Vaccines & Infectious Disease Group

03/04/2025

Congratulations to Professor Helen Marshall AM, Director of the Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Group, who has been awarded the 2024 NHMRC Elizabeth Blackburn Investigator Award (Leadership in Public Health Research) for the highest ranked applicant for an Investigator Grant (Leadership) in the public health pillar for 2024.

The Elizabeth Blackburn Investigator Awards honour the Australian Nobel Laureate, a molecular biologist who received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2009 jointly with Professor Jack Szostak and Professor Carol Greider.

The awards were established to promote and foster the career development of female researchers and are awarded annually to the highest ranked female recipient (Leadership category) in each of the Basic Science, Clinical Medicine and Science, Public Health and Health Services research areas of the Investigator Grants scheme.

Professor Marshall’s grant will support her ongoing research to determine the most effective immunisation program to prevent both meningococcal B disease and gonorrhoea with one vaccine.

Robinson Research Institute

30/05/2024

Coverage from Channel 7 about the Sore Throat study. For more information, visit https://surveys.adelaide.edu.au/redcap/surveys/?s=XLWHFHK9Y9K4XDFM

30/05/2024

Some great coverage from Channel 9 about the Sore Throat study. For more information, visit https://surveys.adelaide.edu.au/redcap/surveys/?s=XLWHFHK9Y9K4XDFM

04/09/2023

The Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Group appeared on the Channel 7 News on the weekend promoting the WHO Kids Influenza Vaccine Study for Children. If you would like to find out more, visit our trials page: https://www.wch.sa.gov.au/research/about-virtu/current-trials or email VIRTU@adelaide.edu.au.

11/08/2023

Seeking community participants!

CAB study: for pregnant women and their newborn babies

Can your COVID-19 vaccination history help us find out when pregnant women should be vaccinated against COVID-19 to offer the best protection for their babies after birth?

Participants in the CAB study will be asked to visit the Women’s and Children’s Hospital three times:
• One visit during pregnancy where a blood sample will be collected.
• Two visits after your baby is born where a blood sample will be collected from your baby
o at 4-6 weeks of age
o at 6 months

You will be asked to provide a small sample of breast milk at the second visit.

To compensate you for your out of pocket expenses, you will be provided with a $50 voucher at each study visit.

To find out more, contact (08) 8161 6328 or virtu@adelaide.edu.au.

03/07/2023

A world-first SA vaccination program against a dangerous virus has produced a surprise side bonus – it’s also highly effective against another disease.
Women's and Children's Health Network Robinson Research Institute The University of Adelaide SA Health

South Australia’s free meningococcal B immunisation program provides an unexpected bonus - protection against gonorrhoea.

29/06/2023

Congratulations to Prof Helen Marshall AM, leader of the Vaccines & Infectious Disease Group and Vaccinology and Immunology Research Trials Unit (VIRTU) on being a finalist for SA Scientist of the Year. https://www.scienceawards.sa.gov.au/scientist-of-the-year-2023

The University of Adelaide Women's and Children's Health NetworkSA HealthRobinson Research Institute

The most common cause of irreversible blindness, glaucoma is influenced by genetics, so having a close family member with glaucoma increases risk. Unfortunately, early-stage, treatable glaucoma cases can go undetected, and once diagnosed, damage and vision loss are often irreversible.

02/03/2023

Congratulations to Dr Bing Wang, the HDA ECR Publication Award winner for 2022. Her publication in The Lancet Infectious Diseases presents the evaluation results of the first in the world, meningococcal B (MenB) vaccine program in South Australia for infants and adolescents.

Congratulations to our HDA ECR Publication Award winner for 2022 – Dr Bing Wang, past HDA Scholar, Vaccinology and Immunology Research Trials Unit (VIRTU), Women's and Children's Hospital / Adelaide Medical School, The University of Adelaide.

Bing will receive $500 for her winning publication - Effectiveness and impact of the 4CMenB vaccine against invasive serogroup B meningococcal disease and gonorrhoea in an infant, child, and adolescent programme: an observational cohort and case-control study.

Bing Wang, Lynne Giles, Prabha Andraweera, Mark McMillan, Sara Almond, Rebecca Beazley, Janine Mitchell, Noel Lally, Michele Ahoure, Emma Denehy, Ann Koehler, Louise Flood, Helen Marshall

The Lancet Infectious Diseases. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(21)00754-4

This publication presents the evaluation results of the first in the world, meningococcal B (MenB) vaccine program in South Australia for infants and adolescents. Based on our results, the Health Minister made the decision to fund the program indefinitely and the Czech Republic has since introduced a MenB vaccine program for adolescents and infants. This article received significant media interest and has an Altmetric score in the 99th percentile of outputs of the same age. As this is the first ongoing program for adolescents, we were able to demonstrate moderate vaccine effectiveness against gonorrhoea, through cross-protection. This was the first study in the world to assess vaccine effectiveness against MenB disease and gonorrhoea at the same time.

11/02/2023

Celebrating the International Day for Women and Girls in Science. Many of the amazing scientists, doctors and nurses in this photo are part of the Vaccines & Infectious Disease Group.

👩‍🔬"𝐖𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐠 𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥𝐬 𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐨 𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞"
👩🏻‍⚕️"𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐠 𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥𝐬 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐝𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞"
👩🏾‍🎓"𝐖𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬, 𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜 𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐥𝐝"
These are just some of the incredible women working in research and science at the Women's and Children's Health Network, celebrating the International Day of Women and Girls in Science today.
This inspiring bunch come from across the world to undertake research at our Network that benefits women, babies, children, young people and families everywhere.
Their work covers topics such as vacccinology, immunology, diabetes, pathology, rehabiliation and children's anaesthesia - to name just a few - and these women come from diverse professional groups including nursing, medicine, allied health and acadaemia.
For more information about research underway at WCHN visit www.wch.sa.gov.au/research
🎉Happy International Day of Women and Girls in Science🎉

10/01/2023

𝗪𝗲’𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝘄𝗵𝗼𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝘃𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗻𝗮𝘀𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝗽𝗿𝗮𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽!

The Women’s and Children’s Hospital’s Vaccinology & Immunology Research Trials Unit (VIRTU) is looking for children aged 6 to 17 years to take part in a clinical research study into the effectiveness of an experimental whooping cough vaccine, given as a fine spray into the nose.

The study will compare the new vaccine with a licensed vaccine (BoostrixTM) that protects against tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis.

Your part in the trial will last for about 6 months and include visits to the clinic and telephone calls to check your health. You will be reimbursed for travel and for your time.

To find out more and check if your child is eligible to participate, check out our website https://bit.ly/3iHg9fY or email virtu@adelaide.edu.au.

15/12/2022

Meningococcal disease is in the news again. Here is a refresher from world expert Prof on what it is, how it is spread, and how you can protect yourself.

Early treatment with antibiotics can be life-saving.