Viruses & infectious diseases: Prof Edward Holmes public lecture
Presented by Professor Edward Holmes, Fellow UK Royal Society, ARC Australian Laureate Fellow
Professor Holmes, who holds joint positions in the University of Sydney’s Charles Perkins Centre, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, and Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity, Sydney Medical School, is a world leader in the area of virus evolution.
His research focuses on the emergence of novel infectious diseases, including those that pose a threat to Australia, and the mechanisms by which pathogens species to cause epidemics.
In this Sydney Science Forum (free public lecture) on Wednesday 12 September 2018, Prof Holmes will uncover the amazing world of viruses, consider why people don’t get sick from most viruses in the environment, and discuss the origin and cause of tick-borne disease in Australia. It will include a brief overview of the centenary since the 1918 influenza pandemic and touch on the last death because of smallpox in 1978.
Prof Holmes won last year’s NSW Premier’s Prize, biological sciences category, in recognition of his pioneering use of phylogenetic methods – studying the origin and evolution of viruses – which has greatly improved our ability to predict and control infectious diseases.
Recent high-impact work has included:
- Almost 1500 viruses uncovered in invertebrates, revealing that we have only scratched the surface of the world of viruses, published in Nature.
- Ancient origin of viruses found to date back to the first vertebrates including fish, published in, Nature.
- Oldest sample of variola virus casts shows smallpox could be hundreds, not thousands of years old. Media release about paper in Current Biology.
- The rare disease tularemia, thought to be non-existent in Australia, discovered in ringtail possums in Sydney. Media release about Prof Holmes’s supervisory research as corresponding author of this paper in Emerging Infectious Diseases.
Some recent media:
- Bumper load of new viruses identified BBC 24 November 2016
- Roots of modern viruses can be traced to the earliest vertebrates UPI 4 April 2018
- A mummified child’s remains show signs of a modern scourge New York Times 5 January 2018
Read about one of Prof Holmes’s PhD students researching ticks and diseases
Professor Holmes has spent more than 25 years researching how pathogens, such as avian influenza and HIV, emerge and spread. He has produced more than 525 peer-reviewed papers and two highly-regarded books, which have more than 53,000 citations and a h-index of 122.