CIDM Public Health - Senior Investigators
- Dwyer
- Gilbert
- Iredell
- Meyer
- Mindel
- Russell
- Sintchenko
- Sorrell
Professor Dominic Dwyer is a medical virologist and infectious diseases physician in the Centre for Infectious Diseases and Microbiology Laboratory Services, located in the ICPMR at Westmead Hospital, Sydney.
He graduated in medicine from the UNSW in 1981, having previously completed a BSc (Med) at the Prince of Wales Children’s Hospital. His clinical undergraduate, residency and physician training took place at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney, before moving to Westmead Hospital where he finished his fellowships of the College of Physicians (infectious diseases) and the College of Pathologists (virology). He completed a MD at the UNSW on molecular aspects of HIV, and spent two years research at the Institut Pasteur, Paris.
He has a clinical and research interest in viral diseases of public health importance. This includes HIV (where he coordinates an active program in antiretroviral drug resistance and HIV molecular epidemiology in Australia and the region), influenza and other respiratory viruses, and arboviruses. He leads an antiviral trials unit that has participated in over sixty studies of antiviral drugs and vaccines. His influenza research includes assessing interventions to prevent influenza transmission in closed environments, and developing assays for seasonal and pandemic influenza. CIDM Laboratory Services has enhanced the laboratory investigative capacity in NSW for infectious disease outbreaks, with his particular focus being rapid detection and molecular epidemiology of outbreak and emerging viruses. He has undertaken various overseas projects for the World Health Organisation, the Australian Government, the University of Sydney and various public health regulatory bodies.
Professor Lyn Gilbert MD BS, FRACP, FRCPA, FASM, M Bioethics CIDM Public Health Director
Lyn trained in infectious diseases and clinical microbiology in Melbourne and has been Director of laboratory services at the Centre for Infectious Diseases and Microbiology (CIDM), Institute of Clinical Pathology and Medical Research (ICPMR), at Westmead, NSW, since 1991. In 1997 she contributed to a successful tender, by colleagues at Children’s Hospital Westmead, to host the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS) and is responsible for the NCIRS’ national serosurveillance program. She was instrumental in establishing the national Public Health Laboratory Network and served as its first chair from 1997-2001. CIDM-Public Health was formed, under her leadership in 2003, to provide support for senior researchers in CIDM and has been supported, since then, by NSW Health Capacity Building Infrastructure Grants, which provide salaries or stipends for support staff, postdoctoral fellows and postgraduate students. Lyn has fostered a strong collaboration with the Centre for Health Informatics, UNSW, to establish expertise in infectious disease informatics at CIDM-Public Health. She completed a Master of Bioethics degree, in 2003, and has established collaborations with the Centre for Values Ethics and the Law in Medicine, University of Sydney.
Lyn’s expertise includes: bacterial molecular epidemiology, innovative methods for molecular typing of bacterial pathogens; laboratory surveillance of communicable diseases; hospital infection control; antibiotic use and resistance. Her major research interests include infections in pregnancy and the newborn; vaccine preventable diseases; epidemiology, control and ethics of healthcare associated infections. Her publications include >250 referred papers, reviews and chapters and a textbook “Infectious Diseases in Pregnancy and the Newborn Infant” (Harwood Academic), 1991.
Assoc. Professor Jon Iredell MBBS (Qld), PhD(Adelaide), FRACP, FRCPA
Jon Iredell trained clinically in Brisbane (Intensive Care, Infectious Diseases, and Microbiology) and Adelaide (Infectious Diseases and Microbiology), and in science at the University of Adelaide (1992-6) and, briefly, the Max Planck Institute for Microbiology (Tuebingen, 1995). Director of Internal Medicine and Intensive Care QE2 Hospital, Brisbane 1996-7, then moved to Westmead: fractional appointment as staff specialist in general Intensive Care/ staff specialist Infectious Diseases and Microbiology (CIDM). Chair Division One Australian Society Microbiology (Inaugural 2002-4; and 2008-10). Conjoint academic appointment University of Sydney. Deputy Postgraduate Co-ordinator for Western Clinical School and Westmead Millennium Institute. Major interests in bacterial pathogenesis/ antibiotic resistance and critical care infection/ diagnostics.
Assoc. Prof. Wieland Meyer is head of the Molecular Mycology Research Laboratory at the Centre for Infectious Diseases and Microbiology in the Department of Medicine, Western Clinical School, of the University of Sydney at the Westmead Millennium Institute, Westmead, NSW. He graduated in Genetics (1986) and completed his PhD (1992) from the Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany. He undertook postdoctorial studies at Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA (1992-1995), before he established the Molecular Mycology Research Laboratory at Westmead Hospital in 1995 and the Australian National Molecular Mycology Reference Laboratory. His research focuses on the evolution, phylogeny, speciation and epidemiology (especially of the genera Candida and Cryptococcus) the development of fast, simple and reliable molecular identification techniques for human fungal pathogens, and the understanding of fungal virulence determinants on a molecular level. He is participating in more than 60 international collaborations on fungal phylogeny and identification, and on the epidemiology and speciation of the Cryptococcus species complex. He has published 70 peer reviewed papers and 3 books. His research has been cited internationally 1471 times (S.C.I/Web of Science) (H index=21). He chaired the Organising and Scientific Committee of the 8th International Mycology Congress (IMC8), held in Cairns 2006. He is the vice-president of the International Mycological Association (IMA) since 2006. He is teaching molecular epidemiology and identification of fungi at national and international workshops and supervised 8 postdocs (3current); 14 PhDs (5 current); 10 Hons/MSc. For further information please see: http://www.mmrl.usyd.edu.au.
