Annual Report 2017 2 Message from the Management Committee
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KIRBY INSTITUTE Annual Report 2017 2 Message from the Management Committee 3 Message from our Patron 4 Remembering our Director 8 Tributes overflow: Celebrating the life and work of Professor David Cooper AC 10 Global research leaders gather to honour David Cooper’s legacy 12 2017 in review 14 Kirby at a glance 16 Investing in global partnerships: The Myanmar-Australia Research Collaboration for Health (MARCH) 18 Scaling up a cure: Can we eliminate hepatitis C in people living with HIV? 20 Challenging stigma with evidence: Informing international guidelines on undetectable viral load and HIV transmission 22 Working together to improve Indigenous health 24 At the centre of a clinical trial: Meet the hardworking people who coordinate our world-leading clinical research 28 Research highlights 34 We are Kirby 38 Achievements and awards 40 2017 Memorable moments 44 2017 Funding The Kirby Institute is a leading global research institute dedicated to the prevention, treatment and Kirby Institute staff and students Sophia Amjad, Eithandee Aung, cure of infectious diseases. Steven Philpot, and Ian Wong. MESSAGE MESSAGE FROM OUR PATRON FROM THE MANAGEMENT The Hon. Michael Kirby AC CMG COMMITTEE The opening words in the Kirby Institute This annual report for the year 2017 must of an Australian scientist who had really • Researchers of the Kirby Institute Annual Report would normally come from start with the great blow that was suffered mattered in the epidemiology of AIDS. conducted the first evaluation of a the Director. However, we have been by the Kirby Institute in the early weeks It was a painful time. point of care hepatitis C test, to detect without a Director since March 2018, when of 2018. Institutes and human beings any active infection from a finger stick our dear colleague and friend Professor are tested in times of challenge. The year Yet, we have got through those hard days. sample of blood; David Cooper passed away after a short 2017, and its immediate aftermath, have The Kirby Institute kept doing what it is best illness. It is therefore with both sadness been such times. at. And what David Cooper demanded of • A research collaboration between the and respect that, on behalf of the whole it. It kept working with professional skill on Kirby Institute and medical scientists in Kirby Institute, the interim Management The death of the inaugural Director of the the problems of infection and immunity. Myanmar promoted a new emphasis Committee introduces the 2017 annual Institute, Professor David Cooper AC, was This was what the professionalism of the on the work against HIV, tuberculosis report and dedicates it to David’s memory. a huge blow. It was larger because of the Institute’s staff demanded. It is what David and malaria in that country. Others fact that David Cooper had been present at Cooper would have expected. Equally have followed; and David was the inaugural Director of the the creation. He helped steer the Institute important, it was what discipline and national research centre formed in 1986 during frightening, dangerous and dedication for the patients and the • The Kirby Institute’s “Opposites Attract” that ultimately became the Kirby Institute, uncertain times of blood borne diseases, tasks in hand demanded. Without delay, study affirmed that HIV positive men, so is the only Director we have known. and especially HIV, in Australia and a management committee was formed. conforming to ART treatment, do not Under his leadership, we grew from worldwide. To have at the helm a person It comprised the scientific leaders of transmit HIV to their sexual partners. an organisation with a handful of staff who was not only a brilliant and creative the Kirby Institute whom we had seen responding to the emerging HIV crisis, into scientist but also a passionate physician, honoured and respected by colleagues These achievements of 2017 were soon a globally renowned research institute of a natural leader and a kind and creative from around the world. A search was to be recognised in the following year by over 300. We have fulfilled David’s vision of man, meant that his death was a shock. promptly initiated to find our new Director. outstanding funding awards to the Kirby working at the forefront of discovery and It was unexpected. It followed closely the The new Director will, we are sure, come Institute personnel in 2018. These awards innovation in a range of globally important happy celebration of the Institute’s 30th with new ideas and fresh energy. This is will be listed with pride in the next Annual infectious diseases, including HIV, viral anniversary year. the way of the world. In striving for this Report. But they can be heralded here hepatitis and sexually transmissible goal, the Kirby Institute and UNSW Sydney as an indication that a corner has been infections. We have maintained his