The Burnet Institute has focused its efforts on finding solutions to infectious diseases, inflammatory diseases and cancers, through its laboratory and public health programs.
The Burnet Institute addresses health issues through research in seven thematic programs:
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Pathogenesis and Clinical Research
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Molecular Virology
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Cancer and Infectious Diseases Vaccine Development
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Molecular Immunology and Inflammatory Diseases
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Epidemiology and Population Health
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Harm Reduction
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International Health
These themes are woven into a collaborative and interactive program network, which has as its common goal the realization of the Burnet's research priorities and health agenda, strengthened by means of a number of strategic-interest groups including, international health research, translational research, emerging infectious diseases, drug design, mucosal immunity, microbicides, and indigenous health.
The Institute is a global centre of excellence for medical research in the following areas:
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HIV cells
Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) - is a virus which does not have an individual metabolism, therefore, it has to attack other living cells and use their metabolism to make copies of itself. Unfortunately, HIV attacks some of the cells that are vital to a healthy immune system, including the white blood cells known as T-helper cells or CD4 cells.
HIV infection can lead to two possible outcomes; either a short, flu-like illness that occurs one to six weeks after infection, which has asymptomatic but is still highly infectious. Or six to 12 weeks after infection, the body produces white blood cells, which have produced so many antibodies against HIV that they can be measured in the blood. If you have HIV antibodies in your blood, you are HIV-positive (HIV+). A HIV positive person will feel well for a long time, but the infection is still active inside the body and the virus, which can infect and destroy new blood cells, is constantly being produced.
The number of T-helpers in the blood will slowly be reduced, and after a number of years, the immune system has been weakened, the infected person will start showing symptoms of 'Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome' or 'AIDS'. Without treatment, it takes an average of nine years for AIDS to develop after initial infection with the HIV virus.
In Australia, HIV is most commonly spread by sexual intercourse without a condom and through sharing needles, syringes and other injecting equipment. Australia recorded 22,361 reported cases of HIV at the end of the end of 2005, a further 9,872 people went on the develop AIDS. Scientists from Burnet's Pathogenesis and Clinical Research laboratory are is studying the effects of HIV in white blood cells and the role they play in the development of AIDS and virus replication. We develop and test low-cost diagnostic kits to monitor HIV infection in resource-poor countries and carry out specialised tests that are crucial for the day-to-day management of HIV-infected individuals here in Australia.
Measles - is one of the most contagious viral diseases. It is caused by the paramxyo virus and is the most dangerous of the children's diseases that result in a rash. The infection is transferred by droplets, and anybody who has not already had measles can be infected. The virus has an incubation period of just one to two weeks.
As one of the world's most infectious yet readily preventable diseases with an estimated 21 million cases of the infection every year. While very few deaths are reported from measles in Australia, this infectious disease is responsible for the deaths of more than 530,000 children each year, with more than 30 per cent of these reported in the South East Asia region. Researchers from our Infectious Diseases and Cancer Vaccine Development program are developing an oral measles vaccine, which involves the insertion of a part of the measles virus into a plant such as lettuce.
Burnet scientists have shown that fresh and freeze-dried lettuce that contains part of the measles virus can generate an immune response when tested in the laboratory. The vaccine made in lettuce will be freeze dried and turned into a powder. This powder can then be mixed into a paste or pressed into a capsule that can be taken orally. The use of oral vaccines to replace existing vaccine technology can enhance vaccine coverage of children and infants, especially in resource-poor communities.
Hepatitis A rapid diagnostic kit
Hepatitis - is the Latin word for liver inflammation. It is characterised by the destruction of a number of liver cells and the presence of inflammatory cells in the liver tissue. Hepatitis can be caused by diseases that primarily attack the liver cells. Hepatitis can be divided into several Types; Types A, B and C.
Type A is caused by the hepitatits A virus (HAV) and is found in the feces of people with hepatitis A and is usually spread by close personal contact (including sex or sharing a household). It can also be spread by eating food or drinking water contaminated with HAV.
Type B is caused by the hepatitis B virus (HBV), This virus is found in blood and certain body fluids. The virus is spread when blood or body fluid from an infected person enters the body of a person who is not immune. HBV is spread through having unprotected sex with injecting drug users or from an infected mother to her baby during birth. Exposure to infected blood in any situation can be a risk for transmission.
Type C is caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV)is found in blood and certain body fluids. The virus is spread in the same way as HBV, either in blood/bodily fluids, injecting drug users and from mother to baby during birth. However approximately one third of all cases of type C hepatitis come from an unidentifiable source.
Scientists from Burnet's Infectious Diseases and Cancer Vaccine laboratory have developed a new test for hepatitis A that will allow doctors and health workers to rapidly diagnose infection with the hepatitis A virus, without the need for established diagnostic laboratory facilities. The new test, which requires only a small amount of blood obtained from a finger prick, performs as well or better than existing laboratory tests and is a major step forward in the rapid diagnosis and control of this major infectious disease.
