Dr Alex Wailan, Associate Professor Judith Greer and Aakanksha Dixit

Attend this event online: https://uqz.zoom.us/j/129947296

Understanding the Queensland AMR Bacterial Population

Presented by Dr Alex Wailan

Alex completed his PhD at UQCCR in 2016 studying Enteric plasmids harbouring the blaNDM-1 gene. He went onto do a post-Salmonella Typhi in Malawi. After he went to become a Bioinformatic Analyst at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, USA to develop genomic pipelines to analyse clinical transmission of gram-negative bacteria. He has now returned to UQCCR to rejoin the Paterson Group and was recently named in the top 30 under 30 international scientists by ECCMID. He works to cultivate a high-performing social environment that support molecular microbiology and genomic scientists.

Carbapenem resistant bacteria are causing nosocomial infections in patients of three major Brisbane tertiary referral hospitals, Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital (RBWH), Queensland Children’s Hospital (QCH) and Princess Alexandria Hospital (PAH). What is not fully understood is the transmission dynamic of these bacteria causing these infections. In addition, the underlying transmission dynamic of carbapenem resistance between the different species is also unclear. Alex will be presenting an approach to start to explore both these very complex areas of investigation.

The worm has turned: Using parasitic worms to treat multiple sclerosis

Presented by Associate Professor Judith Greer and Aakanksha Dixit

Judith has been working on autoimmune diseases affecting the nervous system, particularly multiple sclerosis (MS), for far too long, and has been told by quite a few grant reviewers that some of her ideas are a bit crazy.

Aakanksha has been doing her PhD with Judith on two of the crazier ideas, one of which is to make mice with human immune systems, and the other of which is to find a way to safely use parasitic worms to treat MS. Luckily for Aakanksha, both of these ideas have proven to not be so crazy after all, and she is now in the final stages of her PhD. In this presentation, Judith and Aakanksha will speak about some of their work on the use of components of parasitic worms as potential therapeutic agents for MS.