UQ and QIMR gang up on infectious diseases

From today, the Australian Infectious Diseases Research Centre (AID) is now to be run by a joint partnership between the University of Queensland and the Queensland Institute of Medical Research.

The AID will bring together researchers from the two organisations to support research into a wide range of infectious diseases, including big names like malaria, HIV and dengue fever, along with parasitic diseases such as Leishmaniasis and Schistosomiasis, vector born diseases, microbial infections and other issues such as antimicrobial resistance and host-pathogen communication and signalling.

Both organisations have pledged funds to support joint PhD scholarships and to encourage collaborations in infectious diseases research.

The AID was originally launched by the University of Queensland in 2009 as the Centre for Infectious Disease Research under the leadership of Professor Alex Khromykh. It morphed

The Australian Infectious Diseases Research Centre was then established at UQ in 2011, prior to this announcement of an official collaboration between UQ and QIMR.

“The combination of expertise from UQ and QIMR will ensure rapid progress is made in the detection, understanding, treatment and prevention of a range of infectious diseases problems,” said Professor Mark Walker, Director of the AID.

“With a child still dying of malaria on average every minute and Australians constantly under threat from tropical diseases such as dengue fever, we still have a lot of work to do,” said Professor James McCarthy, Coordinator of QIMR’s Infectious Diseases Program.