciplinary, virtual institute of the University of Sydney that aims to reduce the growing health and socio-economic impacts of infectious diseases, especially in the Asia-Pacific Region.

Infectious diseases pose enormous and unpredictable public health challenges.  Globally, emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases are major causes of morbidity and mortality, socio-economic disruption and economic instability. Expert knowledge and input are essential for governments to effectively anticipate, control or reduce the impact of future epidemic infections.

Australia is vulnerable to emerging infections due to its location within the Asia-Pacific region (a major incubator of emerging infections and antimicrobial resistance), high population mobility, international trade and shifting disease vectors, as well as residential and agricultural expansion into wildlife habitats.  Increasing drug resistance threatens to take us back to the pre-antibiotic era. 

MBI is committed to research and knowledge exchange for improved understanding of complex interactions that fuel the emergence and spread of infectious diseases. It does this by:

• Leading in cross-disciplinary research into emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases
• Increasing capacity within Australia and Asia Pacific nations to detect and respond to infectious disease outbreaks in humans and animals
• Informing and assisting in the development of policies and strategies to prevent, contain and control emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases

MBI’s executive team is based within the Westmead Institute and the organisations engages with the Institute’s researchers.

The Westmead Institute houses high security laboratory facilities within the largest public health microbiology reference laboratories in NSW, linked closely to research and clinical care across the Westmead and Children’s Hospitals, the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance and the Kid’s Research Institute.

MBI brings together faculties and disciplines ranging from biomedical and veterinary science, public health and agriculture to the arts and social sciences, and law.

Its goals are to better understand the complex environmental and evolutionary dynamics of infectious diseases, define pathogenic mechanisms and optimal management, improve relevant surveillance and public health systems, and design ethical frameworks that will ensure rapid, targeted and effective public health action.

The research is embedded within public health and clinical practice with strong representation on policy-making bodies.

People

Director: Professor Tania Sorrell

Deputy Director: Associate Professor Ben Marais

Lead – Public Health: Dr Grant Hill-Cawthorne

Program Manager: Ms Kerri Anton

Executive Support Officer: Mrs Christine Aitken

Other members of the MBI team and students are available through group leader web pages on this site and www.sydney.edu.au/mbi

Projects

MBI Project Nodes build on the research strengths of our academics and support new collaborations between academic communities involving at least 3 disciplines, schools or faculties, with a strong emphasis on securing competitive research. 

Current project nodes include:

• Antimicrobial resistance (AMR)
• Central Nervous System Infection, Inflammation and Immunity (CNS I³); joint node with the University of Sydney’s Brain Mind Centre (BMC)
• Healthy Food Systems – nutrition, diversity, safety; joint node with the University of Sydney’s Charles Perkins Centre (CPC)
• Integrated Primary Health Care
• Politics and Ethics of Infection

Funding and Collaborators

Funding

• NHMRC
• ARC
• DFAT
• ACIAR
• NIH
• Commonwealth and NSW Departments of Health
• Sydney Medical School Foundation and the University of Sydney (through Health and Medical Research Strategic Priority Area grants and Disciplines/Schools and faculties)
• Industry funding

Affiliations

• WHO
• NGOs including Medicins Sans Frontieres
• Advocacy groups including RESULTS.

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Sydney Gene and Cell therapies

Sydney Gene and Cell Therapies (SGCT) is a joint venture of translational researchers on the Westmead campus involved in clinical trials in the areas of T-cell immunotherapy, islet transplantation and gene therapy.

SGCT’s vision is to support gene and cellular therapeutic activity in the precinct and to promote advances in the biologicals and medical devices industry by providing access to leading experts, state-of-the-art cleanroom facilities and robust quality systems.

SCGT provides a suite of clean-rooms based on Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) and access to some of the world’s leading clinicians and medical researchers in cell and gene-based therapeutics.

Its clean-rooms include aseptic and aseptic/bio-contained, gene and cellular therapeutics manufacturing suites, supported by a GMP-based quality system and are commercially available to the international biologics sector. 

Processing within the SCGT is managed to meet the requirements Biologicals Framework.

For more information: http://www.scgt.org.au/

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Sydney West Translational Cancer Research Centre

The Sydney West Translational Cancer Research Centre vision is to create a dynamic, professional community across multiple locations and disciplines that are connected in real-time through an interactive information technology network.

The Sydney West Translational Cancer Research Centre is a cross-site consortium that links Multi-Disciplinary Teams within the Sydney West Cancer Network with cancer research groups of The Westmead Institute for Medical Research, the Westmead node of the Melanoma Institute Australia, and other affiliated clinical and research groups involved in cancer care and research in western Sydney.

The Sydney West Translational Cancer Research Centre vision is to create a dynamic, professional community across multiple locations and disciplines that are connected in real-time through an interactive information technology network. 

Its goal is to enhance current and future translational cancer medicine through a range of initiatives that will:

• Create a connected professional community of cancer research and practice in western Sydney.
• Embed research as one of the core disciplines contributing to the Multi-Disciplinary Team-based (MDT) approach to cancer care.
• Provide support, training and development of the cancer workforce.
• Implement and evaluate the impact of strategies to disseminate knowledge and effect practice change in the broader clinical community.

Westmead Institute research leaders, Professors Anna de Fazio, Jacob George, and David Gottlieb, serve on the Executive Council of the Centre. Professor de Fazio is also the Sydney West Chair of Translational Cancer Research.

The Westmead Research Hub

The Westmead Research Hub is one of the largest and most highly regarded research precincts in the Southern Hemisphere.

The Hub is a co-operative venture formed to focus the research activities of the Westmead Campus for the purpose of sharing resources and infrastructure and encouraging collaboration.

The Westmead Research Hub is a collaboration between five organisations with expertise in medical research, health and education. Partners include: The Westmead Institute for Medical Research, Western Sydney Local Health District, The Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network, Children’s Medical Research Institute, and The University of Sydney.

The Hub seeks to encourage collaboration, sharing of equipment and knowledge, and foster education among its members and affiliates in order to grow the Hub as a world-leader in health and medical research.