Project details

We are undertaking large field trials evaluating the impacts of iron interventions and malaria prevention on child development and growth in sub-Saharan Africa. This project will leverage these trials to establish whether the interventions change immunologic outcomes including, for example, responses to vaccines. The student may deploy techniques such as RNA-sequencing, flow cytometry, CyTOF, Olink, antibody arrays and other cutting-edge tools. These technologies enable deep profiling of an individual immunologic phenotype using biobanked samples.

The student will become a fully integrated member of the research team and be expected to drive the design and experimental implementation of their project, as well as to contribute to operations of the randomised controlled trials. The student may also have an opportunity to visit the field sites to learn from and collaborate with local scientists and conduct data. The student will be supported by members of the laboratory with varied skills including in immunology, molecular biology, epidemiology and biostatistics.

About our research group

We are a multidisciplinary laboratory comprising experts in skills spanning experimental biology, epidemiology and biostatistics, and clinical medicine. Our lab seeks to discover new therapies to prevent and treat anaemia by making fundamental discoveries into how the body regulates its iron stores. We also undertake field studies in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia (e.g. Pasricha et al New Engl J Med 2021) to test new solutions and influence policy to address anaemia in babies and pregnant mothers.

We apply a range of cutting-edge techniques to samples from these field trials – for example, RNA-Seq (Hayman et al Nutrients 2021), microbiome analyses and immunologic approaches such as CyTOF, flow cytometry and related techniques. We collaborate with researchers across WEHI (e.g. genomics and genetics, imaging, epigenetics and development, bioinformatics) as well as at the University of Melbourne (e.g. Doherty Institute, School of Population and Global Health), and with partners at the International Center for Diarrhoeal Diseases Research, Bangladesh and the Kamuzu University of Health Sciences, Malawi.