Infectious Diseases

Infectious diseases represent one of the most important challenges facing medical research. Many current control measures depend on drugs, which are threatened by the spread of resistant organisms.

Scientists at QIMR aim to develop control measures for diseases carried by mosquitoes and caused by parasites and viruses. Supporting these developments is an integrated program in basic biology, immunology and molecular biology of the disease causing organisms, the animals that spread the disease as well as the development of vaccines and field biology to elucidate the ecology of infectious diseases.

T cells play a key role in the body’s defense against invading viruses by killing infected cells and other intracellular organisms, thereby limiting the spread of virus to other cells in the body. Antibodies are crucial in combatting many extrancellular infections. The focus of research at QIMR is to determine the mechanisms of immunity and the body’s response to a range of infectious diseases: