Amsterdam, New Orleans and Madrid are among the destinations of choice for winners of Burnet Institute 2018 Travel Awards, announced by Burnet Director and CEO Professor Brendan Crabb AC.

The Pauline Speedy Biomedical Research Travel Award will give Tachedjian Laboratory PhD student David Delgado Diaz the opportunity to attend his first international conference – HIV Research for Prevention (HIVR4P) in Madrid, in October.

“It’s the most important conference that’s relevant to my work, which is HIV prevention, so I’m really excited, obviously,” Mr Delgado Diaz said.

“I will get the chance to meet all these well known researchers, people that I read about, people whose papers I read.

“To broaden your network and meet all these people who could potentially help in my career is one of the most important reasons for attending big conferences, so it’s a wonderful opportunity.”

A research assistant for the ACCESS (Australian Collaboration for Coordinated Enhanced Sentinel Surveillance of STIs and BBVs) project, Michael Traeger is using his Hon Geoffrey Connard Travel Fellowship to attend the 22nd International AIDS Conference, IAS 2018, in Amsterdam in July.

Image: Burnet Institute 2018 Travel and Publication Award winners

He’ll be presenting research on the incidence of sexually transmitted infections among participants in the PrEPX study into the impact of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis in Victoria.

“It’s the first conference that I’ve ever submitted work to, so it’s an awesome opportunity, especially at this early stage of my career – I’ve only been working in the field for six months,” Mr Traeger said.

Recently awarded the Jim and Margaret Beever Fellowship for 2018, malaria scientist Dr Jo-Anne Chan followed up with the Dorothy Vida Martin Postdoctoral Fellowship, a new award open to female postdoc fellows studying in any field of research.

Fellow malaria researcher Leanna Surrao will devote her Dorothy Vida Martin Postgraduate Fellowship to attending the 2018 Conference of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in New Orleans, USA, in October.

There were two winners of the Harold Mitchell Foundation Postgraduate Fellowship; Dr Josh Hayward – whose work involves analyses of the microbiome in the female reproductive tract and identification of novel retroviruses in Australian mammals – and Dr Cassandra Wright, whose research is focused on young people’s health and risk behaviours.

The Crockett-Murphy Award, open to support national staff in Burnet’s programs overseas to travel to a conference or other event, went to Dr Win Lei Yee for her abstract Implementation lessons of integrating early infant diagnosis of HIV at point of care using Xpert.

Dorothy Vida Martin Postgraduate Fellowship winner Leanna Surrao

Other Burnet Travel Award winners were:

Harold Mitchell Foundation Post-Graduate Fellowship: Liriye Kurtovic

Miller Foundation Public Health Travel Award: Dr Tafireyi Marukutira

Miller Foundation Biomedical Research Travel Award: Joey McGregor

Crofts Public Health Publication Award: Host immunity to Plasmodium falciparum and the assessment of emerging artemisinin resistance in a multinational cohort. Ataide R, Ashley EA, Powell R, Chan JA, Malloy MJ, O'Flaherty K, Takashima E, Langer C, Tsuboi T, Dondorp AM, Day NP, Dhorda M, Fairhurst RM, Lim P, Amaratunga C, Pukrittayakamee S, Hien TT, Htut Y, Mayxay M, Faiz MA, Beeson JG, Nosten F, Simpson JA, White NJ, Fowkes FJ
PNAS. 2017 Mar; 114(13):3515-3520

Biomedical Research Publication Award: The core domain of hepatitis C virus glycoprotein E2 generates potent cross-neutralizing antibodies. Vietheer P, Boo I, Gu J, McCaffrey K, Edwards S, Owczarek C, Hardy MP, Fabri L, Center RJ, Poumbourios P, Drummer HE
Hepatol. 2017 Jan; Epub ahead of print

An optimized hepatitis C virus E2 glycoprotein core adopts a functional homodimer that efficiently blocks virus entry. McCaffrey K, Boo I, Owczarek CM, Hardy MP, Perugini MA, Fabri L, Scotney P, Poumbourios P, Drummer HE
J Virol. 2017 Feb; 91(5):e01668