Professor Adrian Mindel, MB ChB (Witwatersrand), MSc (London), MD (London), FRCP (UK), FRACP, FAChSHM
Adrian Mindel is the Professor of Sexual Health Medicine, University of Sydney and Director of the Sexually Transmitted Infections Research Centre based at Westmead Hospital, Sydney, Australia.
His research expertise includes the epidemiology, diagnosis and management of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), in particular the viral STIs, including herpes and human papillomavirus infection, the use of barrier contraception for the prevention of STIs, the interaction between HIV and sexually transmitted infections, the social and political impact of sexually transmitted infections and the development and use of vaccines for the prevention of sexually transmitted infections. Adrian has written or co-authored over 100 peer-reviewed manuscripts and numerous book chapters, editorials and other miscellaneous publications. He has also written or edited several books.
Professor Richard C. Russell BSc., MSc, PhD (Syd. Uni).
Richard Russell is Professor of Medical Entomology at the University of Sydney, and founding Director of the Department of Medical Entomology at Westmead Hospital. He was previously with the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at the University of Sydney from 1970 until its closure in 1987, whereupon he moved to the University’s Department of Medicine and established his Department at Westmead.
Richard has worked as a Medical Entomologist, in public health and tropical health, for more than 35 years, and has a broad experience with insects and other arthropods of medical importance. His specialties are mosquito biology, mosquito-borne disease (particularly arboviruses) and mosquito control.
He has worked as a consultant in mosquito-borne disease and mosquito control, in all states of Australia and in 18 countries in Asia, the Pacific and South America - principally for the World Health Organization and AusAID. He has provided instruction on the principles and practice of mosquito population management and vector-borne disease control, to personnel associated with mosquito pest and vector control programs for international authorities in many countries, and for federal and state government and local authorities in all states and territories of Australia. He has been responsible for the New South Wales state-wide arbovirus/vector surveillance program since he established it in 1984.
In his professional capacity, Richard has travelled widely on all continents, visiting universities, research institutes and field control programs. He is a member of several national and international professional societies, is an editor for the Journal of Medical Entomology and is on other editorial boards, and has been the Australian delegate to the Board of Trustees of the International Federation for Tropical Medicine.
Vitali Sintchenko MBBS FRCPA FACHI PhD
Vitali Sintchenko is a senior medical microbiologist and a health informatician with expertise in molecular profiling of pathogens with epidemic potential, biosurveillance and clinical decision support. He has made contributions to the understanding of temporal and spatial patterns of infectious diseases, the optimization of clinical decision-making and the adaptive methods of molecular subtyping of pathogens with epidemic potential.
He chaired the Scientific Organising Committee of the First World Congress on Pathology Informatics, organised by HISA and API in Brisbane in 2007. Research interests and publications. Vitali has over 60 publications, 78% as the first author. His research has been cited internationally, with over 140 citations in the ISI Web of Science database (H index=8). Dr Sintchenko has received a range of prestigious awards including the NHMRC Public Health Training Fellowship (2007-2010), National Institute of Clinical Studies (NICS) Fellowship (2005-2006), NHMRC Postgraduate Scholarship (2000-2004).
Dr Sintchenko was a Visiting Fellow to the Oxford Medical Informatics in 2005, where he studied the development and implementation of computational systems for the synthesis of clinical evidence.
Professor Tania Sorrell MBBS (Adelaide), MD (Adelaide), FRACP
Professor of Clinical Infectious Diseases at the University of Sydney, Director of the Centre for Infectious Diseases and Microbiology at Westmead Hospital and an Infectious Diseases physician with a special interest in mycoses and infections in immunocompromised hosts. Professor Sorrell graduated in Medicine and obtained an MD in Clinical Immunology at the University of Adelaide. Her post-doctoral training at the University of California, Los Angeles, stimulated long-standing interests in Clinical Infectious Diseases, basic and applied research in mycology and professional and research training.
She has published over 150 basic and clinical research articles and written 29 book chapters and several reviews. Professor Sorrell was a member of the Research Committee (1997-2006) and the Health Ethics Committee (2004-2006) of the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia and serves or has served on several national and NSW advisory committees on Infectious Diseases and drug evaluation. She is a member of the International Mycoses Study Group based in the US.
