Good news

Many congratulations to Laura Ford who had her second daughter, Lillian on Friday 26th July.

Meru Sheel has been appointed as a member of the WHO technical working group on early warning surveillance for emergencies.

New grants/funding

Brett Lidbury has been awarded two new grants. He joins Alice Richardson as CIs on an Emerge Australia - led J.J. Mason and H.S. Williams Foundation Special Award titled “ME/CFS Biobank and Database development” for $1,000,030.00 over 5 years. Additionally, Brett received a grant from the Tropical Australian Academic Health Centre (TAAHC) titled “Revealing the hidden knowledge in pathology big data: Machine learning to support clinical decision making for unknown infectious diseases and recognise biosecurity incursions in tropical Australia” for $48,480.00 over 2 years.

Other conference presentations

Rhiannon Wallace gave an oral presentation titled “Whole genome sequencing of Campylobacter isolated from humans, food and dogs in Australia” at The Australian and New Zealand College of Veterinary Scientists Science Week that was held on the Gold Coast on July 5.

Angus McLure gave a presentation at the 2019 CREID Symposium titled “Using WGS of Campylobacter isolates from foods and animals to attribute sources of human infections”.

Brett Lidbury gave a presentation in the Netherlands at the Department of Health Evidence, Radboud University Medical Centre in June titled “Replacing Animal Experiments via the Exploration of Pathology Data, Systematic Review and a Focus on Human Biology”

Outreach and Engagement

Danielle Ingle was a convener of the Australian Society for Microbiology workshop “Genomics in Clinical and Public Health Microbiology”.

Meru Sheel attended the ANU Health Hack 2019 in Singapore, hosted by the ANU CECS as a mentor for cross-disciplinary teams to design community-drive health policy innovations. Additionally, Meru attended meetings with the Asian Development Bank, the CHM Dean Prof Russell Gruen, and the WHO Western Pacific Region Partner Forum.

Brett Lidbury was an editor alongside Paul Fisher from La Trobe University on a special issue titled "Biomedical Insights that Inform the Diagnosis of ME/CFS" - Diagnostics (MDPI AG, Basel, Switzerland) (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/diagnostics/special_issues/ME_CFS).

Media interest

Meru Sheel has had two stories published on her work, one in Guardian Stories titled “Meet the innovative Australians shaping tomorrow” (https://www.theguardian.com/westpac-shaping-tomorrow/ng-interactive/2019/jul/30/meet-the-innovative-australians-shaping-tomorrow), and a second in The Wire titled “Ebola outbreak in Congo declared an international health emergency” (http://thewire.org.au/story/ebola-outbreak-in-congo-declared-an-international-health-emergency/)

Student news

A new PhD student, Busayo Ajuwon, has recently commenced under the supervision of Brett Lidbury, Alice Richardson and Katrina Roper.

Papers accepted/published

1. Arcos-Burgos M, Vélez JI, Martinez AF, Ribasés M, Ramos-Quiroga JA, Sánchez-Mora C, Richarte V, Roncero C, Cormand B, Fernández-Castillo N, Casas M,  Lopera F, Pineda DA, Palacio JD, Acosta-López JE, Cervantes-Henriquez ML, Sánchez-Rojas MG, Puentes-Rozo PJ, Molina BSG; MTA Cooperative Group, Boden MT, Wallis D, Lidbury B, Newman S, Easteal S, Swanson J, Patel H, Volkow N, Acosta MT, Castellanos FX, de Leon J, Mastronardi CA, Muenke M. (2019) ADGRL3 (LPHN3) variants  predict substance use disorder. Transl Psychiatry. 29;9(1):42. doi:10.1038/s41398-019-0396-7.
2. Ford L, Ingle D, Glass K, Veitch M, Williamson DA, Harlock M, Gregory J, Stafford R, French N, Bloomfield S, Grange Z, Conway ML, Kirk MD. (2019) Whole-genome sequencing of Salmonella Mississippi and Typhimurium Definitive Type 160, Australia and New Zealand.  Emerging Infectious Diseases, 25(9):1682-1689.
3. Ingle D.J, Nair S, Hartman H, Ashton P.M, Dyson Z.A, Day M, Freedman J, Chattaway M.A, Holt K.E, and Dallman T.J. Informal genomic surveillance of regional distribution of Salmonella Typhi genotypes and antimicrobial resistance via returning travellers. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases
4. Lidbury BA, Kita B, Richardson AM, Lewis DP, Privitera E, Hayward S, de Kretser D, Hedger M. (2019) Rethinking ME/CFS Diagnostic Reference Intervals via Machine Learning, and the Utility of Activin B for Defining Symptom Severity. Diagnostics (Basel). 19;9(3). pii: E79. doi:10.3390/diagnostics9030079.
5. Maguire JE, Glasgow K, Glass K, Roczo-Farkas S, Bines JE, Sheppeard V, Macartney K, Quinn HE. (2019) Rotavirus epidemiology and RV1 vaccine effectiveness in Australia, 2010-2017. Pediatrics (in press).

Stone J, Glass K, Munn Z, Tugwell P, Doi S. (2019) A unified framework for bias assessment in clinical research. Int J Evidence-Based Healthcare, 17(2): 106–120.