Correlates of severe and fatal influenza disease in high-risk groups

Project Details

Enhanced susceptibility to influenza and exacerbated disease severity can reflect over-activation of the innate immune system, impaired humoral and cellular immunity and be influenced by host genetic factors (HLA or IFITM3). Understanding the key deficits that lead to severe disease in high-risk groups will provide insight into how immune interventions might minimise the incidence of severe influenza pneumonia. We study the contributions of virological, immunological, clinical and host factors to susceptibility, clinical severity and outcome for different high-risk groups:

  1. young children and the elderly (with Dr Crowe, Deepdene Surgery);
  2. Indigenous Australians (with A/Prof Tong, Menzies, Darwin and Prof Miller, Griffith University),
  3. high-risk groups hospitalized through FluCAN (with A/Profs Cheng and Kotsimbos) and Shanghai Public Clinical Hospital, Fudan University (with Prof Xu).

Research Group

Kedzierska laboratory: Immunity to pandemic and newly emerged influenza viruses


Faculty Research Themes

Infection and Immunology

School Research Themes

Molecular Mechanisms of Disease


Key Contact

For further information about this research, please contact the research group leader.

Department / Centre

Microbiology and Immunology

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