He holds a PhD in Microbiology at The University of Queensland (UQ) since 2012 with a postdoctoral fellowship at Purde University (2012-2015). He is currently Senior Research Fellow at The University of Queensland. Has experience in the area of Microbiology, with emphasis on Virology. As a Research Fellow in the School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences at the UQ leads a research program into viral structures with the aim of revealing new molecular insights to aid the design of next-generation vaccines and therapies. Collectively his research has attracted $20M AUD of investment in the form of grants and industry support, including two current primary investigator project grants that are using cryo-electron microscopy to probe the structures of viral proteins at the atomic level. He has co-developed two broad-spectrum vaccine platforms and is a named inventor on 2 patent families relating to viral vaccines and another patent application relating to novel therapeutics for flaviviruses. His current work involves the generation of a rapid response vaccine pipeline to counter emerging threats as well as targeted approaches against known human viral pathogens. These programs include two phase I clinical trials currently underway which will test one of the vaccine platform technologies he has invented for use against influenza virus and Middle East respiratory syndrome.
