Associate Professor David Ellis

Mycology Unit

Women’s & Children’s Hospital, Adelaide

Convenor: Mycology MasterClass

Associate Professor David Ellis is Head of the Mycology Unit at SA Pathology, Women's and Children's Hospital, Adelaide and an Associate Professor in the School of Molecular and Biomedical Science at the University of Adelaide.  He graduated from La Trobe University Botany Department with BSc Hons, MSc and PhD in mycology and has been in charge of the Medical Mycology Unit for the past 30 years.  David is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia, and a Fellow and past President of the Australian Society for Microbiology.  He has also served as General Secretary and is the current President-elect of the International Society for Human and Animal Mycology.  His current research interests include the epidemiology and ecology of medically important fungi, especially Cryptococcus, fungal taxonomy and antifungal susceptibility testing.  David is also actively involved in the teaching of medical mycology and is a recipient of the Australian Society for Microbiology David White Teaching Award and the Australasian College of Tropical Medicine Ashdown Medal.

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Dr John Bennett

John E. Bennett, MD, is Chief of the Clinical Mycology Section and Director of Infectious Disease Training at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland. He is also Adjunct Professor of Medicine at Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences in Bethesda.

Dr Bennett obtained his undergraduate degree from Stanford and his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, where he performed an internship in ward medicine. He then completed medical residencies at the University of Washington in Seattle and Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

Dr Bennett is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, and is former President of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. He has co-edited all seven editions of Principles and Practice of Infectious Diseases. He has served on advisory committees for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Defense, Food and Drug Administration, Veterans Administration, US Public Health Service, and the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee of NIH as well as on editorial boards of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, Journal of Infectious Diseases, Clinical Infectious Disease and other journals. Dr Bennett has authored more than 255 original articles, books, book chapters, and editorials.

Dr Bennett's professional memberships include the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians. He is a Master of the American College of Physicians and a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

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Dr Chris Blyth

Centre for Infectious Diseases & Microbiology

Westmead Hospital, Sydney

Chris Blyth is a paediatric infectious disease physician having trained at Princess Margaret Hospital and Sydney Children's Hospital. He will complete clinical microbiology training in 2009 after training at Royal North Shore and Westmead Hospital. Chris has particular interests in clinical mycology, particularly in the prevention and treatment of invasive fungal infections in neonates and children. He is involved in translational and clinical projects studying Candida, Aspergillus and Scedosporium spp.

Chris is also actively involved in antifungal guideline development particular in neonatal and paediatric practice.

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Professor Ken Bradstock

Head of Bone Marrow Transplant Service

Westmead Hospital Sydney

Professor Ken Bradstock is a clinical hematologist at Westmead Hospital in Sydney, and has long-standing interests and involvement in clinical and laboratory research in hematological malignancies.

He has been a Staff Specialist in Haematology and head of the Blood and Marrow Transplant Service at Westmead Hospital since 1981, and is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Sydney. He was chairman of the Australian Leukaemia Study Group from 1993 until 1999, and was the founding chairman of the Australasian Leukaemia and Lymphoma Group in 1999-2003.

He is currently Secretary of the Bone Marrow Transplant Society of Australia and New Zealand, and member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry. He is National Medical Advisor and member of the Board of the Leukaemia Foundation of Australia, and chairman of the National Medical Advisory Committee. He was chair of the Allogeneic Working Party of the BMT Network NSW, and Medical Director of that organization from 2002-2005.

His current major research interests are in the biology of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, clinical trials in adult acute leukemia, and in cellular immunotherapy in bone marrow transplantation. He is a co-investigator on the ASPID trial of diagnostic intervention for invasive aspergillosis, and is a Principal Investigator in the CCRE for Infection and Bioethics in Hematological Malignancies at Westmead Hospital.

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Dr Sharon Chen

Clinical Mycology Centre

Centre for Infectious Diseases & Microbiology

Westmead Hospital, Sydney

Dr Sharon Chen is a physician and microbiologist with a research interest in medical mycology. Her PhD focused on an Australia-wide molecular epidemiology study of Cryptococcus neoformans and the characterisation of phospholipase enzymes produced by this fungus.

