Influenza

Biography

Professor Kevin Downard conducted his postdoctoral studies and held a subsequent academic position at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology after completing his PhD degree at the University of Adelaide in Australia. For the past 18 years he has held professorial positions in the USA and Australia and, most of that time, his research has focused on the development and application of new advanced mass spectrometric and bioinformatic approaches to improve the molecular surveillance, study the evolution, and identify and develop new therapeutics against the influenza virus. He has twice received international fellowships from both the Australian Academy of Science and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and has received large continuous research funding from the Australian Research Council. He is the only Australian to be recognised by the world’s largest mass spectrometry society (ASMS). He is frequently invited to give keynote lectures at national and international conferences on respiratory pathogens, vaccines, infectious disease, diagnostics and analysis.

Research Interest

Research interests include identification and development of antiviral inhibitors to the influenza virus by exploring their mechanism of action; development and application of mass spectrometry and bioinformatic approaches to survey and characterise influenza virus without sequencing; application of a protein footprinting technology to study proteins and their complexes and oxidative damage to them associated with disease pathogenesis.