I lead a highly successful team established over 25 years with a unique approach to the control of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). The NHMRC (program/project grants) and international agencies (e.g. Wellcome Trust, NIH, Dana/UBS Optimus Foundations) have funded my leading edge research over this time.

Fundamental to my research ethos is my ability to draw together an extensive network of linkages critical to the quality and substance of the work undertaken by our international team that is recognised by major scientific research institutions in China, SE Asia and globally. Including mutual research training of national/international scholars and technology transfer, my research model has informed policy and practice for collaborations between Australia and the region, providing significant and ongoing benefit to health and medical research in Australia.

My vision for research will continue to marry basic and applied research, translating into innovative, workable and practical control strategies. This underpins my firm commitment to field and laboratory research with my multi-skilled team, which brings together research leaders with expertise in molecular biology, genomics, bioinformatics, immunology, human genetics, vaccinology, modelling techniques, field epidemiology and biostatistics, the design of major intervention trials, and in coordinating and monitoring NTD parasite control programs.

It is vital that against a global background of economic and environmental change that an appropriate strategic vision of the critical research needed to diminish the impact of the NTDs continues to be developed and delivered. In combination with effective surveillance and monitoring, we now have the diagnostic tools and public health interventions available to eliminate schistosomiasis and other NTDs from Asia. This is one of my key scientific goals, which will result in substantial kudos and benefit to health and medical research in this country as well as regionally.

My research goal is the global elimination of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), notably schistosomiasis, a worm infection afflicting millions of the world’s poorest people. I have decades of transformative-research experience and my multi-disciplinary team has developed novel techniques and tools, including vaccines and diagnostics, to eliminate a centuries-old disease responsible for major human suffering.