Diana Wong
Diana Wong is currently a PhD Candidate in the School of Medical Sciences at the University of New South Wales. Diana spent 4 years in Hong Kong between 2009 and 2013 at the University of Hong Kong, Microbiology Department. During this time she worked under Prof. Malik Peiris and Dr. Hui-Ling Yen as a research assistant before completing her Masters of Philosophy degree. Her thesis characterised the fitness and transmissibility of oseltamivir-resistant seasonal influenza (H1N1) viruses that carry the H275Y mutation. She returned to Sydney in 2013 to continue working as a research assistant at Virology Research Laboratory Cytomegalovirus group, before starting her PhD in 2015 under the supervision of Dr. Wendy van Zuijlen and Prof. William Rawlinson. Her project investigates the potential role of clinical pharmacokinetic monitoring and resistance testing among kidney transplant patients in the optimisation of antiviral therapy targeting human cytomegalovirus.
Sonia Isaacs
Sonia completed her Honours project in Prof Maria Craig’s group in 2015. The project involved using next generation sequencing to investigate links between enterovirus infection in children and resulting islet autoimmunity.
Sonia has returned to the VRL as a PhD student and will be focusing on identifying, sequencing, and analysing RNA from clinical samples in order to provide a greater understanding of the genetic impact on diabetogenicity.
Ece Eglimezer
Ece Eglimezer is a PhD student at the University of New South Wales. She is part of the Cytomegalovirus group under the supervision of Professor William Rawlinson. Her project focuses on the pathogenetic mechanisms of CMV infection in fetal neural malformation.
Ece was previously a research assistant at the Virology Research Laboratory from 2016 to 2017, working on a number of clinical trials and projects.
Peter Sentosa
Peter is in his final year of a Bachelor of Advanced Science program, double majoring in Microbiology and Molecular Cell biology. His honours project focuses on screening genes within Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV) for a role in inhibiting placental trophoblast migration. This will involve testing the ability of HCMV mutants, featuring block deletions, to inhibit trophoblast migration within transwell migration assays. As no licensed treatment for HCMV infections during pregnancy exists, identifying these genes may provide a platform for novel therapeutic intervention
Ramon Xu
Ramon is a 4th year medical student who is currently working on his Honours project with Professor Maria Craig. His project involves analysing the virome of patients with islet autoimmunity in order to investigate a link between viral infections and the illness.
Anjali Balakrishnan
Anjali is a 4th Year Bachelor of Science student specialising in Pathology, currently completing her Honours in the Virology Lab. Anjali’s project involves studying the gut virome in children newly diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes using Next Generation Sequencing, in order to identify potential viral causes of the disease. She is working under the guidance of Prof Maria Craig and Dr Ki Wook Kim.
