27th Annual Scientific Meeting

Professor Kidd is a highly respected medical leader known for his significant contributions to public health and primary health care, in Australia and internationally.

He has extensive experience as a general practitioner, primary care researcher, educator and academic and has served as president of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) and the World Organization of Family Doctors.

Most recently, Professor Kidd has been the Professor of Global Primary Care and Future Health Systems at the University of Oxford, and Director of the International Centre for Future Health Systems at the University of New South Wales.

Professor Kidd served as Deputy Chief Medical Officer and Principal Medical Advisor with the Department of Health and Aged Care during the COVID-19 pandemic making a significant contribution to the national primary care response.

Dr. Perlman received his Ph.D. in Biophysics from M.I.T., Cambridge, Massachusetts and his M.D. from the University of Miami, Miami, Florida. He is a member of the VRBPAC of the FDA and the COVID-19 Advisory Committee of the ACIP (Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices).

His current research efforts are focused on coronavirus pathogenesis, including virus-induced demyelination and the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and COVID-19. His laboratory has developed several novel animal models useful for studying pathogenesis and evaluating vaccines and antiviral therapies. His studies are directed at understanding why aged patients and mice developed more severe disease than younger individuals after infection with SARS-CoV or SARS-CoV-2 and also on why there is a male predominance in patients with more severe disease after infection with SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV or SARS-CoV-2. He and his colleagues demonstrated that transduction of mice with an adenovirus expressing the human receptor for MERS-CoV, DPP4, rendered them sensitive to infection, providing the first rodent model useful for studying MERS. Similar approaches have been used to develop several mouse models for COVID-19. Among other topics, his research is now focusing on the loss of sense of smell (anosmia) and taste (ageusia) observed in patients with COVID-19.

Professor Kristine Macartney is an infectious diseases paediatrician specialising in vaccinology. She is a medical graduate of the University of New South Wales and undertook her specialty training in Sydney and in the United States at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Her Doctorate of Medicine was on rotavirus infection, in particular the mucosal immune response to novel vaccine candidates. She was a foundational member of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Kristine is currently the Director of the Australian National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS), a paediatric infectious disease consultant at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead and a Professor in the Discipline of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of Sydney. Her research interests include translation of evidence into policy and practice, vaccine safety, and most other areas of vaccine preventable diseases research, particularly in relation to rotavirus, varicella zoster virus and influenza. She is the senior editor of the Australian Immunisation Handbook and has authored >290 peer-reviewed publications. She is a member of the Advisory Committee on Vaccines (ACV) of the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), the Communicable Diseases Network of Australia (CDNA) and the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI). She has acted as an expert consultant to the World Health Organisation (WHO) and is a member of the WHO Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety (GACVS) and WHO SAGE working groups.  Kristine leads the Australian national AusVaxSafety and Paediatric Active Enhanced Disease Surveillance (PAEDS) networks, and is the founding chair of the Australian Regional Immunisation Alliance (ARIA). She established and leads the NCIRS global team that has a program of work supporting >10 countries across the Asia Pacific region in immunisation system strengthening across a range of domains.

Prof Allen Cheng is an infectious diseases physician. He is Professor of Infectious Diseases Epidemiology and is Director of the Infection Prevention and Healthcare Epidemiology unit at Alfred Health. He has a PhD (Flinders University), a Master of Public Health (Monash University) and a Master of Biostatistics (University of Queensland). He has previously worked as an infectious diseases and general physician in Darwin and Geelong, and has worked in remote communities in the Top End of Australia, and in Papua New Guinea, Thailand, the United States and Finland.  In 2020, Prof. Cheng became the Victorian Deputy Chief Health Officer during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Professor Ian Barr is currently the Deputy Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza (one of 5 globally) based at the Doherty Institute in Melbourne, Australia which has operated since 1992.  The Centre plays an active role in the regional surveillance of human influenza. Professor Barr has over 35 years’ experience in Research and Development both with academic and commercial groups including over 22 years at the Centre and has authored or co-authored nearly 300 publications including over 250 peer reviewed journal articles, reviews and editorials on various aspects of influenza. He holds an Honorary Professorial position in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Melbourne.

