Our research aims to understand and find better ways of controlling new and re-emerging infectious diseases such as tuberculosis.

Our focus is the emergence of new infectious diseases as well as the reappearance of old diseases due to their introduction into new environments or through the rise in antimicrobial drug resistance. We are also exploring how external factors can influence the emergence and re-emergence of infections, for example the impact of previous drug treatments, and the spread of infections in mass gatherings.

Much of our work exploits the incredible potential of new technologies, such as whole genome sequencing, to understand how bacteria mutate in different populations and how drug resistance evolves.

We also use traditional epidemiological methods to study how infections are spread, enabling us to derive important insights and inform country-specific guidelines and drug treatment decisions.

Research directions

  • Current research projects are based in Mongolia, China, South Africa, Papua New Guinea and Saudi Arabia and cover respiratory organisms such as RSV and M. tuberculosis, enteric organisms including Salmonella spp. and Cholera spp. and neurological infections caused by enterovirus type 71.
  • Through the NSW Public Health Pathogen Genomics Partnership Project, we are investigating how genomics can be translated in clinical and public health benefits through faster and more accurate diagnosis leading to targeted therapies.