Project: Assessing the suitability of lateral flow devices for highly pathogenic avian influenza surveillance
Howden Group
Panzootic highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 first emerged in poultry in 1996 and has since caused mass fatalities in poultry and wildlife across the globe. Challenges exist for rapid surveillance of virus in remote locations and poor resource settings. Testing by lateral flow may overcome these challenges however no studies have been done to systematically assess their efficacy and suitability. This project will determine the limit of detection and subtype specificity of a commercially available device compared to sandwich ELISA and the gold standard qPCR, using serially diluted isolates and swabs from animal trials conducted at ACDP. Consideration of sample type, media and host species will further explore whether these tests are fit for purpose in HPAI surveillance activities. Please note that this project is primarily based at the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness in Geelong.
Project Site: The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity & Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness
Contact project supervisor for further
information and application enquiries
Howden Group
2 vacancies
The Howden lab has a strong interest in understanding the various facets of antimcirobial resistance (AMR), spanning discovery research in AMR mechanisms and evolution through to translational projects to imporve AMR detection and surveillance, and treatment of resistant infections.
Howden Group Current Projects
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Assessing the suitability of lateral flow devices for highly pathogenic avian influenza surveillance
Honours
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Exploring the genomic landscape of Staphylococcus aureus antibiotic adaptation
Master of Biomedical Science, Honours
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Understanding Staphylococcus aureus adaptation to intracellular lifestyle
PhD/MPhil, Master of Biomedical Science, Honours
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Defining the impact of recurrent natural Staphylococcus aureus mutations on virulence and anti-microbial resistance
PhD/MPhil, Master of Biomedical Science, Honours
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Investigating novel strategies to study drug synergy/antagonism in combination therapy for key bacterial pathogens
PhD/MPhil, Master of Biomedical Science, Honours
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Exploring resistance to old antibiotics in multi-drug resistance gram-negative bacteria using functional genomics
PhD/MPhil, Master of Biomedical Science, Honours
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Expanding the diversity of animal astroviruses through transcriptome mining
Honours
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Ecology and diversity of Avian orthoavulavirus 1, the causative agent of Newcastle Disease virus, in Australian wild birds
Honours
Research degrees at the Doherty Institute are administered by the University of Melbourne.