The year 2017 opened with praise heaped are jointly dedicated. turned. The innovative work of the Kirby principles of maintaining research upon us and the provision of renewed Institute goes on with renewed zeal. excellence while working through close funding; and great expectations of Many research and other achievements of Times of loss and mourning are now partnerships with affected communities, important new challenges and adventures 2017 can be remembered and celebrated: behind us. The greatest legacy of David policy makers, and a wide range of with applied and pure science. It was Cooper will be the ongoing and increasing researchers nationally and internationally. towards the end of the year that Professor • The Lord Mayor of Sydney (Councillor success of the Kirby Institute: undaunted, Cooper fell ill. We all expected him to Clover Moore) presented the Kirby strong, resilient. We are proud to present this report of our revive. With such a charismatic figure, we Institute with the Key to the City of work, a testament to David’s vision and expected him soon to be back at his desk Sydney: the highest honour that could principles. and in the laboratory. Then on 18 March be conferred on an individual or 2018 came the news of his death. organisation; I pay a tribute to the courage and strength • A report in the Medical Journal of Kirby Institute Management of David’s wife, Dorrie and his daughters Australia showed a marked drop Committee, on behalf of the entire Becky and Ilana. We held their hands. in genital warts amongst young Kirby Institute team As they held ours. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander citizens, an area that has had the The huge space of the Sydney Town Hall special attention of the Kirby Institute; was filled with scientists and citizens from Australia and overseas on 14 June • The Institute’s research stimulated the 2018. At the World AIDS Conference in provision of new and more effective Amsterdam that quickly followed, I was HIV treatment through the United invited to speak to the global community States PEPFAR Program; 4 KIRBY INSTITUTE ANNUAL REPORT 2017 KIRBY INSTITUTE ANNUAL REPORT 2017 5 REMEMBERING OUR DIRECTOR David Cooper 1949 – 2018 The Kirby Institute’s founder and director, David, with the support of colleagues, enrolled Scientia Professor David Cooper AC, passed a number of young men who were patients at away on Sunday 18 March 2018 after a short local general practices into one of Australia’s illness. David was one of Australia’s most first clinical HIV research studies. The results, distinguished academic leaders and was published in The Lancet in 1985, led to the first internationally renowned, initiating ground- description anywhere in the world of the so- breaking, collaborative infectious disease called “seroconversion illness,” which defines research that has saved countless lives in initial HIV infection in many people. Australia, and throughout the world. He was among the first responders when the HIV With the HIV/AIDS epidemic in full force, in epidemic reached Australia in the early 1980s 1986 the Australian Government, through the and established Australia’s ongoing global National Health and Medical Research Council, leadership in the fight against the global HIV funded the establishment of the National epidemic. To this end, he was the inaugural Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical director of the research centre founded in Research (which became the Kirby Institute) 1986 that grew to become the Kirby Institute. to undertake research to inform Australia’s response to the virus, and appointed David Having completed his doctorate at St Vincent’s its Director. At the same time, as a young Hospital in Sydney through UNSW, David was physician, he was serving as Director of the working at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute recently established St Vincent’s AIDS Unit. in Boston in the early 1980s, when blood He spoke often about the effects of ignorance samples started arriving from New York for and stigma on his patients, with some staff testing. The blood was from very ill gay men refusing to take food trays into their rooms. and showed signs of the devastation that the His approach, embraced by the Sisters of HIV virus, then unknown to the world, was Charity, the religious order which ran St able to cause to the body’s immune defences. Vincent’s Hospital, was that every patient deserved dignity, care and compassion, In an interview on ABC Radio National in and that none would be turned away. 2015, David said: “I thought, I know where St Vincent’s is. If the key risk groups are the same From the earliest days, David understood [in Australia], which I’m sure they are, then that rigorous research would be required to we were going to be seeing it at St Vincent’s.” discover the treatments needed to stop HIV in Sure enough, on his return to Sydney, David its tracks and prevent its destructive effects.