I am an NHMRC Senior Research Fellow and a Research Group Leader at the Hudson Institute. After completing my PhD at the University of NSW in 1990, I moved to the Institut Pasteur (Paris) where I worked as postdoctoral fellow (1990-1994) and later as a tenured research scientist (1994-2004). In 2004, I returned to Australia to a teaching/research appointment in the Department of Microbiology, Monash University. I was subsequently recruited by the Hudson Institute in 2009.

My main research interests span the fields of Helicobacter pylori, NOD-like receptor proteins and bacterial membrane vesicles. My research has translated to important outcomes in H. pylori antibiotic resistance, pathogenesis, vaccine development and innate immunology. This research has been published in over 100 works in books and peer-review journals, including Cell Host Microb., Gastroenterol., Immunity, mBio, PNAS USA, Nat Immunol. and Nat Rev Immunol. My publications in peer-review journals have an average citation number of 58, with 27 of these publications having > 100 citations. My H-index is 43.

I have collaborated with and/or consulted for vaccine (Aventis Pasteur Vaccins, Acambis Inc, Ondek Pty Ltd) and pharmaceutical (Bayer Germany) companies. We are currently engaged in contract work with Aché Laboratorios Farmaceuticos, Brazil. I am on the editorial board of the journal Helicobacter and served on a Canadian H. pylori consensus panel to develop an evidence-based approach to the treatment of H. pylori infection in children and adolescents. Since 2009, I have chaired abstract review panels for the American Gastroenterological Association. I review abstracts for three leading conferences in the Helicobacter field, as well as manuscripts submitted to leading international journals (e.g. J Extracell Ves., Nature, Nat Commun., PLoS Pathogens) and grant applications submitted to domestic and international funding bodies e.g. NHMRC, ARC, ANR (France), DFG (Germany), NMRC (Singapore), Wellcome Trust (U. K.). I am a scientific committee member for the International Workshop on Pathogenesis and Host Response in Helicobacter infections.