She is the Acting Director of the Clinical Mycology Laboratory, Centre for Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, Westmead Hospital, a member of the Molecular Mycology Research Laboratory at Westmead and is the current scientific chair of the Australia and New Zealand Mycoses Interest Group (ANZMIG), a national body devoted to the study of fungal infections and mycological–related diseases and to education in mycology. She has convened / co-convened numerous epidemiological and applied clinical studies. These include a multicentre trial using serological and molecular tools for diagnosing invasive aspergillosis in haematology patients, the Australian Candidemia Study, Australian Scedosporium Study and a Cryptococcus gattii study in collaboration with the British Columbia Centre for Diseases Control. She is principal site investigator of international antifungal drug trials and actively contributed to the writing of Australian guidelines for use of antifungal agents.

Her research interests include:

• Infections in immunocompromised hosts
• Clinical and molecular epidemiology of fungal infections in at risk patient groups including organ transplant recipients, critically ill persons and those with chronic lung disease
• Resistance to antifungal agents and antifungal susceptibility testing
• New methods in diagnostic mycology

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Dr Nicky Gilroy

Centre for Infectious Diseases & Microbiology

Westmead Hospital, Sydney

Nicky Gilroy is a consultant physician in Infectious Diseases at Westmead Hospital, and the Bone Marrow Transplant Network, New South Wales. She is involved in the design and implementation of infection control policy and disease surveillance in the setting of stem cell transplantation and malignant haematology.

Nicky has worked as an Infectious Diseases Physician for over a decade and has post graduate expertise in clinical epidemiology, having obtained a Masters degree through the Australian National University in 2000. Since her appointment to the position of BMT Network Infectious Diseases physician in 2004, she has furthered her interest in the evidence-based management of infections in the immuno-compromised host. She is currently involved in several clinical trials and remains focused on the practice of clinical infectious diseases, and the translation of evidence into clinical practice.

In 2005 Nicky became a member of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI), and is current chair the Working Party on Human Papillomavirus.

NG has been project manager for the Centre for Clinical Research Excellence - Infection and Bioethics in haematological Malignancies (NHMRC #264625; 2005-9). She is an Associate Investigator on many of the research studies outlined in the CCRE.

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Dr Tom Gottlieb

Department of Microbiology & Infectious Disease

Concord Repatriation General Hospital, Sydney

Thomas Gottlieb is a senior specialist in Microbiology and Infectious Diseases and head of the Department of Infectious Diseases, Concord Hospital, Sydney, and a clinical senior lecturer at the University of Sydney, Australia.

He is interested in medical education, and is an enthusiastic teacher who has been giving lectures since 1986 throughout Australia and the Asia Pacific region. His specific interest are in mechanisms and epidemiology of antimicrobial resistance, particularly in Gram-negative organisms, tuberculosis, and laboratory diagnosis and management of fungal infections.

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Dr Catriona Halliday

Centre for Infectious Diseases and Microbiology

Westmead Hospital, Sydney NSW

Dr Catriona Halliday is the Senior Scientist in charge of the Mycology Laboratory at CIDM, Westmead Hospital.

She graduated from the University of Sydney with B.Sc (Hons) in 2007 and a PhD in 2001. Her PhD research involved the study of mating type and recombination in Cryptococcus gattii.

Since 2001, Catriona’s research interests have focused on the development of new molecular tests to aid in the rapid diagnosis of invasive fungal infections, in particular invasive aspergillosis and invasive candidiasis.

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Dr Peter Hopkins

Queensland Heart-Lung Transplant Unit

Prince Charles Hospital, Brisbane

Dr Peter Hopkins is the current Director of the Queensland Centre for Pulmonary Transplantation and Vascular Disease, The Prince Charles Hospital, Brisbane.

He completed his Fellowship in Respiratory Medicine in the year 2000 and undertook 2 additional years of training in lung transplantation and interventional bronchoscopy at St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney. Following this, Peter commenced a consultancy post at the Papworth Institute, Cambridgeshire, UK, the world's fifth largest thoracic organ transplant centre.

He is well published in the areas of infection, rejection and postoperative complications as they relate to solid organ transplantation. Peter is also on the Executive of the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation and the national PIVOT group under the auspices of the Australian Lung Foundation.

He has a strong interest in teaching and is a member of the Royal Australian College of Physicians National Examiners Panel and the current Director of Advanced Training at the Prince Charles Hospital. Local responsibilities also include executive membership on the Respiratory Medicine Clinical Network and Chair of the Thoracic Medicine Consultants Group.

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Dr Sarah Kidd

Monash University

The Alfred Hospital, Melbourne

Sarah Kidd is a Research Fellow at Monash University, based at The Alfred Hospital, Melbourne.

