Centre for Clinical Research

Antimicrobial optimisation

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About

Infections in the healthcare setting are common and cause too many people to die. Severe infections commonly occur in patients with critical illness, burns, transplant, cystic fibrosis and immunosuppression. Infections in these patients are more difficult to treat leading to more multi-drug resistant (‘superbug’) infections which are associated with increased mortality and poorer health outcomes.

The Antimicrobial Optimisation Group is addressing these issues by improving antimicrobial dosing in these challenging special patient populations, using our world leading collaborative experience in the areas of laboratory-based infection and experimental models, clinical pharmacokinetics, pharmacometrics and clinical trials to define robust and evidence-based dosing regimens of our most commonly used antibiotics that will maximise antimicrobial effectiveness including reducing the emergence of resistance.

This group runs the Centre of Research Excellence for Optimising and personalising antimicrobial dosing to reduce resistance (RESPOND).

Contact

+61 7 3346 5045

cre.respond@uq.edu.au

 

Visit the CRE RESPOND website

  • Professor Jason Roberts

    Director, UQ Centre for Clinical Research & NHMRC Leadership Fellow & Centre Director of UQ Centre for Clinical Research
    UQ Centre for Clinical Research
    Affiliate of Queensland Cerebral Palsy Rehabilitation and Research Centre
    Queensland Cerebral Palsy Rehabilitation and Research Centre
    Affiliate of Centre for Extracellular Vesicle Nanomedicine
    Centre for Extracellular Vesicle Nanomedicine

  • Professor Jeffrey Lipman

    Emeritus Professor & Affiliate of UQ Centre for Clinical Research & Emeritus/Emerita/Emeritx Professor
    UQ Centre for Clinical Research

  • Dr Fekade Sime

    NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow & NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow
    UQ Centre for Clinical Research
    Affiliate Research Fellow of School of Pharmacy
    School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

  • Dr Hafiz Abdul-Aziz

    Research Fellow & Research Fellow
    UQ Centre for Clinical Research

  • Dr Xin Liu

    Pharmacokinetic Analyst & Pharmacokinetic Analyst
    UQ Centre for Clinical Research
    Research Fellow
    Frazer Institute

  • Dr Patty Mitre

    Postdoctoral Research Fellow & Postdoctoral Research Fellow
    UQ Centre for Clinical Research

  • Dr Suzanne Parker

    Senior Research Fellow
    UQ Centre for Clinical Research

  • Dr Natasha Roberts

    Senior Research Fellow & Senior Research Fellow
    UQ Centre for Clinical Research
    Conjoint Research Fellow/Lecturer in Nursing
    Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences

  • Associate Professor Jayesh Dhanani

    ATH - Associate Professor & Principal Research Fellow & ATH - Associate Professor
    UQ Centre for Clinical Research
    Director of Research, Medical School (Secondment)
    Medical School
    Associate Professor, Clinical Research (Secondment)
    Royal Brisbane Clinical Unit

  • Mr Paul Williams

    Postdoctoral Research Fellow
    UQ Centre for Clinical Research

  • Mrs Luminita Vlad

    Centre of Research Excellence Manager & Ctr Research Excellence Manager
    UQ Centre for Clinical Research

  • Mr Nermin Karamujic

    Clinical Research Data Manager & Casual Clinical Research Data Manager
    UQ Centre for Clinical Research

  • Mrs Louise Godfrey

    Senior Projects Officer
    UQ Centre for Clinical Research

Bioanalysis Laboratory

  • Smiling grey bearded man in front of pastel blue, green and pink horizontal striped background.

    Dr Steven Wallis

    Head of Bioanalysis & Head of Bioanalysis
    UQ Centre for Clinical Research
  • Helen Won

    Dr Helen Won

    Principal Research Officer & Principal Research Officer
    UQ Centre for Clinical Research
  • Smiling Asian woman wearing glasses and fringe crossing her forehead.

    Dr Charlene Wu

    Senior Research Assistant
    UQ Centre for Clinical Research

  • Miss Jenny Ordonez

    Research Assistant & Research Assistant
    UQ Centre for Clinical Research

  • Mr Dusan Marjanovic

    Bioanalyst & Bioanalyst
    UQ Centre for Clinical Research

PhD students

Completed PhD students

  • Dr Puteri Zamri
  • Dr Gene Chai
  • Dr Vesa Cheng
  • Dr Yarmarly Guerra Valero
  • Dr Aaron Heffernan
  • Dr Kamrul Islam
  • Dr Sazlyna Mohd Sazlly Lim
  • Dr Eko Setiawan
  • Dr Gloria Wong

Honorary Academics

Critically ill patients often have varying physiological needs compared to the average patient and often require different dosage of antibiotics and other drugs, particularly if they are on life sustaining organ support such as extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) or continuous renal replacement therapies (CRRT). There is also controversy over whether a single dose of a drug or other substance given over a short period of time (called bolus dosing), or continuous infusion of β-lactams is more effective in delivering the right amount of antibiotic in critically ill patients. Professor Lipman has pioneered a large body of work which demonstrates that patients in intensive care units (ICU) do not receive optimal levels of antibiotics to kill the disease or infection-causing pathogens. This in turn leads to poorer health outcomes for patients as well as resistance to antibiotic treatment. Antibiotic resistant infections commonly occur in long stay, debilitated patients and increase the risk of death; result in longer ICU and hospital stay, physical weakness and long-term dysfunction. This contributes to patients being stuck in the ICU or hospital, worsening the shortage of acute-care hospital beds and increasing surgery waiting time.

If you would like to make a tax deductible donation to antimicrobial optimisation research, please contact med.advancement@uq.edu.au. Thank you for your support.