Annual Report 2018
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
ANNUAL REPORT 2018 PAGE 1 AITHM gratefully acknowledges the funds received from the Queensland Government, the Commonwealth Government through the Australian Research Council Special Research Initiative (ARC SRI), and the Division of Tropical Health and Medicine (DTHM) at James Cook University (JCU). This funding enables AITHM to build essential research capacity in tropical health and medicine for Australia and the region. We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which AITHM facilities operate – the Bindal and Wulgurukaba (Townsville), Yirrganydji (Cairns), Kaurareg (Thursday Island) and Yuibera (Mackay) peoples - and pay our respects to all Elders, past, present and future. AITHM | AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE OF TROPICAL HEALTH AND MEDICINE PAGE 2 PAGE 3 CONTENTS 7 12 26 About Us Our Research Our Stories A significant scientific workforce is developing in AITHM is Australia’s only dedicated tropical health and AITHM researchers work in hospitals, in communites, Northern Queensland through the efforts of AITHM medicine research institute. Our key research themes in the field, in industry and development and in and JCU, creating new jobs, and nurturing future are: Diseases of high burden in the Tropics, Tropical partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander talent. health security, and Tropical health systems. researchers. We share a selection of stories of our researchers’ discoveries and achievements throughout these diverse settings in 2018. AITHM | AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE OF TROPICAL HEALTH AND MEDICINE PAGE 4 62 72 76 Our People Our Facilities and Centres Our Governance and Finance AITHM comprises a broad range of multidisciplinary Years of planning, construction and certification came The AITHM Advisory Board oversees the progress research teams including laboratory scientists, together in 2018 when official opening ceremonies of AITHM and advises the Institute on ways that it field scientists, data analysts, clinicians and health were held for AITHM’s newest research facilities in might develop its research and business agenda. The professionals who deliver real world scientific, social Cairns and on Thursday Island in the Torres Strait. Management Advisory Committee provides advice to and economic solutions. These two new facilities add to the existing AITHM AITHM management regarding key issues pertaining facilities in Townsville, Cairns and Mackay, including to the Institute’s activities, operations, management the new facility opened in Townsville in 2016. and research program direction. PAGE 5 ASPIRATION | TO BE A GLOBAL LEADER IN TROPICAL HEALTH AND MEDICINE RESEARCH, DELIVERING POSITIVE REAL-WORLD SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC IMPACT MISSION | TO DISCOVER AND DEVELOP HEALTH SOLUTIONS - FOR THE TROPICS AND FROM THE TROPICS AITHM | AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE OF TROPICAL HEALTH AND MEDICINE PAGE 6 ABOUT US T he Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine (AITHM) is Australia’s only dedicated tropical health WHY IS TROPICAL HEALTH RESEARCH and medicine research institute, and is focussed on IMPORTANT? improving the health of people in Northern Australia It is predicted that more than 50 per cent People living in Australia’s tropical north and our neighbouring tropical nations. of the world’s population will live in the bear a distinctive health burden that The Institute’s research programs confront tropical Tropics by 2050. There are distinct health differs from their southern counter- Australia’s major health security risks, tackle its worst and medical challenges pertaining to life parts including a higher risk of infectious health outcomes and contribute to the development of in tropical regions, and demand for trop- and mosquito-borne diseases, higher better ways to deliver health services to remote com- ical health solutions will rise significantly instances of many chronic health con- munities. AITHM contributes to the development of in the coming decades. ditions, particularly in Indigenous popu- Northern Australia more broadly through building the lations, and the challenge of delivering The World Health Organisation (WHO) knowledge industry, economic activity, infrastructure health care and retaining a skilled health believes a new world infectious disease and commercialisation of research findings. workforce to serve a widely dispersed pandemic is inevitable and is likely to population across rural and remote areas. Wholly based in the Tropics, with facilities in Cairns, emerge from the Indo-Pacific region. Townsville, Mackay and Thursday Island in the Torres The porous border between Papua New AITHM believes that the people of Strait, AITHM has unprecedented access to, and con- Guinea and Northern Australia is vulner- Northern Australia and the Tropics nection with, the populations and clinicians who able and requires heightened vigilance deserve innovative health solutions and bear the burden of tropical health issues in Northern to protect people from the risk of trans- systems tailored to the distinctive health Australia. We understand the Tropics because we live mission of infectious disease. Increased care issues they face. While our princi- and work in the Tropics. air travel and movement of populations pal focus is on the health issues of the increases health security risks both for Tropics, many of the solutions we find As a flagship research institute of James Cook University Australia and for other tropical nations. have broader application and also benefit (JCU), AITHM plays a key role in the education of the Ecological disruption associated with other populations globally. next generation of health and medical researchers by deforestation and changing agricultural employing a collaborative research-driven approach to practices, especially in East and South health and medical issues, building research capacity East Asia, increases the risk of new dis- among health professionals, and training and educating eases being transmitted from wild ani- clinicians and communities in tropical health. mals into livestock and humans. ANNUAL REPORT 2018 PAGE 7 The staff, students and members of the Australian patients. Needless to say, our primary focus is on the Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine (AITHM) health of peoples living in the Tropics, whether they be DIRECTOR’S are fortunate to be able to work in medical research, in Australia or abroad. Given our own tropical location which is one of the more uplifting of human endeavors. in Northern Queensland, and the intricacies of tropical It is very satisfying to harness intellect, creativity and health and medicine, we feel a strong responsibility to MESSAGE ethics in the service of knowledge and the alleviation meet the distinctive health needs of the peoples of the of disease. Far from being dry and technical, scientific Tropics, which will be home to 50 per cent of human- research is full of human interest. The 2018 AITHM ity and 66 per cent of the world’s children within three Annual Report bears testimony to the passion, drive decades. and commitment of our workforce, and to the depth, In order to streamline our activities conceptually, we breadth and strength of our diverse national and inter- have organised AITHM’s research into three overarching national partnerships. themes in 2018. These themes are AITHM researchers work in laboratories, in hospitals, in 1. Diseases of high burden in the Tropics - dealing suburbs, in cities, in remote field sites, in communities, with all types of diseases both chronic and com- in neighbouring countries throughout the Indo-Pacific municable that are found with higher prevalence region, in industry, and in partnerships, particularly or incidence in the Tropics; in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. We work with fellow researchers, with clinicians, with 2. Tropical health security - dealing with infectious health care providers, with entrepreneurs, with philan- disease threats to the north of Australia and to the thropists, with school students, with patients, with pol- region as a whole; and iticians and with public servants. AITHM is privileged 3. Tropical health systems – focussing on strength- to have such a diversity of friends, colleagues and rela- ening health systems and health workforce, par- tionships. We have attempted to acknowledge as many ticularly in tropical, rural, remote and Indigenous Distinguished as possible in these few pages but inevitably we will fall communities. short given the scale of the network. Professor Louis Included within these abbreviated headlines is a full The main motivation of our team is to carry out research range of fascinating agendas, for example, mining our Schofield in service of health and wellbeing, but the work we do tropical reef and rainforest biota for new drugs. This also contributes to economic development through Annual Report elucidates these activities in more detail. Director, AITHM commercialisation of research outcomes and improve- ments in the efficiency of service delivery. AITHM is In yet another example of the breadth of AITHM’s resolutely fixed on the translation of our research into endeavours, our researchers continue to lead a consor- real-world outcomes, whether they be new products tium of institutions in strengthening partnerships and such as drugs, vaccines or diagnostic tests, or new workforces for our near neighbours in the Indo-Pacific, insights into health service delivery for the benefit of actively building research mentorship, workforce devel- opment and mutual learning, as well as producing inno- AITHM