Through the University of Melbourne and in particular the departments listed below, undergraduate, graduate coursework and graduate research subjects and courses are available which complement the Doherty Institute’s Research Themes and Cross-Cutting Disciplines.
The Department of Microbiology and Immunology is a department of the School of Biomedical Sciences in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences. The Department offers world-class training in microbiology and immunology led by teaching specialists and teaching-research academics. This research-led teaching in infection and immunity provides superb training for undergraduate and graduate students alike.
The Department of Infectious Diseases is a department of the School of Medicine in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences and brings together the outstanding translational and clinical expertise of infectious diseases researchers based at The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity and the Melbourne Medical School. The Department of Infectious Diseases is the academic home of clinical and translational research in infectious diseases and will provide opportunities to enhance the success of our clinician-scientists as world leaders in infectious diseases.
Level of study
At the undergraduate level, the Doherty Institute is home to the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, which delivers specialised courses in bacteriology, virology and immunology along with more generalist infection and immunity subjects.
Also at the undergraduate level, the Department of Infectious Diseases has partnered with the Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences and the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health to offer the undergraduate interdisciplinary breadth subjects UNIB10017 Our Planet, Our Health and UNIB20020 Our Planet, Our Health II. These cross-disciplinary subjects draw on the Doherty’s expertise in public and global health, and broad collaborative vision. The Our Planet, Our Health subjects will be of interest to first, second and third-year students who plan to complete a major in an area related to infection and immunity, including disease impacts, and also to students who have a more general interest in integrated One Health approaches to complex societal challenges.
At the honours and graduate level, Doherty students undertake high-level research training in microbiology, immunology, epidemiology, clinical and translational research, infectious diseases surveillance and outbreak investigations. Students receive supervision from world-class scientists in an environment where cutting-edge research is conducted side-by-side with public health laboratories.
Lab groups offering student projects
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Dunstan group
The Dunstan group uses host and pathogen genomics to understand infectious diseases. We perform genome-wide association studies of the human host, genomic studies of the infecting pathogen, and investigate the interaction of both genomes in disease.
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Godfrey group
The Godfrey group has a strong track record in the field of unconventional T cells with a focus on CD1 restricted cells (NKT cells); MR1-restricted T cells (MAIT cells) and gamma delta T cells (1). These cells play a key role in many different diseases.
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Haque group
The Haque group is interested in studying T cell responses during infectious disease and in cancer. We specialize in studying these cells using a relatively recent technique called “single-cell genomics”.
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Howden group
The Howden laboratory is focused on understanding how various antimicrobial resistant pathogens cause disease and develop antimicrobial resistance.
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Kallies group
The Kallies group has done pioneering work in understanding the role of immune cells in infection, metabolic diseases and cancer.
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Kent group
The Kent group has an interest in understanding how the immune response can be harnessed in the control of infectious pathogens including SARS-CoV2, HIV, Mycobacterium tuberculosis and influenza.
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Lewin group
The main focus of the Lewin group is to understand why HIV infection persists on antiretroviral therapy and to develop new strategies to eliminate latent HIV.
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Mantamadiotis group
The Mantamadiotis group’s research aims to understand how the tumor microenvironment, including immune cells, contribute to oncogenesis and how to modulate the immune system to improve current brain cancer therapy.
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McCluskey group
The McCluskey group are an internationally leading laboratory in MAIT cell research, having made significant breakthrough discoveries in MAIT cell immunity.
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McDevitt group
The chemistry in every cell in all forms of life is dependent on metal ions. Research in the McDevitt group seeks to understand how bacterial pathogens acquire and use metal ions and how this shapes the host-pathogen interaction during infection.
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Mackenzie group
The Mackenzie group investigates the intracellular replication of flaviviruses and noroviruses to understand how replication influences cellular functions and immune dysfunction.
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McVernon group
The McVernon group uses established and emerging biostatistical, epidemiologic and modelling methods to address infectious diseases questions of public health relevance.
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Mueller group
Research in the Mueller group is focused on examining immune responses to acute and chronic viral infections and to tumours.
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Newton group
The Newton group uses a range of molecular and cell biology approaches to investigate the host-pathogen interactions that occur during infection with intracellular bacterial pathogens.
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Pidot group
The Pidot group is a multi-disciplinary team that works across microbiology, genomics and biological chemistry to identify new antimicrobials and investigate their biosynthesis.
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Purcell group
The Purcell group investigates the HIV-1 and HTLV-1 human retroviruses that cause AIDS, leukaemia and inflammatory pathogenesis respectively.
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Reading group
The Reading group have expertise in understanding viral attachment factors, cellular receptors and entry pathways, virus-induced activation of host genes and the mechanisms by which intracellular host proteins can block virus replication.
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Revill group
The Revill group’s work is focused on the molecular virology of the hepatitis B virus (HBV), which is one of the most important human pathogens, infecting 257 million people worldwide, including 239,000 Australians.
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Rogerson group
The Rogerson group studies the pathogenesis and immunity of malaria in the human host, using in vitro models and clinical samples from individuals in malariaaffected countries.
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Satzke group
The Satzke group conducts research in a clinicallyrelevant context. We focus on the microbiology of two pathogens of major global health importance (pneumococcus and Group A Streptococcus) to understand their pathogenesis, interaction with viruses, and how infections can be best prevented with vaccines.
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Scott group
The Scott lab focuses on the application of mass spectrometry (MS)-based methodologies to characterise microbial systems. The key focus of the lab is understanding how pathogens of the Burkholderia genus cause disease and why proteins decorated with carbohydrates influence Burkholderia pathogenesis.
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Stinear group
The Stinear group study bacteria that can infect humans and cause disease and we study human immune responses to those bacteria. We make mutants. We uncover molecular mechanisms of pathogenesis. We discover new antibiotics. We make vaccines. We create new diagnostic tests. We track disease outbreaks, . We sequence genomes and we expose dodgy science.
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Villadangos group
The Villadangos group studies the first event that triggers adaptive immune responses: the presentation of pathogen or tumour antigens to T cells by Dendritic Cells, B cells and Macrophages.
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Wakim group
The Wakim group research focus is understanding how T cells resident along the respiratory tract can be utilised to protect against influenza virus infection.
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WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza
A key goal of our work is to identify strategies to improve the immunogenicity and, therefore, effectiveness of influenza vaccines.