Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine – Townsville (AITHM)

James Cook University

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Microscopic view of a tropical disease

The AITHM is an important health and tropical medicine research institute located across two of JCU’s campuses, in the wet and dry Tropics of northern Australia. AITHM's objective is to lead improvements in tropical health and medicine through a significant portfolio of research addressing the critical health challenges in the Tropics. AITHM is a leading tropical health and medical research institute, dedicated to solving problems of major importance to tropical Australia, South-East Asia, the Pacific and the Tropics worldwide, leading to improvements in health outcomes and health service delivery, and contributing to growing prosperity in the region.

Website
https://www.aithm.jcu.edu.au/
Organisation type
  • University research centre
Number of research staff
200-300 research staff
Address
AITHM Building 48, 1 James Cook Drive, Douglas QLD 4814

Strengths and capabilities

  • Tropical health and medicine
  • Chronic disease research
  • Re/emerging infectious disease
  • Vector biology
  • Molecular development of therapeutics
  • vaccine development
  • Genetic and epigenetic aspects of disease
  • Translational research
  • Public health systems research
  • health economics
  • Biosecurity and tropical infectious diseases Bioinformatics

Facilities and major equipment

  • Physical Containment Class 2 (PC2) laboratory
  • Physical Containment Class 3 (PC3) laboratory
  • Translational research facility
  • Clinical consulting rooms
  • Telehealth
  • Biobank facilities
  • Invertebrate facilities
  • eduQuarium
  • Class 2 approved arrangement laboratories

Lead researchers

  • Professor David Whitmore – Leading expert in circadian biology, specialising in the molecular mechanisms of biological clocks and their impact on health and disease
  • Associate Professor Andreas Kupz – Global expert in vaccine development for tuberculosis
  • Associate Professor Roslyn Hickson – Joint JCU and CSIRO Science Leader for Emerging Infectious diseases whose research broadly focuses on informing policy and practice through applied mathematical modelling.

Achievements of the centre

  • AITHM researchers lead in several multi-million dollar regional and global vector-borne diseases initiatives, including an International Centre of Excellence in Malaria Research (ICEMR), an Australian Centre of Research Excellence in Malaria Elimination (ACREME), Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Product Development Partnerships and Partnerships for a Healthy Region.
  • AITHM’s leading contributions to long-term investments have enabled major regional and global guideline and policy changes related to vector-borne diseases control.
  • Professor Alex Loukas was awarded a level 3 NHMRC Investigator grant and founded the biotech start-up company, Macrobiome Therapeutics which is developing next-generation biologics for treating inflammatory bowel disease.

Key science sectors

More information about the sectors this centre is involved in:

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