The Univeristy of Melbourne The Royal Melbourne Hopspital

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


Abdou has completed his PhD in molecular microbiology at Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium. He continued his training in bacterial pathogenesis and host-pathogen interactions, first at CNRS in Marseille, France, then at Imperial College London. His work has been recognised and supported by numerous competitive grants and international fellowships. He has been the recipient of the Lavoisier Fellowship in France from the French Foreign Affairs Office, the Marie-Sklodowska Curie Global Fellowship to continue his research between the Doherty Institute and the LSHTM (London, UK), the Doherty Collaborative grant, the Doherty Agility award, and the CASS foundation grant. He is currently CIA on a NHMRC ideas grant (2023-2026).

  • Publications
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    Research Groups
    • Howden Group

      Research from Professor Ben Howden’s group research uses genomics, molecular biology, epidemiology and clinical studies to address a broad range of issues related to invasive bacterial diseases in humans, especially those caused by staphylococci, enterococci and other antimicrobial-resistant species. Additionally, working closely with scientists in the MDU PHL, they investigate the epidemiology, evolution, and spread of bacterial pathogens of public health significance such as Neisseria gonorrhoea, Listeria monocytogenes, Shigella and Salmonella spp., Legionella spp., and carbapenemase-producing gram-negative bacteria.


      Lab Team

      Howden Group

      • Director Of Microbiological Diagnostic Unit (MDU) Public Health Laboratory
      • Clinical Microbiologist & Infectious Diseases Physician
      • Senior Researcher
      • Computational Microbiologist, Bioinformatician
      • Dr Romain Guerillot
      • Dr Natasha Holmes
      • Dr Anders Gonçalves da Silva
      • Dr Kyra Chua
      • Wei Gao
      • Dr Jason Kwong
      • Sarah Baines
      • Dr Jean Lee
      • Dr Stefano Giulieri
      • Eloise Alison
      • Dr Andre Mu
        Research Officer
      • Robyn Lee
        Research Fellow
    • Stinear Group

      Tim Stinear’s group’s research addresses priorities across four connected themes that including hospital superbugs, pathogenic mycobacteria, natural product discovery and public health genomics that aim to understand and contain the spread of bacteria causing serious human disease. 


      Lab Team

      Stinear Group

      • Laboratory Head and Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Mycobacterium ulcerans
      • Postdoctoral Researcher
      • Senior Researcher
      • Jessica Porter
        Research Assistant
      • Kirstie Mangas
        PhD Student
      • Andrew Buultjens
        PhD Student
      • Andre Mu
        Research Officer