A breast cancer cell
Cancers - involves the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells that have mutated from normal tissues. This growth can kill when these cells prevent normal function of vital organs or spread throughout the body, damaging essential systems. There are many different kinds of cancers. Cancer arises out of normal cells in the body, and can develop in almost any organ or tissue, such as the lung, colon, breast, skin, bones, or nerve tissue. In general, cancer appears to be caused by abnormal regulation of cell division. Cancers can occur when cells divide too rapidly or when cells forget how to die. There are multiple causes of cancers such as; sunlight, radiation, certain viruses, tobacco. However, the cause of many cancers
More than half of all deaths in Australia are due to cancer developing in five sites in the body: breast, prostate, bowel, lung and skin. The Burnet Institute currently researches: breast, prostate, lung and colon/bowel and ovarian cancer. The high and apparently increasing incidence of many types of cancer and the need to develop treatment options that can follow surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy has stimulated the Institute's investigation into immunotherapy which is expected to offer better outcomes.
Researchers from our Infectious Disease and Cancer Vaccine laboratory are working on a new breast cancer vaccine that's based on the MUC1-based DNA vaccine for breast cancer, another on the MUC1 and membrane translocating peptides.
Severe rheumatoid arthritis in
both hands
Autoimmune diseases - are conditions in which a person's immune system attacks the body's own cells, causing tissue destruction. Autoimmunity is accepted as the cause of a wide range of disorders. Autoimmune diseases are classified as either general, in which the autoimmune reaction takes place simultaneously in a number of tissues, or organ specific, in which the autoimmune reaction targets a single organ. Autoimmune diseases include rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, bleeding disorders (thromboycytopaenia), kidney inflammation, multiple sclerosis and thrombosis.
Inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus affect many Australians. With our rapidly ageing population, by 2021, the number of people in Australia with some type of arthritis will be 4.2 million or 18.6%. In terms of patient reporting, arthritis is more prevalent than asthma, injuries, mental disorders, diabetes and cancer. Lupus occurs most commonly in women of child-bearing age and it affects 1 in 700 Australians.
Current treatments for chronic inflammatory diseases - such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus - aim to alleviate symptoms rather than attack the cause of disease. Burnet scientists are now using some of the most sophisticated, modern technologies available to design radically new drugs to treat the earliest phases of inflammation, rather than treat the damaging chronic effects.
Our approach is to design drugs that block inflammation (redness, swelling and pain caused by the invasion of blood cells into areas of irritation) by binding inhibitors (drugs or antibodies) to key cell surface molecules on the invading cells. This new treatment depends on knowing the three dimensional shape of the cell surface proteins that initiate and promote inflammation. This 3-D shape can be determined using X-ray crystallography, where protein crystals are bombarded by X-rays. This results in a 3-D photograph of the protein, like a hologram. The medicinal researchers and chemists use this 3D photo, to design drugs to fit exactly into the shape and the chemistry of the protein, blocking protein function.
Avian Influenza - which is more commonly referred to as "bird flu" is caused by the influenza A viruses found most frequently in birds. Influenza A viruses are divided into subtypes based on two surface proteins Haemagglutinin (H) and Neuraminidase (N). Small changes to these proteins can occur with every new generation of virus resulting in new mutant strains, named according to the type of H and N proteins they possess. The current outbreaks are of an avian influenza type A H5N1 strain. The source of this virus is thought to be wild waterfowl that naturally carry many strains of influenza; viruses that can sometimes jump to domestic poultry and rarely, to mammals such as pigs and humans. H5N1 has proved to be highly contagious to poultry: contact between sick animals or with materials contaminated with infected saliva or faeces leads to rapid spread. Sick animals excrete large volumes of virus through faeces and discharges from the beak and the virus may even survive in the environment for days. It is very difficult for a human to become infected with bird flu but exposure is possible through close contact.
Since December 2004, the World Health Organization has recorded132 human deaths from the avian influenza virus worldwide. A team of Burnet researchers are investigating new rapid diagnostic testing kits and vaccines. Using the same principles as Burnet's successful world-first rapid tests for hepatitis A viruses; our scientists are trying to develop a test for influenza that can quickly discriminate between the less harmful more common seasonal strains of influenza A and the highly pathogenic avian strain. This will facilitate early diagnosis and treatment, improving outcomes for infected individuals and allowing early isolation of patients to prevent further spread of the virus.
Current vaccines for influenza are given by injection and induce a poor mucosal response. An ideal vaccine would be administered intranasally or orally to strongly stimulate mucosal immunity, improving our ability to defend ourselves against infective organisms at the very sites where they invade our body. Our scientists have found that a sugar (mannan) isolated from yeast and linked to specific proteins, can induce antibodies at mucosal sites in mice when given intranasally. Further studies will use mannan complexes of the whole inactivated influenza virus to see if an antibody response can be generated in the lungs of mice. If these responses are able to protect mice from seasonal flu viruses, we will use an altered form of bird flu virus to determine if similar responses can be generated against potential pandemic causing strains.