Professor McMillan is a Fellow of the Australasian Virology Society and a virologist whose research focuses on treatments for viruses and viral cancers. His early work explored novel RNA-based therapies for human papillomavirus cancers, later expanding to include Merkel cell cancers. He has developed nanoparticle delivery systems for gene silencing and editing therapies. His laboratory was the first to demonstrate that cancer could be cured in vivo using CRISPR (2019), and that siRNAs could cure animals infected with COVID-19 (2021). His patents have been licensed to international biotechnology companies, and his team’s nanoparticle-delivered gene silencing therapy for COVID-19 was recently licensed to The Gene Company for $135 million. Currently, his lab is developing second-generation lipid nanoparticles inspired by natural particles such as extracellular vesicles. Professor McMillan leads the Griffith Centre for Cell and Gene Medicines, which includes the Griffith Nanoparticle Biofoundry. He also serves as Professor in the School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences and Associate Director of the Institute for Biomedicine and Glycomics at Griffith University. Committed to public engagement, he has actively contributed to discussions on infectious diseases, gene therapy, and vaccine issues, conducting over 1,200 media interviews during the COVID pandemic. He has also written for The Conversation and participated in public forums such as “After the pandemic: imagining the future” with Kerry O’Brien.

A/Prof Frank Beard is Associate Director at the National Centre for
Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS) in Sydney, Australia,
where he has led the vaccine coverage, vaccine preventable disease
surveillance, program evaluation, social science and Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander immunisation teams for over a decade, and Associate
Professor at The University of Sydney School of Public Health. He worked as
a GP for 15 years before undertaking public health medicine specialist
training, and worked for over a decade in health departments and public
health units in NSW and Queensland before joining NCIRS. A/Prof Beard has
authored over 100 papers in peer-reviewed journals and over 30 major
research reports for federal and state/territory governments and national
bodies, mainly in the areas of vaccine coverage, vaccine preventable disease
epidemiology and immunisation program evaluation.

Bec Rogers is a registered pharmacist with over 20 years of experience across a broad range of roles within community pharmacy. She currently serves as Chief Pharmacist at National Pharmacies, where she leads a team of more than 200 pharmacists, driving a culture of innovation and excellence in patient care.

Passionate about the evolving role of community pharmacy, Bec is a dedicated advocate for preventative health. She champions the vital role pharmacists play in early intervention and improving health outcomes for patients.

A respected and trusted voice in the pharmacy sector, Bec brings extensive expertise in integrating pharmacy-led services—such as immunisation—into mainstream preventative healthcare in Australia, reflecting her unwavering commitment to the profession and the communities it serves.

Jennifer Herz is the Co-Founder and Director of Biointelect, a consultancy she established in 2012 to provide end-to-end commercialisation and strategy services to the biopharmaceutical sector, leveraging over 30 years’ sector experience across Australia, New Zealand, and Europe. She is also the Chief Investigator of the recently launched Biointelect Venturer – Australia’s national incubator for vaccine and infectious disease innovation, funded by the Australian Government under the MRFF 2024 BioMedTech Incubator Grant Opportunity.

Earlier in her career, Jenny established Sanofi Pasteur as a major vaccine provider in Australasia and was the founding Chair of the Medicines Australia Vaccine Industry Group. She went on to senior leadership roles with AstraZeneca/MedImmune in Europe, contributing to international vaccine launches, policy, and market access strategies.

Jenny has extensive governance and policy experience, including board and advisory roles with Medicines Australia, NASDAQ-listed biotech subsidiaries, the NHMRC Health Research Impact Committee, the NSW Innovation and Productivity Council, and the Australian AMR Network. Through these roles, and her ongoing leadership at Biointelect and the BV Incubator, she continues to shape the future of vaccine innovation and commercialisation in Australia and globally.

Professor Tony Cunningham, AO, AHMED, MD FRACP FRCPA is an infectious diseases physician, clinical virologist and scientist, internationally renowned for his research on the immunobiology of HIV and herpesviruses, his work on vaccine development and as an antiviral expert. He is Director of the Centre for Virus Research at The Westmead Institute for Medical Research, Professor, Faculty of Medicine and Health and Sydney ID, the University of Sydney, and Director of the Australian Centre for HIV and Hepatitis Virology Research (ACH4), a Commonwealth Government-funded institute that aims to combat the impact of HIV and hepatitis in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region by bringing together basic researchers with translational scientists and physicians.

