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

20-100 research staff

Address

AITHM, Building E5, 1/14-88 McGregor Road, Smithfield QLD 4878

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 Alex Loukas – Internationally regarded immunoparasitologist, specialising in mining secretomes of parasitic helminths for development of immunotherapeutics, vaccines and diagnostics.
• Professor Jamie Seymour – International significant researcher into medical and ecological aspects on marine envenomation, and novel compounds from venoms.
• Professor Norelle Daly – Internationally recognised structural biologist, specialising in disulfide-rich peptides with therapeutic applications.
• Associate Professor Stephan Karl – Internationally recognised tropical infectious diseases researcher with extensive experience in malaria, lymphatic filariasis, arboviral diseases, schistosomiasis, and vector surveillance and control, leading several high-impact international programs.
• Dr. Roland Ruscher – NHMRC Emerging Leader Fellow, Head of the Mucosal Immunology group with a focus on intestinal immunity and translational models.

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 these 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:

• Biotechnology
• Defence, aviation and space
• Environment and nature
• Health and medical
• Social sciences
• Tropical