She graduated from the University of Sydney with a BMedSc Hons (2000) and PhD in Medicine (2004), where her thesis research focused on molecular epidemiology and speciation within the Cryptococcus neoformans species complex.

Sarah undertook her postdoctoral research at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada (2003-2006), where she was involved in molecular epidemiological and ecological aspects of the multi-disciplinary research investigation into the emergence of C. gattii in British Columbia.  Since returning to Australia in 2006, her research focus has been directed towards investigating the molecular epidemiology of clinical A. fumigatus isolates in Australia.

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Ms Anna Lau

Centre for Infectious Diseases & Microbiology

Westmead Hospital, Sydney

Anna Lau is a final year PhD student at CIDM, Westmead Hospital under the supervision of Professor Tania Sorrell and Dr Catriona Halliday. Her research focuses on the development of novel, rapid diagnostic platforms for invasive fungal infections.

In collaboration with AusDiagnostics, she has developed several multiplex-tandem PCR (MT-PCR) platforms for the successful identification of fungi from blood, serum, plasma and culture samples. Her current research involves detection and expression analysis of azole resistance in clinical isolates of C. glabrata, with the aim of developing a comprehensive diagnostic tool enabling simultaneous identification and guidance in selection of antifungal therapy.

Next year, Anna will undertake a microbiology fellowship at the Clinical Centre of the National Institutes of Health, USA.

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Associate Professor Wieland Meyer

Centre for Infectious Diseases & Microbiology

Westmead Hospital, Sydney

Associate Professor Wieland Meyer is head of the Molecular Mycology Research Laboratory at the Centre for Infectious Diseases and Microbiology in the Department of Medicine, Western Clinical School, of the University of Sydney at the Westmead Millennium Institute, Westmead, NSW (www.mycologylab.org).

He graduated in Genetics with a Diploma in Biology (MSc), from the Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany in 1986 and went on to complete his PhD, at the same University in 1992. He undertook his postdoctorial studies at the Department of Microbiology at Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA (1992-1995), before he established the Molecular Mycology Laboratory at Westmead Hospital in 1995 and the Australian National Molecular Mycology Reference Laboratory. He was the vise-president (1998-2002) and president (2002-2005) of the Australasian Mycological Society. He is the Convener of the Mycology Special Interest Group of the Australian Society for Microbiology since 2002 and the vice-president of the International Mycological Association (IMA) since 2006.

He has published extensively on molecular epidemiology, phylogeny, genetics of pathogenic fungi, especially yeasts of the genera Candida and Cryptococcus and also filamentous fungi, such as Scedosporium.

His current research focuses on the phylogeny of pathogenic yeasts, the development of molecular diagnostic approaches for human fungal pathogens and the development and application of new molecular typing methods (Multilocus Sequence Typing (MSLT) and Multilocus Microsatellite Typing MLMT) for the surveillance of Cryptococcus, Candida and Scedosporium infections and the investigation of the global spread of highly virulent cryptococcal strains.

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Professor Tania Sorrell

Centre for Infectious Diseases & Microbiology

Westmead Hospital, Sydney

Professor Sorrell is Professor of Clinical Infectious Diseases and Director of the Centre for Infectious Diseases and Microbiology at the Western Clinical School of the University of Sydney, Westmead, New South Wales.

Her longstanding interest in mycology and infections in the immunocompromised host developed following completion of her Medical degree and PhD in Clinical Immunology at the University of Adelaide. She trained in Infectious Diseases at Harbor-UCLA Medical Centre, returning to Westmead Hospital and the University of Sydney in 1979 to establish the first Clinical Infectious Diseases Program in Internal Medicine in Australia and continue her research into host-phagocyte interactions.

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Professor Jeff Szer

Department Clinical Haematology & Bone Marrow Transplant Service

Royal Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne

Jeff Szer is Professor/Director of the Department of Clinical Haematology & Bone Marrow Transplant Service at Royal Melbourne Hospital. He established Victoria’s first adult BMT centre at the Alfred Hospital in 1984 and moved to the Royal Melbourne Hospital in 1993. His clinical research interests are in all aspects of malignant haematology and improving the outcomes of treatment for leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma. His unit has had a strong research program in treatment and prevention of opportunistic viral, fungal and bacterial infections in the immunocompromised host and all aspects of the supportive care of bone marrow transplant patients. He also has a clinical and research interest in the non-malignant conditions of Gaucher disease and paroxysmal nocturnal haemoglobinuria.

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Dr Sebastian van Hal

Department of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases

Liverpool Hospital, Sydney

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