Keynote Speaker and Christmas Orator

Professor Mark Nicol

“New insights into the role of bacterial-viral interactions in the pathogenesis of respiratory infections”

Professor Hayley Newton

Monash University

Professor Hayley Newton is a cellular microbiologist with a keen interest in understanding the ways in which intracellular bacterial pathogens can manipulate their human host cells. She has worked with a range of bacterial pathogens, but her main research impact has come from studies into the zoonotic pathogen Coxiella burnetii. As a pathogen of both humans and animals, C. burnetii, remains an important example of the need for a one health approach for research into human health and disease.

After completing her PhD studying Legionella pneumophila at Monash University, Hayley was awarded a NHMRC Training Fellowship undertake postdoctoral research at Yale University. Here she developed pioneering techniques to genetically manipulate C. burnetii and discovered key virulence factors of this poorly understood human pathogen. These findings have led to a significant shift in our understanding of this mysterious intracellular pathogen. Hayley moved to the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Melbourne, at the Peter Doherty Institute in 2013 where she established her independent research program and a substantial teaching portfolio. In 2022, Hayley was recruited to the Infection Program, Department of Microbiology and Biomedicine Discovery Institute, at Monash University. She is the Deputy Head of the Department of Microbiology and is the Vice President for Scientific Affairs for the Australian Society for Microbiology.

Hayley will be presenting: “Bacterial masters of human cell biology” at WAMM