My fellowship will explore whether skin vaccination can improve innate and adaptive immune responses to Leishmania vaccines compared to traditional vaccine delivery. Studies will define and deconvolute the role of antibody, circulating T cells and resident memory cells in the induction of vaccine immunity and protection. Intervention studies will identify key players involved in the induction of protective immunity and shed light on how to best generate protective immunity.
I am a molecular virologist with current research interests targeting improving vaccine outcomes for infectious diseases using viral vectored vaccines, focusing on neglected tropical disease vaccine candidates. I use a holistic approach to vaccinology including ways to improve immunogenicity and efficacy via optimal antigen design and development, improved stability and delivery in preclinical models. Having spent 7 years in the vaccine industry, I have broad industry experience covering vaccine.
Twenty years of experience in infectious disease and molecular virology with particular focus on the infectious disease pathogenesis and vaccinology. My research has focussed on comprehensive translational studies on the rational design and assessment of experimental therapeutics and the next generation of genetically modified vaccines, including vaccines based on the replication-defective SCV and SynVAX vaccine platform technologies. In the past 8 years, these discoveries have been used in fundamental, and early and late phase translational studies, to identify virulence determinants, evaluate vaccine candidates and assess new drug therapeutics for infectious disease control. Since 2020, my research interests have expanded into the development of vaccine candidates and interventions against Coronaviruses, particularly SARS-CoV2. I am currently interested in improving vaccine outcomes through the use of skin vaccination.
Professor Luke Alphey, University of York
1999 SM and Fox PhD Scholarship for Arthritis research2000 Awarded Australian Society of Microbiology student poster prize for a poster at the Eleventh Annual Combined Biological Sciences Meeting, Perth, Australia
2001 Awarded Becton Dickinson student travel award to attend the Australian Society for Microbiology Annual Scientific Meeting, Perth, Australia
2002 Awarded University of Western Australia student travel award and International Union of the Microbiological Societies student travel award to attend the International Union of the Microbial Societies Meeting, Paris, France
2007 Awarded University of Queensland Postdoctoral Travel Award to attend the International Union of the Microbial Societies Meeting, Istanbul, Turkey
2009 Australian Postdoctoral Fellowship awarded through the Australian Research Council
2009 Awarded ResTeach position for 2010-11 (funding provided by UQ to encourage researchers into teaching) in the School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences constituting 10% salary.
2013 Awarded ResTeach 10% salary for 20142014 Awarded SCMB Early Career Researcher Travel Award to attend the American Society forVirology meeting in Fort Collins, Colorado, USA.
2016 Awarded Advance Queensland Mid-Career Research Fellowship partnered with Sementis Ltd to develop vaccine candidates for Chikungunya and Zika viruses
2017 Awarded travel award by the Australian Infectious Diseases Research Centre to attend the Lorne Infection and Immunity meeting, 2018.