Global Health

A cornerstone of the Doherty Institute’s global health mission is strengthening global health systems through capacity and capability building. Infectious diseases are a recognised global health issue as they spread rapidly across countries, with a disproportionate burden in low and middle-income countries. The Doherty Institute hosts four WHO Collaborating Centres, alongside several Regional Reference Laboratories, who support communicable diseases prevention, and outbreak response predominantly across the Pacific and Southeast Asia, through diagnosis, surveillance and outbreak investigation, and development of strategies to prevent, treat and eliminate infectious diseases. The Institute has extensive networks across the region and demonstrated international leadership and engagement to support cohesive program delivery through multiple programs in partnership with DFAT and other development partners.

These efforts are designed to be sustainable and locally-led, ensuring that partner countries are equipped to detect, respond to and manage infectious disease threats independently. The Doherty Institute works closely with partners in country to support national action plans and strategies contributing to long-term health security. An important contribution of our Global Health team is in global and regional advisory, policy and advocacy roles.

The Doherty Institute is at the forefront of global research of infectious diseases that disproportionately affect low and middle-income countries. Our work spans diseases of global significance, such as malaria, tuberculosis, HIV, dengue, viral hepatitis and diarrhoeal diseases, neglected diseases such as leprosy, Buruli ulcer and typhoid, and emerging threats including mpox and avian influenza. We have large programs and research focused on AMR, pathogen genomics for public health, diagnostics and epidemiology and surveillance. Many of our research programs have capacity building and training in-built to ensure sustainability and impact of the research. Our research is advancing scientific understanding, while informing public health interventions and global policy.

The Doherty Institute works with several other international research organisations, through the establishment of formal partnerships. These partnerships are developed, often in conjunction with the University of Melbourne, to advance high-quality joint research programs, research training activities and provide opportunities  for researchers of all levels.

Some of the Doherty’s key established research partnerships include:

• The Ragon Institute of Mass General, MIT and Harvard, supported by the Victorian State Government, through the Doherty-Ragon Fellowship Program.
• Institut Pasteur, in areas of AMR, influenza and pandemic preparedness, through connections with Institut Pasteur Korea and Institut Pasteur du Cambodge.
• Fudan University, in the areas of HIV, hepatitis B, flavivirus research and pandemic preparedness, supported by the National Foundation of Australia-China Relations.
• University of Bonn, through our long-standing shared PhD program, developing the next generation of discovery research leaders.
• The University of Calgary, in the areas of One Health / AMR, Rapid Diagnostics and Clinical Trials
• National Centre of Infectious Diseases (NCID) Singapore

The Doherty institute is also a foundation member of the Pandemic Research Alliance. The Alliance was launched in December 2023, and alongside Hong Kong University, Tsinghua University, Guangzhou National Laboratory, Duke-National University of Singapore, and Columbia University in New York, aims to share research in relation to emerging infectious diseases, their surveillance and transmission, and help identify future ways to combat and prevent pandemics.  The Pandemic Research Alliance is proudly supported through grant funding from the National Foundation of Australia-China Relations.