Paul is an accomplished clinical trial investigator, having fulfilled the role of Principal Investigator in over 150 clinical trials, particularly in Infectious Diseases including 8 COVID-19 vaccines.

Despite an already demanding role at the Mater, Paul continues as a member of the AMA Queensland Council 2023-2024, and as board member and scientific advisory board member of the Immunisation Coalition, with active interest in vaccine education and advocacy, becoming a trusted media authority and spokesperson across the nation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Associate Professor Michael Woodward is Head of Aged Care Research at Austin Health in Melbourne, Victoria. He is a specialist in geriatric medicine with a major interest in adult vaccination and also Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, wound management and the quality use of medications in older people. He is head of the Medical and Cognitive Research Unit that conducts trials into new vaccines and other new therapies for conditions such as dementia and influenza.

Associate Professor Woodward’s publication record includes over 130 peer-reviewed research and review articles. As chair of the Geriatric Therapeutics section of the editorial board of the Journal of Pharmacy Practice and Research he oversaw nearly 20 years of publications on quality use of medications and health promotion activities in older people, including articles on vaccination.  He was also joint editor of Wound Practice and Research, the journal of the Australian Wound Management Association, of which he is a past President. He is a member of the editorial committee of the Department of Veteran’s Affairs MATES program, which improves prescribing and pharmaceutical care of DVA beneficiaries, including vaccination.

He is heavily involved in a number of professional organizations including previously Chairing the Committee for Physician Training, Royal Australasian College of Physicians, which oversaw and approved the training of all future consultants in internal medicine. He is currently Chair of that College’s Site Accreditation Committee and was previously a member of their Board of Censors. He was until recently a member of the Geriatric Medicine Education and Training Subcommittee of the Australian and New Zealand Society for Geriatric Medicine, having previously chaired that subcommittee. He has recently overseen a 3rd revision of that Society’s position document on Vaccinations for Older People.

His work in geriatric medicine, dementia and other research and his extensive authorship has been honoured with Membership of the Order of Australia, awarded on Australia Day 2016.

Sarah McGuinness is an infectious diseases clinician and researcher based at Alfred Health and Monash University in Melbourne. Her research focuses on improving ways to prevent infectious diseases in at-risk populations. She has a special interest in travel and tropical medicine and leads the hospital-based travel clinic at the Alfred Hospital. 

She is a co-author of the Manual of Travel Medicine (4th edition) and co-facilitates an annual Travel Medicine Masterclass for Australasian travel health providers. She is an editorial board member of the Journal of Travel Medicine and an active member of the Australasian College of Tropical Medicine and International Society of Travel Medicine, serving on various committees and frequently presenting on travel medicine topics.

ProfessorJamie Triccas is a bacteriologist who uses a multidisciplinary approach to define immunity to chronic bacterial pathogens and develop new treatments to control infection. He is a Professor of Medical Microbiology and Deputy Director of the Sydney Institute Infectious Diseases (Sydney ID) at the University of Sydney. He has over 30 years’ experience working with clinically important pathogens and has published widely on aspects of bacterial pathogenesis, immunity to infection and vaccine development/testing. His team has progressed multiple vaccine candidates from discovery through to preclinical readiness, including a CEPI-funded broadly protective coronavirus vaccine that will soon enter clinical trials. He provides scientific and program leadership across national and international collaborations involving academia, industry and global health organisations, helping to build Australia’s capability in translational vaccine research and infectious disease preparedness.

Professor Colleen Lau is an NHMRC Fellow and Professorial Research Fellow at the UQ Centre for Clinical Research. Her areas of expertise include emerging infectious diseases, neglected tropical diseases, and clinical travel medicine. Her wide range of research interests encompass infectious disease epidemiology, spatial epidemiology and disease mapping, infectious disease surveillance and elimination, vaccinations, travel health, environmental health, and digital decision support tools. Professor Lau’s research projects focus on answering practical questions in clinical management of infectious diseases and operational questions on improving strategies to solve public health problems. She leads UQ’s HERA program on Operational Research and Decision Support for Infectious Diseases (ODeSI).

