May 2, 2019
Pathogen discovery: from genomics to disease recognition and response – in Perth, Australia on 2–3 May 2019
This symposium will bring together international, national and local expertise to explore the translational pathways from the use of the new genomic techniques for organism discovery and characterisations through to applications in the field. It will use a multi-disciplinary approach to explore the tools that are available to enhance and apply the genomic data.
Sessions will be held focussing on organism discovery, pathogenicity and impact assessment, priority setting, emerging antimicrobial resistance, improved detection systems, modelling, epidemiological tools, and public health responses. A session will be dedicated to work carried out by postgraduate research students and early career researchers.
The international and national speakers currently include:
- Ian Lipkin is John Snow Professor of Epidemiology, Professor of Neurology and Pathology and Cell Biology, and Director of the Center for Infection and Immunity at the Mailman School of Public Health, Colombia University, New York. He is an internationally recognised authority on the use of molecular methods for pathogen discovery.
- Linfa Wang is Professor and Director of the Emerging Infectious Diseases Programme at the Duke NUS Medical School, and a Professor at the Duke Global Health Initiative. He is a global leader in bat-borne viruses and the unique role that bats play as sources of human viruses such as SARS.
- Peter Daszak is President of the EcoHealth Alliance, a US-based organisation that conducts research and outreach programs on global health, conservation, and international development. His research has been instrumental in identifying and predicting the impact of emerging diseases across the globe, and he is one of the leaders of the Global Virome Project.
- Prof Kanta Subbarao is the Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza in Melbourne and was previously Chief of the Emerging Respiratory Viruses Section of the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, NIAID, National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States. Her research is focused on newly emerging viral diseases of global importance including pandemic influenza, SARS and MERS.
The symposium is supported by PathWest Laboratory Medicine WA, the University of Western Australia, Curtin University, the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Emerging Infectious Diseases (CREID) and the NHMRC Australian Partnership for Preparedness Research on Infectious Disease Emergencies (APPRISE).