Investigators: Peter Le Souef, Ingrid Laing
Collaborators: Anthony Bosco, Anthony Kicic, Deborah Strickland, Jonatan Leffler, Kak-Ming Ling, Kevin Looi, Thomas Iosifidis, Yuliya Karpievitch
Team members: Franciska Prastanti, Kim Khoo, Laura Coleman, Rebecca Watkinson
Project description
Large numbers of children need emergency medical treatment each year for respiratory illnesses, particularly for wheezing and asthma. We are trying to understand why those particular children become so unwell. We have found that most of the children who present to hospital with an acute respiratory illness have a common respiratory virus and that the immune response of some children is an inappropriate response to the viral infection. We study children at the time of their illness and by collecting information and samples. These are then used in collaborative studies with researchers who have expertise in a variety of techniques including host genetics, airway cell culture, respiratory viral infection, immunology, transcriptomics, metabolomics, and detailed statistical analysis. We hope to be able to understand and predict why particular children are susceptible to respiratory exacerbations and develop new treatments which reduce the likelihood of them returning to hospital.
External Collaborators
- James Gern (University of Wisconsin)
- Bill Cookson (Imperial College London)
- Klaus Bonnelykke (University of Copenhagen)
- David Smith (PathWest Laboratory Medicine)
- Chisha Sikazwe (PathWest Laboratory Medicine)
- Stacey Reinke (Edith Cowan University)
Pictured left to right are Michelle Schwager, Professor Jack Goldblatt (retired), Associate Professor Brad Zhang, Associate Professor Ingrid Laing, Laura Coleman, Dr Franciska Prastanti, Dr Joelene Bizzintino, Professor Wayne Thomas, Sullivan Strahan, Professor Peter Le Souef, Dr David Hancock, Rebecca Watkinson, Kim Khoo, Dr Thomas Iosifidis and Dr Kevin Looi.