The Univeristy of Melbourne The Royal Melbourne Hopspital

A joint venture between The University of Melbourne and The Royal Melbourne Hospital


Navin Karan is a Senior Medical Scientist, and Training and Capacity Manager for the Victorian Infectious Diseases Laboratory (VIDRL). He is currently a co-lead of the Public Health Cross Cutting Discipline at the Doherty Institute and an Honorary Fellow at the Department of Infectious Diseases, University of Melbourne (UoM). Navin is also the member of the Centre for Pathogen Genomics Training working group, and VIDRL’s Global Health advisory group. He has extensive experience working with developing nations, strengthening laboratory systems to improve diagnostic and public health services through provision of technical training and advise to regional agencies, partner organisations and country Ministries of Health. His area of work has included consultancies in medical laboratory education, capacity building and training, laboratory quality management and accreditation, external quality assurance programmes, emerging infectious diseases, clinical microbiology and antimicrobial resistance, TB/HIV, viral hepatitis, sexually transmitted diseases, transfusion transmitted infections, molecular infectious diseases testing and turn-key container laboratories in the context of global and regional health. Navin is an expert advisor on laboratory systems and capacity building for the Asia-Pacific region. 

  • Key Achievements
    • Navin received his undergraduate degree in Medical Laboratory Sciences from University of Otago and has undertaken post graduate studies in Public Health from Massey University in New Zealand. Throughout his career, Navin has travelled extensively to the Asia Pacific region as a laboratory consultant and advisory expert. He has provided in-country training and capacity building workshops, as well as performed laboratory assessments (including on ISO 15189 international standard) and evaluations in American Samoa, Cambodia, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. During the COVID-19 Pandemic, Navin supported countries in the region with humanitarian AID support from the World Health Organization and New Zealand, Australian Governments. Furthermore, he actively managed and established clinical and molecular testing in container laboratories for over 13 locations in Fiji, Kiribati, Niue, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, and Tonga.