Respiratory and Infectious Diseases Research
The Respiratory and Infectious Disease Research Group is a multidisciplinary research team comprising doctors, nurses, allied health professionals and basic scientists, that is engaged in cross disciplinary and translational research with a particular focus on respiratory and infectious diseases.
Aim
- To provide every Mater lung patient with the opportunity to join a clinical trial.
Purpose
- To improve access to frontline treatments through collaborative research.
The Research Group is very strong in clinical trials and supports a world-class clinical trials unit. The Respiratory, Infectious Disease and Other (RIO) clinical trials unit is capable of running a range of clinical trials from Phase 1 through to Phase 4. It commonly achieves the highest site recruitment for global clinical trials and has the versatility to support clinical trials involving genetically modified organisms (GMO’s), vaccines, infusions, nebulised therapies as well as inhaled and oral treatments.
The Respiratory and Infectious Diseases Group also manages the David Serisier Research Biobank, a broad clinical repository of human samples. The Biobank holds blood, peripheral blood mononuclear cells, serum, sputum, tissue, stool, urine and human bronchial epithelial cells from a wide range of healthy and respiratory patient cohorts including cystic fibrosis, bronchiectasis, asthma, lung cancer and COVID-19.
The Research Group contributes data to several national clinical registries including:
- Australian Bronchiectasis Registry
- Australian Cystic Fibrosis Data Registry
- Australian IPF Registry
- FluCAN
- The Australian Severe Asthma Registry
Respiratory and Infectious Diseases Group Researchers have attracted external funding as both chief investigators and associate investigators from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and the Medical Research Futures Fund (MRFF) to enable clinical and translational research in a broad spectrum of respiratory illnesses including COVID-19, lung cancer, bronchiectasis, non-tuberculous mycobacterium and cystic fibrosis.
Group Leaders
![](/kenticoimage.axd/media/89bdc01c-7125-46a5-a486-c1041a5cecee/RIO.png?width=900&height=600&rmode=crop&d=124552&hmac=d67380297ced118d9d42a32aff5f065b011e9c48e915d35906c93fd1bb23fd8b)
Group members
Associate Professor Simon Bowler and Associate Professor Lucy Burr are supported by group members and clinician researchers.
Group members:
- Dr Adrian Barnett
Dr Graeme Mattison
Associate Professor Paul Griffin
Dr Luke Spence
Clinician researchers:
Dr Vikram Jain
Dr Connor O'leary
Dr Suzi Poulgrain