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Dr Thomas Rasmussen

Dr Thomas Rasmussen

Dr Thomas Rasmussen

(03) 8344 3501 | rasmussent@unimelb.edu.au

Position:
Associate Clinical Director of HIV Cure Studies
Theme(s):
HIV
Unit(s):
The University of Melbourne
Lab Group(s):
Lewin Group

Dr Thomas Rasmussen is a Clinical Research Fellow in Professor Sharon Lewin’s laboratory. Thomas has a Doctor of Medicine degree from Aarhus University, Denmark in 2006 and has since been involved in clinical infectious disease medicine and HIV-related science with research activities primarily including clinical, translational and epidemiological studies. He completed his PhD in HIV in 2014, which was focused on the clinical use of histone deacetylase inhibitors to reverse HIV-1 latency. Thomas’ ongoing research is focused at understanding the barriers to curing HIV-1 infection and testing new strategies aimed at eliminating latent HIV-1 infection. 

  • Key Achievements
    • Based at Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark, Thomas has led a pre-clinical study of histone deacetylase inhibitors and their potential use in HIV-1 infection. Subsequently, he was the principal investigator on a phase I/IIa clinical trial investigating the effect of the histone deacetylase inhibitor, panobinostat, on HIV-1 latency in patients with chronic HIV-1 infection. The primary results of this study, which was funded by a grant from The Danish Research Council, were published in The Lancet HIV in October, 2014. He is also an investigator on several on-going clinical studies investigating interventions aimed at the development of a cure for HIV. 

    Publications
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    Research Groups
    • Lewin Group

      The focus of the Lewin group is to understand why HIV infection persists on antiretroviral therapy and to develop new strategies to eliminate latency. The lab also researches factors that drive liver disease in HIV-hepatitis B virus co-infection. The lab is also actively involved in COVID in relation to pathogenesis, the use of primary tissue models, and developing therapeutics using gene editing strategies.


      Lab Team

      Lewin Group

      • Director - The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity
      • Senior Research Fellow
      • Senior Research Fellow
      • Dr Wei Zhao
        Research Fellow
      • Dr Chris Chiu
        Research Fellow
      • Dr Youry Kim
        Research Fellow
      • Dr Stan Kan
        Research Fellow
      • Dr Jill Lau
        Clinical Research Fellow
      • Clinical Research Liason Officer
      • Dr Judy Chang
        Research Systems Administrator
      • Dr Catherine Kennedy
        Research Coordinator
      • Research Coordinator
      • Laboratory Manager
      • Infectious Diseases Physician
      • Carolin Tumpach
        Research Support Officer
      • Rosalyn Cao
        Research Support Officer
      • Danielle Fong
        Research Support Officer
      • Abigail Tan
        Research Support Officer
      • Jared Stern
        PhD Candidate
      • Rachel Pascoe
        PhD Candidate
      • Paula Cevaal
        PhD Candidate
      • Haoming Liu
        PhD Candidate
      • Kiho Tanaka
        PhD Candidate
      • Rory Shepherd
        PhD Candidate
      • Lauren Wallace
        Honours Student
      • Bridget Fisher
        Honours Student
      • Associate Professor Edwina Wright
        Clinical Affiliate
      • Dr James McMahon
        Clinical Affiliate
      • Head, Clinical Virology and HIV Services, Deputy Director Department of Infectious Diseases Austin Health
      • Associate Professor Thomas Rasmussen
        Clinical Affiliate

Full University of Melbourne profile