Professor Iain Duggin
Director, Australian Institute for Microbiology and Infection (AIMI), UTS
Professor Iain Duggin leads the Microbial Morphology and Development (MMD) research theme at the Australian Institute for Microbiology and Infection (AIMI) at UTS. Iain’s research aims to understand cell division and shapeshifting in model archaea and bacteria, especially during changes in environmental conditions and develop ways to address the growing problems of climate change and infectious disease.
Distinguished Professor Steve Djordjevic
Infectious Diseases Group Leader
Professor Steven Djordjevic’s research focuses on bacterial pathogen evolution and emerging lineages. His team analyses genomic data to understand lateral gene transfer and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) from a One Health perspective. They also use proteomics to identify novel vaccine antigens. The group studies bacterial molecules involved in adherence, colonisation, and invasion of eukaryotic cells, with a special interest in protein processing and multifunctionality in pathogenesis.
Associate Professor Cindy Gunawan
UTS Chancellor’s Research Fellow
Associate Professor Cindy Gunawan leads the Biofunctional Nanomaterials ResearchGroup theme at the Australian Institute for Microbiology and Infection (AIMI) at UTS. The research team focuses on multi- targeting antimicrobials, to understand how they work and in turn, how pathogens develop resistance to the complex mechanisms. With the rapid rise of antibiotic resistance, advanced antimicrobials, such as nanoparticles, have been used as alternative technologies to fight infections.
Associate Professor Bill Söderström
ARC Future Fellow and Senior Lecturer
Dr Bill Söderström has an extensive expertise in super-resolution microscopy and infection models. Bill is the Theme lead for the Imaging Microbes in Human Health, Disease & Death theme, where his two main foci are to improve infection models (both in-vitro and mouse) with the goal of developing mRNA vaccines for urinary tract infections, and to develop forensic microbiology for an Australian context, particularly improving time since death estimations based on the post-mortem microbiome.
Dr Mehrad Hamidian
Senior Lecturer
Dr Mehrad Hamidian is specialised in microbiology and genomics. His research focuses on studying antibiotic resistance and genomic evolution of the opportunistic pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii, which has recently been placed as number 1 in the list of World Health Organization for development of antibiotic research. He is particularly interested in studying clonality as well as the role of mobile genetic elements (e.g., plasmids insertion sequences, transposons, integrons and genomic islands) in development and spread of antibiotic resistance in this important superbug.
Professor Daniel Mediati
Chancellor’s Research Fellow & Lecturer
Dr Daniel Mediati is a Junior Group Leader within the themes of microbial development and RNA therapeutics at the Australian Institute for Microbiology and Infection (AIMI) at UTS. His team aims to discover new microbial mechanisms for therapeutic and biotechnological applications.
Dr Gustavo Espinoza
ARC DECRA Fellow
Dr Gustavo Espinoza leads the Pathogen Ecology and Transmission theme at the Australian Institute for Microbiology and Infection (AIMI) at UTS. His laboratory uses cutting-edge techniques in molecular biology including single cell transcriptomics in bacteria to study how pathogens are transported from the environment to the host. His current research is focused on the host-impact of bacteria transported in novel transmission vectors.
Dr Parisa Noorian
Research Fellow
Dr Parisa Noorian is a research fellow theme at the Australian Institute for Microbiology and Infection (AIMI) at UTS. Her research focuses on prevention and treatment of urinary tract infections. Her current projects include a multicentre clinical trial on catheter associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI) in people with spinal cord injury (SCI) and a multi-institute project on the development of mRNA vaccines for recurrent UTIs.
Dr Veronica Jarocki
Research Fellow
Dr Veronica Jarocki is a CRC SAAFE Foundational Postdoctoral Fellow at the Australian Institute for Microbiology and Infection (AIMI) at UTS. Her research focuses on genomic surveillance of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) across human, animal, and environmental systems. Her work applies a One Health approach to understand AMR dissemination, pathogen evolution, develop vaccines, and inform public health and agricultural interventions. She can supervise PhD and Honours students.
Dr Claire Rennie
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Dr Claire Rennie is early-career researcher specialising in the field of neuro-nanomedicine at the Australian Institute for Microbiology and Infection (AIMI) at UTS. Her current research focuses on the pre-clinical evaluation of unique protein nanocages that have been engineered for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, primarily Alzheimer’s Disease.
Dr Ethan Wyrsch
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Dr. Ethan Wyrsch is a post-doctoral research fellow in the field of genomic microbial epidemiology. Working in the lab of Distinguished Professor Steve Djordjevic, his research is centred on understanding the transmission of antibiotic resistance in pathogenic bacteria. Using his expertise in phylogenomic analysis and genome sequence annotation, Dr. Wyrsch’s work also explores the themes of One Health, identifying cases of microbe transfer between human, animal, and environmental reservoirs.