Dr Mitali Sarkar-Tyson from the School of Biomedical Sciences at The University of Western Australia received the coveted Collaboration Award at the 2020 DMTC Annual Conference.
Dr Sarkar-Tyson with CEO DMTC, Dr Mark Hodge, and special guest dinner speaker Adam Goodes (right)
Dr Sarkar-Tyson has shown an incredible work ethic and commitment to developing our sovereign industrial capability in the medical countermeasures domain over the last several years.
She is currently leading a DMTC project out of The University of Western Australia in collaboration with DST Group, the Peter Doherty Institute, the University of Wurzburg, the University of Exeter, DSTL and now Monash University. This project is developing novel anti-virulence compounds against a range of bio-warfare pathogens. In addition to the highly significant research she has conducted for this project, she has also contributed to 72 scientific research publications across the fields of antimicrobial resistance and molecular biology.
The DMTC Collaboration Award recognises an individual who embodies the spirit of collaboration, and Dr Sarkar-Tyson has truly embodied collaboration through bringing together a network of international researchers and coordinating a multi-disciplinary team that can respond to bio-threat pathogens and the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance.
The 2016 Defence White Paper was significant for a number of reasons but for Dr Felicia Pradera, Program Manager Medical Countermeasures within DST’s Land Division at Fishermans Bend it was ground-breaking. For the first time its inclusion reflected both an official acknowledgement that medical countermeasures were a critical defence requirement, and funding from the Next Generation- Technology Fund (NGTF) would be allocated to develop this national capability.
Medical countermeasures (MCM) are vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics against Chemical, Biological and Radiological (CBR) threats, emerging infectious diseases and pandemics. It has been said that a CBR threat does not care whether you are wearing a military uniform or not. Therefore MCMs have relevance to both civilian and military personnel making it a national security issue. (more…)
Whether Australia is adequately prepared for a future pandemic should be a key issue on our national agenda. Over the past few years, antimicrobial resistance has become an area of growing concern for our health security. According to the OECD, Australia is particularly vulnerable as our antibiotic usage is significantly higher than the organisation’s average.
The OECD has estimated that nearly 10% of infections in Australia are antimicrobial resistant and that an average of 290 people die each year due to multidrug-resistant bacterial infections. It forecasts that this number is likely to grow significantly in coming years. (more…)
