Embargo lifted at 00:01am AEDT on Friday 18 Nov 2011

Australia is about to open the world’s most advanced biosecurity research facility, a high-security centre within CSIRO’s Australian Animal Health Laboratory in Geelong. Minister for Science Kim Carr will launch the facility on Friday 18 November but there is an opportunity for journalists to talk to the leading scientists in advance and to tour the biocontainment facility before it ‘goes live’ and is protected under the highest level of biosecurity.

The AAHL Collaborative Biosecurity Research Facility (ACBRF) is dedicated to research on infectious diseases that affect human, domestic animal and wildlife health. The internationally shared resource includes state-of-the art microscopy technology which will enable fundamental research with infectious disease agents that require the highest levels of biocontainment.

Follow the briefing online to ask questions such as:

• What sort of viruses will be studied?
• What makes this new facility so unique?
• Will this make Australia safer?
• What will Australian researchers be able to do that they couldn’t before?
• What safety measures are in place to ensure infectious diseases do not escape this facility?
• Will this facility improve our chances of finding cures for diseases such as Hendra virus, SARS etc.?
• What international collaborations are being planned?

You can follow the full briefing here.  (Full buffering may take  a few minutes).  An audio file of the briefing is also available from us on request.

SPEAKERS:

• Professor Martyn Jeggo, Director of CSIRO’s Australian Animal Health Laboratory: “Biosecurity of the Future”
• Dr Alex Hyatt, Head of the AAHL Biosecurity Microscopy Facility (ABMF): “Visualising the Invisible”
• Dr Linfa Wang, Leader of the AAHL Virology Group: “Containing the Contagion”

BRIEFING DETAILS:
DATE: Wednesday November 16, 2011
START TIME: 10am AEDT
DURATION: 45 min
VENUE:  AAHL, Geelong, Victoria

To arrange interviews with the speakers, contact: Emma Wilkins, Communications Advisor, CSIRO Livestock Industries, Australian Animal Health Laboratory (mobile: 0409 031 658 or email Emma).   Photos and broadcast quality video of the new facility are also available from CSIRO.  For any other general enquires, contact us on 08 7120 8666 or by email.

BRIEFING DETAILS:
DATE: Tue 20 Jan 09
START TIME: 10am AEDT
DURATION: 20 min
VENUE: Online

NT health authorities last week issued a warning to tourists and locals after 10 cases of melioidosis were reported this wet season, killing two people. The bacteria responsible for the disease (Burkholderia pseudomallei) lives in the soil in the tropics including northern Australia, where it can be a common cause of fatal community-acquired bacterial pneumonia.

Despite increased awareness of melioidosis being an emerging disease, not much is known about the habitat of the bacteria responsible. But now Australian researchers have found evidence that changes in land use influence the occurrence of the bacteria and that it might be spreading because of complex environmental disturbances and changed landscape ecology.

The study was published on January 20 in the open-access journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. The author of this new research presented her findings at the online briefing.

SPEAKER:

Dr Mirjam Kaestli - Research Fellow, Tropical & Emerging Infectious Diseases Division, Menzies School of Health Research, Darwin and study author

PRESENTATION:

Full Briefing (WebEx):
View here

Mirjam Kaestil’s Presentation:
Bio & Abstract (pdf) | View PowerPoint (pdf) | Listen (mp3)

Q & A Session:
Listen (mp3)

For further information, please contact the AusSMC on 08 8207 7415 or email us.