Clinical Tropical Medicine

Senior Scientist

Professor James McCarthy

Summary

The Clinical Tropical Medicine Laboratory investigates how parasites such as the malaria parasite, hookworm, threadworm and scabies cause disease and how they become resistant to drugs used to treat them. The group also identifies new drugs and drug targets, and develops novel diagnostic techniques.

The focus of this Laboratory is to apply modern techniques in microbiology, molecular biology and immunology to study clinical problems associated with infectious diseases in tropical environments.

A particular interest in this laboratory is the study of drug resistance in a range of parasites, and the development of novel diagnostic techniques.

Conditions researched

• Malaria
• Scabies
• Intestinal worms, including hookworm and strongyloides

Current research 

• Using experimental human malaria infection to improve the understanding of the pathogenesis of malaria and to develop new diagnostics, drugs and vaccines.
• Improving the diagnosis and treatment of scabies and intestinal helminth infections.
• Clinical trials of new drugs and vaccines for infectious diseases.

Staff

Senior Scientist: Professor James McCarthy

Postdoctoral staff: Dr Cielo Pasay, Dr Kate Mounsey

PhD students: Chiuan Herng Leow, Bridget Appleyard

Honours students: Melanie Rampton

Research Assistant: Mei-Fong Ho

Research Fellow: Dr Michelle Wykes

Visiting Fellow: Professor Michael Good

Funding

We gratefully acknowledge support from the following organisations and funding bodies:

• UNDP/Worldbank/WHO Special Program for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases
• National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia
• Australian Research Council
• Australian Centre for International and Tropical Health and Nutrition (ACITHN)
• Queensland Health Smart State Initiative
• Medicines for Malaria Venture
• Foundation of Innovative Diagnostics
• Malaria Vaccine Institute

Collaborators

Dr Kathy Andrews, Tropical Parasitology, QIMR

Dr Katja Fisher, Scabies Laboratory, QIMR

Dr Christian Engwerda, Immunology and Infection, QIMR

Associate Professors Don Gardiner, Katharine Trenholme and Dr Tina Skinner Adams, Malaria Biology, QIMR

Dr Deborah Holt and Professor Bart Currie, Menzies School of Health Research, Darwin

Associate Professor Shelley Walton, University of the Sunshine Coast

Dr Stewart Burgess and Dr John Huntley, Moredun Research Institute, Edinburgh

Professor Roger Prichard, McGill University, Montreal

Dr Andrew Kotze, CSIRO, St Lucia, Brisbane

Dr Steven Barker and Professor Jim Rothwell, The University of Queensland

Dr Qin Cheng, Army Malaria Research Institute and QIMR

Professor Alex Loukas, JCU

Professors Nick Anstey and Ric Price Menzies School of Health Research, Darwin

Dr larry Arlian, Wayne State University Ohio

Dr Katleen Braet, Mater Medical Research