We develop affordable and feasible tools to improve women’s and girls’ sexual and reproductive health, particularly in resource-limited settings.
The focus of our work is to understand risk factors for sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, and adverse birth outcomes in women and girls. We aim to use this knowledge in developing affordable and feasible tools that improve women’s and girls’ sexual and reproductive health, particularly in resource-limited settings.
We work with communities to conduct clinical studies that collect socio-demographic and health data. We also collect clinical samples to study the vaginal microbiome by:
We investigate immune profiles by measuring inflammatory proteins (proteomics, luminex, ELISA) and HIV target cell populations (flow cytometry).
Using this data, we work with machine learning to discover biomarkers of different conditions for low-cost point-of-care test development. These biomarkers include vaginal inflammation, bacterial vaginosis and spontaneous preterm birth.
An investigation of the effects of long-acting contraceptives on the female genital tract.
We’re developing a diagnostic test for genital inflammation to identify women with asymptomatic sexually transmitted infections and bacterial vaginosis.
This project uses metaproteomics data to describe the microbial activities and properties that drive genital inflammation, reduce epithelial barrier integrity and increase HIV infection risk.
Dr Lindi Masson and Professor Josh Vogel have been announced as winners of two of Burnet’s most prestigious awards.
A Burnet project targeting bacterial vaginosis has been awarded a grant from the Victorian Government’s Victorian Medical Research Acceleration Fund (VMRAF).