Professor Heidi Drummer

Scientific Director for Research Translation; Scientific Director, Burnet Diagnostics Initiative; Principal Investigator, Burnet Vaccine Initiative; Co-Head, Viral Entry and Vaccines Group

Taking students

Working groups

heidi.drummer@burnet.edu.au

Background

Professor Heidi Drummer is Scientific Director for Research Translation and co-Head of the Viral Entry and Vaccines research group at Burnet Institute. In 2021, she was appointed as Scientific Director of the Burnet Diagnostics Initiative, a new Burnet Initiative to progress diagnostics through to human health solutions. She also leads the Hepatitis C Vaccine development stream of the Burnet Vaccine Initiative.

Heidi is an inventor on numerous granted patents and is internationally recognised as a leader in viral glycoprotein structure and function. She has developed multiple point of care diagnostic assays to measure immunity to COVID-19 and established clinical studies to examine immune response generated by SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. Heidi has extensive experience in industry engagement and commercialisation of diagnostic assays and the translation of vaccines through pre-clinical studies into clinical trials.

Qualifications

1989: BSc (Hons), University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
1993: PhD, University of Melbourne, Australia

Appointments

2024–present: Scientific Director for Research Translation
2021–present: Scientific Director, Burnet Diagnostics Initiative (BDI)
2017–2024: Program Director, Disease Elimination, Burnet Institute
2014: Deputy Head, Centre for Biomedical Research, Burnet Institute
2010: Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Microbiology, Monash University, Victoria, Australia
2009: Honorary Senior Lecturer, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
2008: Burnet Institute Principal Fellow, Victoria, Australia
2005: Co-Head Viral Fusion Laboratory-HCV studies, Macfarlane Burnet Institute for Medical Research and Public Health Ltd.

Awards

2009: Gust McKenzie Award
1990: Australian Postgraduate Research Award

Positions

2009: Member of the Burnet Institute PhD Committee, Victoria, Australia
2009: Burnet Institute Honours program coordinator (co-Associate Professor Paul Gorry), Australia
2008: Elected Treasurer Australian Centre for Hepatitis Virology
2001: Principal Investigator, Australian Centre for Hepatitis and HIV Virology Research

Reports + Policy Briefs

2021 (5)

COVID-19 Global Trends and Analyses Volume 2:- Vaccine and Viral Variants Update. (PUBLIC HEALTH REPORT)Toole M, Drummer H, Tachedjian G, Umali S, Majumdar S. Know-C19 Public Health Report. July, 2021.
COVID-19 Global Trends and Analyses, Volume 2: Vaccines and Viral Variants Update June (PUBLIC HEALTH REPORT) Toole M, Drummer H, Tachedjian G, Umali S, Majumdar S. Know-C19 Public Health Report. July, 2021.
COVID-19 Global Trends and Analyses Volume 2:- Vaccine and Viral Variants Update. May. (PUBLIC HEALTH REPORT) Toole M, Drummer H, Tachedjian G, Umali S, Majumdar S. Know-C19 Burnet Institute. May, 2021.
COVID-19 Global Trends and Analyses Volume 2:- Vaccine and Viral Variants Update. April. (PUBLIC HEALTH REPORT) Toole M, Drummer H, Tachedjian G, Umali S, Majumdar S. Know-C19 Burnet Institute. April, 2021.
COVID-19 Global Trends and Analyses Volume 2:- Vaccine and Viral Variants Update - COVID-19 Global Snapshots. (PUBLIC HEALTH REPORT) Toole M, Drummer H, Tachedjian G, Umali S, Majumdar S. Know-C19 Burnet Institute. March, 2021.

2020 (1)

The most promising vaccines for COVID-19. (Updated 17.6.2020) Cunningham A, Chappell K, Copolov D, Crabb B, Cuthbertson A, Doherty P, Drummer H, Foley C, Godfrey D, Halton J, Kelleher A , Majumdar S, McDonald C, Munro T, Purcell D, Young P. Rapid Research Information Forum - Australian Academy of Sciences. May, 2020.

Burnet publications

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25 Apr 2025

Twelfth scientific biennial meeting of the Australasian Virology Society: AVS12 2024

Journal of Virology

Robson Kriiger Loterio, Heidi E. Drummer, Gilda Tachedjian, Johanna E. Fraser

19 Dec 2024

Induction of Fc-dependent functional antibodies against different variants of SARS-CoV-2 varies by vaccine type and prior infection

Communications Medicine

Alexander W. Harris, Liriye Kurtovic, D. Herbert Opi, Bruce D. Wines, P. Mark Hogarth, Pantelis Poumbourios, Heidi E. Drummer, James G. Beeson

01 Sep 2024

Utilising integrated bio-behavioural surveillance (IBBS) to investigate declining hepatitis C antibody prevalence among people who inject drugs in the Australian Needle and Syringe Program Survey

International Journal of Drug Policy

Lisa Maher, Heidi E. Drummer, Margaret Hellard

Current projects

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Open to students

Causes of chronic illness: identifying risk factors and biomarkers of post-acute infection syndromes

We're researching chronic post-acute infection syndromes, such as long COVID, chronic fatigue and POTS.

Open to students

Development of a novel antibody for treatment and prevention of respiratory disease

We’re developing a novel class of antibody and delivery technologies to provide enhanced protection and therapeutic performance for coronaviruses and other respiratory infections.

Profiling immune responses in paediatric and high-risk populations to the COVID-19 virus (PROPHECY)

This study will evaluate immune responses after COVID-19 infection or vaccination in healthy and vulnerable people.

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Past projects

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Novel Point-of-care Testing for Diagnosis of Active Syphilis in Pregnant Women and Infants in Fiji

Congenital syphilis (CS), caused by mother-to-child transmission of spirochete bacterium Treponema Pallidum (TP), is a major global health problem associated with substantial morbidity and mortality in children. Without adequate treatment CS causes significant developmental, neurological and musculoskeletal disability in children, and many infected infants will die within the first year of life. In 2016, estimated global incidence for CS was 473 (385-561) cases per 100,000 live births with a total of 661,000 (538,000-784,000) cases, including 355,000 (290,000-419,000) adverse birth outcomes (143,000 stillbirths; 61,000 neonatal deaths; 41,000 preterm/low- birth weight births; and 109,000 infants with clinical CS). Treatment of syphilis is simple, effective and inexpensive; however, definitive diagnosis of active syphilis requires confirmatory testing which requires laboratory facilities, and not always available in many low-resource settings in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). In 40 of the 81 LMICs which account for more than 95 per cent maternal deaths and more than 90 per cent of deaths in children under five years old, 74 per cent of pregnant women who had at least four antenatal care visits were not tested for syphilis. A combination of treponemal and non-treponemal tests is required for diagnosis of active syphilis but there is no point-of-care test (POCT) that can effectively distinguish between past/treated and active syphilis. There is no POCT for diagnosis of CS available on the market.

Social Networks and the Hepatitis C Virus

This project found that people who'd cleared an hepatitis C infection were more likely to acquire a second virus than those who had never been infected.