Prior to joining CIDM Public Health in 2004, Ping completed a BSc at Guangzhou Teacher’s College in China and later a Graduate Diploma in Biotechnology at the University of New South Wales. For two years she worked for Gist-brocades -a Dutch company which specialised in penicillin and yeast production. This company merged into DSM Food Specialties (UNSW) from 1999 where she continued to work for a further 5 years as a research associate. Her work involved the development of starter cultures for the dairy industry in Australia and overseas.

Ping has been involved in the inception and management of the CIDM Public Health culture collection; a central repository for isolates in existing research and reference collections along with important referred and diagnostic isolates. To ensure that they are appropriately preserved for long-term storage and catalogued for easy retrieval, clinical isolates of interest are carefully documented in a database and then freeze-dried and stored at –80oC for future reference. This is an invaluable resource for CIDM-PH and other researchers.

Dr Qinning Wang MBBS (China), PhD (Microbiology, UWA), Scientific Officer

Qinning obtained his PhD degree in microbiology at the University of Western Australia in 2004 and spent his first year postdoctoral work in UWA conducting research on the development of a vaccine against Erysipelothrix infections. He was appointed in August 2005 by CIDM-Public Health to undertake postdoctoral research into molecular epidemiology of food borne pathogens and develop molecular typing methods. His research work involves planning and implementing approaches to improved epidemiological typing of food-borne pathogens, especially salmonella, and development and evaluation of novel molecular typing methods and translation of their use into routine practice. Specifically, he introduced and developed a multi-locus variable number tandem repeat analysis (MLVA) assay as a routing typing method for Salmonella Typhimurium, which is able to provide nearly real-time strain typing information required by the NSW Health Department and Food Authority for outbreak investigation. Also he has established an extended phage locus salmonella typing system based on multiplex PCR-based reverse line blot hybridization (mPCR/RLB) techniques, which formed the basis of a NHMRC project grant in 2006. Another salmonella typing system based on the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) has also been established and is currently undergoing evaluation. He has been involved in the development of typing techniques for other bacteria, including MLVA typing schemes for other Salmonella serovars and Listeria monocytogenes, RLB based assays for rapid identification of sequence variation within intergenic 16S-23S rRNA spacer regions of Clostridium difficile and multiple typing schemes for MRSA based on SCCmec, toxin, spa, antibiotic resistance genes and MLVA.

Dr Matthew O’Sullivan MBBS, DTM&H, FRACP, FRCPA, PhD Scholar

Matthew graduated in medicine from the University of Queensland, completing specialist training in infectious diseases in Brisbane and in microbiology in Sydney. He has been enrolled in PhD studies since 2007, in which he is supported by an NH&MRC scholarship.  His research focus is in the application of molecular typing systems in hospital infection control, with a particular interest in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Current projects include identification of novel binary targets for molecular typing of MRSA using multiplexPCR/reverse line blot assay, computerised selection of target subsets to maximise typing system utility and development of highly discriminatory real-time PCR typing systems.

Dr Brian I O’Toole BSc, PhD, MPH

Brian O’Toole is an epidemiologist who has followed a peripatetic research path. He completed his PhD in psychology/neuroscience (Sydney, 1980) and a later Masters in Public Health by research (Sydney, 1990) into risk factors for mortality in 20-40 year old men. With major interests in research design and analysis, psychiatric epidemiology and the psychological effects of trauma, he has pursued largely a research career in community medicine, epidemiology, psychiatry and public health. Milestones have included headship of the only academic survey research centre in Australia; a major set of clinical epidemiologic studies in General Practice Integration research; a national evaluation study of early psychosis intervention programs; and a longitudinal study of the health of Australian Vietnam veterans and their families. He has developed and taught postgraduate courses in epidemiology since the mid-1980s and is a consultant to academic research groups in study design and statistical analysis strategies. He has over 100 published papers and government reports. His current purview at CIDM-PH is to assist staff and students with design and analysis of clinical epidemiological studies.

Damla Power – CIDM Public Health Research Assistant

Having a BSc from UWS, Damla started working at the ICPMR in 2001 as a Research Assistant in various Nuclear Magnetic Resonance projects. In 2006, Damla assisted the Bacterial Pathogenesis Laboratory in detecting certain resistant genes in Gram Negative bacteria. Currently she is working in the Pneumococcal Reference Laboratory, where she participates in many research projects from within and outside of the hospital. In the years of working in the ICPMR, Damla has acquired skills in antibiotic susceptibility testing, media production, bacterial identification, molecular techniques such as single and multiplex PCR, Serotyping by mPCR/RLB and Quellung reaction. Damla has also been involved in creating and managing the database for the Pneumococcal Reference Laboratory and has taken part in preparing paperwork for NATA accreditation.