Jon is an Infectious Disease Physician and Microbiologist who divides his time between Westmead Hospital in a combined Infectious Diseases and Microbiology Department and his research which is supported by the NHMRC at the University of Sydney. His major interests are in critical infection, including the study of bacterial septic shock, and in bacterial genetics and ecology.

Formal affiliations are (1) Conjoint Professor of Medicine and Microbiology, Sydney Medical School The University of Sydney/The Westmead Institute for Medical Research and the Marie Bashir Institute, (2) Senior Staff Specialist, Western Sydney and Westmead Hospital and Deputy Director Microbiology, Pathology West (NSW Pathology) and Institute of Clinical Pathology and Medical Research, (3) Director, Centre for Infectious Diseases and Microbiology at Westmead Institute for Medical Research.  List of publications.

Dr Nouri Ben Zakour (PhD) is a Principal Research Scientist at the Centre for Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, The Westmead Institute for Medical Research. She is a recognised expert in microbial and evolutionary genomics investigating the evolution of established/emerging clinical and veterinary bacterial pathogens (staphylococci, streptococci, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae). She has published 45 papers in high-impact, general-interest journals including PNAS, Nature Microbiology, Nature Genetics, PLoS Pathogen, Scientific Reports and MBio (>5,000 citations, h-index 29).

Nouri is the lead bioinformatician on several bacteriophage-focused projects at CIDM and has been an early-stage contributor to kickstarting the first Australian bacteriophage therapy centre. She is also interested in information visualisation at the interface of genomics, analytics and infectious diseases and has contributed to the development of widely-used bioinformatics software (BRIG, Easyfig, SeqFindr, and Contiguity). She is actively involved in community outreach and is a certified Software Carpentry (SWC) instructor (2016-). She was ex‐officio member of the Australian Society of Microbiology Queensland branch committee (2013‐2014) and co-organised the 1st Health Hack hackathon event for medical research (Brisbane, 2015). Her twitter handle is @genomiss.

Asmaa is an internationally trained medical doctor and has a broad multidisciplinary experience, she has an extended teaching, research and clinical awareness which have augmented her skills. In addition to her experience in different teaching programmes, research and clinical laboratories she has hands-on experience in all molecular biology, tissue culture and genetic techniques. She has worked as a clinical pathologist and lecturer of Pathophysiology for 8 years before she moved to Australia. She has recently awarded her master’s degree in medicine from School of Medicine, Sydney University and joined the Centre of Infectious Disease and Microbiology, Westmead Institute for Medical Research (WIMR) as an assistant research scientist. Her master’s work has been published in one of Science journals.

Publications

Pubmed

Alicia is an emerging leading researcher expert in Molecular Microbiology and Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR).

Along 20 years of research experience, Dr. Fajardo-Lubián has acquired expertise in molecular biology, bacterial mutagenesis, cell culture, phage biology, safe handling of human pathogens and animal experimentation. Following undergraduate training in Parasitology (Leishmania spp.-macrophage dynamics. 2000-04, University of Extremadura, Spain), Dr. Fajardo-Lubián focused on bacteriology: during PhD and first years of post-PhD (2004-12, National Center for Biotechnology, Spain) Dr. Fajardo-Lubián analysed the molecular basis of AMR and the link with P. aeruginosa fitness and virulence. For the last 8 years, Dr. Fajardo-Lubián has investigated the evolution of outer membrane changes in a major human pathogen (K. pneumoniae) and its implication in AMR and bacterial adaptation to human host (Prof. Jon Iredell’s team, Centre for Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, The University of Sydney and The Westmead Institute for Medical Research, Australia). During this time Dr. Fajardo-Lubián has also developed expertise in phage therapy against multidrug resistant bacteria (K. pneumoniae, S. sonnei or E. coli) and phage-bacteria evolution (Westmead Bacteriophage Therapy Team and Australian Phage Network).
Dr. Fajardo-Lubián is also involved in the characterization (Whole Genome Sequencing and PCR-based methods) of AMR Gram negative bacteria as part of the AGAR National Surveillance Program (Australian Group of Antimicrobial Resistance, GNSOP program-Gram negative Sepsis Outcome Program).
During her career, Dr. Fajardo-Lubián has supervised a graduate student through completion and award of PhD (academic / research supervisor) and supervised 4 undergraduate students.

