
There's treasure in Burnet's Shark Tank
Congratulations to the winners of Burnet’s 2025 Shark Tank grants to support early conceptual work by early career staff and students.
The Burnet Shark Tank grants are designed to support a scoping exercise, literature review, symposium, technical training, or a workshop to bring people together or to further develop or explore an idea or advance an area of expertise in a cutting edge-technique.
Applicants are required to write a 300-word abstract then pitch their idea in a 3-minute presentation to an Institute-wide seminar.
Pitches were ranked by a panel representing all programs and disciplines, with one grant awarded by a ‘People’s Choice’ vote.
This year’s Shark Tank grants worth $5,000 each have been awarded to:
- Aimee Altermatt, Research Assistant, Modelling and Biostatistics
- Alysha Literski, PhD student, Malaria Virulence, Drug Discovery and Resistance
- David Wang, Research Assistant, HIV and Sexually Transmitted Infection Prevention
- Sophia Schroeder, Senior Research Officer, Justice Health; Alcohol and Other Drugs; Infectious Diseases Implementation Science
- Stephanie Routley, Research Office; Arbovirology; Vector-borne Diseases and Tropical Public Health
Aimee Altermatt: Data viz whizzes
This work is about upskilling Burnet staff and students to improve our data visualisation skills. Effective data visualisation is key to communicating our work to a broader audience and this project will amplify the reach and impact of Burnet's work through increased visual communication skills. The project aims to create a group of experts, ‘data viz whizzes’, who will attend a workshop funded by the grant to have their skills elevated to an expert level. My vision for this project is for everyone at Burnet to learn something new and to understand how they can apply visual principles to their presentations to more effectively communicate their work.
Alysha Literski: Flower power for the immune system: a new way to study disease
Antibodies are essential for preventing disease. Traditional antibodies have two arms that bind to targets and help activate the immune system. The Hogarth group has developed Stellabody technology, which enables the clustering of six individual antibodies to form a super antibody with twelve binding arms. Stellabody antibodies have demonstrated increased recruitment of the immune system. We propose the interdisciplinary use of Stellabody antibodies across diverse biological contexts already explored at Burnet, for example, as a novel tool in malaria vaccine research. This technology could help us better understand how malaria parasites respond to vaccine-relevant antibodies, aiding in the development of effective new therapeutics.
David Wang: Engaging sex worker communities in the preparation for syphilis self-testing (People’s Choice Award)
Our project was designed to engage with staff, volunteers, and sex workers from Victorian-based sex worker organisations to understand the needs, values and preferences of Victorian sex workers related to STI testing and care, including new models of STI testing such as syphilis self-testing.
Sophia Schroeder: Point-of-Care, Peer-Led, and People-Centred: Sexual Health Care Innovations for People with Living Experience of Drug Use
Rates of sexually transmitted infections are rising in Australia, and people who use drugs — particularly women — face some of the highest risks and greatest barriers to care. This community-based research project will work with peers and community organisations to better understand how to deliver sexual health services that are welcoming, gender-responsive and trusted by people who use drugs.
Stephanie Routley: Mozzie Mayhem: strengthening laboratory tools for emerging viruses
Mosquito-borne diseases are on the rise as climate change influences where mosquitoes can live, breed, and transmit disease. We are interested in the mosquito species Culex annulirostris that transmits Ross River and Japanese Encephalitis viruses in Australia and the West Pacific region. To learn how to prevent disease transmission, we need to have mosquito cells from this species. Establishing this cell line would be a unique resource for examining virus-host interactions and developing interventions for regionally relevant mosquito-borne viruses.
Thank you to everyone who pitched at Shark Tank this year and creating a fun, insightful and engaging event!






