Grants awarded for avian influenza research

University of Sydney researchers have been awarded National Health and Medical Research Council grants focusing on urgent research into a potential avian influenza pandemic.

The research project which will run over eighteen months will focus on the following outcomes:

• detection and identification of the virus;
• vaccine development and evaluation;
• anti-viral medication use and effectiveness;
• public health interventions;
• understanding behavioural responses; and
• areas of direct relevance to the national response to the risk of avian influenza.

Associate Professor Jonathan Iredell (Westmead Millennium Institute) will research in the area of detection and identification of the virus, Dr Bin Wang (Westmead Millennium Institute [WMI]) anti-viral medication use and effectiveness, and Dr Euan Tovey (Discipline of Medicine) understanding behavioural responses.

For more information on the project please visit the NHMRC website.

Research recipients at launch (from left to right): Dr Bin Wang, Tony Abbott, Dr Nitin Saksena, Associate Professor Jonathan Iredell and Dr Dominic Dwyer.

Dr Nitin Saksena is a Research Group Leader in the Centre for Virus Research at WMI.


Dr Dominic Dywer, a Virology staff specialist, is the investigator on both of the successful grants from WMI.

The project of Dr Euan Tovey (pictured left) will focus on improved respiratory protection from airborne influenza virus.