ResearchGate  Google Scholar

ORCID

Kamal is a Research Scientist at the Centre for Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, Westmead Institute for Medical Research and Senior Research Fellow (Faculty of Medicine) at the University of Sydney. He worked as a CRE Research Fellow at the University of Sydney from Sep. 2011 to February 2014.

His Mmjor research expertise is in the field of bacterial genetics, mobile genetic elements (plasmids and bacteriophages) and antibiotic resistance genetics. His research work has been published in major journals such as Nature and PNAS with >1800 citations. His current research focuses on understanding the biology of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) plasmids and designing an effective AMR plasmid curing strategy, including CRISPR-Cas-based AMR curing. He has been a Chief Investigator of NHMRC grants totalling >$1.2 million AUD.
He completed his PhD in the field of Molecular Microbiology at Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Japan, in 2008 with a Monbukagakoshu scholarship (Japanese Government scholarship). He worked as an Assistant Scientist and Associate Scientist (2008-2011) at the Molecular Microbiology and Ecology research group at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B). His research at ICDDR,B mainly focused on understanding molecular evolution and pathogenic mechanism of enteric bacterial pathogens. List of publications is available on Medline Research Gate and on Google Scholar citations.

Ali is a clinician in his final year of Ph.D. in Medicine (Microbiology) studies under the supervision of Prof Jonathan Iredell and Dr. Susan Maddocks at the Westmead Institute for Medical Research, University of Sydney.

He did his M.B.B.S from the University of Health Sciences Pakistan and then graduated from the Master of Philosophy program in Medical Microbiology from Pakistan. He also holds the prestigious Certified in Infection Control certification from USA. He has over eight years of experience working as a clinical microbiologist and infection control practitioner in different tertiary care hospitals of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. He has published research articles in many reputed peer-reviewed journals and presented his work in national and international conferences. He is working on different strategies to address the alarming issue of antibiotic resistance in bacterial pathogens and is exploring the activity of different synergistic antibiotic combinations and bacteriophage/bacteriophage-antibiotic combinations against resistant bacteria. He is working to understand the different aspects of bacteriophage therapy to optimize the use of bacteriophages as adjunct to antibiotics for treatment of critical bacterial infections in humans. Additionally, he is also exploring avenues to establish bacteriophage therapy in developing countries where the impact of antibiotic resistance is much more pronounced.

ORCID

LinkedIn

ResearchGate

Ameneh, BHB, MBChB, DipPaeds, MD, FRACP, is a senior lecturer in Child and Adolescent Health for The University of Sydney, based at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead where she also works as a paediatric infectious diseases specialist.

Her research focus is on novel therapeutic options for difficult to treat infections in paediatrics and optimisation of antimicrobial therapy for children with cystic fibrosis. She was the first clinician in Australia to treat a child with intravenous phage therapy in October 2019 for a highly resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa bone infection and has been overseeing the planning and treatment of other patients using phages against Mycobacterium abscessus (including the first use of a genetically modified phage in Australia) through collaborations with Prof Iredell and the Westmead Institute for Medical Research and the Sydney Children’s Hospital Network cystic fibrosis teams.

Ameneh is the paediatric representative for the Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases Clinical Research Network with a goal to increase involvement of children in clinical research, particularly early phase studies. She is also the Phage Therapy content expert for the Sydney Children’s Hospital Network Advanced Therapeutics Steering Committee. Her other areas of research include investigating the immunological response to influenza and COVID-19 vaccination in healthcare workers, the burden of enteric fever in Western Sydney and improving molecular diagnostics of osteoarticular infections in children.

Deputy Director of Phage Australia (MRFF Frontier 2021), Stream 1 co-convenor, IP Commercialisation Working Group.

Ruby CY Lin is the Genomic Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee of Westmead Precinct Hub (2 teaching hospitals and 3 Medical Research Institutes) and current Vice President of the Australasian Genomic Technologies Association (AGTA). She helps organisations build academic-industry hybrid teams and has secured over $6.4 million in research funding in the disciplines of genomics, cardiovascular diseases, obesity, cancer biology, tissue and pathogen biobanking, phage banking as well as phage therapy. She was a NHMRC Peter Doherty Postdoctoral Fellow (2005-8) and UNSW Global Postdoctoral Fellow (2009-14). Her research profile and publications can be referenced at ResearchGate, ORCID and Google Scholar. She officially handles @agtaGenomics and @Iredell_lab Twitter accounts and is active on LinkedIn.

