About Us
Over the past 60 years, despite the availability of antibiotics, infectious bacterial diseases have continued to cause massive global morbidity and mortality. Currently, infectious bacterial diseases account for more than 10 million deaths each year.
The problem is growing every day due to the lack of effective vaccines, rapidly increasing rates of antibiotic resistance, the emergence of new pathogens and the re-emergence of "old" pathogens in new guises.
The RCID is committed to dealing with infectious bacterial diseases in the 21st century using a two-pronged approach involving the development of cheaper and more effective vaccines, as well as engineering novel antibacterial drugs. These challenges require a thorough understanding of the biology of disease and the complex interaction between the bacterial pathogen and its host in order to develop the next generations of vaccines and drugs.
Our Vision
We are the pre-eminent Australian Centre of Excellence in research into the pathogenesis, treatment and prevention of infectious diseases, and play a leading role in international collaborative efforts to fight these infections.
- Need
Human-induced environmental changes are also affecting geographic disease distribution, and modern travel is assisting
rapid global spread of highly resistant and virulent pathogen clones. The increasing proportion of the population with underlying conditions that increase susceptibility to infection is also affecting disease burden, with huge cost implications for both developed and developing economies.Effective management of bacterial infectious diseases in the 21st century will require a two-pronged approach involving the development of cheaper and more effective vaccines, as well as novel anti-infectives refractory to known resistance mechanisms. However, formulation of optimal therapeutic and preventative strategies demands a thorough understanding of the biology of disease, particularly the complex interactions between a given bacterial pathogen and its host.
- Mission
To enable world-leading research outcomes for the infectious disease research sector by:
- building and co-localize a critical mass of researchers with multi-disciplinary expertise, but with a common focus on bacterial infectious diseases
- generating new knowledge on bacterial pathogenic mechanisms at a leading international level
- to make a major contribution to
global management of infectious diseases by translating basic research discoveries into new and improved vaccines and novel anti-infectives - to foster the professional development of HDR students and ECRs
- raising the profile of infectious diseases in the public arena, as well as with State and Federal Governments, with a view to influencing decisions regarding resource allocation
- stimulating academic researchers to collaborate and harness multi-disciplinary capabilities to address innovation across the research landscape
- sponsoring pioneering research on ambitious
long term projects