Sanjay is a medical graduate with postgraduate qualifications in community medicine and public health. He is an epidemiologist/research fellow in the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS). Sanjay holds a conjoint academic appointment as Senior Lecturer in Children’s Hospital Westmead Clinical School of The University of Sydney. His PhD from University of Sydney was on effectiveness of pneumococcal vaccinations in Australian children and epidemiology of pneumococcal disease in special risk groups. Sanjay’s work at NCIRS for over 10 years has primarily been in evidence-based technical support for development of immunisation policy and practice in Australia. He holds a NHMRC emerging leader fellowship. In addition to infectious disease epidemiology, he also has extensive experience as a health services researcher in the areas of quality and safety of healthcare for the elderly, evaluation of complex system interventions, and assessment of provider and consumer perspectives of healthcare.

Prof Paul Van Buynder is a Public Health Physician and past Chairman of the Immunisation Coalition. He is a professor in the School of Medicine at Griffith University in Queensland. He has held senior public health positions in a number of Australian states, in two Canadian jurisdictions and at the Centre for Infections in the UK. He has held personal appointments on sub-committees of National Immunisation Technical Advisory Committees in three continents. Paul is a reviewer of over 10 journals and has over 80 referred book chapters and articles.

Andrew is a General Practitioner in St Kilda, Melbourne, and a Medical Advisor with a medical defence organisation.  He has a background in rural general practice and medical education.

Professor Julia Brotherton is a Professor of Cancer Prevention Policy and Implementation, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health at The University of Melbourne and a Professorial Fellow at the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance. She is a public health physician and epidemiologist, who has worked in cervical screening and human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination since 2004 and has an international reputation in HPV vaccination and cervical cancer prevention research, policy and practice, as evidenced by appointments to the WHO Director General’s Expert Advisory Group on Cervical Cancer Elimination, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) Working Group for Handbook 18 on Cervical Screening, and as Co-Chair of the CHIC global HPV Vaccine Council. She is a chief investigator in the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Cervical Cancer Control and holds an NHMRC Leadership Fellowship evaluating single dose HPV vaccination in Australia. Her current work is focused on achieving equity in the delivery and outcomes of strategies for scale up to support the WHO call to eliminate cervical cancer as a public health problem.

Jim Buttery is the inaugural Professor of Child Health Informatics at the University of Melbourne based at the Melbourne Children’s Campus Centre for Health Analytics. He is the Chief Research Information Officer and an infectious diseases physician at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne. He is also the Head of Epidemiology and Signal Detection of SAEFVIC, the Victorian Immunisation Safety Service, and Group Head, Health informatics, at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, and the co-director of the Global Vaccine Data Network. Jim leads an epi-informatics team of epidemiologists, data analysts and statisticians whose research revolves around innovative use of real-world data to answer important questions in infectious diseases epidemiology, vaccine safety and effectiveness.

These innovations include Introducing Australia’s first state based public facing vaccine safety report, updated weekly, to inform the public and maintain vaccine confidence (Saefvic.online/vaccinesafety), development of syndromic vaccine safety surveillance methodologies, including de-identified telephone help line and GP data network surveillance which have been incorporated into DHHS Victoria surveillance, and the establishment of the Vaccine Safety Health Link (VSHL). VSHL is a statewide Victorian prospective vaccine safety datalinkage project linking Victorian Australian immunisation Register data to hospital admissions, emergency presentations, perinatal, births and deaths and primary care datasets. This is the only vaccine datalink system in Australia incorporating perinatal and GP data.

To understand the full impact of common viruses upon human health, he has established Snotwatch, a novel population wide spatiotemporal platform to link viral exposures to health outcomes, and understand the full health and economic burden of these viruses. Initial studies have shown new associations with febrile seizures, Kawasaki Disease, childhood hepatitis and chilblains. Using pathology, environmental exposures, and hospital, ED and GP datasets, we are generating new insights into common respiratory viruses.