Students

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.

Publications
1. Wong DD, van Zuylen WJ, Hamilton ST, Steingruber M, Sonntag E, Marschal M, Rawlinson WD (2019). Patient-Derived Cytomegaloviruses with Different Ganciclovir Sensitivities from UL97 Mutation Retain Their Replication Efficiency and Some Kinase Activity In Vitro. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. 63(9): e02425-18
2. Wong DD, van Zuylen WJ, Craig ME, Rawlinson WD (2019). Systematic review of ganciclovir pharmacodynamics during the prevention of cytomegalovirus infection in adult solid organ transplant recipients. Reviews in Medical Virology. 29(2):e2023
3. McCuaig R, Wong DD, Gardiner FW, Rawlinson W, Dahlstrom JE, Robson S (2018). Periodontal pathogens in the placenta and membranes in term and preterm birth. Placenta. 68:40-43
4. Hall B, Wong DD, Healy C, Tracy MB, Tracy SK, Rawlinson WD (2017). The presence of vaginal Lactobacillus species does not contribute to a measureable difference in amniotic fluid lactate levels collected from the vaginal tract of laboring women. Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand. 96(4): 487-95
5. van Zuylen WJ, Ford CE, Wong DD, Rawlinson WD (2015). Human Cytomegalovirus Modulates Expression of Noncanonical Wnt Receptor ROR2 To Alter Trophoblast Migration. Journal of Virology. 90(2):1108-15
6. Hall B, Wong DD, Rawlinson WD, Tracy MB, Tracy SK (2014). A validation study: assessing the reliability of the hand held StatStripXPress lactate meter to test lactate in amniotic fluid. BMC Res Notes. 19(7): 935

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Sonia Underwood (Isaacs)
Sonia Underwood (Isaacs) is a PhD candidate in the School of Women’s and Children’s Health and the University of New South Wales. She is part of the viruses and type 1 diabetes group under the supervision of Professor Maria Craig. Sonia completed her Honours project in 2015, developing a method to sequence near full-length enteroviruses from clinical samples, which was used to investigate associations between enterovirus infection in VIGR cohort children and resulting islet autoimmunity.

Sonia’s PhD is focusing on identifying and characterising enteroviruses and the virome from children at risk of developing type 1 diabetes in both the VIGR and ENDIA cohort studies. Her project uses next generation sequencing-based platforms such as Illumina MiSeq and HiSeq, as well as Virome Capture Sequencing of Vertebrate viruses to characterise viruses and how they change over time in both humans and a beta cell (islet infection) model. She hopes to provide a greater understanding of the impact of viral populations, mutations and evolution on diabetogenicity, which may aid in the design of future vaccination studies targetting T1D prevention.

Awards/International Presentations
– Finalist in Open Senior Division Oral Presentations for Tow Awards, Prince of Wales Hospital, 2019
– International conference poster presentations for Australasian Virological Society Meeting 2019 (New Zealand) and JDRF nPOD Annual Scientific Meeting 2016 (Miami, USA)
– University of Queensland Travel Scholarship, for Winter School of Mathematical & Computational Biology in 2016
– Research Training program (formerly Australian Postgraduate Award), 2016-2019
– Environmental Determinants of Islet Autoimmunity (ENDIA) Study PhD Top-Up Scholarship
– Peter Farrell Cup First Place Winner (Team Leader), UNSW, 2014