During her time as the president of AGTA (2013-5), she continued to implement co-convenors for its annual meeting with a quiet room for delegates with carer duties, ECR-MCR pairing to chair sessions and 50:50 gender balanced international and local invites. AGTA proudly continues this equity diversity and inclusion guidelines in its conferences, workshops and symposiums. She is a GEDI (Gender Equality, Diversity and Inclusion) committee member of AAMRI (Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes), part of UNSW Women in Research and STEM Women (Australian Academy of Science) and advocates for girls and women in STEMM and does pro bono career coaching. She is on the Phage Futures Advisory Board, Convenor of AGTA2022 Sunshine Coast and part of organising committee for International Genetics Congress 2023 Melbourne and International Society for Viruses of Microorganisms 2024 Cairns.

Emily is the Executive Assistant to Professor Jon Iredell, Centre for Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, The University of Sydney, based at the Westmead Institute for Medical Research.

She joined the team, in 2013 as an Administrative Assistant on the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence for Critical Infection. Since then her dynamic role has grown to include all aspects of event management for the Short Course in Critical Infection and the Molecular Microbiology Meeting as well as managing the International Visiting Scientist Program funded by the Australian Society for Microbiology. She continues to enjoy the new opportunities that come her way as she provides administrative support to Professor Jon Iredell and his research team.

Sally is a Senior Hospital Scientist at the Centre for Infectious Diseases and Microbiology/Westmead Institute for Medical Research at Westmead Hospital and an honorary Principal Research Fellow (Faculty of Medicine) at the University of Sydney.

Since completing her D. Phil at Oxford University on sporulation in Bacillus subtilis, Sally has become a leading researcher in the area of the genetics of antibiotic resistance, mobile elements and plasmids in Gram-negative bacteria, particularly Enterobacteriaceae. In addition to research articles, she has published major reviews and two book chapters in this area and co-developed an automated annotation system for antibiotic resistance genes and associated mobile genetic elements.

Sally has been a member of the Editorial Board of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy since 2009 and of the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy since 2016 and frequently reviews for these and other journals. She is a member of the National Examinations and Qualifications Board of the Australian Society for Microbiology and the committee of the Australian Society for Antimicrobials. She has also contributed to analysis of data for the Gran-negative Sepsis Outcomes Program for the Australian Group of Antimicrobial Resistance since 2017. The translational potential of Sally’s work since moving to Westmead Hospital in 2005 was recognised by admission to Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia in 2011 as a Founding Fellow of the Faculty of Science. She is currently Research Integrity Advisor for the Westmead Institute for Medical Research.

Postdoctoral Fellow, Phage Biologist, Executive Board of International Society for Viruses of Microbes.

Alex completed her PhD in phage biology at The University of Novi Sad (Serbia) in 2016 as part of the Hungary-Serbia IPA Cross-Border Cooperation Programme (European Commission HUSRB 1203/214/250). She then moved to Australia to continue her postdoctoral career under supervision of Prof. Jonathan Iredell. Since 2018, Alex’s has been working as a lead phage scientist in world first-in-human clinical trial of intravenous GMP-grade phage therapy (Petrovic-Fabijan et al, 2020 Nature Microbiology) where she studied bacteria-phage interaction and host response in critically ill patients receiving phage therapy. Her current research is mostly focused on bacterial cell and phage biology, particularly interactions between clinically important bacteria such as L-forms and therapeutic phages. Alex tackles fundamental questions aiming to generate knowledge base that will ensure success in phage therapy. Qualifications: Overseas trained Division 1 Nurse, BSc (Honours), MSc and PhD in Phage Biology.

Alex is Executive Board Member of International Society of Viruses of Microbes, professional member of ESCMID Study Group for Non-traditional Antibacterial Therapy (ESGNTA) and Australian Society for Microbiology, Bacteriophage Biology and Therapeutics Special Interest Group. Her Twitter handle is @PetrovicFabijan and she officially handles @VirusOfMicrobes Twitter account.

ResearchGate  Google Scholar  Linkedin 

Scientific Officer, Centre for Infectious Diseases and Microbiology at Westmead Hospital and the Westmead Institute for Medical Research.

Belinda’s initial research in Jon Iredell’s team, involved exploring the basis of the humoral response to Bartonella henselae infection of humans, including establishment of assay systems (e.g. invasion and angiogeneisis assays) and tissue culture cell lines. This also involved the confirmation of basic virulence behaviour (attachment and invasion) by direct (imaging) and indirect methods. She has acquired experience in the development of assays relevant to the pathogenesis of disease.

