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Collaborations outside the Doherty Institute
We collaborate widely with research groups in the Parkville precinct and beyond, including the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (Melbourne), Menzies School of Health Research (Darwin), and the Telethon Kids Institute (Perth). With all of these partners we are engaged in a program of clinical, laboratory and public health research to inform healthy skin programs in remote Northern Australian communities. This work aligns with international collaborative efforts to reduce throat, skin infections and invasive bacterial infections due to Group A Streptococcus (Strep A), with associated sequelae of rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease.
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Epidemiology projects
Core activities include contributions to State and Commonwealth Department of Health funded programs of research on influenza, undertaken within the WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza. We are engaged in responsive research partnerships with the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to investigate drivers of seasonal epidemic diseases such as Ross River Virus and other arboviruses; and recent changes in the geographic distribution of Buruli ulcer. These latter projects are informed by an interdisciplinary ‘One Health’ approach that recognises the importance of understanding interactions between humans, animals and the environment.
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Work with Centres of Research Excellence (CREs)
We are leaders and partners in nationally distributed Centres of Research Excellence funded by the NHMRC, including the Australian Partnership for Preparedness Research on Infectious Diseases Emergencies (APPRISE), the Australian Centre for Research Excellence in Malaria Elimination (ACREME), and Policy Relevant Infectious Disease Simulation and Mathematical Modelling (PRISM2). These Centres engage closely with the Sydney led Centre of Research Excellence in Emerging Infectious Diseases (CREID) and the Darwin based consortium focused on Improving Health Outcomes in the Tropical North (Hot North)
Professor Jodie McVernon
(03) 8344 0633 | j.mcvernon@unimelb.edu.au
- Position:
- Professor and Director of Doherty Epidemiology
- Theme(s):
- Viral Infectious Diseases, Antimicrobial Resistance, Emerging Infections
- Discipline(s):
- Indigenous Health, Public Health
- Unit(s):
- Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory (VIDRL)
- Lab Group(s):
- McVernon Group
Professor Jodie McVernon is the Director of Doherty Epidemiology and a lead for the Public Health cross-cutting discipline at the Doherty Institute. She is a physician with subspecialty qualifications in public health and vaccinology. She has extensive expertise in clinical vaccine trials, epidemiologic studies and mathematical modelling of infectious diseases, gained at the University of Oxford, Health Protection Agency London and The University of Melbourne. Her work focuses on the application of a range of cross-disciplinary methodological approaches including mathematical and computational models, to synthesise insights from basic biology, epidemiological data and sociological research. These models advance understanding of the observed epidemiology of infectious diseases and inform understanding of optimal interventions for disease control.