1. Walker GJ, Naing Z, Ospina Stella A, Yeang M, Caguicla J, Ramachandran V, Isaacs SR, Agapiou D, Bull RA, Stelzer-Braid S, Daly J, Gosbell IB, Hoad VC, Irving DO, Pink JM, Turville S, Kelleher AD, Rawlinson WD (2021). SARS Coronavirus-2 Microneutralisation and Commercial Serological Assays Correlated Closely for Some but Not All Enzyme Immunoassays. 13(2):247
2. Stelzer-Braid S, Walker GJ, Aggarwal A, Isaacs SR, Yeang M, Naing Z, Ospina Stella A, Turville SG, Rawlinson WD (2020). Virus isolation of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) for diagnostic and research purposes. Pathology. 52(7): 760-63
3. Isaacs, S. R., K. W. Kim, J. X. Cheng, R. A. Bull, S. Stelzer-Braid, F. Luciani, W. D. Rawlinson, and M. E. Craig. 2018. Amplification and next generation sequencing of near full-length human enteroviruses for identification and characterisation from clinical samples. Scientific Reports 8: 11889.
4. Isaacs, S. R., J. Wang, K. W. Kim, C. Yin, L. Zhou, Q. S. Mi, and M. E. Craig. 2016. MicroRNAs in Type 1 Diabetes: Complex Interregulation of the Immune System, Cell Function and Viral Infections. Current Diabetes Reports 16.
5. Kim, K. W., D. W. Allen, T. Briese, J. J. Couper, S. C. Barry, P. G. Colman, A. M. Cotterill, E. A. Davis, L. C. Giles, L. C. Harrison, M. Harris, A. Haynes, J. L. Horton, S. R. Isaacs, K. Jain, W. I. Lipkin, K. McGorm, G. Morahan, C. Morbey, I. C. N. Pang, A. T. Papenfuss, M. A. S. Penno, R. O. Sinnott, G. Soldatos, R. L. Thomson, P. Vuillermin, J. M. Wentworth, M. R. Wilkins, W. D. Rawlinson, and M. E. Craig. 2019. Higher frequency of vertebrate infecting viruses in the gut of infants born to mothers with type 1 diabetes. Pediatric Diabetes.
6. Kim, K. W., D. W. Allen, T. Briese, J. J. Couper, S. C. Barry, P. G. Colman, A. M. Cotterill, E. A. Davis, L. C. Giles, L. C. Harrison, M. Harris, A. Haynes, J. L. Horton, S. R. Isaacs, K. Jain, W. I. Lipkin, G. Morahan, C. Morbey, I. C. N. Pang, A. T. Papenfuss, M. A. S. Penno, R. O. Sinnott, G. Soldatos, R. L. Thomson, P. J. Vuillermin, J. M. Wentworth, M. R. Wilkins, W. D. Rawlinson, and M. E. Craig. 2019. Distinct gut virome profile of pregnant women with type 1 diabetes in the ENDIA study. Open Forum Infectious Diseases 6.
7. Kim, K. W., J. L. Horton, C. N. I. Pang, K. Jain, P. Leung, S. R. Isaacs, R. A. Bull, F. Luciani, M. R. Wilkins, J. Catteau, W. I. Lipkin, W. D. Rawlinson, T. Briese, and M. E. Craig. 2019. Higher abundance of enterovirus A species in the gut of children with islet autoimmunity. Scientific Reports 9: 1749.
8. Craig, M. E., K. W. Kim, S. R. Isaacs, M. A. Penno, E. E. Hamilton-Williams, J. J. Couper, and W. D. Rawlinson. 2019. Early-life factors contributing to type 1 diabetes. Diabetologia 62: 1823-1834.

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Ece Egilmezer

Ece Egilmezer is a PhD candidate in the School of Medical Sciences 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.