Her current research is aimed at investigating the rise and spread of antimicrobial resistance in nosocomial bacterial pathogens.  In 2011 and then again in 2017, she was a member of Jon Iredell’s team, who treated patients at Westmead hospital, with bacteriophage therapy. She has gained extensive experience working with specimens collected from consented patients and on projects requiring approval from the HRE Committee.  Having completed the GCP training course, she is aware of and conducts her research according to the guidelines and standards, which govern the conduct of clinical research. In addition, she also has gained extensive experience with the preparation, lodgement and overseeing of licences approved by the OGTR and working with GMOs.

In her current project; NHMRC grant APP1127292; titled Ecological effects of Selective Decontamination of the Digestive Tract (eSuDDICU), she has served in a supervisory role for the laboratory work being conducted at Westmead Hospital.  This role also involves the development of microbiology laboratory protocols, to process rectal, faecal and endotracheal specimens, collected from patients in the intensive care units from various Sydney and Central Coast hospitals. Belinda also has also gained extensive experience in the application of Occupational Health and Safety principles, the completion of risk assessments and undertaking risk management of safe work practices. She has also gained considerable experience with maintaining a research budget.  She interacts with teams from various disciplines and Institutions; NSW Health, University of Sydney and the Westmead Institute for Medical Research.

Belinda has also been involved in the development of rapid assays using methods such as real-time PCR, commercial assays and multiplexed tandem PCR (MT-PCR) for the detection of sepsis. With a current CASA approved licence, she has experience with the packaging and dispatch of infectious and dangerous goods.  Belinda has trained and supervised numerous staff and students to work safely and efficiently in a microbiology laboratory.

List of Publications:

• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Dillon%20B%5bAll%20Fields%5d%20AND%20Iredell%5bAll%20Fields%29&cmd=DetailsSearch
• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33790304/

Lee is a currently a research assistant in Professor Jon Iredell’s research group at WIMR. She is involved in research investigating the effects of antibiotic treatment and prophylaxis on the ecology of the human microbiome and also the emergence of related transmissible antibiotic resistance systems in Enterobacteriaceae.

Previously, Lee was employed by Westmead Hospital, ICPMR, in the Microbiology department where she focused on the development of rapid assays to improve turn-around-time of infection control screening. In addition, Lee evaluated new technologies and culture medias as they emerged. She also acted as intermediary between research and clinical applications with an association with the on-site research laboratory supervised by Professor Jon Iredell. Lee obtained her Masters of Science in Medicine (by Research) completed in July 2007. Title “Genetic methods for the rapid detection of medically important nosocomial bacteria.”

Links to publications:
list of publications, Iredell list of publications, Gilbert list of publications, Kok via Medline.

Carola is an expert research microbiologist whose work has primarily focused on the role of mobile genetic elements in the evolution of infectious bacteria.

Her research has a multidisciplinary approach that combines traditional microbiology, molecular methods and bioinformatics (genomics). She graduated at the University of Wollongong, where she also completed her PhD research (UOW and The Elizabeth Macarthur Agricultural Institute) on the links between antibiotic resistance, virulence and mobile DNA in pathogenic enterobacteria, which remains one of her main research interests. Post-PhD, Carola spent 4 years as a postdoctoral researcher at The University of Queensland where she investigated the links between horizontal gene transfer and pathogenicity in Streptococcus pyogenes, including the acquisition and transfer of virulence and antibiotic resistance by phage and other integrative DNA elements.

Since 2013, Dr Venturini has been part of Prof Jon Iredell’s research group at The Westmead Institute for Medical Research. Here, she has been leading large-scope research projects investigating the ecology of the gut microbiome related to antibiotic use and exploring the use of bacteriophages in combating infectious multidrug resistant bacteria of clinical relevance.

LinkedIn Twitter ORCID

Alma is a PhD student supervised by Professor Jon Iredell and Dr Muhammad Kamruzzaman.

She completed a Bachelor of Science (Adv)(Hons I) in 2017 at the University of Sydney, with her honours thesis focusing on the specialisation of toxin-antitoxin systems in Enterobacteriaceae. Her PhD work has continued this work, as well as expanded to include conjugation systems and the development of antibiotic resistance curing plasmids.

During her undergraduate years she also completed an internship at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and was part of the successful 2016 Sydney Australia iGEM team. She has a keen interest in antibiotic resistance, synthetic biology and science communication.

ResearchGate