In the Media: Highlights from Immunology & Microbiology

DMI media highlights – June & July 2024

• Prof Lachlan Coin co-senior author and his team’s study was published in iScience, for the use of lab-grown replicas of human nasal tissues that revealed different COVID-19 strains elicit expression of different gene and is dependent on the population infected.

• Dr Carolein Van de Sandt and Prof Katherine Kedzierska was published in Nature Aging for research on the impacts of an aging immune system on COVID-19 vaccine responses and suggestions to improve immunity in older adults.

• Nobel Laureate Prof Peter Doherty, has been honoured as one of sixty of the nation’s most influential people in the past 60 years by the Weekend Australian for his extensive research into the immune system & important contributions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

• A/Prof Ashraful Haque and his team’s research was published in Nature Communications for utilising tissue genomic to uncover how the immune system responds to malaria during re-infection. Read more. The study builds upon his team’s previous research published in Cell Reports, for utilising new-gen technology to discover how CD4+ T cells behave during malaria infection. Read more.

• Dr Michelle Wille was featured on numerous news outlets for her expertise on the origin and spread of the bird flu to Antarctica, how Australia should respond and updates on the spread of the avian influenza. Read more. Media coverage included: ABC Online, The Guardian, Herald Sun, Sky News, The Australia, Balkans Times, ABC Radio and more. In June, Dr Willie attended an international meeting in Fiji organised by the World Health Organisation, where nations discussed strategies to safeguard public health in the Pacific. Read more.

• Prof Matthew McKay and the research he collaborated on was featured in the Herald Sun, discovering how gene scissors (CRISPR) can be adapted to destroy disease-causing genes.

• A/Prof Torsten Seemann was awarded an Essential Open Source Software for Science grant for his research into global microbial genomics. Read more.

• Dr Sidonia Eckle, senior author of a study published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, discovering how different species have similar cells as part of their immune system; albeit different frequencies. Read more.

• Dr Marios Koutsakos’ study was published in Nature Microbiology, for research in discovering how the strength of the immune response to influenza B later in life is dependent on exposure to similar variants during childhood. Read more. Media coverage included: Channel 7, Nine News, The Herald Sun, Lab+Life Scientist, The New Daily, ABC News, LA FM, FOX FM and more.

• Prof Ian Barr and his team’s study was featured in newsGP for research into the impacts of early exposure to influenzas B virus on a person’s immune response to in-infection later in life.

• Prof Steven Tong was featured in the Bendigo Times for his work in a trial at Bendigo Health to achieve better outcomes for golden staph patients. Read more.

• A/Prof Nichollas Scott and Dr Sacha Pidot, as part of an international team was awarded the prestigious Horizon Prize from the Royal Society of Chemistry for research in solving how sulfosugars breakdown. Read more.

• Prof James McCluskey, AO, awarded the prestigious Melbourne Achiever Award for his contributions to the biomedical research sector and community for the past 30 years. Read More. Prof McCluskey was also recently featured on Infrastructure Magazine, commenting on the construction of a new medical research centre in Melbourne to support the Australian Institute for Infectious Disease. Read more.

• The Doherty Institute was awarded the Fleming Fund Fellowship Program Grant, amassing to 7 million by the WHO Collaborating Centre for Antimicrobial Resistance, UK, to combat the global threat of antimicrobial resistance. Read more.