Publications
1. Egilmezer E, Rawlinson WD (2021). Review of studies of severe acute respiratory syndrome related coronavirus-2 pathogenesis in human organoid models. Reviews in Medical Virology. doi: 10.1002/rmv.2227
2. Teutsch SM, Nunez CA, Morris A, Khandaker G, Berkhout A, Novakovis D, Brotherton JML, McGregor S, King J, Egilmezer E, Booy R, Jones CA, Rawlinson WD, Thorley BR, Elliott EJ (2021). Australian Paediatric Surveillance Unit (APSU) Annual Surveillance Report 2020. Communicable Diseases Intelligence (In Press)
3. Häge S, Horsch D, Stilp AC, Kicuntod J, Müller R, Hamilton ST, Egilmezer E, Rawlinson WD, Stamminger T, Sonntag E, Marschall M (2020). A Quantitative Nuclear Egress Assay to Investigate the Nucleocytoplasmic Capsid Release of Human Cytomegalovirus. Journal of Virological Methods. 283:113909
4. Kok CC, Ramachandran V, Egilmezer E, Ray S, Walker GJ, Rawlinson WD (2020). Serological testing for infectious diseases markers of donor specimens from 24 h after death show no significant change in outcomes from other specimens. Cell Tissue Bank. 21(2): 171-79
5. Hamilton ST, Hutterer C, Egilmezer E, Steingruber M, Milbradt J, Marschall M, Rawlinson WD (2018). Human cytomegalovirus utilises cellular dual-specificity tyrosine phosphorylation-regulated kinases during placental replication. Placenta. 72-73:10-19
6. Egilmezer E, Walker GJ, Bakthavathsalam P, Peterson JR, Gooding JJ, Rawlinson W, Stelzer-Braid S (2018). Systematic review of the impact of point-of-care testing for influenza on the outcomes of patients with acute respiratory tract infection. Reviews in Medical Virology. 28(5):e1995
7. van Zuylen WJ, Zheng QY, Hamilton ST, Egilmezer E, Craig ME, Gralton J, Rawlinson WD (2017). Prevalence of cytomegalovirus carriage among childcare staff. J Paediatr Child Health. 53(7):724

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Greg Walker

Greg is a PhD candidate under the supervision of Dr Sacha Stelzer-Braid and Professor William Rawlinson. His research is focused on the development of rapid “point-of-care tests” (POCT) for respiratory viruses, to improve patient outcomes and reduce the high burden of these infections. For this project VRL has formed an active collaboration with the Smart Materials and Surfaces Group at the UNSW School of Chemistry to develop novel nucleic acid detection techniques using gold nanoparticles.

Greg previously completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Newcastle (B Biomedical Science) before joining VRL.

Publications

1. Walker GJ, Naing Z, Ospina Stella A, Yeang M, Caguicla J, Ramachandran V, Isaacs SR, Agapiou D, Bull RA, Stelzer-Braid S, Daly J, Gosbell IB, Hoad VC, Irving DO, Pink JM, Turville S, Kelleher AD, Rawlinson WD (2021). SARS Coronavirus-2 Microneutralisation and Commercial Serological Assays Correlated Closely for Some but Not All Enzyme Immunoassays. 13(2):247
2. Stelzer-Braid S, Walker GJ, Aggarwal A, Isaacs SR, Yeang M, Naing Z, Ospina Stella A, Turville SG, Rawlinson WD (2020). Virus isolation of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) for diagnostic and research purposes. Pathology. 52(7): 760-63
3. Walker GJ, Clifford V, Bansal N, Stella AO, Turville S, Stelzer-Braid S, Klein LD, Rawlinson W (2020). SARS-CoV-2 in human milk is inactivated by Holder pasteurisation but not cold storage. J Paediatr Child Health. 56(12): 1872-74.
4. Kok CC, Ramachandran V, Egilmezer E, Ray S, Walker GJ, Rawlinson WD (2020). Serological testing for infectious diseases markers of donor specimens from 24 h after death show no significant change in outcomes from other specimens. Cell Tissue Bank. 21(2): 171-79.
5. Walker GJ; Stelzer-Braid S; Shorter C; Honeywill C; Wynn M; Willenborg C; Barnes P; Kang J; Pierse N; Crane J; Howden-Chapman P; Rawlinson WD (2019) Viruses associated with acute respiratory infection in a community-based cohort of healthy New Zealand children. J Med Virol. 10.1002/jmv.25493.
6. Egilmezer E; Walker GJ; Bakthavathsalam P; Peterson JR; Gooding JJ; Rawlinson W; Stelzer-Braid S (2018) Systematic review of the impact of point-of-care testing for influenza on the outcomes of patients with acute respiratory tract infection. Reviews in Medical Virology. 28(5)e1995
7. Theis T, Lau KA, Gray JL, Oxenford CJ, Walker GJ, Rawlinson WD (2018). Proficiency testing for the detection of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus demonstrates global capacity to detect Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus. J Med Virol. 2018;90:1827-1833.

Xinye Wang (Emma)

Xinye Wang (Emma) is currently a Ph.D. Candidate in the School of Medical Sciences at the University of New South Wales. She is under the supervision of Professor William Rawlinson and Dr. Sacha Stelzer-Braid. Her research is focused on tracking the genomes of respiratory viruses using the next-generation sequencing technology.

Emma previously received her master’s degree in Global Health from Duke University. Then she worked as a research assistant and focused on One Health research at the Global Health Research Center of Duke Kunshan University before joining VRL.

Publications

1. Wang X, Anderson BD, Pulscher LA, Bailey ES, Yondon M, and Gray GC. (2018) Epidemiological Study of People Living in Rural North Carolina for Novel Respiratory Viruses. Zoonoses and Public Health 65 (1) e265?e269. 10.1111/zph.12436
2. Fieldhouse JK, Wang X, Mallinson KA, Tsao RW, Gray GC. A Review of Evidence that Enteroviruses May be Zoonotic. Emerging Microbes & Infections 2018; 7:164. OI 10.1038/s41426-018-0159-1 (co-first author)
3. Wang, X.; Bailey, E. S.; Qi, X.; Yu, H.; Bao, C.; Gray, G. C., Bioaerosol Sampling at a Live Animal Market in Kunshan, China: A Noninvasive Approach for Detecting Emergent Viruses. Open Forum Infect Dis 2020, 7, (5), ofaa134. (Editor’s Choice Paper)
4. Bailey, E. S.; Wang, X.; Ma, M. J.; Wang, G. L.; Gray, G. C., An evaluation of the InDevR FluChip-8G insight microarray assay in characterizing influenza A viruses. Trop Dis Travel Med Vaccines 2021, 7, (1), 8
5. Wang X, Xiu L, Binder RA, Toh TH, Lee JS, Ting J, Than ST, Qi W, Coleman KK, Perera D, Ma M, Gray GC. A pan-coronavirus RT-PCR assay for rapid viral screening of animal, human, and environmental specimens. One Health. 2021 Dec;13:100274. doi: 10.1016/j.onehlt.2021.100274. Epub 2021 Jun 6. PMID: 34124332; PMCID: PMC8179717.
6. Wang, X., Wang, D., Umar, S. et al. Molecular typing of human adenoviruses among hospitalized patients with respiratory tract infections in a tertiary Hospital in Guangzhou, China between 2017 and 2019. BMC Infect Dis 21, 748 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-021-06412-0

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Honours Students 2021

Emily Ward

Emily is an Honours student, currently under the supervision of Professor Maria Craig and Dr Ki-Wook Kim. Her project is focusing on the gut virome in early life and childhood and its relationship to islet autoimmunity and type 1 diabetes as part of the larger ENDIA prospective cohort study.

 Anna Maxwell

Anna is a 4th year medical Honours student, currently under the supervision of Professor Maria Craig and Dr Ki-Wook Kim. Her research concerns the relationship between respiratory tract viruses and islet autoimmunity and type 1 diabetes, and is part of the larger ENDIA prospective cohort study.

Glen Lauw

Glen is a BABS Honours student from the University of New South Wales (UNSW). His research project is investigating the molecular changes that occur in human placenta due to cytomegalovirus infection (CMV) and novel therapeutics in treating CMV infection. He is a part of the cytomegalovirus group supervised by Professor William Rawlinson and Dr Stuart Hamilton. Glen is currently finishing of a double degree of Commerce/ Advanced Science (Honours) from UNSW.